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Why No Sound from my Tele neck pickup?

Discussion in 'Just Pickups' started by theprofessor, Nov 17, 2019.

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  1. Nov 17, 2019 #1
    theprofessor

    theprofessor Poster Extraordinaire

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    Hi all,

    I have a set of Cavalier pickups for a friend's Tele: a Lion King neck and a Nashville Lion bridge. I wired them up according to this diagram drawn up by @moosie , which has worked well in all my other Teles, but I get no sound at all from the neck or middle positions on a 3-way switch. The bridge position works well and sounds great.

    Tele 3-way CRL moosie.png

    All the parts are new: 3-way CRL switch, CTS pots, etc. Here are some photos of how it's wired. Any ideas? I've never run into this particular issue before, and when I de-solder the leads of the neck pickup and measure the DCR, it measures 8.3k, as it should. The yellow and green wires with plastic insulation that go to the back of the volume pot are cover grounds from the neck pickup, shielding grounds from the control and bridge cavities, and a ground from the bridge plate. The two black cloth pushback ones are the ground leads from each of the pickups.

    IMG_1741.JPG IMG_1742.JPG IMG_1743.JPG IMG_1745.JPG
     
  2. Nov 17, 2019 #2
    braveheart

    braveheart Tele-Afflicted

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    you produced a shorty...that's easy to detect with your multimeter....
     
  3. Nov 17, 2019 #3
    theprofessor

    theprofessor Poster Extraordinaire

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    Tell me more.
     
  4. Nov 17, 2019 #4
    braveheart

    braveheart Tele-Afflicted

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    switch to the neck position, turn the multimeter to ohm and then 1 cable to ground and 1 to hot (neck pickup) at the switch
     
  5. Nov 17, 2019 #5
    theprofessor

    theprofessor Poster Extraordinaire

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    OK. Yeah, no reading when doing that. Something like 0.3R. So that's not ideal... How do I tell where the short is? Continuity tests? From where to where?
     
  6. Nov 17, 2019 #6
    braveheart

    braveheart Tele-Afflicted

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    ...yes,Continuity tests...when it beeps, you have a shorty..
    when you can "read" something like 0.0 or 0.3 there is a connection between ground and hot...= shorty

    As I said you start at the switch...and check the whole signal path (ground)
     
    Last edited: Nov 17, 2019
  7. Nov 17, 2019 #7
    dan1952

    dan1952 Friend of Leo's

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    I saw the photo and thought it was a joke. That is the most complicated thing I've ever seen...
     
  8. Nov 17, 2019 #8
    theprofessor

    theprofessor Poster Extraordinaire

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    Got it. The leads of the neck pickup were grounding out against the copper shielding in the neck pickup cavity. It was a tight fit. So I went back and took out all the shielding, and now everything works fine. Thanks!

    Hahaha. Just typical Tele 3-way wiring, with a whole lot of grounds going to one place...
     
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  9. Nov 17, 2019 #9
    braveheart

    braveheart Tele-Afflicted

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  10. Nov 18, 2019 #10
    moosie

    moosie Doctor of Teleocity Silver Supporter

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    Glad you got it working!

    So, that diagram... Are you choosing a resistor that allows the tone pot setting (whatever it's at) to work in all positions? Or are you just trying to chop the icepick...

    Since you've done this to multiple guitars, do you find the same value resistor works more or less OK? Or does each guitar need it's own finely tuned value?


    I only have a similar arrangement on one guitar (I think), and I'm pretty sure I'd have to tweak the value for each guitar...
     
  11. Nov 18, 2019 #11
    theprofessor

    theprofessor Poster Extraordinaire

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    I use the same value resistor for each guitar (I think it's 200k) with the intent of taking the edge off the high end of the bridge pickup. I've not experimented with different resistor values, and some of my Teles are a bit brighter than others. And they all have different pickups.
     
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  12. Nov 18, 2019 #12
    Derek Kiernan

    Derek Kiernan Friend of Leo's

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    A resistor in parallel really helps the bridge position. How far you go with any particular guitar is going to depend on the instrument, pickup and cable, but 220k-ish is a really great starting place. I like how it balances the positions and gives me more useful range on the tone pot.
     
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  13. Nov 18, 2019 #13
    dan1952

    dan1952 Friend of Leo's

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    Oh, I know that! It was just fun to write!
     
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  14. Nov 18, 2019 #14
    39martind18

    39martind18 Friend of Leo's

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    plug it in? turn amp on? turn up volume knobs? There, I've given you all my technical expertise!:rolleyes:
     
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