Messed up my CV Strat pickup swap - help

[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.

[Spudman***]

Do you have an ohm meter? I would get a measurement from each pickup to make sure they are putting out correctly.

When you got them did you take off the covers and look at the windings? Sometimes taking covers on and off you can accidently catch one of the fragile windings and break it without even noticing. That would change the pickup's output.

[Duffy]

Do you have the pickguard off? If so are the wires still soldered from the pickguard to the tremolo claw and to the output jack? You have to have it grounded to the trem claw and the hot has to go to the output jack for this to work right.

Also, do you use soldering flux? This greatly helps. You brush some paste flux on the intended solder point after roughing up the site slightly, then place the wires at the site to be soldered to. You want the wires at the bottom of the solder pile. The solder pile should be kept to a minimum. brush on some paste flux as you got to speed up the soldering process. You should heat up the soldering site and wires adequately so that when you touch the solder wire to the wires, the wires draw the solder into the strands; rather than pileing the solder on top of cool wires. The soldering flux will greatly help to get a good solder joint. I always use solder that contains LEAD, and I use thin solder wire, about one half a mm in diameter, maybe a little thicker. I get it at Radio Shack, one of the only places carrying leaded solder.

At the switch you want your solder sites to be independent of other solder sites, with none of the solder joints touching, even slightly, other solder joints; except at the central solder joint where all the grounds are soldered together in one solder joint.

Finished solder joints should be shiny and not be huge piles of solder heaped on top of other piles. Use only enough solder to get a good joint and start with a good and hot solder site before applying solder to the wires and site. Don't heat the solder wire and expect it to drop onto the wires and solder site and hold the wire there. Heat the site first and draw in the solder when you apply the solder to the site, not to the soldering iron tip. Watch that your soldering iron doesn't melt the insulation off surrounding wires, get them out of the way even if you have to tie them off. Don't use a soldering gun, use a soldering pencil or a soldering iron. I have a twenty five watt one and a bigger fourty watt one for quickly heating up soldering sites, then I use the small one to get in there with precision.

Try to use these principles even when you solder in the old pickups.

When you put on the Neovins did you ever put the pickguard on the guitar and tune up the strings and listen to how it sounded in place? All the wires have to be connected and you won't know how it will sound if you don't pluck a string over the pickup.

Hope this gives you some ideas. I've had to resolder pickups myself to get the joints right and the connections right. Sometimes it can be difficult, especially when the replacement pickups are not wired like the old ones.

I personally would try not soldering to the switch box and the note in the instructions about soldering the silver shielding to a separate ground from the black ones would encourage me to solder them to a different pot or something other than the common ground where all the black wires are grounded.

Also I would not hesitate to email GFS for further assistance, even though it might be weak assistance, if any. Seymour Duncan, no affln., has a technical support guy you can call on the phone, just as an example of superior customer service provided by a premium pickup maker.

I would agree that you need to work on your soldering skills so that you can get good solder joints. Using paste soldering flux will GREATLY simplify getting a good solder joint for a beginner or even an old timer having difficulty. If the solder wants to roll off of the solder site, you need soldering flux brushed on there to burn off the impurities and make the solder joint a place where the solder can adhere without needing to roll off.

[progrmr]

Hey Duffy -

Yes, the volume pot has a wire that is soldered to the claw and the input jack is wired up. I put all 3 pickups in, re-strung the guitar and gave it a shot. Found it was messed up, pull off the bottom 3 strings and loosened the top 3.

Each time I'd make a change, drop the pickguard back in, tighten up the 3 strings, and test. Sounds like fun huh?? lol - got to be a real PITA.

The 3 ground wires from the original pickups where soldered in one big pile on the switch. When I had removed the pickups and started doing one at a time I did keep the grounds separate but the problem persisted.

I think there is just something about these neovins - I messed up my 5-way (discovered those are a total piece of crap inside though ) so I have an american strat 5-way enroute. Then I'm going to take the whole pile to my luthier and have them make it work lol!

I did replace the volume pots on my Electra LP (after this mess) and it works fine so I think my soldering technique is at least adequate. I should've just stuck with some plain-jane strat pickups instead of this noise canceling thing. I'd be rocking my CV right now!

[Heywood Jablomie]

Hmmmmm.... maybe there's a reason they're called "noiseless"

[progrmr]

Hmmmmm.... maybe there's a reason they're called "noiseless"

LOL!!

[Duffy]

I have thought about getting Neovins. The more I thought about it, I thought about how I have had much better luck with Seymour Duncans, etc., rather than the bargain brands. One thing about GFS is that their instructions are very weak, at least in some of the cases I've encountered.

I also need real good instructions because I'm an amateur at installing pickups and there are a lot of different types of wiring and at least two types of switches, ones with solder tabs all on one side and others with staggered tabs from side to side. I suppose the staggered ones are lined up just like the ones that are all on the same side, but don't know for sure.

I have also noticed that the switches on the CV strats are really cheap and prone to malfunctioning very easily. I have to get a new good one and put it in, or have it put in, one of my CV 50s. If I push it just in the right place it works. On the other hand I have a Squier standard strat switch that is built like a tank.

I usually try to save money by doing guitar electronics myself. Sometimes I really mess it up and have to bring it to a tech after all. Other times I have done as much work as I can, installed the pickups to the guard, taped the wires together to fit in the wire rout, left the pickguard unscrewed but on the guitar with the screws in a little baggie. Then I've taken it to a tech and all he has to do is solder the wires to the right places. Sometimes I get pots or switch upgraded at the same time, and save the money involved in labor time it would take to do the easy things I can do. And I do it so it's easy for the tech to finish the job.

Using that unleaded solder that requires a lot more heat to melt, you could have burned out some stuff in the switch. Plus you were adding heat when you were soldering the grounds onto the switch case. One way to absorb heat when soldering is to wrap as much of the switch or whatever part with a wet/damp washcloth or other fabric, so that the wet fabric acts as a heat sink to draw off the excess heat by evaporation or conduction or whatever, thereby keeping the component cool and protecting nearby wood, capacitors, etc., cool.