Switching out pickguard

[Casper]

Howdy- I found a pearl Anderson pickguard (SSS) on ebay and want to switch out my white/mint one. I should be able to do this without having to solder anything..right?? I hope not, because I suck at it. Advice?

Shaun

[tom]

you certainly can. it would be a lot easier to handle if you disconnected the jack, then you could do all the parts swap without having the guitar under you.

[Casper]

I'll use a towel...you just don't know how bad I suck at soldering :D

[Casper]

Well I managed to get everything switched over..HOWEVER, When I plugged it back in..noise and scratchiness. I pulled the pickguard back off and I noticed that a black ground wire came loose from somewhere and the guitar is extremely noisy until I touch the knob..not as much effect if I touch the bridge. This wire is one of 3 or 4 black ground wires leading off the volume pot. The first one connects to the tone pot and is fine. The others apparently go to the pickups. All of the pickups work, but the noise and scratchiness is bad. The loose one is a little longer than the other, which makes me wonder.

I think this one must be the bridge ground?? If so, does it go with the other two ground wires under the screw in the bottom of the cavity OR does it go back through the cavity and connect to the bridge or jack somehow. I took the backplate off and I can see a ground wire attached to the trem claw? Man, if this wire broke loose in the cavity..I guess I'm in trouble. (VA5 pickups with VV and Pull add bridge) Any advice or diagnosis here? I should have let my tech do this..just trying to save bread...sheesh!

[tom]

ok, so there should be a black wire coming from the claw and connecting to the terminal screwed into the body in the control cavity, then there should be a black wire going from there to the back of a pot.

is that intact?

[Casper]

There are (as far as I can see) (I think) 3 to 4 wires soldered to the Vol pot. One looks like it goes to the actual pickups. One goes to the Tone Pot (and is secure).
There are what looks like 2 black wires connected in the bottom of the back pickup cavity: one is under a screw the other is soldered ( it appears) to the same ground. The trem claw in back also has a black wire coming from it. The wire in question is securely soldered to the Volume pot, I just don't know where its supposed to go. When I grab it, it lessens the noise..but doesn't get rid of it

[tom]

there should be a black wire from each pickup on the pot.

there should be a black wire going from vol to tone pot casing.

there should be a black wire coming from the claw and it should be soldered to the terminal screwed to the cavity, then a black wire from there should go to the pot.

there should also be a black wire coming from the jack soldered to the pot.

did this guitar used to have a hb with a splitter switch? if so, there would have been a black wire going to the mini switch.


you should have noise quiet down when you touch strings, bridge, or knobs.
you also may get rotational noise from the volume pot if you are not touching any of the metal parts. this is caused from an intermittent ground connection because of the non conductive grease in the pot.

please confirm the above.