JM Wiring Woes

[Pantslessdan]

So I more or less completed my semi-hollow jazzmaster build a little while ago, tentatively named the Geesemaster:


Here's a build album in imgur if anyone's interested: https://imgur.com/a/3EvpP

There's a small handful of things I need to sort out like the vibrato sticking a bit, the volume pot is bad I think, and I'm getting a lot more hum and buzz than I think I should be getting.

I've got it wired exactly like the Seymour Duncan diagram here:

Except I've got an extra ground on the rhythm circuit. I'm getting a lot of buzz, but I discovered the other day that if I touch or hold the pickup selector with my fingers the buzz goes almost to zero. If you look at the build album you can see I did a pretty thorough job shielding, and the fact that it's so much noisier than my shielded strat or tele and that if I touch the selector it goes away makes me think that this is something I can fix, not just how the guitar is.

Here's a reference pic of my wiring, save that I've changed the wiring between the pickup selector and volume knob as how it was in the picture only the rhythm circuit worked:

Do I need one more ground running to the tailpiece or elsewhere? The coloured wires coming off the bridge pickup are opposite on the actual pickup vs the diagram, but is how I have them set up correct? I mentioned that I have a bad volume knob since it fades nicely when I turn it down, then when I get near zero it jumps back to full, then to zero when I hit the end. Would that be affecting anything else?

Thanks in advance.

[andy_tchp]

Yes, if you haven't already done so you must ground the strings - either via a wire jammed under the edge of the tailpiece then connected back through to ground in the main wiring cavity, or a thin wire (a plain steel guitar string works well) jammed under the bridge thimble bent up to touch the pickguard shielding. There are pictures of both methods on here somewhere.

[fisonic]

Apart from what Andy said, I cant see a ground connection, where the cap in the rhythm circuit connects at the volume pot. I've noticed this is missing on the SD diagram.
You can see it in the diagram below, represented by the arrow. Just solder a wire from the leg to the pots body(grounded).

[andy_tchp]

^ Well spotted!

[rbrcbr]

Did you ever sort this out? My Saylor semi hollow build is finally painted and arrived the other day. Needing parts still but wondering how to shield the body properly.