Strat ground issue-Surprise! SOLVED-Thanks to Forum!

Stratman68

Stratman68

Axe-Master
so, I put my new Fralin Blues Special pickguard in my new (for me) Fender USA 2016 Anniv-red Strat channel bound neck.. I did have this pickguard in another strat for a week or so a while back and this issue did not exist. The claw ground I ran to the 2nd (bottom pot casing) and the screw in body ground to the first pot.
The 1st (middle) tone pot is crazy hum and it definitely controls the amount of hum no mater which of the 5 positions I have the selector switch in.
So BEFORE I restring it do I need to ground the middle pot also? Th pickup\pots\etc were all wired by Fralin himself and like I said never had this issue.
IAH, I do not remember where the claw ground wire was-before - I mean to which pot). Hope this makes sense because I am pretty bummed-great guitar but this......................
I don't want to just experiment-so any ideas about middle tone pot issue?
Thanks
 
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EDIT: Took pickguard back off. The pickguard wiring (pickups and pots is impeccable) I guess I will try to ground the middle tone pot since no one knows. Or no one on tonight knows.
 
OK Guys Appreciate the responses. But thing is I did NOT wire the pickups\pots, etc and they were fine in another Strat weeks ago. Now I may have messed up connecting the input jack and the 2 grounds already there. Perhaps the claw has a "COLD" solder and wasn't noticeable due to the YJM Fury noiseless pups that were originally in there. REMEMBER, I only switched loaded pickguards.
I will take some picts this afternoon and post them.
Thanks
 
After looking at everything again, it is both tone pots of course, depending on selector switch position. I looked at a bunch of Strat wiring diagrams and they "all" have the spring claw ground wire going to the volume pot. I have it going to the bottom tone pot? Maybe that's it?
 
Andy Eagle said:
Pics!
Click to expand...
Please note-It has been a very long time, I just don't do guitar electronics anymore-old eyesight for one.
Anyway here is a pict of the Fralin, imho, flawless soldering\wire job from fralin himself. Note 2 ground and 1 lead all soldered to the volume pot.
Now in the body pict you see the spring claw connection (black) which was flawless with the YJM Fury PG (although they ARE noiseless pups)
Also not the screwed in connection on body (another ground)
This is where my confusion started. But like I said Fralin wiring diagrams and Fender diagrams all have the spring claw ground going to the volume pot.
I explain like this due to MY OWN shortcomings in this area. NOTE: the ugly solder on the LOWER tone pot was me, not Fralin. Fralin had nothing connected there. I will remove the glob.
 

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That all looks good.
Quite a lot of custom shop and vintage Strats have the string ground going directly to the jack ground for ease of assembly ( it works well too).
A solder connection between the pot backs is also common
 
Stratman68 said:
Please note-It has been a very long time, I just don't do guitar electronics anymore-old eyesight for one.
Anyway here is a pict of the Fralin, imho, flawless soldering\wire job from fralin himself. Note 2 ground and 1 lead all soldered to the volume pot.
Now in the body pict you see the spring claw connection (black) which was flawless with the YJM Fury PG (although they ARE noiseless pups)
Also not the screwed in connection on body (another ground)
This is where my confusion started. But like I said Fralin wiring diagrams and Fender diagrams all have the spring claw ground going to the volume pot.
I explain like this due to MY OWN shortcomings in this area. NOTE: the ugly solder on the LOWER tone pot was me, not Fralin. Fralin had nothing connected there. I will remove the glob.
Click to expand...
Looks like Lindy expected all grounds to go to the volume pot case. It appears the tone cap may connect the first tone pot's case to the volume pot's, but it disappears under all those black wires, so no way to verify.

In any case, you can add a ground wire to ensure all the pot cases are grounded, and then they can all be used as grounding points. Otherwise, grounds to the other pots depend on the foil shield, which is prone to poor contact issues from turning the pots over time loosening the pots' physical connection to the pickguard....
 
Success! Grounded all to volume pot and grounded bottom Tone pot casing to vol pot casing. NO NOISE. Well, your normal Strat SC noise I have been hearing for 40 years. :)
Thanks to all of you folks bearing with this old git player. I do believe this was my LAST soldering job. Have 2 American Strats and 2 American Teles plus 6 other guitars. I'm done! Time to just play!
 
There is a coating on the housings of potentiometers that make it very difficult to solder to them. You think you have soldered to them, but if you take a tool you can pry the solder right off. It it is properly soldered you cannot pry it off. I use a file to scrape the coating away from an area that I solder to.

The idea for minimum noise is what is called the "star" style of connecting grounds. In other words, all of the grounds go to one common spot (the center of the "star") that then connects to the output jack ground. Most guitars aren't done this way, so I don't think it is completely critical, but it can't hurt either.
 
Randall d said:
There is a coating on the housings of potentiometers that make it very difficult to solder to them. You think you have soldered to them, but if you take a tool you can pry the solder right off. It it is properly soldered you cannot pry it off. I use a file to scrape the coating away from an area that I solder to.

The idea for minimum noise is what is called the "star" style of connecting grounds. In other words, all of the grounds go to one common spot (the center of the "star") that then connects to the output jack ground. Most guitars aren't done this way, so I don't think it is completely critical, but it can't hurt either.
Click to expand...
Thanks-That is the way the grounds go-to one place.
 
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