Replacement for EMG's on '85 Nightbird

[SBrem]

Hello All, well, I have it put back together, and no sound! So, as I mentioned before, I'm no electronics person, but even so, it looks like I have it right to me. Could anyone look it over and let me know what you see? I have the neck pickup braid soldered to the volume pot for ground, and to the appropriate leg on the switch; the bridge pickup is pretty much ditto, but to the tone pot. The ground of the switch is soldered to the volume pot, as is a jumper to the tone pot casing. The black wire on the volume pot is going to the bridge post, which conveniently had been done at the factory. Thanks in advance all, this is making me nuts...

 

[GAD]

Check for ground touching signal. Maybe on that mini toggle, which doesn’t look tight to me, but I'm on mobile.

 

[SBrem]

The mini toggle is a dummy, not attached to anything, but I'll put a little space between them.

 

[SFIV1967]

@steve: The picture is a bit difficult to read as it is not all clear where all the wires go to.

So let's look part by part.
1) Volume pot:
Lug 1 is the signal coming from the middle of the toggle switch via the white wire, means coming from both pickups. And it goes via the blue wire to lug 3 of the tone pot. Fine.
The middle lug shuld go to the output jack as "hot signal". I assume this is the white wire.
Lug 3 is the ground from the bridge.

2) Tone pot:
Is the blue wire going to the output jack ground toward 1 o'clock? Looks like. Otherwise Tone pot looks fine to me as dos the toggle switch.

Maybe the white and blue wire on the output jack are not correctly connected? It should be a stereo output jack as the stereo port usually would go to the battery.

I see nothing else that is wrong.

Ralf

 

[kent]

two things u might try. wire the bridge ground to the output jack. in the old days we used to twist two wires together one for signal and one for ground put them on volume pot , singal center lug and ground right lug to pot {looking from back of pot} cap would go from center lug of vol to left lug of tone . the center lug of tone bend back and solder on pot also jumper wire ground to vol. u could also get standard out put jack not stereo just one ground and out keep it as simple as u can . iagree with ralph check your work look for poor solder joint ,loose wire good hunting////////////

 

[GAD]

I wouldn't mess with the wiring, but Ralf raises a good point about the stereo jack. If you put both leads on the sleeve and ring connections, nothing will work. Signal goes to tip and ground goes to ring or sleeve (either will work because a mono guitar plug will short them both, but sleeve is technically correct).

 

[SBrem]

Ralf first... Volume pot, yes, yes, and yes. The Tone pot, yes, the blue is the ground to the output jack. As for the jack itself, it's mono, as there's no battery necessary, so I used a mono jack. So it's getting the white from lug #2 of the volume pot, and the blue from the tone pot. (I just so happened to have some 22 gauge wire in blue and white on hand) I've looked at the jack like, maybe 5 times now, lol. I tested by looking for continuity with my meter, put the black on a ground, and red on every hot lead, nothing, as it should be. Then the opposite, which I'm pretty sure would be the same as the first test. I went overboard with every ground to hot combo, and it all checks out. I'm thinking a cold solder joint now, as I was having trouble getting solder already on a pot case to reflow; I was using a 30w iron (started with an 18w). I do have a really old Weller Gun, seriously, from 1958 that was my older brother's when he went to vocational school, but I've heard they are too hot for this stuff.
Kent, I'll move the bridge ground directly to the output jack as you suggest, there is enough length there. Maybe I should get a proper soldering iron, like one those Weller's with the temp control? I have 2 more projects of old guitars to put back together, so that wouldn't be a crazy purchase. Anyway, thanks all, I hope you're all safe and well.

 

[GAD]

I have my dad's Weller gun from the '50s and that's what I use when soldering pots. You want something that can deliver a lot of heat quickly with a fairly large tip because pots are basically heat sinks. If you use a smaller iron it will take forever to heat them up. When soldering everything else I use my desktop Hakko 936 because it's much more precise and I use a much finer tip on it.

Your wiring looks good to me. Are you 100% sure the pickups work? Start from the simplest thing to troubleshoot - put an ohm meter across the two pickup wires and make sure you get the resistance you think you should. Try to break the circuit down into pieces you can think about and make sure continuity exists where it should.

Also, I'm glad you're keeping it simple. This is the cavity of the X2000 I'm working on today. Yeesh.

 

[GAD]

If you wired the output jack backwards it would work but you'd get an obnoxious loud buzz.

If you've got no signal at all, either your pickups are bad, the circuit isn't complete, or your shunting signal to ground somewhere.

This may sound insulting, but are you testing with the volume knob on 10? I've thought guitars were dead while having the volume on 0 more than once.

 

[SBrem]

LOL, yes, the volume was on ten, that dawned on me to check that out. Not insulting at all, I've made plenty of stupid mistakes in my life. I'm going to work (don't tell anyone) but when I get back later, I think I'll take it all apart, clean up the blobs and start again. And yes, test the pickups. that would be killer if they were dead...

 

[kent]

gad is correct check pu for ohms . and again i would put a standard out put jack in their cheap and simple. check circuit for continuity.

 

[Nuuska]

Hi - you might as well check the impedance from output with a cable inserted. And volume UP

 

[awagner]

Just don’t mess with the flux capacitor.

 

[SBrem]

The neck pickup is 7.19, and the bridge is 7.89. So, I'm going with the cold solder joint theory, just desolder the funky bits, clean it all up and re -do it. Thanks again everyone...

 

[SBrem]

I finally got a chance to finish it up yesterday, it sounds great, and looks great too! I'm waiting on some custom knobs and that's it. I'd really like to thank everyone for the help and guidance, it made the job much easier. Now I'm not so shy about some other projects on the horizon. Have a great Sunday everyone, and stay safe.

Steve

 

[SFIV1967]

Great to hear! So did you change anything in the wiring or was it really a cold solder joint?
Ralf

 

[GAD]

Good job!

If you don't like the knobs and don't want to keep them I'll buy them.

 

[SBrem]

Great to hear! So did you change anything in the wiring or was it really a cold solder joint?
Ralf

I desoldered and cleaned it up, trimmed thr pickup wires to length, and just started over. I couldn’t find a cold solder joint when I looked, but it was either that or perhaps the shield on one the pickup wire shorting. I am so in love with this guitar right now, a lot like when I bought it new. And Gary, sorry, but I’m keeping the knobs.

Steve

 

[GAD]

I desoldered and cleaned it up, trimmed thr pickup wires to length, and just started over. I couldn’t find a cold solder joint when I looked, but it was either that or perhaps the shield on one the pickup wire shorting. I am so in love with this guitar right now, a lot like when I bought it new. And Gary, sorry, but I’m keeping the knobs.

Steve

Hooray!