Good work on grabbing the original photo.
OK, so let's check this. You have two blue wires running from the middle pot which are unterminated. The one running down in the photo is a shielded cable with a core and outer screen. The other I can't see the end of, but am I right that it's a plain wire with no screen, and runs to the body of the pot?
The next question is whether you have a basic electronic test meter that will test resistance/continuity? Not essential, but may help.
Build #1, failed solid body 6 string using neck from a scrapped acoustic (45+ odd years ago as a teenager!)
Build #2, ugly parlour semi with scratch built body and ex Peavey neck
Build #3, Appalachian Dulcimer from EMS kit
Build #4, pre-owned PB ESB-4
Build #5, Lockdown Mandolin
Build #6, Sixty six body for Squier
Build #7, Mini Midi Bass
Thanks JimC!
I assume the other blue wire is for grounding to the bridge. It's a single core unlike the other blue one.
Yes! I have a multimeter I picked up for $20. Can't say I know where you test it though!
All we need is to test for continuity at the moment. If its got a continuity setting fine, if not set it to ohms. Excuse if I get into teaching egg sucking here, but it helps to be thorough.
Touch the wires together, and make sure you can easily tell between making a connection and not.
Put all the controls on 10, and try the following
- continuity from the centre connection of the switch to earth - eg back of a pot. (should be none.)
- continuity from the centre connection of the switch to the centre core of the screened cable that will go to the output jack. (should be something)
- continuity from the centre connection of the switch to the two end tags (should vary with switch position)
- continuity from earth to the end of the screen of the jack cable (should be something)
- if you can manage it resistance between core and screen of the output cable (should be some hundreds of K reducing if you lower the volume setting)
This should give us reasonable confidence that the wiring is acting as it should, and there are no gremlins waiting for us. My suspicion is there was a short to earth somewhere, and I think it wise to make sure there is nothing before we start.
Simon, what would you add to this list?
Last edited by JimC; 10-12-2019 at 04:56 PM.
Build #1, failed solid body 6 string using neck from a scrapped acoustic (45+ odd years ago as a teenager!)
Build #2, ugly parlour semi with scratch built body and ex Peavey neck
Build #3, Appalachian Dulcimer from EMS kit
Build #4, pre-owned PB ESB-4
Build #5, Lockdown Mandolin
Build #6, Sixty six body for Squier
Build #7, Mini Midi Bass
I'd first check across the output jack terminals and check that there's no short between them. Try the output jack test with the selector switch in all 3 positions.
In addition to Jim's checks, I'd just measure the resistance of the two pickups. They should be somewhere in the 4-8k ohms area.
Apologies for the radio silence on this one, I'm back in the homeland (Scotland) for Christmas and won't be back in Aus til the new year. I'll pick this back up then and resurrect the thread.
Have a good holiday folks!
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