Newbie Wiring needing help! No sound when attaching ground wire to jack [ATL-1SB]

[JimC]

Ok I think I have a wire that has a central core attached to the pot, funnily enough it appears that the other end is partially stripped and tinned so I'll just need to cut it shorter.

NO!
Don't do that.
The blue earth wire needs to be taken off the output jack completely, and that stripped tinned shield wire soldered in its place.


BTW, as a general tip, I don't suggest lightly connecting the wires for testing. Connect them up as you mean to leave them.
Several reasons, but among them are
Once you have it working you really don't want to take it apart again and maybe get it wrong the second time.
It tends to be a lot more fiddly to reconnect wires that have already been soldered to tags that have already been soldered.
Modern plastic based components are prone to melt if overheated, so the fewer times you solder to them the better.
Connecting up less neatly for testing means its more likely something will go wrong.

[Simon Barden]

Having just had a look at your second picture, forget about what I said about the switch linking as it is the same as in the PBG wiring diagram and either you or more likely the factory have bent the two outer lugs together. It's not a good way to do it, but it's been done, so leave it as it is if it works. So just sort out those pickup signal wires, attach the ends back onto the switch once you've sorted out the braid, and you should be good to go.

[Simon Barden]

NO!
Don't do that.
The blue earth wire needs to be taken off the output jack completely, and that stripped tinned shield wire soldered in its place.

NO! Please don't do that.

Jim is easily confused. The factory wiring looks OK. Pickup wire connections only.

[Simon Barden]

The blade switch is very odd, have you seen one with 8 tags like that? It seems to have two centre tags soldered together at the factory, and two outer ones soldered together.

8 tag switches like that are common, though they are normally 5-way switches. The factory bending and soldering is a bit weird though. I just hope it is a 3-way and not a 5-way switch.

[McCreed]

Holy crap!!! That wiring from the pots to the switch is factory????
Wow, I've never anything like that before. Even in the lowest budget manufactured guitars.
And the bent lugs on the switch, yikes... sorry for presuming you did that Calum!

re: the pickup wires, I'm pretty sure the leads coming off the pickups are two single core. I think the bridge pickup has red (+) and black (-) and neck is white & black.

[JimC]

Simon and I differ on the interpretation of the photo. AIUI he reckons your red and brown (or maybe its white) pickup wires are shielded with an outer braid/screen as per his photo and a separate inner core with its own insulation. That would be conventional, but I reckon that they are single unshielded wires, without the separate shield and core, and the second wires from the pickups are the black ones. This is a vital distinction!
The kit contents photo shows the pickups with yellow shielded cable, and a bundle of loose cable. Did it come like that? Are there any cable joins we can't see in your photo?

[Simon Barden]

Having had another look, I do think Jim's right here. Those wires to the switch are singles. I was seeing what I expected to see. D'oh!

So the pickup wiring to the switch is probably 'right', but certainly needs to be tidied up as there shouldn't be those lengths of bare wire around.

Calum, can we have confirmation that the pickups have two single core wires from each pickup (one red and black pair, the other a brown and black pair)? I just haven't seen two singles being used on kit pickups, even though that's how Fender would do them.

[McCreed]

Not that it matters, but I see red and *white* as the positive lead colours.

The ATL-1SB kit shown at PBG, says:
"Hardware options available in Chrome or Gold, with a Pearloid pickguard, which has been pre-loaded with 1 single coil pickup, plus a Control Panel with 1 Tone, 1 Volume and a 3 way switch."

Doesn't show the pre-loaded neck pickup but, the bridge pickup in the photo clearly shows it having 2 single core leads. 1 red, 1 black

This ones a bit of a head scratcher...

ATL-1SB @ PBG

[calum-gathergood]

Thanks all for the comments!

To clarify a few things:

All 4 pickup wires are single core

Bridge = Red and Black
Neck = White and Black

I have a picture of the pickup setup when it arrived.


I've removed all current work, and reverted back to the state where I have done no additional soldering. Also tidied up the wires as advised. Picture below (let me know if you need a higher res)

[Simon Barden]

Have you got a mulitimeter? If not, it's probably a good time to get one.