Repair And Restoration
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Curious Grounding Issue…
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Curious Grounding Issue…
Hello fellow Looths,
I had a question in regards to a curious issue from a customers guitar. The guitar was brought to me in part because the customer was having an issue where the guitar was intermittent and would ground out. It’s a partscaster with an HH pickup configuration, one volume, one tone, 5 way switch, and the tone control splits the humbuckers. The pickups are quick connect Dimarzio’s.
I took the pickguard off and noticed that the control cavity was at a very similar depth to the height of the electronics, meaning the shielding paint and electronics were very possibly coming in contact with each other. The customer used a small Forstner bit to try and deepen the cavity, presumably to alleviate the issue but this did not work. I decided to use my overhead router to properly deepen the control cavity so that there wouldn’t be a possibility of interference. I also ended up widening the cavity near the 5 way switch since that was causing it to ground out as well when I reinstalled the pickguard. I should also mention that the customer bought this wiring kit and they used a braided cable to connect the output jack. I replaced this since I thought that the grounded portion of the cable had potential to contact the switch or a hot portion of the circuit and ground out. I was satisfied that I had solved the problem after reassembling as testing the circuit. Everything was working as expected and I gave the guitar back to the customer.
I was contacted shortly thereafter that the guitar was still experiencing the same issue. The customer brought the guitar back to me and I plugged it in and it was obvious that the guitar was intermittent when playing through my shop amp. I went to reinvestigate and determined that the output jack was the culprit. The metal contact tab was bent straight up instead of over the hole and when I used a cable with a slightly smaller diameter plug, I could wiggle it and get it to short out. I decided to replace the jack and this solved the issue. The customer also wanted me to do some other work for him during this time and I check numerous times that the grounding issue did not come back, including right before I met with him. I also had him play the guitar to make sure there were no issues and there were not.
He contacted me later that night and told me that he was having the same issue as before. I asked him if the issue occurs after he’s been playing it for awhile and he says that it does. I had also previously asked him a number of troubleshooting questions “Are you confident in the cable you’re using? The amp? The area of the house? etc…” and he answered the questions reasonably in this regard.
I’m at a bit of a loss. My confidence is low and now I’m thinking it could be anything, electrostatic buildup or who knows what. My question is, where do I go from here? I told my customer I’d look into it for him but I’m uncertain on what to advise him of at this point. Any thoughts on this would be very much appreciated. Thank you!
-David
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2 Replies
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if it is the jack blade making contact with the shielding inside the jack hole, then you could try a puretone jack. It’s got a smaller footprint and two smaller blades that contact the tip rather than one large one. Most likely it is something very simple that’s been overlooked. I’ve had guitars that go silent when tighting a screw in a pickguard and weird stuff like that.
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It’s a good thought but there isn’t shielding inside the jack hole on this one. I also think you’re right that it’s potentially something simple, but there’s nothing left that’s obvious at the moment. Maybe if I look at it again with fresh eyes something will jump out.
-David
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