I just made a non-working Tele. Can I get an assit?

My first post here is a cry for help - just like I always imagined!

I picked up a Squier CVC Tele a few days ago as a deal finally came up locally on Craigslist. It is a sweet guitar, much nicer than it "should" be for the price!

I was not looking to mod the guitar, but I noticed the flipped control plate that Lindy Fralin used and I had noticed some issues with using the controls myself, so I thought that would be an easy alteration.

In short, it was. It worked great, although the screw holes did not allow the bridge plate to be installed backwards (another story), so I reverted the change. It still worked great. However, I noticed a little bit more hum than usual in the single coil positions, so I went back in to dig around for a cold solder joint. Somehow while looking at things, I lost all sound to the guitar.

I'm an engineer and I've worked on pedals/guitars for years, but it's midnight and I know better than to pick up the soldering iron again tonight.

If I've lost ALL signal from the guitar in all three positions, have I melted a pot/switch? I have good connections all around no bridged connections w/ solder. I placed a section of wire between different points to see if I could get any noise at all with no success.

Thanks in advance!

While moving the control plate around you may have pulled a wire off the jack connection, at the jack. Very easy to do, very delicate solder joint....that'd be my guess...good luck.

Thanks, but it looks like the jack is good. I do notice that when the volume pot is at 100%, I don't get any electrical feedback from the amp, but when I turn it down to about 80% I do get some hum - still no noise from the strings/pickups though.

This is the only thing that makes me think maybe the pot is fried. I'm betting it's still something simple however.

Edit: that seems to be a transient problem, as it's no longer occurring. I have no loose wires and I know that the wires are connected to the right spots via schematic/pictures/memory. Dead wire? Bad solder joint? Dead pot/switch?

The only wires I removed/move were the two blue wires that connect each pot to the switch, and one black wire from the volume pot to the side of the switch. And again, in this configuration it was working fine at one point with no changes. It makes me wonder if a pot took a few more minutes to fully melt/fry/die :(.

Before you replace the pot, heat up the solder at the bridge ground wire connection on the pot, I had this recently and thats where the cold solder joint ended up being.... and I agree with you that its something simple .

You can rest assured that there will be guys on here tommorrow, during decent hours, much wiser than me that will solve this for you if you don't find it first...Meantime good luck again.

try a blue PU wire direct to the centre V lug, the output to jack..bypassing the pot.... and see if a direct connection gets sound.... it'll be full V....

I tried to bridge the input jack to one of the live pickup wires (yellow, white), to no avail. Any other thoughts?

Check the switch wiring for any wires touching or anything shorting it out( random loose ball of solder etc..). Might be time for some pictures.

Check the switch wiring for any wires touching or anything shorting it out( random loose ball of solder etc..). Might be time for some pictures.

Alright - I took some hi-res pics and zipped 'em up for you guys.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3164789/squier%20tele%20pics.zip

Thanks for the help. My local guy is great, but I'd hate to pay a $50 bench fee for something simple like this, on a $250 guitar!

Is there a standard set of pots/switch I should upgrade to? I figure I can get all three for under $20, so I may as well do it if I'm going to have to rewire.

Not to point out the obvious but have you checked your lead/amp?

Not to point out the obvious but have you checked your lead/amp?

Yep, works to the touch, and with other guitars.

Don't know, it all looks ok to me. If it were me I'd re melt every solder joint in case of dry solder, then disconect a pickup and hook it up to the input to see if that works. Just a process of elimination.
Was it tight when you tried to flip the control plate? If so is it possible you broke a wire?
Sorry for not being more help.

Don't know, it all looks ok to me. If it were me I'd re melt every solder joint in case of dry solder, then disconect a pickup and hook it up to the input to see if that works. Just a process of elimination.
Was it tight when you tried to flip the control plate? If so is it possible you broke a wire?
Sorry for not being more help.

No worries mate, you're asking good questions (and I hope I would not have posted an easy problem!).

Desoldering the whole mess will be next - just hoping for some directed answers between now and then. It was tight when I flipped the plate which is why I replaced the two blue leads (green in the pictures) with longer strands, and the single ground wire with a longer lead.

At the time it stopped working, all were still affixed to the control plate, so I don't think a broken wire is part of it. I wish I had a multimeter/signal detector to trace the problem.

PS - I just disassembled the whole thing so that I can test components. It's all over now :)

UPDATE: Both pickups work fine when paired with the jack.

What do you guys think of this kit? Putting together the same parts @ stew-mac puts me over this price already (the stewmac kit uses alpha pots instead of CTS, too).

http://www.allparts.com/Wiring-Kit-for-Telecaster-p/EP-4130-000.htm

What do you guys think of this kit? Putting together the same parts @ stew-mac puts me over this price already (the stewmac kit uses alpha pots instead of CTS, too).

http://www.allparts.com/Wiring-Kit-for-Telecaster-p/EP-4130-000.htm

Looks good value (although not up to speed on how much these things are in the US.)

What do you guys think of this kit? Putting together the same parts @ stew-mac puts me over this price already (the stewmac kit uses alpha pots instead of CTS, too).

http://www.allparts.com/Wiring-Kit-for-Telecaster-p/EP-4130-000.htm

You can't go wrong with this...

http://www.mojotone.com/guitar-parts/guitar-wiring-kits-fender-style/Tele-3-Way-Standard-Guitar-Wiring-Kit

Thanks yellowbeard - my go-to gear guy pointed out the same one and I placed the order a few minutes ago. Knowing that the electronics were definitely a place they skimped, I'm excited! Hopefully it'll get here in time to gig with it next weekend!

Good luck! I hate electronic gremlins.