ES 1 wiring problem

[bill.cox]

Hi all, I have finished wiring my ES1 and only getting response from the bridge pickup when tapping with screwdriver. I have checked the connections and the supplied wiring diagram a number of times and can’t see any obvious mistakes. Any suggestions would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance

[Sonic Mountain]

Without being able to see the wiring it's difficult to know what might be wrong. So when you switch it to the neck pickup only there is no output at all?

I'm sure you have all the volume and tone wound all the way up for testing, but worth double checking it's nothing silly like that.

From the description either the connection from the pickup to the volume pot or from the pot to the switch is faulty OR the pickup is not earthed and so not completing a circuit.

Is the wiring in the guitar? It's not unheard of for solder joints to break during that installation process, installing electronics in a hollow body is a bit of a mission, but you might need to pull it all out and post some nice clear pics for us to troubleshoot.

[bill.cox]

Thanks, wiring is still outside. Will post some pics. Yes checked volume is up.

[bill.cox]

[bill.cox]

[Sonic Mountain]

It's a bit hard to see exactly whats going on, but it looks like you've put the earth for the bridge to the back of the neck vol pot, I normal earth to the back of the same pot the hot wire is going to. That shouldn't really matter as you have a bridge between the backs of those two. So I'm wondering if it's just a dodgy solder joint somewhere. There is a lot of solder in these images, I'd probably just go over all of it and make sure there are good connections where there should be and no accidental connections, such as the neck hot wire possibly being shorted out by some stray solder.

Hopefully there will be some other eyeballs along who may be able to pick up any glaring errors I've missed.

[bill.cox]

Thanks, initially I had the ground wire on the same pot, but when I checked the drawing decided to change it to suit that. Thinking I’all redo all neck connections, take off, clean and redo, to see if that works.

[McCreed]

Thinking I’all redo all neck connections, take off, clean and redo, to see if that works.

I think that's a good direction. IMO, it might not be a bad idea to start over completely. Work through the diagram methodically, attaching each wire in a way like you are "seeing" the signal path through each component.

Also, I reckon you only need about 20% as much of the solder you currently have on there. With soldering, "more" is not "better".
With large globs of solder, you can create more problems rather than fix them. Too much solder can also mask problems.
It takes lots of practise to get good at it. I'm not an expert btw, but I've learnt by making mistakes and always improving.

[Simon Barden]

I'd also make sure that there are no lengths of bare signal wire that could end up touching the side of a pot and grounding the signal. There are a few lengths I can see in the photos that have the possibility of doing that, so heat up the solder, push the wire through the hole in the tab on the pot until the insulation is touching the tab and then hold it there until the solder sets.

Also, I can't see a need for a join in the ground wire going to the jack. The green wire is more than long enough on its own, so I'd cut and remove the grey wire, especially as that uninsulated section of wire where they are joined also provides a risk of grounding out a signal connection when it's in the guitar. You've got no real control over the wires once you put them inside.

Have you marked out where the F-hole will be? You want to be able to run the cables around the F-hole so that they aren't visible, but as shown in the photos, you'll have a couple running directly across the F-hole. Taping wires together can help keep them in place.

[bill.cox]

Thanks for that, I was following the video instructions as well, pausing and then doing each step.