Tele Background noise

SunDevil

I've rewired a Thinline with two single coils - I 'think' it's noisier than it was before

I've only changed the switch, pots, cap and associated wiring - pups and bridge are untouched

There's nothing that suggests it's a grounding issue (to my an my idiot-level knowledge of these things) - there's nothing metal I can touch that reduces / increases the hiss and there's nothing suggesting a dodgy contact in terms of noisy or farting out of the controls

The middle position is no quieter than positions 1 & 3 - pickups are wired as before on the new pots and the neck pup has 3 wires

Hiss increases with the tone pot and drops when the signal drops with the volume down

The tone cap is resting on back of the tone pot with it's legs insulated to avoid a short - left one of those legs long to ground out the cap to the back of the volume pot via the 3rd lug of that pot

It wasn't a quiet guitar before and I may be imagining this (such is my level of confidence in my soldering!) but any suggestions that I could look at?

I'm going to swap to modern wiring an a treble bypass and a 0.1 tone cap in the next few days, so it would be a good time to try and address the background noise, even if it's no worse than before

Being a Thinline, there's no metal plate to attach the controls to, only a thin piece of stick on shielding on the back of the pickguard - tempted to go with a metal guard!

Baz

Funkfingers

What schematic diagram did you follow?

The version 1 Tele Thinline uses the same circuit as the solid body, the one difference being the metal control plate that forms part of the grounding path. On the Thinline, it might be worth running an insulated wire between the chassises of the two pots.

Remotely diagnosing much else will be impossible without photographs of your wiring.

SunDevil

Thanks @Funkfingers - it's a regular 'modern' tele wiring setup, albeit with the tone being fed from the mid-lug of the volume pot at present. Both pots are grounded via a connecting wire.

Following my first post, I matched the Thinline up with a regular Suhr Classic T with original wiring and the background noise is near enough identical.

I've had the Suhr for 3 years and never considered it an issue, so I think it's a storm in a teacup in this instance, but appreciate the reply none the less

Cheers

Baz

Funkfingers

SunDevil said:

I 'think' it's noisier than it was before

This is largely psychological. I consider it a good sign. Your slight oversensitivity to "imperfect" results suggests that you care about getting the job right.