Members Link47 Posted March 30, 2008 Members Share Posted March 30, 2008 I'm hoping someone here can shed some light on what the deal is with the wiring in my strat. It's a 2000 Mexican Fender Strat that I had Fender Vintage Noiseless pickups put in back in late 05 or early 06. Recently, I've been getting a lot of hum out of it, so I opened it to find out if one of the wires was loose. I tried resoldering the wires on the jack, but that didn't help (and it may be my imagination, but it seems to be humming louder, maybe I did a bad job soldering it since I'm terrible at it). But now onto the point... So I downloaded schematics for the pickups and took off my pickguard. Here's the problem: the schematics don't match the wiring on the pickguard, and some of the parts are different. Here is the link to the pups in question: http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/Fender-Vintage-Noiseless-Strat-Pickup-Set?sku=301632 And here is the diagram that musicians friend lists for them: http://img3.musiciansfriend.com/dbase/pdf/spec/301632.pdf So, I suppose that it is possible that fender changed what came in their kits, or there are shenanigans going on with my local music store. The pot's that are on mine are a 500k on one of the tones and I can't tell what the other two are because of solder on the top. According to that schematic above, I should have 3 1000k pots. Furthermore, a few of the wires seem to be out of place. Heres a couple of pictures of my pickguard: Anyone know if Fender has changed their kits or what is going on? I'm going to e-mail Fender and see if they have a schematic and know if the kit has changed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Link47 Posted March 30, 2008 Author Members Share Posted March 30, 2008 anyone? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Doctor Morbius Posted March 30, 2008 Members Share Posted March 30, 2008 Strats can be wired several different ways to it's not absolutely necessary to stick to the schematic. So did the hum start in late '05 or early '06 when you had the pickups put in? Or did the hum start more recently? The reason Fender provides 1meg pots is because the Vintage Noiseless pickups are actually humbuckers. 1meg pots are provided to keep the pups from sounding darker. 500k may be alright, but it looks to me like the shop that did the work did some fudging on their service. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Link47 Posted March 30, 2008 Author Members Share Posted March 30, 2008 The humming started recently, like in the past few months. I had first noticed when playing on my old Marshall MG and it would really hum when I turned the volume all the way up on the volume pot. And since then the humming has gotten worse gradually. The humming is still there when I play it on my tube amp so I am pretty sure it isn't the amp or cable. Do you think the shop put in different pots or did the kit come with those? If the kit hasn't changed between 05/06 and now and they swapped out parts on me then I'm pissed. I'm pissed about the wiring too, because a lot of the grounds are in very different places, as is one of the electronic components, the little red block thing (who's proper name I can't remember atm). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Link47 Posted March 31, 2008 Author Members Share Posted March 31, 2008 So still no e-mail back from Fender. They better hurry up and reply, because I'm starting to get pissed about this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Doctor Morbius Posted March 31, 2008 Members Share Posted March 31, 2008 The humming started recently, like in the past few months. I had first noticed when playing on my old Marshall MG and it would really hum when I turned the volume all the way up on the volume pot. And since then the humming has gotten worse gradually. The humming is still there when I play it on my tube amp so I am pretty sure it isn't the amp or cable.cables can go bad too. Perhaps the shielding solder connection has broken? Have you tried different cables? Do you think the shop put in different pots or did the kit come with those? If the kit hasn't changed between 05/06 and now and they swapped out parts on me then I'm pissed. I'm pissed about the wiring too, because a lot of the grounds are in very different places, as is one of the electronic components, the little red block thing (who's proper name I can't remember atm).One of the two had to happen. Either the kit has changed from 500k to 1meg pots, or the store pulled a fast one. I'm not familiar with the older stuff so I couldn't tell you. The little red block is the tone capacitor. They can be several values. The really old vintage ones are way up there. 0.47uF is popular as is 0.22uF. Seems that recently Strats and Teles have started using 0.22uF. As stated before, Strats can be wired in a variety of ways so I wouldn't be too upset if the ground wires aren't exactly as described on your schematic. Honestly, I think it's time to go to Radio Shack and buy a soldering iron, some wire and take matters into your own hands. That way you don't have to wonder if the next shop tech is going to screw anything up or if they're going to swap parts out for whatever reason. It may take a few tries and it'll be frustrating but the skills gained will be worth it if you ever plan on modding guitars in the future. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members srspud Posted April 3, 2008 Members Share Posted April 3, 2008 Could it be possible that the lugs on the tone pots are touching each other? It looks like it in the picture. Maybe they shouldn't touch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Link47 Posted April 6, 2008 Author Members Share Posted April 6, 2008 It just looks like they're touching, the only two that are actually touching are the ones that are soldered together. I rewired it according to Fender's schematic and resoldered all the connections and it still does the humming when the strings aren't being touched and then goes away when I do touch it. I guess it must be a shielding problem, so if thats the case then screw it, I'll deal with the hum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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