squier vintage modified jaguar wiring question

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jaskah
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Re: squier vintage modified jaguar wiring question

Post by jaskah » Thu May 02, 2019 12:29 am

thanks for your reply.

sorry, i didn't follow you: which plate did you mean it was wedged under? and then connected to where?

jason

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Re: squier vintage modified jaguar wiring question

Post by 601210 » Thu May 02, 2019 12:47 am

The usual way to ground plates on a guitar (vibrato plate, upper control plate, lower control plate, etc) is to just sandwich the exposed wire between the plate and the body of the guitar when you screw it on. So if it goes to any of those, it might not have ever been soldered to anything.

Again, what I'd do is connect everything except that wire, and then check with a multimeter that everything that's metal on the surface of your guitar is grounded. Whichever one isn't is where it was probably meant to be.

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Re: squier vintage modified jaguar wiring question

Post by jaskah » Thu May 02, 2019 1:10 am

thanks, i'll give this a try.

jason

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Re: squier vintage modified jaguar wiring question

Post by jaskah » Thu May 02, 2019 3:24 am

Again, what I'd do is connect everything except that wire, and then check with a multimeter that everything that's metal on the surface of your guitar is grounded. Whichever one isn't is where it was probably meant to be.
well, i did this. without this unknown wire third black wire (see photo),

Image

all the plates are grounded. this might have to do with the fact that i insulated all the cavities with copper foil.

but when i clamp the end of this wire between the volume / tone control plate and the guitar, i lose all volume from the pickups.

so, i'm thinking this unknown wire (probably a ground wire) is connected to the lower control panel. i will give this a try and see if there is a difference.

jason

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Re: squier vintage modified jaguar wiring question

Post by jaskah » Thu May 02, 2019 3:58 am

so, i've connected this unknown third (ground wire) to the lower control panel. everything's working now.

the only thing i'm noticing -- and i had this before -- is a slight hum when just one pickup (either in lead or rhythm circuit) is engaged. when both are engaged the hum disappears. i've insulated all the guitar's cavities with copper foil and the pickguard as well. so, i'm not sure if there is much more i can do to prevent this.

or has anyone else found a workaround for this hum with one pickup engaged?

thanks

jason

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Re: squier vintage modified jaguar wiring question

Post by 601210 » Thu May 02, 2019 4:05 am

That's probably just single coils for you. Does most of the hum go away when you touch something metal on the guitar?

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Re: squier vintage modified jaguar wiring question

Post by jaskah » Thu May 02, 2019 6:49 am

no, the hum stays when i touch other metal parts of the guitar -- this problem was solved with insulating all the cavities with copper foil. so, the hum is much better than without the copper foil, but still there.

jason

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Re: squier vintage modified jaguar wiring question

Post by timtam » Thu May 02, 2019 7:50 am

jaskah wrote:
Thu May 02, 2019 3:24 am
but when i clamp the end of this wire between the volume / tone control plate and the guitar, i lose all volume from the pickups.
That's not a good sign. That wire is a ground by virtue of being attached to a pot body which is itself grounded by being attached to a metal plate that is continuous with the output jack shield.

So sandwiching it between plate and body should have had no effect - the plate is already grounded.

The fact that you lost the pickups suggests you somehow shorted the hot(s) to ground.

What wire and which tab is connected on the output jack ?

Are there any points where you cavity shielding may be making contact with a switch or pot or wire ?

And other than the wire in question, is your guitar wired exactly as in the Fender wiring diagram above ?
"I just knew I wanted to make a sound that was the complete opposite of a Les Paul, and that’s pretty much a Jaguar." Rowland S. Howard.

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Re: squier vintage modified jaguar wiring question

Post by alexpigment » Thu May 02, 2019 11:32 am

jaskah wrote:
Thu May 02, 2019 6:49 am
no, the hum stays when i touch other metal parts of the guitar -- this problem was solved with insulating all the cavities with copper foil. so, the hum is much better than without the copper foil, but still there.

jason
Yep, that's single coil hum for you. Copper foil helps, although if you live next to my neighbors with dimmer switches on every single light in their place, no amount of shielding will help :) I ended up just getting two of the same pickups for both bridge and neck, then using the other pickup (which is RWRP) as a dummy coil sitting in the control cavity. Hum is gone and single coil tone is still there.

