MarkKnapp

There were breaks in the two single coils, i fixed those. The lipstick was unmagnetized, i remagnetized it. I tested all the pickups direct to the jack and they all worked. I wired everything up and it seems to all work (at least when i move the selector switch all the pickups still pick up sound). I don't know for sure if the pots are working as they are supposed to, but I do have them wired exactly as stewmac calls for. I've been testing them out of a really lousy pocket amp that buzzes a bit, but regardless they are terribly buzzy when it's plugged in. I'd prefer if my guitar could be quite silent when not being played, and essentially buzz free (as I will use it for jazz playing). From here how can I best achieve this? Thanks for all the help so far, significant improvement upon how it was. -Mark

brief update, i just ran my neck pickup through magnets again, really really close, then hooked it up directly to the output jack. I got string noise. The other pickups are still quite magnetic but non continuous. I will work on their continuity now, but I am concerned about the neck pickup not staying magnetized, i thought they were supposed to remain magnetized for years..

HERES the scoop on what I've done since your responses. I got out my multimeter and I unwired the the pickups from the pots and I freed up the jack. For one thing, none of the pickups had any magnetic tug on anything (I dont know WHY, they are alnico V and I ran them through some pretty strong magnets a lot of times and very slowly). when I checked all the pickups with the multimeter, to my shock, I found that NOW only the neck pickup is showing any readings of resistance. Now i potted those suckers this summer, I watched them stop bubbling and then waited more, and afterward they were still showing on the multimeter. Since then I removed the vintage wires because I needed to put new ones on after cutting my guitar in half. I don't know why the new ones would work fine on the neck pickup but not the other two. Regardless, I moved on to attaching the neck pickups lead wires directly to the output jack! to see if maybe there was light at the end of the tunnel. i put a string over the pick up and plucked it; no sound. i reversed the wiring to the output jack and plucked; no sound. so NOW it seems my pickups have committed suicide AND nothing works. I'm a smart kid.. but I get NONE of this right now...

I am building a custom shaped guitar with simple but slightly customized electronics. I've hand made the pickups. Strat style single coils for the bridge and middle, lipstick for the neck. I've positioned the middle pickup further from the bridge pickup and closer to the neck pickup (pictured). The neck pickup I have reverse wound and reverse magnetized, this is so I can flip into the in between position and get the jazzy tone I need from this instrument. I followed instructions and have my black wires soldered to the start of the pickup, and my white wires soldered to the end of the pickup winds. I run those white wires on over to my selector switch where I've followed this http://www.stewmac.com/freeinfo/Electronic...ams/i-3192.html diagram (this is what I followed basically for the whole wiring). I have three 250k pots: vol, and 2 tones, I followed the diagram for wiring the 5-way selector to the pots (pictured with mess of wires showing), plus I've run ground wires across the tops of the pots to the volume pot (might be visible in picture). I've run from the volume pot out to the jack (AND I've already tried reversing the hookup to the jack, still didn't work). My ground wires from the pickups are run down and soldered to the bottom plate of the volume pot; the ground wire from the jack is also wired there with all of them; then I have a ground wire running from all of them and then soldered and wrapped around one of the screws of my bridge (which is a recessed and trimmed arch top style bridge, and I use a bottom attached tailpiece). THATS what I've done for wiring. the wires I USED: From the pickups- the vintage clothy material covered wires From the volume ground area to the bridge- the same vintage clothy wire type From the volume pot to the input jack- for hot: the vintage clothy type; for the ground black 22AWG nonshielded (single core?) PVC coated hookup wire from the 5-way to the pots: red 22AWG (same as above) hookup wire from the 5-way to the other point on the 5way (shown in diagram): that same red hookup wire type from the tops of the pots to one another: black of the hookup wire pictures of this madness: view of pickup setup and hard to notice bridge ground: https://www.t-mobilepictures.com/myalbum/ph...7c2d9a6bcb.jpeg current setup of controls (L to R: tone tone volume): https://www.t-mobilepictures.com/myalbum/ph...b6ecce511e.jpeg my hand and connections to 5-way switch from pickups: https://www.t-mobilepictures.com/myalbum/ph...422f96256e.jpeg connection to pots as dictated by stewmac diagram: https://www.t-mobilepictures.com/myalbum/ph...28ad3353d6.jpeg the guitar just to see: https://www.t-mobilepictures.com/myalbum/ph...8736a23c4b3.jpg some symptoms: when plugged into amp there is generally a lot of buzzing, much less buzzing when i have the neck-middle selected or the neck selected. less buzzing when i touch the strings. Tapping noise when I tap on the pickups with my fingers. When I touch the strings and tap the pickups with a pick it makes no noise. and worst of all... the pickups don't pick up ANY STRING VIBRATIONS AT ALL. please someone help me! -Mark Knapp