Grunding problem on pickup install.

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Hi guys,

I’ve got a fender jagstang and decided to change the pickup to one I had lying around.

I installed it ok, and the pickup works on all the switch settings, but I’m getting a grounding problem. I’m getting a strong static noise that disappears when I touch the strings.

This is what I used. It is a Kent Armstrong PAF.

http://www.wdmusic.com/patent_applied_f ... _gold.html

I’m trying to figure out what is causing the problem.

I wonder if it could be one or more of these things?

1) The new pickup had a chrome cover on it. It wouldn’t fit in the guitar so I took it off. Would taking the chrome cover off make a difference? It was also set in wax. I cleaned the wax off the top of the pickup.

2) Looking at other humbucker pickups - they have cloth tape wrapped around the sides of them. This one doesn’t. Since I have taken the metal cover off, do I need to put something around the pick up? Do I need to shield it at all?

3) The pickup I took out of the guitar was a two wire pickup. This new pickup has 5 wires. If you have a look at the PDF at http://www.kentarmstrong.com/KA_Wiring_Instructions.pdf I have got the pickup in the first box of page one. So I went to fig.1 on page.2 for directions on installing it.

I joined the red and green wires together. I soldered the black wire on the new pickup to the bit on the switch that the previous black wire was soldered to.

I then got the bare wire (twisted stranded shield) and soldered it to the white wire, and then soldered it to the point on the switch that the previous white wire was soldered to.

Does anyone know what I could do to fix it?

[Vorbis]

Have you tried the bare/white wire grounded to the back of a pot, rather than to the switch?

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thanks for your response - so do you mean solder the white wire to the switch (same as it was wired with the first pickup) and then solder the 'bare' to a pot?

[Vorbis]

Well, I was assumming your black wire was 'hot' and your bare/white wire were earth. Any progress mate?

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Hi Vorbis,

Thanks heaps for your help so far.

You mentioned you thought the black wire was hot and that the white/bare wire was an earth. I noticed that where I had the black wire also went to earth, so i figured that I must of had the wires backwards. eg I had the hot going to earth.

I just swapped the black and the white/bare wires over. It has fixed the ground problem........ but..... something funny is happening. When I turn the tone control up I get a static/ground noise. the further I turn the tone up, the louder the noise gets. If I turn the tone control all the way off, the static/ground noise goes away completely.

Does this mean that the tone control is not earthed? If so, does that mean that I could earth it by running a wire from the bottom of the volume pot to the bottom of the tone pot? There currently isn't a wire there.

Thanks heaps

[mr_sooty]

My guess (without looking at the diagrams) is that the the black wire and the bare wire should both go to ground, and the white (hot) should go to the switch. Try that. Your current problem is probably that one of your grounds is going to the switch.

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Hi guys,

thanks heaps for your help.

I'm getting close to a solution.....

I tried it with the white going to the switch and the black/base going to ground. I got the same problem.


BUT....


While I was fiddling with the input jack, I notced that if I touched the input jack to the guitar body, the grounding noise went away.

I've got two questions...

1) Since the pickup worked with the white and the black wires going to the switch, does it matter which way i have them? of would i be putting the pickup out of phase, and getting a less desirable sound?

2) Should i attach a wire from the input jack to the body? or is there a better place to run the wire from?

Thanks heaps

[mr_sooty]

You can have white as ground and black as hot, or the other way around, the pickup will work either way. The only issue is that if the phasing is different from the other pickup, it won't sound right when combined, so if you get a thin nasally sound when running the two pickups together, swap hot and ground. The bare wire should go to ground regardless.

With the input jack, there should be a wire going from ground (the terminal that connects to the sleeve) to the back of the volume pot or wherever the main grounding point is. This is usually black. Check that that is in place and properly connected, then report back.

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Hey Vorbis and Mr_Sooty,

Thanks so much for your help with the wiring of my pickups. I've got them working well now. with no noise, and the in the correct phase.

Now that I've got it working properly, I'm gonna change the pots and cap, and then I'm done!!!!

I hope you're coming to G-Taranaki, so I can buy you both a beer!!!


Thanks heaps

[mr_sooty]

Glad to hear it! Can you confirm what the problem was? That just ground wire? Not going to G-Taranaki unfortunately.

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I think the problem all along was the ground wire not going to body.

Thanks for your help guys, it's awesome.