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Re: squier vintage modified jaguar wiring question

Post by jaskah » Thu May 02, 2019 9:44 pm

thanks for your reply.
That's not a good sign. That wire is a ground by virtue of being attached to a pot body which is itself grounded by being attached to a metal plate that is continuous with the output jack shield.

So sandwiching it between plate and body should have had no effect - the plate is already grounded.

The fact that you lost the pickups suggests you somehow shorted the hot(s) to ground.

What wire and which tab is connected on the output jack ?
this is the wiring diagram i have:
http://jasonkahn.net/images/Squier Vint ... iagram.pdf

so, as in the diagram, i wired from the rhythm switch down to the output pot.
Are there any points where you cavity shielding may be making contact with a switch or pot or wire ?
i don't believe so, but i'll double check this.
And other than the wire in question, is your guitar wired exactly as in the Fender wiring diagram above ?
no, and that was the problem. unlike in the diagram, my guitar has two other ground wires coming from the back of the volume pot, in addition to the wire in question. and these were wired to the right-hand side of the pot (when looking from above with the tabs facing you), not the left-hand side, as in the diagram. fortunately, i could remember where these two other ground wires went (screwed to the body -- one under each pickup). otherwise, the rest of the guitar was wired as in the diagram i've attached above.

i ended up soldering this third unknown-to-me wire from the back of the volume pot to the body of the lower control panel's mounting frame (as a ground connection). and for now the guitar is working fine., other than the customary single-coil hum.

jason

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Re: squier vintage modified jaguar wiring question

Post by bjornsynneby » Fri May 10, 2019 4:49 am

Hello again Jason.

The volume/tone control plate is grounded so the third black cable does not have to ground the plate again. With this cable soldered to the control plate you will create a ground loop which can cause noice.

But the most likelly cause of your noice must be that it seems that your strings are not attached to ground. On some guitars the ground cable just goes above the body and into the thimble hole with the thimble acting as a wedge. This without any channel to the thimble. I drilled a channel to the trem cavity and wedged my ground cable there. Other causes of buzz can be the long cable from the rythm switch to the output jack. But in your case this should be shielded and therefore buzz free. When I shield I usually connect the shield to only one ground point in order to prevent ground loops. But in your wiring diagram it seems that the shield is also distributing the ground to the other control plates.

Since these pu’s are single coil they will be noicy. It’s in their wonderful nature. As long as you will be able to record the sound of your guitar without 20% of your volume being noice you should be fine.

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Re: squier vintage modified jaguar wiring question

Post by bjornsynneby » Fri May 10, 2019 7:57 am

The wiring diagram you are refering to seems to be almost the same as your wiring. The diagram has two ground cables to the pickup cavities. The difference is that the ground cable attached to the neck pickup cavity is soldered to the switch control plate instead of the volume pot. But they should be connected according to the diagram.

The chassie of the volume pot is connected through a jumper to the right side lug if you look at your guitar as in the diagram you attached. Then it really does not matter if the ground cables are soldered to the left or right side of the chassie - it is electronically speaking the same point. And the ground cable from the neck pickup cavity is connected from the switch control plate/ shield wire/ tone pot/ control plate/ volume pot instead.

You can measure if you have continuity between the strings and output ground with a multimeter. If not - there is hum and or buzz to cancel!

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Re: squier vintage modified jaguar wiring question

Post by kimson » Fri May 10, 2019 9:15 pm

jaskah wrote:
Wed May 01, 2019 11:52 pm
hello everyone

first off, thanks very much for all your replies.

regarding these three black wires:

Image

the two black wires with eyelets are ground to the body (under the pickups). and i believe this third wire in the photo without the eyelet is also a ground wire.

i don't have a tunnel to the tremolo, so this third unknown wire can't be going there.

and i can't see how this wire could ground to the thimbles, as there is also no tunnel to a thimble.

this cable isn't long enough to reach the rhythm control panel.

so, the only thing i can think of now is that it goes somewhere to the lower control panel -- the question is where exactly.

jason
I just checked while I had my VM Jag opened up and there indeed is a tunnel from the control cavity to the bridge thimble. I'm sure yours has one too, it's just under the copper foil.

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Re: squier vintage modified jaguar wiring question

Post by JagTango » Sat May 11, 2019 8:08 am

kimson wrote:
Fri May 10, 2019 9:15 pm

I just checked while I had my VM Jag opened up and there indeed is a tunnel from the control cavity to the bridge thimble. I'm sure yours has one too, it's just under the copper foil.
+1

There is a tunnel in my VM Jag as well.

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