Nooby and maybe grounding issue

Rudolf · 2009-08-24T21:26:16+00:00

Aloha boys and girls! Ok so some know I took a recent adventure to the USA for sport and my other love. I stumbled into a shop that side to find something I've been looking for on my budget. Long story short I bought a slightly damaged Squier Telecaster Custom II and case for a very good price. The switch on the guit was broken off, but I've already replaced this with a gold Les Paul switch as it's the same as original for 20 bucks. Our luggage got lost on the way home to SA and of course I HAD to check the guitar in because it was in a hard case or whatever. The case got virtually destroyed but the guitar is ok luckily except for one thing. I have this very annoying crackle and humming noise on this puppy. Playing it clean is ok but anything with gain it's unuseable. I can hear a definite crackle when I touch the strings or the bridge, much louder than any of my other guitars. Not touching the strings there's a constant annoying buzz/humm. If I just normally play the thing strumming by hand I can't use the guitar at all, it crackles everytime you change a chord or strum the strings. If I keep a finger on the jack or bridge the noise is gone completely and the guitar rocks? The noise is gone touching the tuners, pickup screws, jack, strings, bridge or the switch even. I had to obviously open the guitar up to replace the switch, so while I was in there I had a looksy for possible things that could be causing this noise, loose ground wires and things but nothing that's obvious? The bridge ground isn't soldered onto the bridge and just clamped between the bridge and body but I doubt this is the problem? I read alot of reviews and searched far and wide but there's no other reports of this problem on this particular guitar or what could be causing it? I also went about checking continuity around the outside and everything seems to be good and connected to the nut on the jack. I checked with the bridge, switch, screws on pickups? Ok final notes, I did check my equipment and everything seems good, pluggin in my Yamaha or Fender there's no problems. Anyone got any ideas? Thanks. Rudolf

AlanRatcliffe

Rudolf wrote If I can just find a shop that stocks everything from the copper tape to pots to wire.

Oh how we laughed! Many will carry pots and maybe switches, wire you'll have to get from electronics stores, but the chances of finding copper tape locally (anywhere!) are zero.

Even importing it's difficult to find the best stuff at one store. Even Stewmac - their wire and pots are generic rubbish and they don't carry the copper sheets for pickguards. http://www.acmeguitarworks.com are about the best for quality stuff, but are a bit overpriced on some things.

Rudolf

Hi Alan,

Shucks, I'm still getting used to the idea of being back in South Africa where you can't find anything you want quickly. Hahaha, I'll get there though! Even in the small guitar shop in Muncie Indiana where I bought the Squier you get anything and everything, and this town's about the size of Pietersburg.

O well, if it was easy we wouldn't be doing it right? Where's the fun in that.

FenderBender

I have had good results with aluminium flashing tape. The stuff they use on roof sheeting to seal up holes. It has a bitumen based adhesive backing that sticks like something else to an army blanket ?

Rudolf

Graeme: Curious about the flashing tape? It's mighty expensive but yeh easy to get a hold of. Is the adhesive on this stuff conductive though like the copper stuff? I am very close to pulling the trigger on a three pack set of the copper stuff from Stewmac, it's not really that expensive except for the shipping.

Rudolf

Well on the grounding issue.
I finally have it patched up! Woooohoooooo! I opened the guitar again tonight to make a list of all the electronics and get some specs, size of the pots etc. Thought I'd give swopping the wire from the switch to the jack a go. I got an old guitar cable from the music store, thought I'd wiggle a piece of that in there, but unfortunately it's a little too thick obviously to fit between the cavity floor and pickups. So I started diggin. Found some really expensive top notch audio cables my brother gave me (He's big on his home studio stuff), couldn't get comfy with the idea of tearing those up. So I got a lightbulp digging out some old stuffed up RCA cables, these are probably the worst piece of wiring I could find for a guitar but what the heck huh?

Same thing with copper wires, core shielded by a few wires on the outside shielded again with plastic or whatever. Anyways figured I'd be brave and slap it in there. I tidied up the connections on the switch a tad, redid the wiring around the jack. I also went right ahead and grounded the cavity with a small wire wrapped around a tiny screw I installed in the pot cavity.

I did a complete continuity test on everything and everything checked, alot of resistence on the shielding paint in the cavity though. Also found the live and earth hooking up perfectly with the volume knobs up, this had me scratching my head for at least an hour? LMAO, I couldn't figure why it's supposed to do that and it had me de-soldering wires and checking things back and forth. Finally gave up and slapped it back together. ? ?

