How the soldered volume pot should look like (EJ Strat)??

Dag · #1 01-12-2007, 04:23 PM

Hi. I have a big problem. I gave my EJ Strat to the "tech" and I must have chosen the *****y one ;/ I changed the PU's to Lace Sensors and then changed back to stock pickups, and what's happening now:

While playing when I touch the strings/bridge ( when I simply ground the whole guitar ) it makes my amp "crack" (don't know how to describe it) when I ground it that way there's a noisy sound kind of tick, so it's very annoying while playing- especially switching positions on the neck. While playing on the dirty channels when I touch the strings hum simply is killed- if I do not touch them theres a lot more hum ! Even on 2 and 4 positions ;/

I unscrewed the whole pickguard and looked at the volume pot... Ground wire is soldered.. everything is soldered as it should be. But I think the problem may lay in the soldering technique... there's a plenty of soldering iron there (40% of the pot have very thin sold. iron layer). I bought all the equipment needed and I'll try to fix the problem myself, but I do need your thoughts and hints.

If you have any pics how the soldered wires should look like please do post it. I don't know where's the problem...
And I'll try to give a photo of my soldered pickups as soon as I'll unscrew the whole thing another time ;/

PLEASE HELP

jemplayer55 · #2 01-12-2007, 04:27 PM

can you post a pic or two???

Dag · #3 01-12-2007, 04:48 PM

here are the photos- sorry for crappy camera ;/

jemplayer55 · #4 01-12-2007, 04:55 PM

Holy Smoke (or solder fumes)...... maybe a cold solder joint to ground????

Demiurge · #5 01-12-2007, 04:56 PM

Maybe you have a ground loop going on. www.guitarnuts.com is THE resource for troubleshooting noisy strats.

EDIT: Re: those pictures, what a freaking soldering mess! That ain't right...

jemplayer55 · #6 01-12-2007, 04:58 PM

^^^^^ that definitely a possibility!

jemplayer55 · #7 01-12-2007, 05:00 PM

BTW.... nice choice of guitars. But why did you ever change pickups???

Dag · #8 01-12-2007, 05:05 PM

Eh... silly decision, the stock pickups are very low output and I wanted something hotter and more powerful, but now as I started my jazz lessons this instrument is perfect.
Looking for ground loop information now....

After research... it looks like ground loop- as you can see on the last photo (wires on the left are: the one from tone pot and the ground wire (from the bridge))
and they are soldered togheter... so- I have to seperate them ? Can anyone confirm that before I get to work... ?

jemplayer55 · #9 01-12-2007, 07:09 PM

"Dag" check this out...... right off the Fender site!

http://www.fender.com/support/diagra...117702APg2.pdf

Good luck!

waylay00 · #10 01-12-2007, 07:29 PM

Oh man, I would have never changed those pickups. I almost got the EJ Strat just for the pickups. I love them.

Dag · #11 01-12-2007, 07:51 PM

Yeah.. I know how to wire it. Everything is correct, and it looks like everything is fine even with those ticking sound while grounding the guitar with human flesh. It looks like it is normal with single coil pickup equipped guitars. (?)
I switched to my Custom Strat and the same problem is with its SC pickups so it is a matter of shielding I think. On CS strat it's better that on the EJ, but EJ is more vintage like. So maybe it's normal.

Please Stratomaniacs write your thoughts here.. Did you have similar problems ?

And yes.. EJ customs are insane I realised this when my jazz teacher took it and gave it a real deal ride - I was speechless.

ibanez2005 · #12 01-12-2007, 08:03 PM

That soldering dont look brilliant either.

TimS · #13 01-12-2007, 10:40 PM

Yep, it's a ground loop. Fenders have really crappy wiring from the factory, which is why single coils have a reputation for being really noisy. I did the guitarnuts star-grounding mod on my strat, and it's absolutely silent now.

Dag · #14 01-13-2007, 07:17 AM

but I removed ground loop, and it's the same way as it was...

goddman... I removed the ground loops (these two black wires connecting tone and vol pots), connected ground wire to either tone pot and volume pot and nothing cures the touching-the strings-silencing-problem ;/ I don't know what to think... I think the only reason must be in the amount of soldering iron on the pot. Is it possible ?
I tried out every possible connection... And why the hell fender solders these ground loops if they are not needed ;// arghhh
PLEASE HELP

jemplayer55 · #15 01-13-2007, 03:31 PM

Dag.... this "problem" is not just limited to Strat's or single coil pickups..... it can occur even with humbuckers. Here read this...... It's from the site "Demiurge" recommended.

http://www.guitarnuts.com/technical/noisebucket.php