Faulty Les Paul wiring

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Offline Voodoo-Axe

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Faulty Les Paul wiring
« on: June 12, 2017, 08:44:35 AM »
Hello dear forum
I just finished the wiring on a Les Paul Project I did, but I must have made a mistake. When I tap on the pickups with a screwdriver, I can't hear anything. It's the first time I did a Les Paul wiring, and I must admit I found it a bit confusing, so I'm not surprised about my failing. I am, however, at my wit's end.
Can anybody of you guys tell me what I did wrong by checking my wiring on this picture?
Thank you very much for any help!

Cheers
Tobi

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Offline darkbluemurder

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Re: Faulty Les Paul wiring
« Reply #1 on: June 13, 2017, 08:22:16 AM »
Hi,

The first thing I noticed is that the backs of the tone pots are not grounded. You should run a bare wire from each back of the volume pot to the back of the tone pot.

Are the pickups DiMarzios? Then you should wire them as follows:

bridge: red to bridge volume pot input, black and white soldered together and taped, green to ground (= back of bridge volume pot).
neck: red to neck volume pot input, black and white soldered together and taped, green to ground (=back of neck volume pot).

From the middle lug of each volume pot to the toggle switch.

From the toggle switch to the output jack.

Do you have a multimeter? If not, you should get one. They are cheap but invaluable in trouble shooting non-functional guitar wirings.

If you have one, put a guitar cable into the output jack. Set the toggle switch to the middle position and turn all controls up. Then measure the following:

- one probe to the tip of the cable, the other to the middle lug of the bridge pickup. Do you get zero ohms? If yes, fine - the connection between volume pot and jack is fine. If no - there is the trouble. Open the toggle switch control cavity and measure from the bridge volume middle lug to the input of the toggle where the it is connected. Zero ohms = connection is fine, anything else - here is the trouble. Also check between the toggle output and cable tip. Again, zero ohms = fine, anything else = trouble.
Do the same thing with the neck pickup.

- next we check whether there is a ground connection where there should not be one. Measure again from the cable tip but this time hold the other probe against the back of one of the volume pots. You should get the parallel reading of both pickups (appr. 3k to 9k depending on the pickups). Do you get zero? If yes, the signal wire is touching ground somewhere where it should not. Recheck the wiring.

The thing about physics is if something does not work, there is a reason. It's just a matter of finding it.

Good luck,
Stephan
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Offline Voodoo-Axe

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Re: Faulty Les Paul wiring
« Reply #2 on: June 13, 2017, 10:23:16 AM »
Hi Stephan
thank you very much for your detailed answer, I really appreciate this!
I think you might be right with the missing ground on the tone pots. Probably this is the solution already, because I did everything else you wrote ( the pickups are Dimarzios). I'll add groundwires tonight, hopefully that'll be the solution...
I don't have a multimeter, but I can borrow one if it still doesn't work. And of course you are right with your comment about physics, I just couldn't see the reason...

Thank you very much!

Cheers
Tobi

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Offline Voodoo-Axe

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Re: Faulty Les Paul wiring
« Reply #3 on: June 13, 2017, 06:18:37 PM »
Unfortunately, adding ground wires didn't do the trick... The search goes on...  :-\