Wiring humbuckers into a JM - issues.

johnnyseven · Post by **johnnyseven** » Thu Apr 07, 2011 2:59 pm

I wired my new humbuggies in last night however I have a problem, the neck HB isn't working. I wired both exactly how my old HB's were wired. bridge to the 3 way switch with the metal outer of the pickup wires soldered to an extra lug on the switch (the old HB was soldered this way - this pup works) and neck to the on/off switch for the rhythm circuit and the metal outer wire to a little metal thing that some other wires were attached to. Can anyone point out what i've done wrong? I assume the outer part of the pickup wire needs to be soldered to something to ground them, is this absolutely neccesary?

Fran · Post by **Fran** » Thu Apr 07, 2011 4:31 pm

Yeah, you need to ground everything. Did you test the pickup before with a multimeter? The only other thing i can think of is if you've caught something putting it back together or the metal outer sleeve is touching a point it should'nt be and cutting the signal out.
A common complaint with small control cavities is something grounding out by touching the RF shielding paint.

johnnyseven · Post by **johnnyseven** » Thu Apr 07, 2011 5:35 pm

I figured that may be the problem. I'll open it up and check my wiring to make sure nothing is touching anything it shouldn't.

johnnyseven · Post by **johnnyseven** » Sun Apr 10, 2011 3:37 pm

Took it apart and resoldered the neck pickup (and turned it around as I realised i'd fitted it the wrong way round) and everything is working. I guess i'm not as electronically inept as I thought. Thanks for the help Fran.