Almost there: Now my humbuckers hum like a single coil with the overdrive pedal on. Add a ground to body?

[Stewart1983]

Okay, again, thanks for assisting me with my previous grounding issue of the braided shield making contact with either the copper shield pickguard or tab at the blade switch.

So everything is working correctly, except, when I did the tap test before stringing up, there is an overall hum. A dull hum, like I have an overdrive pedal turned on in a single coil guitar. Volume off makes it go away (duh) and messing with the tone controls naturally dulls and brightens this hum.

The braided shield was stripped back to the grounded pot, so nothing to affect pickup wires interferring. I switched from the original Alpha pots to CTS 500k. All components are new (CRL blade switch, switchcraft output jack.)

I’ve added a wire from the grounded pot attached to a screw, screwed into the body control cavity before. I’m always mindful of good solder technique to avoid the whole cold solder rabbit hole scavenger hunt.

I didn’t take a pic of the circuit with the output jack and claw ground wires. I swear I connected the tip and sleeve wires correctly. But I’ve had similar results when those wires were reversed. God I hope it’s not that (yet still that would be a simple solution.)

No shielding in the control cavity. Didn’t think I needed it with humbuckers.

Again, lots going on in my life, working on this guitar was supposed to be a life distraction, but somehow my focus is off for troubleshooting. You’d think after 25 years of wiring circuits I’d have this down in my sleep by now.

 

[Verne Bunsen]

The guitar volume eliminating the hum is not necessarily a “duh”, as a hum could potentially originate elsewhere in the signal chain. So that is a valuable data point. Did the tap test produce the expected results (pickups active as expected for each switch position)? Is the hum present in all switch positions? Does the hum change/stop when you touch the strings or other grounded metal component on the guitar?