Messed up my CV Strat pickup swap - help

[progrmr]

I got the new pickups and installed them - GFS neovin pickups. They have a black ground, a silver ground, a red and white for coil tap but the are twisted together on all pickups, green wire for each pickup to the 5-way. What's happening is this:

When 5-way switch is in the neck position, it sounds great. Full volume and tone is there.

When 5-way switch is in the position between the neck and middle pickups, the volume drops significantly but is there.

When 5-way switch is in the middle pickup position it sounds great again - full volume and tone.

When 5-way switch is in the position between the middle and bridge pickups the volume is very faint.

When 5-way switch is in the bridge position, I get no volume at all.

I've measure for resistance between the pickups and their solder points on the 5 way switch - everything appears to be good. Also measured each switch position to the volume pot - each connection on the 5-way switch shows continuity between the correct pickups and the volume pot.

How else can I measure to find out where the issue is? I have not plugged it in and measure yet as I'm not an electricity expert - but I can be careful and my multimeter will read AC voltage.

Any recommendations?

pic of the switch and the volume pot:

[progrmr]

Aw crap - I think I see what I might have done wrong. Per the instructions (RTFM right??) it says to run the silver braided ground to a ground independent of the black ground...I have them both on the switch.

** sigh ** At least I get to solder some more I'll keep posted.

[progrmr]

ok, so I fixed that but they're still not working right. I supposed it's possible that the pickups are bad but I doubt that.

How can I test the system to see where it's broken?

[progrmr]

still working here

I have a needle type multimeter - I set it to read resistance RX100 - do the reading X100. When I measure across the bridge pickup green and black wire points on the actual pickup the meter reads 2 - so I guess that's 200 Ohms right?

Same settings on the meter on the other two pickups the needle settles on the 25, so 2500 Ohms.

Does that mean the bridge pickup is bad?

[Heywood Jablomie]

still working here Does that mean the bridge pickup is bad?

I dunno, but try the same thing on the other pickup and compare results.

[progrmr]

There are 3 pickups and I posted the readings forthe other two, they are 2500 ohms

[Heywood Jablomie]

There are 3 pickups and I posted the readings forthe other two, they are 2500 ohms

Oops, I missed that. Fender-type single coils usually measure in the 5k range, so methinks your meter is set in the wrong range. It's not impossible that you have a bad pickup, but it's highly unlikely (unless, of course, the wires got yanked or something).

[progrmr]

These are GFS neovin pickups, noiseless because they are basically humbuckers in a single coil size. That's why the coil tap wires there even though they say not to use coil tap.

My readings are taken with the pickguard out of the guitar reading the resistance between the ground and hot points n the pickups themselves.

[Commodore 64***]

1. I've never seen anyone ground to the switch like that. I usually ground to a pot.

2. If the neovins are 4 conductors, shouldn't 2 of the conductors be joined and taped off? It looks like they are all soldered to the pile of wires on the switch.

3. With those bare wires on that switch, you increase the chances that one will short against a switch lug.

[duhvoodooman***]

Can you post a couple of better photos?? I can't see what is going whre at that angle. Also, did GFS provide a diagram to you & did you follow it? Did you make a diagram or take a photo of the switch before you removed the old pickups?

[progrmr]

thanks for the help fellow fretters

1. I've never seen anyone ground to the switch like that. I usually ground to a pot.

I took pictures of the original setup and the stock pickups (much easier, 2 wire) were grounded to the switch. So I'm running the black ground to the switch just because the originals were like that.

2. If the neovins are 4 conductors, shouldn't 2 of the conductors be joined and taped off? It looks like they are all soldered to the pile of wires on the switch.

You can't see it to well, but the red/white wires are soldered and taped against the insulated wire. This is per the wiring diagram that came with the pickups.

3. With those bare wires on that switch, you increase the chances that one will short against a switch lug.

I now have the bare silver wires soldered to the volume pot - there picture on the diagram sheet isn't very good but it appears that's how they have it done.

