Scott0 Posted January 28, 2014 Share Posted January 28, 2014 Attempting to reinstall the original wiring harness in my es-355. I've put the pickups back in but left the pots, jack and toggle out so I can test. The ground is connected to the bridge post but when I plug into my amp I only get a strong buzzing and no sound from strumming the strings. Any suggestions on how to sort this out? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kjeokiedog Posted January 28, 2014 Share Posted January 28, 2014 Very first place I would start is to make sure all the wire connections are solid. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bender 4 Life Posted January 28, 2014 Share Posted January 28, 2014 are you grounded ONLY to the bridge-post, or to the backs of the pots as well? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott0 Posted January 29, 2014 Author Share Posted January 29, 2014 Very first place I would start is to make sure all the wire connections are solid. Appreciated. I've checked all solder joints and they feel and look solid except: 1. the ground joint on the input jack, it looks like I only caught 4 strands out of the 7, 3 of the strands did not get soldered. 2. I used stranded wire for the ground wire going to the bridge post instead of a solid wire. Could either of these be the culprit? are you grounded ONLY to the bridge-post, or to the backs of the pots as well? Appreciated. I have a ground wire starting at the input jack, it leads to and is soldered to the bridge tone pot back which also has the stranded wire soldered to the back that leads to the bridge post connection. Both volume pots have ground wires soldered on the back that are soldered to the toggle ground. Also, each pickup ground is soldered to the back of the volume pot for that pickup. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott0 Posted January 29, 2014 Author Share Posted January 29, 2014 I'm taking a pic of the harness now and will upload. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott0 Posted January 29, 2014 Author Share Posted January 29, 2014 I've gone ahead and removed the harness from the guitar and put it back on the cardboard work space. The bridge ground was wired to the TT (top tone) pot and the pickups were soldered to the volume pots on their rightmost leads (rightmost in the photo), the pickup grounds were soldered to the backs of the volume pots. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spamonkis Posted January 29, 2014 Share Posted January 29, 2014 Unless you have foil or graphite paint lining the inside of the control area of the guitar your ground is not connected. All of the grounds must interconnect. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric Koegh Penrod Posted January 29, 2014 Share Posted January 29, 2014 You must link a ground wire to all 4 pots Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott0 Posted January 29, 2014 Author Share Posted January 29, 2014 Unless you have foil or graphite paint lining the inside of the control area of the guitar your ground is not connected. All of the grounds must interconnect. You must link a ground wire to all 4 pots THIS! has to be it. Thank y'all, I am going to connect all the pots with ground wires. I've put a few harnesses together but always started from scratch using a diagram (Seymour Duncan) and they all worked perfectly first go. But with this one I'm trying to repair the original that had several wires clipped and several still joined. I could not locate an original Epi diagram and the still intact wires didn't really match any diagram I came across. It's made my head hurt just looking at it! argh. Looking forward to getting this buttoned up! Thanks again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whitmore Willy Posted January 29, 2014 Share Posted January 29, 2014 THIS! has to be it. Thank y'all, I am going to connect all the pots with ground wires. Scott0, Hope it works out. The grounds do look like the problem. Just curious....Why are you "reinstalling" an old harness? Willy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott0 Posted January 29, 2014 Author Share Posted January 29, 2014 Scott0, Hope it works out. The grounds do look like the problem. Just curious....Why are you "reinstalling" an old harness? Willy I had planned on changing up this TV Pelham Blue ES-355 completely, including removing the bigsby and replacing it with a wrap-around tail. I had disassembled the guitar already when I was informed that filling in the screw holes left by the bigsby would be a total nightmare. Consequently, I decided to put the guitar back together, all original. Too bad for me, it was gonna be sweet! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vomer Posted January 30, 2014 Share Posted January 30, 2014 Scott, have you had the jack socket desoldered at any point? Your symptoms would most easily be explained by the hot and ground wires being reversed, and I can't tell by looking at the pic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott0 Posted January 30, 2014 Author Share Posted January 30, 2014 Scott, have you had the jack socket desoldered at any point? Your symptoms would most easily be explained by the hot and ground wires being reversed, and I can't tell by looking at the pic. HI Vomer, I appreciate your input. I have the inner sleeve of the input jack grounded to the back of the bridge tone pot, but not very good, I only soldered ~1/2 of the strands by mistake the tip of the input jack is going to the middle connector on the toggle. I haven't had a chance to dig into it with the new info I have from this thread (I've been distracted with work, hah!) but I think the the problem is I do not have a ground wire from the bridge tone pot going to the rest of the circuit, other than the ground to it from the inut jack. I have both volume pots soldered with ground wires on their backs leading to the ground on the toggle but it appears that the toggle is not grounded since I do not have ground wires coming off either vol pot going to the tone pots or the bridge post. I'm going to try to solve this by soldering ground wires from- the bridge tone pot to the bridge volume pot the neck tone pot to the neck vol pot the bridge post to the neck tone pot That should connect the ground circuit to all components and get this squared away. I won't be able to do this until late tomorrow, I need to spend the rest of the night practicing (on a guitar that works ;-) and tomorrow working. Please holler back if ya think this solution won't do it! Best- S Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
col Posted January 30, 2014 Share Posted January 30, 2014 I only get a strong buzzing and no sound from strumming the strings. this is exactly the same thing that's happening with my, ahem, bc rich warlock. haven't taken the back plate off yet to have a look. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amx05462 Posted February 2, 2014 Share Posted February 2, 2014 defenitly no grpunds on the pots in the picture thats what the extra clump of solder on them is for. just look up gibson wiring diagrams in yahoo. youll see whats wrong Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeteWilson Posted February 3, 2014 Share Posted February 3, 2014 Attempting to reinstall the original wiring harness in my es-355. I've put the pickups back in but left the pots, jack and toggle out so I can test. The ground is connected to the bridge post but when I plug into my amp I only get a strong buzzing and no sound from strumming the strings. Any suggestions on how to sort this out? I developed a hiss or a hum on the neck pickup on my Les Paul. I discovered a bare wire which would have eliminated the problem. Thought I had it repaired, but the next time I picked up the guitar, all strum and no sound. I have worked on it until I have decided to order new pots for the guitar, including two split coil pots. When you have lemons...make lemonade. This will be a new learning experience for me! Pete Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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