Yeah, i ruined it, or atleast i feel like i did. After watiting 2 weeks for seymour duncan JB pickups i thought id be good enough to fit em in myself. I desoldered all the old pickups just fine....i put in the new pickups to find they have some screws sticking out from the bottom so they wouldnt fit in pickups slots. I meticulously drilled 6 holes in the wood, to make space for those screws. Got the pickups in nice and snug, wired everything according to the seymour duncan diagrams. Put everything back together again and my guitar has no sound whatsoever. Nothing zilch...wtf...did i do....i feel like killing myself....did i burn the pot? Doesnt seem like it though...i feel like dying right now, i drilled holes into my guitar....what was i thinking...
Don't worry. You probably just have a bad connection. Did you clean the pots of solder? Did you heat the ears on the pot or did you drop hot solder onto the wires? Even if it's a pot it's a couple of bucks to fix. No worries.
Yep, when there is no sound or when there is no "anything" (lights, current, etc.) in a circuit, usually there is a very big mistake. Review if all the wires are correct. Probably you have a bad connection or forgot a soldered.
If you have a polimeter it can help you to verify if the connections are correct.
Yeah, just take a deep breath, relax and remember that a bit of bad wiring can't ruin a guitar. Driving over it with a forklift, that's different, but bad wiring - totally fixable. Pop it open, look at the wiring layout, compare it with a drawing, figure out where it's not right.... Good luck!
The Hammond Organ Service Manual had a line to the effect that "Except in cases of fire or explosion, the instrument can usually be repaired."
"A cheerful heart is good medicine."
A few holes in the body ain't going to kill a guitar -- unless you really know where to put them to inflict the most damage. Even then glue and wood inserts will fix it.
Sounds as if your enthusiasm turned to anxiousness when everything didn't go smoothly. That can cause one to make mistakes. +1 On what the posters above are telling you: An abject failure/symptom such as no output is more likely to have a simple and obvious cause than something that "sort-of" works. Just be calm and check your work.
-=tension & release=-
I think it's fixable ....... stay calm .... take a deep breath and check your work for wrong or poor connections.
"Work hard, rock hard, eat hard, sleep hard,
grow big, wear glasses if you need 'em."
-- The Webb Wilder Credo --
You probably either didn't connect something that needed to be connected, or you accidently grounded something that shouldn't have been, such that all the signal ends up going straight to ground rather than to the amp. If you don't have a multimeter, this may be difficult to diagnose. All we can really offer up in that case is to check and recheck the wiring diagram, and if there's anyplace where you looked at the wiring diagram and weren't entirely sure what it was trying to tell you, so just assumed something, then you need to ask us what it really meant. If you _do_ have a wiring diagram, I'd start by plugging a cord into the guitar, then measuring the resistance between tip and ground on the other (unplugged) end, and moving the switch around. Infinite resistance means no pickup is connected. Zero resistance means you accidently grounded something so the signal goes straight to ground. If you get ~6kohms, then the pickup is connected to the cable and you should be getting sound. Good luck.
TZ
If you have a wiring diagram that you were working from then make a copy of it. Now trace every wire in the wiring diagram - find it in the guitar and verify that it is connected to the right endpoints. As you do this use a highlighter or marker and mark up the diagram so that you know that you checked that wire. As you walk the whole wiring diagram you will ensure that every connection is checked. You will likely either find that some wire is not connected right or was missed.
Pop music is about stealing pocket money from children. - Ian Anderson
Thank you so much people! I finally got the guitar to work and your right! It had something to do with the wiring...but whats confusing me right now is that the wiring diagram i downloaded from seymour ducans website was wrong. I have only one volume pot, a toggle switch and two humbuckers. The diagram i got off seymour ducans site said the green wires have to be soldered onto the pot and the ground had to be soldered to the toggle switch. Its a good thing that before i took the guitar apart i hand drew how it was wired before. I thought maybe i had burnt the pot but before buying a new pot, i tried wiring the new pickups the way the old ones were and they worked perfectly! One thing though, i kinda ruined the volume pot. The connectors i had to cut off cuz they werent getting desoldered and the whole thing is black with all the soldering. Do you think that will effect the guitars sound? Anyways it sounds awesome, much better than my last pickups! Thank you for all the help everyone. Cheers!
In analogical electronics every component affects the final result but if you like the new sound, don't worry for it! :wink:
Congrats!
One thing though, i kinda ruined the volume pot. The connectors i had to cut off cuz they werent getting desoldered and the whole thing is black with all the soldering. Do you think that will effect the guitars sound?
Well, your learning to solder, so if it does.... Pots are pretty cheap.... 8)
