rewiring problems...please help!

[apb1215]

hello all, i recently made several modifications to my ibanez gsa60, and so far have been unable to rewire it successfully. i am trying to one by one eliminate all potential problems, but i just can't seem to make any headway on this.

i followed this diagram exactly, using the fender-style 5-way switch:
http://www.dimarzio.com/media/diagrams/C.pdf

unfortunately, when i powered it up, its very obvious that something is wrong. it does produce sound, but extremely faint sound with no distortion, even when my distortion and volume are cranked to the max. sometimes it just cuts out completely. i was only once able to achieve a somewhat distorted tone, but it too cut out and now after more fiddling around, i can't get anything.

i am an amateur with a soldering iron, but i have checked my connections so many times that i know they should be good enough to at least carry a signal. i do have a suspicion what is causing this though. among other things i did, i repainted the guitar. i painted directly over all the cavities, including the pickup cavities and the wiring cavity on the back. i now recall that these were covered in a clear glossy paint. would altering the consistency of the surrounding paint somehow affect the wiring? i know people get their cavities covered in a shielding paint, but i thought that was just to reduce hum, and would not cause no sound to be produced.

if anyone is willing to help me with this, i would be so grateful, its killing me that i've been without my guitar for almost a week now! i can provide some pictures if anyone would like to see. thanks.

[jaxadam]

I'd like to see some pictures, because if you're using that diagram, and all of your connections are solid, you should have no problems.

What kind of pickups are you using? Is everything grounded? Different pickups can make a big difference. With some pickups, the casing mesh around the wire is actually the ground, and some people forget to solder it to a pot and it can lead to these types of problems.

I once had a problem with hum and noise, and I turned off my computer monitor, and it magically went away. Remember this could be contributing to the problem you're experiencing.

I know for a novice this might not be an option, but an ohmmeter is an invaluable tool for electronics work.

[elcid]

You probably have some wires touching each other that shouldnt be or shorting out on some other metal part.

[LuredMaul]

Without seeing anything it's all a guess, take a break .......walk away and go back to it in about 15minutes.

Now think.... is the output jack soldered backwards??????
Is there two wires touching that shouldn't be??? ( only thing touching another wire should be White/Black pickup wires and ground wires)
Go back and wire just one pickup until it works then add another and so on....you'll find it.........


Oh and of course it's usually the most obvious thing wrong in the world too

[apb1215]

thanks for the replies guys. i went ahead and snapped a few pics, i uploaded them to a google photo album here: http://picasaweb.google.com/adamrox/Guitar

once you click on the pics, hit download photo and you can open it up to full resolution to see the details as close as possible.

couple things:
-pup setup is EVO neck, stock IBZ single coil middle, EVO bridge
-guitar was originally a gsa60, i repainted it and converted the single coil neck pup hole to a humbucker size hole
-switch is replacement Fender switch, standard 5-way setup
-that extra connection in between the tone/volume pot holes is a killswitch (which i installed previously, and has worked flawlessly)
-you can see from the pics that the cavities no longer have that glossy finish, which i have come to find out is conductive shielding paint...but i don't think the lack of proper shielding should prevent the signal from even properly transmitting

thanks again to anyone who takes a look. really want to get this baby up and running again!!

[apb1215]

also...my friend has a voltmeter that i'm gonna have to try to borrow from him if i can't get this figured out. never used one outside of physics 2 lab before, but it seems like it would help solve the problem pretty quickly.

[CosmicDebris]

I can't tell cause I am old and need glasses but in pic 2 of 4 is that a red wire soldered to the back of the pot?

[elcid]

looks like a white wire is going to the back of the pot too

[apb1215]

yeah,i kind of ran out of wire, so i used whatever i had to finish wiring, so it isn't correctly color coded...but all the wiring still should follow the diagram correctly

[apb1215]

that wouldn't somehow affect the signal would it?