Finished my Baja Tele - (Video pg13)

[taylornutt]

I don't know how you've managed to at least not have a go at setting it up yet. Maybe that's how I learned, by needing to play a certain guitar at two in the morning, then sitting for most of the night time hours fiddling.

I just have a lot going on right now. I have attempted setups before, but I am just too busy at the moment to finish it.

[taylornutt]

I am packing the guitar up to take it to the guitar tech tomorrow. Hopefully by next week I will actually get to play it.

[taylornutt]

Well my guitar tech called and of course the news is not good. He says the neck angle is way off and needs a huge shim. I may have to sand the neck pocket.

He also said the electronics ground out when he screws down the grounding screw into the shielding paint. Any idea what could cause that?

I am seriously annoyed right now.

It's like a runner who is 10 yards from the finish line and pulls his hamstring!

[Haze]

send it to me, I'll take care of it

[taylornutt]

send it to me, I'll take care of it

You may be next option if I can't figure this out!

[Haze]

try shileding tape and reshield the inside and run a ground wire to the bridge. The only reason why running a ground wire to the body would cut the circuit is if the hot signal is connected to the ground as well somehow. More often than not its a solder joint thats poking its way into the paint. Make sure nothing it touching the paint on the inside.

If the angle of the neck pocket is too severe and needs a large shim up against the body you can always fill it and start over. You won't have to mess with your nice new daphne blue either. Wood filler, epoxy, WOOD. The world is your oyster mayne.

[taylornutt]

I got the guitar back today. Looks and feels good. The tech was able to show me the problems.

Control cavity - the cavity is not deep enough and the pot is touching the shielding paint inside the cavity and thus is grounding out the electronics. I need to route out a little bit of wood under the pots and that should fix that.

Neck pocket - The neck is sitting too high and required a sizable shim to correct. The saddles can't go any higher. I need to cut more wood out of the neck pocket to lower the neck down further and then lower the saddles to compensate.

Noob issues but at least I didn't cut too deep and the layers of paint, clear coat and shielding paint may have contributed as well. I will get it fixed and demo soon.

[SKC Willie]

Maybe this is a stupid question but I'm not really understanding. If the neck is sitting too high as it is, wouldn't a shim make the neck sit even higher and just add to the problem?

[taylornutt]

Maybe this is a stupid question but I'm not really understanding. If the neck is sitting too high as it is, wouldn't a shim make the neck sit even higher and just add to the problem?

It's shimmed at the edge of the body, not at the heel of the neck. Basically without the shim, there would be no action at all. The shim angles the neck back towards the body so the headstock goes up and gives it the proper spacing. The saddles can't be raised any higher. So once I drop the neck deeper in, I can lower the saddles and remove the shim. It's like the second guitar in the image below.



The shim on my Jag is like the 3rd guitar in picture. That neck needs the headstock to angle downward, so the shim is under the heel of the neck. I hope that clears it up some

I could have checked this out if the nut had been installed, I will get it right next time. Live and learn.

[taylornutt]

Finally moving in the right direction. I removed the control plate and using a dremel and chisel, I removed some paint and wood from under the S1 switch pot and 4 way switch. The control plate is sitting lower, though not all the way yet, more like it should. I plan to take a little more out tomorrow. The guitar is no longer grounding out and it actually makes sounds now. I noticed that the bridge pickup and the pickups together in series was kinda quiet while the pickups together in parallel and the neck pickup alone is nice and loud. It looks like the neck pup is sitting too high and the bridge is sitting too low. The saddles are at maximum height, which would account for the bridge being too quiet. Since I need to sand the neck pocket anyway to lower the neck down further, I will leave the bridge where it is and lower the neck pickup down. As the neck lowers, I will have to lower the saddles which will bring the pup closer to the strings and make it louder. The S1 switch is functioning as it should and made a noticeable change in both together positions. The "out of phase" was more noticeable in the parallel setting, but I think it will sound better in series once the pickup heights are adjusted. The tone knob didn't make much difference, but I will look at it tomorrow and see if it is just because the pickup heights. The nitro allparts vintage tele neck is the amazing. Feels as good as my AVRI Jaguar. We have a long weekend, so I hope to have it up and going all the way very soon. More updates soon.

[taylornutt]

Still having grounding/signal issues. I chiseled some wood out from below the S1/Volume Pot and 4 way selector switch so the electronics would fit better. My guitar tech thought since my cavity needed to be deeper, that was causing something to ground out. I think I have removed enough wood to give the eletronics room to breathe. It sounds great until I tighten both control plate mounting screws all the way down, making the control plate flush with the body. The signal gets very weak and the only way I can hear anything is to turn the gain and volume all the way up. When I touch the shielding paint with my finger while the guitar is plugged in, it makes noise.

► Show Spoiler

I checked the wiring and I noticed one odd thing. There is a green wire coming from the neck pickup that was supposed to be soldered to the back of the tone pot. The guitar tech instead soldered it to the back of the s1/volume pot. As far as I can hear, the tone pot doesn't seem to be having any effect on the sound whatsoever. Here is the wiring diagram:



Please help! I am stuck and don't know what to do next. How would you normally ground a telecaster?

[Phil O'Keefe]

It doesn't matter which pot the green wire is soldered to - the backs of both pots are grounded (through the control panel plate); as long as the green wire IS soldered, it doesn't matter where / how.

If everything works properly when sitting OUT of the guitar, but only messes up when you put it into the guitar and tighten it down, then something is pushing against something else and shorting out when you put it into the guitar. I would suggest using electrical tape across the back of the switches and pots to insulate all of your solder joints and help prevent that from happening.

