NPUD

ionian

Well that happened fast - i was thinking about doing up my 1990 Washburn KC-40V which had been sat unloved in a cupboard for years. Before I knew it I had fixed the floyd rose (which had come away from its bushings), found a trem arm that sort-of fits, cleaned it up and ordered a new set of pickups.

I went with Irongears - it's a HSS set up so I've got a steamhammer at the bridge (tapped) and texas locos as the single coils. 

It's still in pieces but I've checked the wiring and it's working with a coil tap, so I've just got to reassemble and restring the damn thing now. Pics to follow. 

ionian

Heres a pic from before the fretboard clean...

http://i.imgur.com/LJuuuJN.jpg

ionian

ionian

Sorry to keep bumping this topic but having completed the change I'm finding the pickups are only working intermittently. Is this likely to be my soldering? It seems to that a good wiggle of the toggle switch sorts it out, but they then cut out again. Dirt in the switch? I didn't take it out and clean it before fixing the new pickups. The old pickups were earthed on the switch so I copied that with the new ones - it's possible I tinned the switch a little.

Wonky

ionian said:

Sorry to keep bumping this topic but having completed the change I'm finding the pickups are only working intermittently. Is this likely to be my soldering? It seems to that a good wiggle of the toggle switch sorts it out, but they then cut out again. Dirt in the switch? I didn't take it out and clean it before fixing the new pickups. The old pickups were earthed on the switch so I copied that with the new ones - it's possible I tinned the switch a little.

I'd try some contact cleaning spray on the switch first before anything else, because if it's been laid up for a while they do have a tendency to get a bit dirty inside on the contact face.  If that doesn't work, maybe a new switch after just rechecking your soldering maybe.

abw1989

Intermittent signals like you are describing are usually one of the two things you have mentioned, a bad earth solder connection or a faulty switch. For how much a new switch is, I'd be inclined to replace it with a new one, as you rewire it in you'll be replacing your earth connection too. That being said a more common earthing position is onto the back of the pots.

ionian

Thanks @wonky and @abw1989. I cleaned the switch and resoldered the earths to the tone pot which made a big improvement to the switch performance. There are still some issues with the pots but I bought some spray and will give them the once-over after work.

My last issue is a lot of noise coming through the pickups from the tremolo arm - it's an earthing issue as it stops when I touch it. With a NR pedal it's not an issue but any tips to minimise it on the original signal will be appreciated. 

The tone from the new pickups is awesome! 

abw1989

Is the noise through the tremolo as well..?

If you remove the arm and just touch the tremolo does that stop the noise too? If so it seems like the bridge is not grounded, there should be a stray wire in the control cavity that disappears seemingly to no where in the body. It goes to one of the holes drilled for the bridge mounting posts. Double check that this wire is also grounded to a pot.