steve00

Ahhh yes...I forgot that all the pots were electrically connected via the foil. Yes that makes perfect sense how that would form a ground loop. Yes the middle lug from the volume pot is connected to the tip lug on the output jack. I'll take some multimeter measurements and make another post. Thanks for the info.

All grounds are connected to the back of the volume pot, with a single wire going from the volume pot to the spring claw. So there are no grounding loops that I can see, and all grounds should be at almost exactly the same potential. The pickups are not noisy at all though when I plug in to an amp, so I don't think it's a grounding issue. I'll poke around a bit with a multimeter and see what I can find, it's just a pain to rip this guitar apart as soon as I put it together. I am still disappointed in Fender though. Take a look at these pics of the pickup windings from my other post: http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/index.ph...mp;#entry338321 I returned those pickups and bought another brand new set, which have the same loose pickup windings as the first. Between that and a scratchy pot that is supposed to be brand new and the wrong-valued pot, I have to say it's not likely I'll buy Fender pickups again. That's one pot I have to replace for sure, and another that I have to clean/replace, both from a brand new set! Thank Greg and Mammoth for the replies. If you have any other ideas/suggestions about what the problem could be, please let me know, STeve

That block of wood idea sounds great. I'll try that. To answer some questions, it is a 6 hole vintage trem, and I'm using .10's for the strings. On a related note, exactly how tight should be 6 screws holding the bridge be? As someone noted about, if you tighten them all the way, it will pull up the other side of the bridge a bit. Right now I have them just shy of being completely tight. Thanks for all the replies.

Yes it would seem that way, but the back of the volume pot is wired to the spring claw. Also, the pickups sound great with no noise issues. If it was a grounding problem it seems that I would have lots of noise. Bad pot? The middle tone knob is scratchy, and these are brand new Fender pots. Very disappointed in Fender.

I just finished putting together a new strat, and after stringing and tuning the guitar, the bridge sits off the body at an angle of 20-30 degrees. I have three springs in the back, and I've tightened the spring claw a bit, but with no visible affect on lowering the bridge. I know that most strats are able to have the bridge sit flush with the body w/ only 3 springs. Why would mine be different? Any thoughts on where I should go from here? What are the cases for continuing to tighten the spring claw versus adding more springs? Attached are some pictures. Thanks.

I just installed some new Fender vintage noiseless pickups on a guitar I just put together. The pickups sound OK, but there's a few problems. I still have an output signal even when the volume pot is turned all the way down. Also, the middle pickup tone pot is somehow affecting the tone of the bridge pickup. The schematic calls for three 1 Meg pots, however, the pickup set came with two 1 Megs and one 250K pot. I used the 250K for volume and the two 1 Megs for tone. Attached is the schematic that came with the pickups, which I followed exactly, and a picture of my actual wiring (sorry it's a little blurry). Thanks for any help that you can offer. http://img395.imageshack.us/img395/1517/schematiczv8.jpg

I'm assembling a strat for the first time and have a question about attaching the bridge. I have a vintage style tremolo bridge. Should I tighten the 6 screws all the way or leave a little slack? My line of thought is that perhaps a little slack is necessary for tremolo operation, but I'm a first-timer and not sure. Thanks, Steve

Thanks for the info. What is the preferred gauge for guitar wiring? Can anyone recommend a good online retailer to purchase this?

I've noticed that all the strats I've worked on all use 7 strand wire (20 gauge?). I ran out of wire when installing some new pickups and bought some 22 gauge single strand copper wire. Is multistrand the way to go when wiring guitars? Will this single strand copper wire that I have work OK for guitar wiring? Thanks, Steve

Thanks for the info everybody.

No cloth tape on the pickups. There is tape on the one side only, which can be seen in the pictures. The side with the loose windings did not have anything covering it. I plan on returning them. The other pickups are a little loose on the same side, but not as bad as the one in the above pictures. I'm worried if I get another set of these same kind that I'll run into the same problem. Has anyone else had these quality issues with Fender pickups?

These are Fender vintage noiseless pickups that I bought brand new from guitar center. Did I get a bad batch or is this typical of Fender?

I tested the DC resistance. Specs say 9.8K, I measured 10.2 K on all 3 pickups. Is that a reasonable tolerance? Here's some better pictures. Fray might not be the right word, but the windings are loose across one area where it appears that the pickup cover has rubbed against the windings as it was being put on Is this cause for concern?

I just bought a new set of pickups, and the windings on one of the pickups appear "frayed". Here is a link to a picture: It's a little blurry, but I think you'll see it. The winding does not appear to be broken at any point. Will this fraying of the pickup winding compromise the sound of the pickup at all? Thanks, Steve

I just bought a slightly used strat neck, which is in good overall condition, but it looks like the frets need some cleaning. First, there's some yellow lacquer-looking stuff on the side of the frets. I chips right off with a fingernail, but I'm not sure where this came from. Any ideas? Also, I've never polished frets before. What should I use to do it and how do I thoroughly clean them without damaging the frets and fingerboard? Thanks, Steve

I just bought a deluxe player strat body, which I believe comes factory shielded (paint). Anyone know what the quality is of Fender factory shielding? Would I obtain any added benefit by shielding it with an after market kit? Thanks, Steve

Famous last words, huh?...I should have said that I at least feel comfortable enough to bias the amp. Good point though, thanks for watching my back. -Steve If I ever start feeling comfortable with working on a live amp, I'm going to retire! Seriously, a bunch of my associates and I discussed this at length over drinks a few years back, and decided it's probably fairly difficult to kill oneself accidentally with a live tube amp, but since death is a permanent, non-negotiable state, we concluded that it's better not to take any chances. The only thing you have to have power to do is biasing the amp - all other work should be done with the switches off, the amp unplugged, and the caps drained, if possible.

