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Hope some one can direct me cause I'm not sure where to start. Got my LP finished up and plugged it into the amp and no sound:(. This is my first build. I followed the wiring directions in the videos to the "t". Not sure where I should even start looking for the problem. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Kim
Hi Kim,
firstly can you please post some close up photo's of the control cavity might give us some clues. Have you run an earth wire from the bridge bush to a common earth point on the back of a pot ? Have you copper shielded the control cavity and if not earthed all 4 pots ? Have you checked the most common problem is mixing up the hot and earth wire on the jack ? Also the switch should be earthed too. Also check that all your solder joins look ok.
EDIT also if you have copper shielded the control cavity a lug of a pot may be touching the copper and short the circuit so get a flat small flat screwdriver and make sure the lugs aren't making contact with the copper or the adjacent lug if solder is joining them
So, no sound at all in any switch position? Is there any hum or scratchiness when you touch any metal or turn the pots? No sound in any position would suggest either a problem with the switch or maybe a hot short at the jack. Partial sound expands the possible causes. As Wokks stated, photos of the wiring and cavities will help us work theough the problem with you.
All the basics sorted first?
Amp on and out of standby (if valve)?
Tested the guitar lead with another guitar first?
Amp buzzes when you short out the jack tip and ring with your fingers?
Guitar lead fully inserted into the jack (had this happen a few times to me).
Volume and tone knobs turned up (again, I've done this myself)?
It's not a lefty is it, as the audio pots will be different types and need to be wired up differently compared to the standard wiring diagrams. if it is, try turning the volume knob to the off position.
Hey thanks!. That gives me a starting point.I'll try to put up a pic.
Yeah, absolutely no sound. I will try to post a pic. Thanks for the help. Kim
I will double check on all those. No, not a lefty. Amp works with my other guitar.
Sorry it's taken me a while to get back to my post. Tried posting a pic but for whatever reason couldn't get it to work. I did discover that the earth wire to the bridge is broken. I don't know if this is the cause of not getting any sound from the amp or not. I see no way of reattaching the wire to the bridge post since the post is securely pounded into the body of the guitar and the earth wire runs through a small "tunnel" to the post. Any suggestions?
The bridge ground wire break may add some noise but won't cut the sound. The ground wire can be fixed (with some effort) but first step is to sort out the no sound issue.
Images need to be no more than 1500 pixels on their longest side and less than 1MB in size, that's typically the cause of upload issues so you may need to resize etc (sometimes limiting it to one pic per post can help if the file sizes are large). If you still can't get the pics to upload then posting them on an image hosting site and linkng them here is the other option.
A big thanks to all who advised me on how to get the sound issue resolved. Got it working and it sounds great. One other question I had was how to repair the ground wire to the bridge. It threads through a small hole from the electrical compartment to the bridge post. it broke inside the hole and i can't retrieve the end that is in the hole. Any advice is appreciated. Thanks and Happy New Year!
To repair the bridge ground connection you'll need to remove the bridge post bushing and replace the wire. This video shows the easiest way to remove the bushing. Basically, remove the bridge post then then either use a matching bolt or bolt & stud insert to screw/push the bushing out. Take your time and do it carefully and it shouldn't damage anything. Replace the wire, bending the stripped end down in the post hole so it runs vertically to make a good connection, and then carefully push/hammer the bushing back in.