Got a buzz

And this time it's not recreational. I just finsihed up wiring my new project and plugged it in to make shure both pickups were working. I got noise when I taped on both pickups so all is cool there, but it's buzzin like a bumble bee on viagra. Before I pull it apart to start chasing ground issues (and I suck at that), do they normally buzz more without strings or am I being paranoid?

Double check that you didn't swap your ground and hot leads at the jack.

If it's a RWRP set, the middle position should be just about silent.

One thing I occasionally forget is that the soldering iron is on the same electrical circuit as my test amp, and when the iron is on it causes one hell of a buzzing.

The more I think about it the more I think I may have switched the wires on the output jack. Also I noticed that the wiring diagram I have has the jack grounded on the tone pot, but my MIM has it grounded on the volume pot. Will that make any difference?

No, that won't make any difference.

Is there any trick for making sure you have good connection to the back of the pots? I'm always concerned that I'll end up with a cold solder joint.

I just use some sandpaper to roughen up the surface on the pot.

What weazel said. Tinning the pot makes it far, far easier to solder to it.

Abrade the surface, apply a tiny dab of flux & melt it, then apply heat to the pot and get a little bit of solder melted on there. After that, soldering a wire to the pot requires far less heat and you can work more quickly.