Well the good news, the guitar now works like it should!!! The loud crackling when touching anything on it is gone and to acceptable levels like my other two electrics, barely noticable and you really gotta listen for it. The guitar is now completely quiet also, even with the computer running with two monitors (One a CRT) half a meter from it and the TV on just a meter away also. I can hear a slight humm on the single coils only but it's great, switch it to middle so it's in a "humbucker" config and it's noiseless..completely!

Thanks guys! Now I finally understand the reviews I read on this thing all over with folks claiming for a single coil setup guitar it's pretty darn noiseless for a cheapy. It's a dream to play now, nowhere near perfect like my Fender with the fancy Dimarzio pup in it but still awesome.

Now for the question? Am I risking playing this guitar with the cheap RCA lead in there. Can I damage anything or can I play it as is untill I get the upgraded electronics and everything together to upgrade it completely?

I'm researching like crazy but it's going slow. I just figured out what the wole deal is with the pots on their size and the whole A and B and D whatever. Still gotta figure out caps and wires blah blah so it will take me a few more weeks so I can figure out what to buy?

Thanks again everyone! Appreciate the help!
Groete

FenderBender

Glad you got it sorted out ?

The cheap wires you have installed seem to be doing the job pretty well and won't cause damage. Upgrading to something better will give you better long term reliability though.
Regarding adhesive tapes, the adhesive is not conductive, it's simply to hold the conductive tape in place.

Rudolf

Reliability is a small issue I can live with for a while being a bedroom guitarist. I just want to take my time to select the electronics for this one, get the real info on why the CTS pots are better than the Alpha stuff that's in the guitar now, all that jazz ya know? ?

They claim on Stewmac that the copper shielding stuff has a conductive adhesive also so layering that stuff in there should according to them create a completely shielded and grounded cup like the paint does? Sounds like the ticket then yea?

FenderBender

Well I learn something new every day. Usually when opening my mouth to change feet ?

In that case, I'd say the tape from Stewmac is your best bet.

AlanRatcliffe

CTS pots are generally longer lasting and closer tolerance than the Alphas in my experience. Alphas have a nice feel. Talking large pots here, BTW, I don't like either's mini pot.

Re the tape - yeah, the conductive sticky stuff is a boon - means you don't have to solder strips together like you used to have to (but you still can if you want). Aluminium tape is a cow at the best of times for any application other than pickguard, because you can't solder it.

Rudolf

Graeme: Hahahaha, why we're here! ?

Alan: When you say mini pot? Does that now mean the shorter .250" pots? Looks like I need .250" pots for this one if you do indeed measure the length of the threaded portion on the pot to determine size. I need a split shaft B500K and D500K two of each .250" I think.

AlanRatcliffe

No - the physical diameter of the pot housing. Mini pots are about 16mm in diameter and large pots are about 23mm. You do get some nice quality mini pots - but not usually the carbon pots used in guitars). That's one of the reasons I never use push-pull pots - you can only get the mini models, which don't last as long.

Shaft length only becomes an issue if you're mounting through wood (which needs a longer shaft) - especially with carved top guitars like LPs, or if you have limited cavity depth below a pickguard (which means you can't space a long shaft pot deeper into the body to get the controls flush with the PG).

Rudolf

Aaah ok I see. No mini's untill further notice, gotcha. ?

Any suggestions on what to do now with Acme only selling one 500k pot type? Some say a pot is a pot is a pot but then others still recommend choosing the right A/B/C/D for tone or volume or whatever? Like I now have to B's on Volume control and two D's on Tone?

AlanRatcliffe

??? D or A on tone? A (linear) is my preference, but a B works in a pinch. The "Custom taper" of the DiMarzio branded (CTS made) pots works well for both (which is something like an 18% taper IIRC).

But I'd say try the log pots with tone if that's all you can get from your supplier - some people prefer them anyway. If you find it bugs you when you tweak the tone, then make the effort to get linear from another supplier.

Rudolf

Oh crickey! They don't even say here what these are? And they only got the one 500k .250" http://www.acmeguitarworks.com/500K_Audio_Pot_CTS_250_Bus_P493C15.cfm

Find another store?

AlanRatcliffe

They say "Audio" pot - which means log. You can also easily use a .375" bushing, just with an extra nut to space it properly.

I buy from Guitar Nucleus: http://www.guitarnucleus.com/gnstore/elec_pots.html - They have both tapers, their CTS pots come with nut, waher and lock washer and are only $4.65, so I buy a bunch at a time and measure/mark their values. They also have the DiMarzio pots. Good place to get switches and copper sheets for pickguard shielding too.

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