I think I hijacked the "should I shield HSS strat" topic more than enough so have started new thread. Basically despite everything working, my guitar is noisy when strings untouched.have also noticed that if I touch either control knob, the noise disappears. Am using these washer-lugs( see photo). I drill hole in tip and solder ground wires to there. Basically the washer/lug sits on nut and pressed to underside of control plate. there is a little play between lug and thread. am wondering if this system is not actually contacting and grounding pots. what you think/
Noise. The Search Continues.
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Firebird211
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If you are having problems with ground lugs, and the bridge is grounded fine, I would try to clamp the ground lug between two nuts on the shaft (If there is enough room). The outer nut would still be tight against the underside of the control plate. There would be no chance of bad connection in this case.
Firebird211
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That's wierd, the lug should be copper, which will have no problem conducting. That could be verified with an ohmmeter, whether or not the ground carries out to the pot correctly. I was also wondering if it was possible that the grounding inside your guitar is perfect, but it isn't getting a good connection to the output jack ground of the guitar or further down the line. Is your control plate also covered in a conductive material as well. That usually does a good job of making sure all of the components have a good common ground. I hope these ideas help.
Firebird211
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When you use an ohm meter or continuity checker "beep", in your case I would place one lead against the most common ground point in the guitar, then touch the other lead to other points that should be grounded as well. You would be looking for a low value of resistance (0.2ohms or lower if it is a good connection). Any value 1 ohm or higher would be an flag for a bad to open connection (This is all assuming that there is about 6 inches or less conductive distance between the two leads). The copper tape is very usefull, but your ground lugs are also a sound way to ground. Even if you went with the copper tape I would still use at least one ground lug to get ground to the copper tape more effectively.
Firebird211
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Geez, are they building you one from scratch? :laughing7: Oh, and if the control mount surface is already metal and conductive, there really isn't any need for the copper tape. The copper tape will be a better conductor than what you already have there, for example from what you have, a six inch stretch of it might get you 0.1 ohms, and the copper would get you 0.0 ohms. I have made it a point in all of my builds now to make all of the common ground points copper, then attach whatever non copper ground wire or component to it. That makes all of the resistance between ground points darn near negligable. For a basic circuit there should be no reason what you have done already isn't good enough. The problem you will probably find is a bad solder joint, making a good physical connection, but a bad electrical connection.
So when you touch a controll knob the noise stops? Sounds like you fried your pots to me, touching a plastic knob SHOULD not have any impact on noise. It's easy to fry a pot with an underpowered soldering iron
If you hadn't mentioned knobs, I woulda recomended you try a dif cable.
I also have noise on one of my guitars, but it's got singles and a bunch of florecent lights in the ceiling ( no the guitar doesn't have a ceiling, my garage does)
If you hadn't mentioned knobs, I woulda recomended you try a dif cable.
I also have noise on one of my guitars, but it's got singles and a bunch of florecent lights in the ceiling ( no the guitar doesn't have a ceiling, my garage does)
Firebird211
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Cagey said:
That's very possible too. The guitar would really respond to his touch in that scenario. I don't think it is possible you fried the pots, since you didn't apply a pool of solder to the backs of them, (using lugs), and a 40Watt iron is pretty moderate. What's the nature of that toggle on the plate? Is it a phase switch, or any other ground connections going to it making the right connections?
The toggle is on/off/on to split P-rails.at jack,I have run an extra wire from shielded cable to ground.it's hard to see shield as I encased whole length in shrink-tube.if I had jack wired backwards, would I still hear guitar thru amp well(except for background noise)
Firebird211
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Yes you would, pretty much, it's actually like a phase swap for the entire guitar, but the strings, bridge, and knobs are all on the positive and not ground, so it would respond with a buzzing to your touch.
Cagey
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As close as I can tell, that jack is wired right. But, it's hard to tell. Please don't take this the wrong way, and I certainly don't want to discourage you from including pictures to illustrate your points, but you're not doing anybody any favors by linking low-resolution pictures the size of Rhode Island. They end up so grainy that all detail is lost and it's difficult to tell what you're even looking at.
Most cameras have adjustments that let you set the size/resolution of the pictures you take, so knock it back a bit. It'll be easier for people to help you if they can see what's been done. If you're using a cell phone camera, you may not have as much control as a real camera gives, but that's an excuse to buy a real camera. Even a cheapo digital camera will take better pictures than a cell phone.
Most cameras have adjustments that let you set the size/resolution of the pictures you take, so knock it back a bit. It'll be easier for people to help you if they can see what's been done. If you're using a cell phone camera, you may not have as much control as a real camera gives, but that's an excuse to buy a real camera. Even a cheapo digital camera will take better pictures than a cell phone.
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