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Post by frets on Nov 3, 2021 19:59:40 GMT -5
Hi Fellers😁 I need some help with a problem I rarely encounter. I’m using the following: The good ol SHOoper. I’ve got excessive buzzing the microphonic sound you get when you touch the plate. I never have this happen. Cold solder? I dunno. It’s one of those deals where you touch the pot and buzzzzz. I’ve got everything grounded appropriately. Help!!  |
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Post by newey on Nov 3, 2021 21:05:01 GMT -5
Touch the pot, or touch the plate? Or both?
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Post by unreg on Nov 4, 2021 11:35:44 GMT -5
Hi frets, unsure if this will help (posting it again bc it applies here too): Hi frets, From guitarnuts2.proboards.com/thread/7579/feedback-advice-sought-project-teardrop?page=2ashcatlt gives more great wisdom: … For you and unreg: Pot backs and that metal plate are shield connections and should not be relied upon for our audio signal. Audio signals are pretty much anything attached to a pot or switch lug, including the "ground" end of the Tone caps and the "ground" lug of the Volume pot. Use wire for those. The pot backs sort of want to get to ground also in order to maybe help with noise, but you don't want to depend on that connection for your life. Pot backs are too tough to solder to, and that connection too often goes wrong. In this case here is even worse because you're literally depending on the nuts holding the pots to the plate. Those things will come loose. It's not a matter of if, but when. By the Law of Murphy, we can expect that to be exactly when you need that connection most. Don't do be that guy. Connect audio signals via component lugs or wires. It looks to me like you, in that diagram, ARE running signal grounds through shield grounds. I actually did solder a wire to a pin of my tone pot’s capacitor, and then wired that over to my volume pot’s ground lug, as ash recommended. ❤️ tldr: Your ground lug of volume pot and ground end of tone cap are soldered to shield connections (pot backs). |
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Post by newey on Nov 4, 2021 11:56:49 GMT -5
tldr: Your ground lug of volume pot and ground end of tone cap are soldered to shield connections (pot backs). No, what frets has done here is fine, that's not what ashcatlt meant. Fret's diagram grounds things to the pot backs, but then runs a wire from there to the grounding point/output jack sleeve. Nothing wrong with that, virtually every guitar manufacturer does it that way, although some of us here prefer to use a star-grounding technique. It is always true that, at some point, all the grounds, shield and signal, have to meet, because . . .well . . . grounds have to be grounded, by definition. Ideally, we want that meeting to occur as close to the jack sleeve connection as possible. I don't mean physically close to it, I mean in an electical sense. What ashcatlt was talking about was a situation where we would be grounding to the back of a pot, and then relying on the contact between the pot shaft and the metal Tele control plate (which would then, in turn, be grounded via cavity shielding to the ground point/output jack sleeve). That we wouldn't want to do, for the reasons ashcatlt mentions. That doesn't mean that a poor solder joint to the back of one of the pots isn't causing the problem here. A poor solder joint is a problem whether it's to the back of a pot or elsewhere, although it may be more likely to happen when soldering to pots. But the grounding in frets diagram is fine; execution of the diagram is a different issue. Frets herself suspects a cold solder joint, and that is possible, but usually a bad connection is going to mean no connection at all, not an intermittent or noisy connection. That's why I asked about whether it was due to pushing on the control plate as opposed to pushing on the knob/shaft of the pot- which would suggest to me that the pot was bad internally. Her original post had it stated both ways. If pressing on the control plate causes it, then it sounds like something is too close to the bottom of the cavity (assuming the control cavity is shielded). |
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Post by frets on Nov 4, 2021 12:51:56 GMT -5
Newey and Unreg,
It’s doing it when you touch both the control plate and the pot. I sents a grounding wire between pots with no resolution. I am going back to check every solder; but, they all look good to me. That’s why I asked, everything looks great. It’s making me pull my hair out.
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Post by newey on Nov 4, 2021 14:10:24 GMT -5
It’s doing it when you touch both the control plate and the pot. And, not pressing forcibly, just a light touch? Odd . . . Just speculating, but you might try grounding the control plate. If it's already grounded, double-check that connection. |
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Post by ashcatlt on Nov 4, 2021 14:50:01 GMT -5
We’re absolutely sure we haven’t accidentally wired the jack backwards?
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Post by unreg on Nov 4, 2021 14:58:34 GMT -5
Thank you newey! 😊 Earlier in this thread: guitarnuts2.proboards.com/thread/9274/hum-caused-treble-unregashcatlt told me: Note: he never said anything about the pots being connected to a shield control plate 🙂 There isn’t even a plate in my guitar; but, he didn’t know that. Though, it does make sense that the shield paint lining the cavity walls of my guitar counts as a plate, in this instance. 👍 |
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Post by frets on Nov 4, 2021 17:04:38 GMT -5
Ash,
That’s a good one. I’ll go back and redo. I was using an old janky jack. Time to break out a new one anyway. There is nothing touching to plate other than the pot nuts. I’ve resoldered all my ground connections. I’ll try the jack and let you know😸.
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Post by frets on Nov 4, 2021 18:06:59 GMT -5
Ash,
it’s fixed. I’m sure that was probably it. Whew!! Thank you thank you😻😻. Problem was I did that harness when I should have called it a day. I guess I’m blessed to only have that happen twice over all the harnesses I’ve built.
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Post by ashcatlt on Nov 4, 2021 21:28:25 GMT -5
Can happen to the best of us. I’m sorry it took so long to get to this simple answer.
When you touch things like that which are supposed to be grounded, any noise in the circuit should actually get quieter. If it wasn’t properly grounded, it might get a little louder, but more often I think it would kind of just not make any difference. If it gets significantly louder, that very often means you’re actually touching the jack tip rather than its sleeve.
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Post by gumbo on Nov 5, 2021 5:03:17 GMT -5
I was beginning to suspect those Bumble Bees that Fret likes....  |
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Post by sumgai on Nov 5, 2021 15:59:27 GMT -5
If it gets significantly louder, that very often means you’re actually touching the jack tip rather than its sleeve. Here to prove that very point is none other than Buckethead: |
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