Help with TL-1 wiring

[McCreed]

And just to be certain, the pre-soldered yellow wire is the grounding wire that is placed under the bridge, correct?

The yellow wire (hot/signal) is coming off the volume pot and goes to the hot (aka positive) lug of the output jack.

That may have been the whole issue if you had it connected to the bridge.
With the two black wires (negative/ground/earth) already soldered to the back of the volume pot, one would go to the bridge, and the other to the negative/ground/earth lug of the output jack.

Try re-connecting everything the way you had it with exception to those wires as I described, and report back.

(On a side note - we had to strip back the insulation on the bridge pickup wiring so that the ground wire could reach the volume pot - is this normal?)

Sometimes this is necessary, but just make sure the bare wire can't come in contact with any of the positive signal wires or positive solder lugs. This will create a "short" and can make horrible crackling sounds or no sound at all. You may want to insulate the bare portion of that wire with tape or heat-shrink tubing (if you have it).


HERE - I found this in my files! I forgot I made this up a while ago. Should get you out of trouble!
Just follow where the wires go/from, the wire colour's are a bit different but doesn't matter, the electrical path is what is important.