Advice on tele shielding/ground

I'm trying to trouble shoot a buzz in my Lite Ash tele and need some pointers.

First of all, I shielded the cavities a year ago and believed I had improved the noise from the guitar, but the more I play, I think it's not quite right.

There's a considerable buzz when using the bridge or neck pickup, but almost none when in the middle position. Touching any of the metal will not change the buzz in any way. Changing the angle of the guitar will lower the high end of the buzz, but leave the fundamental tone.

I don't have a continuity tester, but using an ohm meter there's 0 resistance between ground on the cable and the strings, bridge, pups, and control plate.

There's also 0 resistance between the tip and these points, although it will bounce between 5 and 0. Should there be a larger reading between tip and these points? Is something touching the shielding where it shouldn't?

Thanks for any tips! ..and I'll answer any questions you have to help you

It sounds like one of them is reverse wound, which is why you get the silence in the middle position. I have two Strats, both with Alinco II pros and they tend to be a little noisy, even with good shielding. It seems like a little noise seems to be the nature of those particular pickups.

One thing you can try if you haven't is to shield the back of the pickguard. You want to make sure that the shielding in the cavity is making contact with the sheilding on the back of the pickguard. It sounds like you might have lost continuity between compartments if it was working before.

If something was touching it that shouldn't I think it would short out and you would hear nothing at all when you plugged in. Something is not making a connection. It really sounds like a connection between compartments is loose making you use continuity. As much of a pain as it is. It's time to open it up and check. The needle of the ohm meeter should move all the way the across to the right showing a connection. You can check that just by touching the two needles together and they should move all the way to the right. They should do the same when you check continuity on the guitar.

Just curious. What did you use for shielding? In my humble opinion copper tape works best, but there are other methods as well.

I followed the guitarnuts.com "quieting the beast's cousin" using copper tape for the cavities and heavy aluminum on the back of the pickguard. The cavities and pickguard should be connected with wire. I will check that the cavities are all joined.

Could someone explain why there would be continuity between the positive tip of the jack and the control plate, strings, bridge? I was thinking only the pickups would make a connection to positive, and everything else to ground, but maybe I'm misunderstanding...

Before the shielding, I had a lot of buzz using neck or bridge pickup that disappeared when I touched the strings. After the shielding, that didn't happen so I thought I had made some progress. I'm heading out to play tonight so I can rule out environment and amp issues as well.

Thanks for the help

Sounds to me like you have your jack wired up reverse. If you have the positive (the tip) connected to your ground points, you mis-wired your jack. This assumes you don't ALSO have 0 resistance between the collar of the jack and these points...if that is the case, your meter sounds busted.

That's an excellent point LocustPlague. That possibility totally slipped my mind. Reversed jack wires will cause all kinda noise. You'll know it when you check. It will makes a ton of noise reversed and be much quieter wired correct.

OK Good to know. The jack is still wired as it came from the factory, but I've read other threads about them being reversed.

Once the nut and cup are off, there's a clip against the walls that holds the jack in place. Are the two connected or can the jack be removed into the cavity? When I was looking around last night there was some resistance so I didn't force it.

To remove the jack, just remove the nut, the cap should just fall off. Now the jack should be free to fall out of the retainer clip. Depending on the size of the retainer clip's hole, the jack might be a bit tight. Perhaps give it a little wiggle...

The jack appears to be wired correctly, with the shield going to the back of the pot, and white wire going to the middle lug.

Locust - I have 0 resistance between the jack cup (is this the collar?) and all those points..

I'll see what it's like in a different house and amp.

Thanks

The jack cup will be attached to ground (the collar of the jack will wind up being electrically connected to the cup, so long as the jack, nut and cup are all conductive).

From the sounds of your previous statements, something may either be wrong with your meter, or your volume was all the way down or something. The tip of the jack should be connected to the positive side of the electronics while the sleeve/collar/whatever should be connected to ground.

I still suspect you have lost continuity somewhere. Maybe a ground loop somewhere causing a little noise. Let us know what you find.