Per the wiring diagram - "The silver shield is the ground for the shield array. It floats so for in phase/out of phase schemes simply send silver to ground independently from black". Since the volume pot goes to bridge ground, I put them on the volume pot.

Can you post a couple of better photos?? I can't see what is going whre at that angle. Also, did GFS provide a diagram to you & did you follow it? Did you make a diagram or take a photo of the switch before you removed the old pickups?

Yes I'm pretty sure I have it right. The bridge pickup doesn't work at all so I'm thinking that one is bad. The other two work but between the neck and the middle pickup something ain't right. Here's a few more pics:

[duhvoodooman***]

Thanks for the additional photos. From what I can see, the factor I would suspect to be most likely the cause of your problem is your solder joint quality. I see very rough, blobby, dull looking joints--often a sign of "cold" joints that conduct poorly or not at all. I would strongly suggest redoing them--unsolder the pickup wires, clean up the lugs on the switch with desoldering braid or a "solder sucker", and then resolder. Same with the ground joint on the switch body.

BTW, what size/type iron are you using, and (very important) what kind of solder? I hope it's not that non-lead-containing silver crapola, because it's very difficult to work with. Good quality rosin-core 60/40 tin-lead solder is the ticket, preferably in 0.03" diameter.

BTW, your pickup resistance values look like you probably had two pickups connected in parallel through the switch when you made the measurement. You want the pickup you're measuring to be isolated when you take the reading. For example, select the neck pickup position on the 5-way switch before you measure the bridge p'up resistance. Place one probe of your multimeter on the end of the green "hot" wire and the other on the end of the black ground wire. Be sure to contact the wire itself and NOT the solder joint, since a bad joint will fool you into thinking that the pickup is bad. I don't know what the resistance specs on the Neovins are, but I'd guess they're at least 5 Kohm, if not higher.

While pickups can arrive "DOA", it's rare. Pretty much the only thing that can render them mute is a broken wire or short internally, or a broken wire connection on one of the pickup's solder joints. The latter should be visually obvious.

[progrmr]

Thanks VoodooMan - my soldering iron is pretty big, and my solder is the lead free type just because I don't know WTF I'm doing lol!

I'll stop by radio shack today and get a better soldering iron, the solder you recommend in the right diameter.

I hope it works! I'll update ASAP.

[duhvoodooman***]

Some Rat Shack product links for you:

http://www.radioshack.com/product/in...LAID=163567338

http://www.radioshack.com/product/in...ductId=2062745

http://www.radioshack.com/product/in...ductId=2062711

Stay away from their desoldering braid--it's worthless.

[duhvoodooman***]

Here's a link to an excellent primer on successfully building a BYOC pedal authored by one of my forum moderator colleagues over at the BYOC forums, but many of the concepts apply equally well to guitar wiring work. Take a look at the soldering-related tips, in particular:

http://www.buildyourownclone.com/boa...php?f=9&t=6401

[progrmr]

well - I just redid everything after buying all new gear (solder sucker, adjustable wattage soldering iron, 60/40 .032) and cleaning up all the connections. Exact same problem.

I wonder if I could have fried the switch...I'm gonna take it off and see what I can see. The pickups do show good resistance when disconnected from the switch, so it's got to be something else.

Ugh...now I know why I paid someone to do this I'll learn something though - gotta learn something new everyday right??

[duhvoodooman***]

Can you post a couple of new pics of the redone wiring? Better focus, if at all possible. Use your camera's "macro" setting--most have one. The icon usually looks like a flower.

[sumitomo]

When all else fails,use a 5 pound adjuster.It may not fix the problem,but you will sure feel better.Sumi Sorry that is Snap-On tool # BFH

[progrmr]

I took all the pickups out and went one at a time - had volume on the bridge, but it was faint. It has to be something I'm not doing right - I'm done messing with it for now. Too much time tied up with it at this point. I might just put the originals back in and at least be able to play it.

thanks all - when I manage to get it fixed I'll post up.