PROBLEM: Scratchy pots when wiggled... Brand new... WHAT'S WRONG?!

[jamesabrush]

I cannot, no matter how much I look or where I go, find a satisfactory answer to this problem. 

I recently wired up my new strat I am building and have come across a weird problem.  All of the pots on my guitar exhibit a weird scratching, popping sound when wiggled.  I'm not talking about rotating them - I'm talking about when i put pressure on it from side to side it makes a scratching, popping sound.  This transfers into when I am rotating them as well. 

So, I thought it might be grounding. I checked with a resistance meter - it was less than 1 ohm everywhere I checked.  Pots to ground, shielding to ground, bridge to ground, etc. All the same. 
Then I thought it might be over-heating but I only used a 40w soldering iron and didn't over-do it by any means.  In and out. 

Can anyone help?

P.S. I also noticed that when I wiggled one of the saddles on the bridge (without strings on the guitar) that it made the same sound... maybe something to do with ground and I just missed it?  What could this be?

 

[Danuda]

How much wiggle is in the pots?  They shouldn't move at all.  The knobs connecting to the pots may shift a little, but the pots themselves should be rock solid.  If the pots are moving they need to be tightened down.  As far as the ohm rating they should be much less than 1 ohm.  All the readings on my guitar registered as 000.0 ohms with only 1 at 000.1.  Looking at the solder joints was a much better indicator of it being a good connection.  Look for it to be shiny not dull.  I had a scratching/popping sound on my guitar (as well as a buzz).  The scratching and popping happened anytime I touched anything metal on the guitar.  All of my solder joints showed .6 ohms to .1 ohms.  I re-soldered everything and now almost all but 1 zero out.  I still had to re-do one of the new ones as it was still dull grey.  When I re-did it the buzz went away.

 

[Firebird211]

You should probably read danuda's thread since it was very similar and covered all the possibilities.  A bad ground is easy enough to accomplish by accident.  Every solder joint should be shiney or else it should be assumed unacceptable.  If you are lifting the bridge saddle out of continuity then you are making the scratching sound happen yourself.  If the problem is primarilly associated with the pots, then I would strongly reconsider how the ground connection is getting to the face of the pots.  Soldering to the back of the pots isn't always good enough.  Most people use ground rings, a ground plate, or use the grounded shield tape to make the knobs a solid ground point.  I have dealt with that annoying problem as well.