Pickup issue

[matt1987]

Hey guys,

Quick question. I took one of my pickups i had laying around and decided to do the peter green mod by switching the magnet around. Anyways, got it apart and put together alright with no issues. wired it up in the neck position and loud buzzing so I figured ground issue. unsoldered cleaned up the pot well and soldered again and still loud buzzing like a ground that goes away when touching anything metal on the guitar. Now my question is, is it possible that i damaged the pickup somehow? Would a damaged pickup/pot cause a grounding issue??? If not, I know my buzzing is ground related and isolated to the jack or wiring and I will need to investigate the wiring more. Hope I have given enough info.

By the way, i soldered/resoldered the pickup a couple times also investigated the jack and everything looked good

 

[patrickBOOTH]

Maybe you damaged the pot by using too much heat?

 

[SKATTERBRANE]

Could it be the hum of a single coil?

 

[DPaulCustom]

you know somebody will ask, so get your camera out.
Check your lead wires & the ground off the baseplate

 

[matt1987]

Honestly I could have damaged the pot with too much heat but I did leave time for the pot to cool off in between soldering. I will have to take out the pickup and checkout the base plate ground tonight. I will post pics but can't right now. To be honest it was an epiphone pickup and I only did the mod to it because I didn't want to messup a good one if i did the mod wrong. (like a trial run) Would too much heat on the pickup base cause an issue??? the epiphone pickup was ridiculously waxed and was a bear to heat up the solder to get the cover off. Maybe something inside the pickup got messed up.

 

[DPaulCustom]

Honestly I could have damaged the pot with too much heat but I did leave time for the pot to cool off in between soldering. I will have to take out the pickup and checkout the base plate ground tonight. I will post pics but can't right now. To be honest it was an epiphone pickup and I only did the mod to it because I didn't want to messup a good one if i did the mod wrong. (like a trial run) Would too much heat on the pickup base cause an issue??? the epiphone pickup was ridiculously waxed and was a bear to heat up the solder to get the cover off. Maybe something inside the pickup got messed up.

When you go to remove the covers, it's easier to"CAREFULLY CUT THE SOLDER"
I use a 29 cent razor scraper, & just rock it back & forth across the solder.
The blade doesn't stick out of the scraper far enough to reach the coils, so there's a lot less risk of damaging the the coil wire.
I don't think the heat would hurt too much, unless the molten solder ran down in & made contact with the coil wire somehow.

 

[matt1987]

When you go to remove the covers, it's easier to"CAREFULLY CUT THE SOLDER"
I use a 29 cent razor scraper, & just rock it back & forth across the solder.
The blade doesn't stick out of the scraper far enough to reach the coils, so there's a lot less risk of damaging the the coil wire.
I don't think the heat would hurt too much, unless the molten solder ran down in & made contact with the coil wire somehow.

I tried that out with my stanley knife and I guess my blade wasn't sharp enough. I definately like the razor idea better than the desoldering with the iron. I have to examine the pickup a little bit closer becuase maybe the solder getting into the pickup could be the cause. Thanks for the tip though

 

[matt1987]

I looked everything over last night and cleaned up the solder joints and still have the loud grounding buzz. Finally breaking down and taking her into my guy that usually does pickup/wiring work for me. I've been looking at the thing for about a week and haven't been able to figure it out. I'll post and update as soon as I find out what the problem was.

 

[DPaulCustom]

You'll probably kick yourself when you find out what it was

 

[matt1987]

You'll probably kick yourself when you find out what it was

Oh, I'm sure I will

 

[matt1987]

Alright, got my guitar back from my guy today and it ended up the volume pot was shot, I must have used too much heat on it. But I'm loving the peter green mod though. Even with the cheap epiphone pickups, still an interesting and cool sound. Going to upgrade the pickups soon though and will definately be doing the pg mod to the new neck pickup too. Haven't heard a guitar sound like this one before.