Ok well I finally got my new SCN pickups and I've got everything soldered and good to go (except I melted the capacitor trying to de-solder it, I'll be stopping by Radio Shack tomorrow). The diagram that came with it was good, except I don't know what to solder the hot lead from the output jack to. I'm guessing that it's the wiper from the volume pot, but the diagram that came with them (and all that I've seen on the net) don't show any hot wires leaving the pickup/pot/switch config. Can anyone confirm this or if I'm wrong, tell me what to wire the hot output wire to? Also, I found it a real pain in the butt to de-solder everything from the switch and pots. I had to get some needle-nose pliers and pull individual splinters of wire from the pots and switch. Do most of you just use a new switch/pots when you replace pickups? I imagine you get better at it with time, but I'm just curious. Thanks, -Steve

Ok well I've done quite a bit of reading on the Unofficial HRD Owners Guide website. The biasing looks pretty simple, but apparently the amp doesn't need to be re-biased if you're just changing the preamp tubes. I think I'm going to go with some JJ tubes. I don't know if the power tubes need changing, but they've been in there for 3 or 4 years, so I think I'll just change them all. I know the basics of electronics safety (I'm a EE student), so I feel comfortable working on the amp when it's live. Thanks guys for all the help and info, -Steve

Ok thanks guys...I will check and make sure that the tubes are correctly placed in the socket. I'm new to tubes (this is my first tube amp), but I'm pretty sure the tubes are bad anyway. When I do bends on the guitar the sound cut out, which really surprised me, but I read that that is a sign of bad tubes as well. I'll change them and *hopefully* that will fix the problem, but that leads me to my next question about biasing... Fender says that if I replace the tubes with the same kind that I dont need to rebias the amp. Does this mean Fender brand tubes? Fender refers to some coloring system as well when selecting tubes (same "type and color" or something like that), but I haven't seen anything mentioned about colors when shopping for tubes online, even on Fender brands. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks again guys, -Steve

Ok it's a cheap part, I'll just replace it and at least that will tell me whether or not it was the output jack. Thanks guys.

I recently purchased a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe amp and I noticed that the smaller tubes (pre-amp, right?) rattle when I hit certain notes (11th fret A string for example). I bought it used so the tubes are a few years old. The amp plays great, but this rattling is driving me nuts. Is this a sign of bad tubes?

The signal from my guitar will intermittently go out while playing...very annoying. Wiggling the cable connected to the output jack of the guitar will restore the signal. I thought it might have been the cable because it's kind of cheap and I usually play with the same cable, but I've since swapped cables and it's still happening. I pulled out the output jack and looked at the prong that makes connection with the tip of the plug and where they make contact, the metal has become a copper color, whereas the rest of the plug is the familiar silver color. Is this a sign of a worn output jack? Does the physical contact associated with plugging/unplugging a cable wear down an output jack? There is still a very good physical connection between the tip of the plug and the input prong of the jack, so it's not a matter of poor physical connection. I'm really hoping this is just a problem of replacing the output jack, but since the physical connection is good, I'm surprised that it's cutting out like that. Thanks for any help you can offer.

I am changing the pickups on my Strat and was set on the Fender hot noiseless pickups, but I really wanted to get some black pickups to change the look of my guitar. I found some on the net (hot noiseless in black), but they've since disappeared of the company's website and the company says that Fender doesn't make them in black. They sell some Seymour Duncan black single coil pickup covers, but told me they wouldn't fit the hot noiseless pickups. So, I have two questions, are the pickup covers on Fender pickups removable? And second, does anyone know where I can buy some black single coil pickup covers that will fit Fender pickups? I've pretty firmly decided on the hot noiseless pickups, but I really, really would like to get them in black if at all possible. Thanks for your help, -Steve

Do springs lose some of their tension too over time? I don't want to go with a hard tail, and I don't really know much about Floyd Rose trems. I heard that switching to a trem that has a large steel block will give increased sustain, so I thought that the bridge might be the next best place to go after upgrading the pickups. Can anyone direct me to a website where I can learn more about all the different types of bridges and how to change a bridge on a guitar? It seems like its just a matter of unscrewing a few screws and putting the new one in, but I just like to do some consulting before I do this just in case there's more to this job than meets the eye. Anytime I try searching for a bridge info on the web I just get a ton of guitar parts websites, so I was curious if anyone knew of a good website for guitar bridges because I didn't find much info on the project guitar website. Thanks, -Steve