I have a B.C. Rich Bronze Series Warlock Electric Guitar, i bought it from a friend of mine last night. he told me something needed to be soldered in the area around the volume, and tone knobs and toggle switch. so i took it apart and everything looks fine, there are no disconected/partialy disconected wires. the problem is that when you turn the volume up the gutiar is very quiet, if i turn my 120 watt amp all the way up you can just hear it. and when i turn on my boss metalzone distortion pedal on you can hear the fuzz from the pedal but the guitar stays clean. :? help is apreciated, thanks.
Stigmatic
Is modified the sound (or noise) by moving the volume or tone knobs or toggle switch? I mean it could be a fail in the connector jack or even a wire can be broken. Do you have any electronic material near to you? A multimeter?
i have a voltage tester.
this is my 3'rd guitar i own (next to a LTD Viper 400 and an Ibanez acoustic) and i've been working on guitars for a little while but i can't figure this one out
Stigmatic
If it's all connected as you say, then you're going to have to do some rewiring anyway, so I'd just jump right in and do some re-wire testing. That's just me, there may be better ways to do it, but I like to take the bull by the horns :)
Take the outputs from each pickup in turn and wire them directly to the output socket, check that they work (you don't have to put it all back together to check, you can tap the pole pieces with something metal - if they work, they'll make a (harmless) popping sound). If they don't, you know where the problem is, and if they do, then move on. Carry on like that, one thing at a time, until you have the switch the tone pot(s) and vol pot(s) all back in the circuit. Somewhere along the line you'll either discover the problem or you'll get to the end with a working guitar. Either is good :)
..and welcome to GN, by the way.
ok i'll try that, thanks for the welcome. just a little more history on the guitar if anyone's interested. the guy i bought the guitar from is in a band and he had been playing shows with this guitar for about the past month + 1/2 and he sold it to me so he could raise band money. when he sold it to me he told me about the problem.
Stigmatic
You also may be shorting somewhere.
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Yeah also sounds like a short to me
re soldering everything to test seems a little unnecessary and you may introduce other problems. I would use (or buy, they're like $10) a multimeter with an ohmmeter to check the wires and such.
also, is it the same volume with all pickups? i demagnetised one of mine once (don't ask how) and it got pretty quiet
also make you're you're not using nylong strings ;) ;)
Jim
Yeah also sounds like a short to me
re soldering everything to test seems a little unnecessary and you may introduce other problems. I would use (or buy, they're like $10) a multimeter with an ohmmeter to check the wires and such.
I agree. Test with the ohmmeter if there is a short in a wire or some contact is bad. I guess you could use your voltage tester but the guitar must be plugged and the pickups must be generating any current... you will need a reference voltage... It's easier with the ohmmeter.
Sorry, I was assuming it wasn't a short because you can hear it when the amp and guitar are both cranked. It didn't occur to me that it may not be a 'perfect' short.
i'm going to tear the guitar apart and basically rebuild it with new pickups so i guess i'll find the problem when i rewire everything. thanks for the input guys. :)
Stigmatic
