Buzzing sound after i wired my new pickup

[Keenan Borgerson]

So i got a Seymour Duncan JB humbucker for my strat and i wanted to wire it up without the tone pots because im completely new to witing and i also want to have a more “full” tone coming from my guitar. But when i wired it up the way the diagram said, i would only put one string on each time and plug the guitar into my amp but when i did that there wasnt any pickup from the strings but there was a loud buzzing sound (kinda like feedback). Can anyone help me with this? Also i can only get a faint sound from the string when i disconnwct tge ground wire fromthe bridge connection on the back of the guitar. Any help?

 

[Ed Seith]

It sounds like a grounding issue, TBH. Soldering guitar connections is a pain in the ass and they have to be PERFECT for maximum fidelity. It took me forever to get passably decent at it.

 

[Matt Wildman]

The ground wire is just there to keep you from getting accidentally shocked. Don’t take it out,make sure it’s connected there, but to me it sounds like it’s a bad connection with one of the hot wires. (Assuming there is a black and red wire there). Just make sure you have good connections with the wired and everything. Idk about the feedback noise though. Can you tell us more about that?

 

[Jake Young]

Honestly man, it’s really hard to tell without seeing it or hearing for that matter…it’s a ground issue if the buzzing stops when you touch the metal on the guitar. Could be a bad solder joint? It’s just really hard to diagnose from your description. My best advise would be to get a solder sucker or some desoldering wire and try again..then if it’s still not right post a video and we can attempt to help from there..Also taking the tone pot out of the circuit completely isn’t necessarily going to give you a “fuller” sound..from my experience it’s more harsh and trebbly. Which isn’t really a bad thing, some like it some don’t. I know some time ago Syn’s tech Kevin disconnected the tone pot from Syn’s guitars..but it works for his sound. But a thought is to Google a “no load tone pot” if you’ve never heard of it. Basically when the knob is on ten it’s out of the circuit and anything below brings it back in so the tone knob is still an option when different styles call for a more rolled off tone knob. Let us know if you get things figured out!! WHOOO!!

 

[Keenan Borgerson]

Ok I’ll try reconnecting some of the wires and if it doesn’t work then I will post a video.

 

[Keenan Borgerson]

So I tried rewriting and it turned out that I had the hot wire going from the pickup soldered to the wrong part of the switch. And I also had the output jack wires reversed so I fixed both of those problems. But when I plugged my guitar into the amp, even though the buzzing got quieter instead of louder when I touched the metal, the signal that the pickup gives is very weak when I play an open string but when I play a fretted note it’s isnt. So I read online that I could bypass all he pots and the switch by connecting the pickup directly to the output jack, so I did that. And there is still a weak signal when I play an open note and there is also a sound that is very low and it’s sounds like there are two octaves being played at once. It’s kinda hard to explain but basically I suck at wiring

 

[Keenan Borgerson]

Also how to I post a video because I do t know how and want to post one of the guitar so that you could help me with this.

 

[Keenan Borgerson]

And if I have a clean tone, the open note sounds fine but a distorted or somewhat distorted tone has the weird low sound. Also the humbucker is angled if that’s that problem.

 

[Jen Hapke]

You have to make a video and upload it on youtube or vimeo. If you don’t want all the world to see it you can set the video private. Then you go on your profile symbol and there on “create a riff”. There you put the link of your video and submit. Now you can just copy your riff site link here and post it here.

 

[Jake Young]

I’m glad you got the first issue figured out!…but umm this issue is even more confusing haha open strings are quiet and fretted notes are normal?

 

[Matt Wildman]

A video would be very helpful. Were there any instructions or diagrams that came with the pickup that you could use to help you?