[taylornutt]

I figured out the metal edge of the 4 way switch was touching the body. I sanded down the cavity with my dremel and my grounding out problems appear to be gone.

Unfortunately, the output of the guitar is still too low. I set my Bugera V5 at a gain of 2 and volume of 7 and it sounded nice and full on my Classic Vibe Duo Sonic. On the tele, it barely comes through. On my main rig, I had to kick in the Fuzzface to even hear it and the Series option sounds weaker than the neck pickup by itself. The tone knob still doesn't work and the volume knob only makes a noticeable difference when its close to open all the way.

Any more ideas? The tech told me I didn't need a string ground from the bridge because of the magnetized plate on the bridge pickup. Is that correct?

[TexasSwede]

I figured out the metal edge of the 4 way switch was touching the body. I sanded down the cavity with my dremel and my grounding out problems appear to be gone.

Unfortunately, the output of the guitar is still too low. I set my Bugera V5 at a gain of 2 and volume of 7 and it sounded nice and full on my Classic Vibe Duo Sonic. On the tele, it barely comes through. On my main rig, I had to kick in the Fuzzface to even hear it and the Series option sounds weaker than the neck pickup by itself. The tone knob still doesn't work and the volume knob only makes a noticeable difference when its close to open all the way.

Any more ideas? The tech told me I didn't need a string ground from the bridge because of the magnetized plate on the bridge pickup. Is that correct?

1. First things first, put it down for a couple of days. I know what you're going through, for me it had to be one of the most frustrating things I've ever encountered. Some buddies convinced me to leave alone for a couple of days, then go back to it with a clear head. It worked.

2. While you are clearing your head, please read this page on grounding. Ignore that its a Les Paul and focus on the two separate grounding concepts. In addition, look at this page on tele wiring. I'm not particularly familiar with the Baja Tele but there are some pretty good diagrams out there (also at Seymour Duncan site) - you just have to remove any potential ground loops as described in the first article.

3. I was told the same thing about the bridge pickup plate, and it seemed logical. With just the two leads, it was noisy as hell until I touched the strings or bridge. When I ran a separate ground it was no better. What finally worked was just soldering a 2" lead from where the pickup plate was grounded, stripping back some insulation, and stuffed the twisted strands into the closest screw hole (into the body). That did it. It seemed the bridge adjustment screws in contact with the brass p'up plate weren't making a good enough connection, and the separate ground wire to the bridge was creating a loop.

4. Finally, on the volume issues, are you sure the pickups are wired correctly? Are they a "matched" set? I had a similar issue with polarity and/or phase of a Peavey bridge and a Fender neck pickup.

I'll print out and study your baja diagram and try to give you a modified version if need be. My tele came out great - hot without the hum. New Fender Custom Shop Texas Specials were installed, the body was completely shielded w/ copper sheets and tape, installed all new cts pots with orange drop cap, and a cts 4-way switch (plus, I mounted the control plate in reverse).

Finally, where exactly do you live? If it's just up the road, I'll throw my soldering supplies in my bag some weekend and head up to have a look.

[TexasSwede]

Ok did a little checking on the bajas. So you've got a S-1 pot, did you verify that its wired correctly? Did it do anything in your test?

Phil O'Keefe had some pretty good points too. Does it sound the same before you install the control plate?

[taylornutt]

I live in Richardson, TX in the North Dallas Area, though I am from Houston originally. The S-1 Switch puts the pickups out of phase when both pickups are on (in parallel in position 2 and in series in position 4). I can hear it change the sound and it's working. My guitar tech wired the green wire from the neck to the S-1 pot, but Phil pointed out that since the pots are wired together that should be fine. Since I identified and fixed the grounding issue(metal corner of the switch touching the body), The volume of the guitar is the same no matter whether it's screwed in or not. It's just really quiet. the neck pickup is almost kissing the strings. the tone knob doesn't appear to work, but that could be a result of the low output. The only time it gets louder is when both pickups are on in parallel, but it's only because they are both on. When I touch the shielding paint in the control cavity while it's plugged into an amp it buzzes.

My problem is I am not sure what to look at next. What would make it so quiet? Additional grounding issues perhaps?

[taylornutt]

I rechecked the wiring and everything looks good. I tested each pickup position and the bridge and the series option seemed weak while neck and parallel were stronger. Would a problem with the bridge pickup cause an overall output loss?

[taylornutt]

My roomate from college is going to help me debug my guitar this weekend. He is a guitar player and an Electrical Engineer so hopefully he can help me figure out the problem. He has helped me on several other guitar projects. Since I have eliminated the ground issues, the problem has to be with the harness or maybe the bridge pickup. I need to sand the neck pocket to lower the neck down, but I will do that once I get the electronics figured out.

[taylornutt]

[youtube][/youtube]

Turns out some shielding paint got down in the jack hole and was grounding out the jack. Some electrical tape and a squeeze of the pliers and we are up and going. It sounds tremendous just like I thought it would. Love the Series and out of phase options. The Allparts Vintage nitro neck is an absolute dream to play. I am in total bliss right now. I still need to remove the neck and lower the neck down by sanding the pocket, but for now I am enjoying just rocking it out. I will do a demo soon once I get my software issues figured out.

[izodiak]

Happy for You man.
Looks something like one of my dream guitars.

Waiting for a demo.
really nice, happy how You took care of those 'problems' with shielding and all.
Now You know the guitar 'inside-out'.