Rewiring guitar and no sound

linthat22

linthat22

Dear Sausage Bacon Legs
Guys, what's the easiest way to trace back where the issue is?

What I installed was two 4-wire humbuckers, two new volume pots, one new push/pull volume pot, new 3 way toggle, new output jack, and a killswitch.

Once I had everything wired up, I got no sound. So I figured I would disconnect the hot lead from the neck pickup and put it on the output part of the jack and see if I got anything and all I got was horrendous buzz. Maybe that wasn't correct? I also broke out the ole voltmeter and tested the pots to make sure I didn't fry them and got a signal once I rolled the volume all the way up.

The pickups are APC pickups and the way they explain to wire them seems like Seymour Duncans (red = hot, green & white = put together and tape off, two black wires = ground). Such at a loss. I spent over 4 hours and then shoved all the crap in the cavity and closed her up.
 
sounds like you connected the hot lead to the wrong part of the jack when you tested it. I've done that a few times and it is a nasty sound.

If I was troubleshooting it, I would wire each pickup straight to the jack to make sure I have the red, green, white and black how they are supposed to be. Once that is straightened out, wire in the switch with both pickups to the jack and make sure that is working, then add the pots.
 
check the jack first: Make sure your hot and ground leads aren't reversed (ground is sleeve, tip is hot).

Then take your kill switch out of the equation. You might have this wired wrong (or wrong for the type of switch depending on if it's normally open or normally closed).

Typically when you have no signal, usually you have something that is supposed to be hot touching (or wired) to ground. Buzzing typically means a lack of ground.
 
Okay, so today I revisited my guitar and I bypassed the tone pot and kept it simple with two volumes and the 3-way toggle.

I got sound and the bridge sounds like how I remember, but the neck pickup sounds shrill as all get out. Almost like the humbucker is split. It's wired up just like the bridge, so I know there's no splitting.

Other than tapping on the pickup, is there a definitive way to determine if there might be an issue outside of how I wired it?
 
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