First time strat build

[soundguy4033]

Hi Candice, as you may have seen Im doing the same project, my suggestion is dont do any leveling until you have had the strings on and the necks under tension for a while, the neck is definitely going move around for a while.

[candice]

Great advice soundguy! I was looking at your build yesterday actually looks great, I really like the finish you used!
I am hoping to put this thing together over the weekend and set it up for the first play. Can't wait!

[BenWA]

this came out sweet, great work

[candice]

Ok so I thought I'd got this all together and I've gone to give it a play before I level the frets and I have no sound... Soldering wasn't my strength in this whole exercise but I was hoping I'd at least get some sound... Any ideas?

[candice]

Here are some pictures.

[wokkaboy]

Hi Candice, there are only 3 solder joins on this kit. Follow the wires but 2 wires are earth wires should be soldered to the volume pot casing. One to the tremelo spring claw and one to the output jack. The hot wire comes off the volume pot lug and this should go to the hot tip of the output jack. I suspect you need to reverse the hot and earth wires on the output jack

EDIT just saw the pics you posted. While the output jack is out of the cavity push a guitar lead in and make sure no wires touch the lead tip.
The little 'ear' on the trem claw is to put the earth wire under so might be worth re-soldering it to there. Lift the flap with a screw driver, loop the earth wire around that and push the flap down and re-solder.
Your hot tip doesn't look like you looped the wire through the small hole, so it could be dead solder making contact. Might be with re-doing the hot tip connection (white wire)

[candice]

Thanks Wokka I'll give this a go tomorrow and hopefully have some noise!

[wokkaboy]

no worries Candice, I'd cut the connections to the jack and expose some fresh bare wire on the hot wire and loop the bare wires through the holes. Try and remove all the existing solder on the jack connections. The solder doesn't have to be too heavy, just enough to hold them in place and make sure no stray wires are contacting the jack tip.
Also just check none of the solder joins have come loose under the pickguard, mainly the 3 pots and the switch is connected to the 3 pickups

[soundguy4033]

Thanks Wokka I'll give this a go tomorrow and hopefully have some noise!

The trick to soldering, make sure the iron is hot enough, make sure the 2 parts to be soldered are "tinned" that is, heated and had a drop of solder applied, then, put the 2 together, heat, add a tiny dab of solder, and blow on it to cool, if the join looks like silver, all good, if its dull then you have a "dry" joint that will fail. Simply reheat and its all good.
I used to run a recording studio and have installed 3 different consoles, so all in all I have made many many MANY 1,000 solder joints, and I probably weight 8 kilos more than I should from breathing in lead fumes!

[dingobass]

I agree with Soundy..
It is vital to pre tin the wire. This can be a challenge at times as the Chinese wire has a lot of impurities from manufacture that needs to be burnt off before it will take the solder....