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alright , the guitar was hooked up the pickups don't pickup unless i touch the 2 knobs and the insert for the whammy bar (the whammy bar if it's hooked in).The back where the springs are , are already grounded.The 6 green/bare wires are grounded to the back of the vol.pot.I know something must be wrong current wise ,but anyone have a list of things i could check for or unlesss if they know the core of the problem...the guitar is shielded as well as the back of the pickguard so shielding shouldn't be an issue.I'm not really sure what's up any ideas guys?

What I often do with a guitar that is giving me trouble is to first check the grounding. I will usually ground the output jack to the pot chassis closest to the jack and then run all grounds from there. If the control cavity is sheilded with foil,copper tape or sheilding tape it may not be nessessary to connect all the component chassis together with wire but its not a bad idea to do so anyways.

To check your grounding you'll need an ohm meter. Attach one lead to the output jack sleeve and then check your spring claw, bridge and all the component chassis for continuity. If everything is reading zero ohms your grounding is good.

Often a bad pot or switch is the problem though faulty wiring is also often an issue. What I often do with a troublesome guitar is to connect the pickup directly to the output jack. If I get a good signal out of the guitar then I know the problem is somewhere in the wiring or components. Next I'll connect the pickup to the volume pot without the switch or the tone pot. If that works I'll add the tone pot and see what happens. If that is good I connect the pickup to the switch. Sooner or later you'll find out which component or connection is giving you the problem and you can correct it.

As Robert says, you have to try and eliminate each component one at a time. It can be time consuming, but if it sorts your problem....

Is your guitar a Strat? I once shielded my Strat with my shielding material touching the five position switch and thus grounded all the inputs. If you had checked all your connections and still could not find the problem, you may want to cover up the five position switch and the knobs with some electrical tap and see if that will help.

let me update the guitar is a strat now i resoldered and cleaned it up and if i put my finger on either the vol.or tone knob amp; the saddles of the bridge i hear faint sound -if i don't put my finger on either 2 of the 3 things i hear static.now the whole back side of the pickguard is foiled along with drapped ,over the topend, copper tape for the cavities.i hope this update helps the situation.it doesnt really matter if the ground for the pickups are on a central point or pot so i'm not very positive on this whole situation still

any other ideas would be a wonderful help

hi, I have to believe that your grounding is correct. Also the fact that you are getting hum not only from the bridge but the pot chassis makes me conclude that you have a bad pot in that guitar.

I have worked on quite a few guitars over the years and troubleshooting your particular problem is something I have gotten rather good at. With Strats the problem is usually one of two things. The first is that the pickguard is not sheilded and that usually causes the mounting screws on the switch and pickups to make a popping sound when you touch them and can also lead to a static type of noise when touching the pickguard. Since you have foiled the guard and cavity this is not your problem.

The other is a faulty pot. The problem with a faulty/noisey pot is that it isn't something that you can check with an ohm meter. The only way to determine if a pot is causing the ground-noise is to eliminate all the components except the pickup and the output jack from the circuit. You should find the problem disappears as soon as you do this.

Connect the bridge pickups hot to the tip terminal of the output jack. Connect the cavity, bridge and pickup grounds to the sleeve terminal of the output jack and see what happens. If the problem disappears it is a component issue and you need to add one component at a time back into the circuit until you find the culprit.

Trust me, a bad pot can funtion normally and read dead on 250k or 500k and still be causing the problem you are having. I make good money fixing this problem and it's the only way to do it.

Good luck,

Robert

everything ,pots,5w,pickups,jack seem fine...I just in case put in the older pots from my strat and it seems to hold the same ordeal.I know something is wrong and it's very frusterating. i took the exact dupe via this page from : localhost//website...l_1tone_5w.htm . .022 cap , vol pot green/bare grounding center , tone grounding , bridge grounding. yet i still have to touch the top of the chassis and the tremelo unit. i only get sound when the actual knob is off the pot top. For instance i hit low e not touching anypart of the guitar and i hear static...ect.When i connect the vol and tremelo unit (with my fingers) i hear sound but the moment i let off it's void.

Hmmmm... Do you have the back of the pot chassis´ all hooked up to a common ground as well?

yes sir there's a wire connecting both pot grounds

Have you checked to see if any of the tabs from you pots are close to the pickguard foil. If they are too close, they may touch the foil and get shorted out when you assemble them together. Also, make sure all hot wires are protected from your shielding material if they are close to it. They do move when you push the pickguard onto the cavity.