TL-1 (Factory second)

[peterh]

I tested the bridge ground with my analog multi-meter but I'm not sure whether the reading is right or not (I inherited the meter from my dad, didn't come with any instructions). When I set it for 1 Ohm and touch the 2 probes together I get a reading of 20, I get the same reading when touching the top of the bridge and the outer sleeve of the jack. I'm guessing that that is correct? I get the same readings also, when I test the neck ground wire in the cavity and the outer jack sleeve. It seems that the buzzing gets worse as soon as I touch any metal part on the guitar. Not sure what to look at next. Guess I pull all the wires off and try again.

I think the diagrams I've been looking at (Tonerider is one of them) must be for a different kind of 3-way switch because it shows the bridge connecting to the lugs closest to the volume pot but that circuit isn't in operation unless the switch is in the forward position, which would make sense to be the neck position. So.... I totally disconnected the bridge pup for now and put the neck pup on the rear most switch lugs. The buzzing is still there, but I get sound out of the pup when I tap on it with pliers. Tomorrow I'll try hooking the bridge pup up again and see if I get any sound from it. Maybe I've got a bad switch.

[DrNomis_44]

I tested the bridge ground with my analog multi-meter but I'm not sure whether the reading is right or not (I inherited the meter from my dad, didn't come with any instructions). When I set it for 1 Ohm and touch the 2 probes together I get a reading of 20, I get the same reading when touching the top of the bridge and the outer sleeve of the jack. I'm guessing that that is correct? I get the same readings also, when I test the neck ground wire in the cavity and the outer jack sleeve. It seems that the buzzing gets worse as soon as I touch any metal part on the guitar. Not sure what to look at next. Guess I pull all the wires off and try again.

I think the diagrams I've been looking at (Tonerider is one of them) must be for a different kind of 3-way switch because it shows the bridge connecting to the lugs closest to the volume pot but that circuit isn't in operation unless the switch is in the forward position, which would make sense to be the neck position. So.... I totally disconnected the bridge pup for now and put the neck pup on the rear most switch lugs. The buzzing is still there, but I get sound out of the pup when I tap on it with pliers. Tomorrow I'll try hooking the bridge pup up again and see if I get any sound from it. Maybe I've got a bad switch.

Usually, those Analog meters are set up so that if you select the 1 Ohm range, it should read 1 Ohm with full-scale deflection, assuming that the battery in the multimeter is a fresh one, did you make sure to zero the meter before you did the test?, zeroing the meter issimply touching the two probes together and adjusting the Zero knob till the meter needle sits over the Zero mark on the scale, the reason why you do that is because the meter probe leads contribute a small amount of resistance to the reading on the meter so Zeroing the meter nulls out the extra resistance of the leads, I think if you are getting a reading of about 20 there's a good chance that you have continuity between the meter probes, the reading would be much higher if there wasn't continuity.


With my Strat, I get the opposite effect, the hum tends to get reduced if I touch the bridge while the guitar is plugged in, I'm sure that the grounds in my guitar are all good, so I reckon you might have a grounding issue somewhere, if you don't get sound with the bridge pickup installed you can de-solder it and use your multimeter to check if the pickup is open-circuited, to do this you switch your multimeter to the highest resistance range, say X10k or X100k, zero the meter, and then touch one meter probe to one of the wires of the bridge pickup, then do the same for the other probe, an open-circuit pickup will be indicated by an infinite reading on the meter scale.