Grounding issue puzzle?

[Bad Penguin]

So, when you pull the switch up to engage the coil taps, you get hum.... The only thing that comes to mind is that when you soldered the new pickups in, you fried the switch. If you have a meter, check for continuity between the ground wire, and the lug for the coil tap. Then for ground on switch, to ground on post.

 

[Brooklyn Zeke]

Also make sure there are no wires touching the body inside the control cavity.

If I remember right on some of my HUM/ Buzzing issues like you describe, I had mine act the opposite of you. AND with humbuckers in non single coil mode since I have no push pull pot guitars. MY hum happened without touching the metal parts. When I touched strings or bridge etc, the hum would go away. This drove me nuts a good while as it happened on different guitars, different amps, Solid State and Valve, and for me, it turned out a Dimmer Switch with the lights on in the room below me was the culprit. Turned Lights off, taking the switch out of the picture,,,,,,,,,, and all guitars were hum free.

I second Chilipeppermaniac on that point. Home electronics components frequently affect the interactions of the electronic components of electric guitars/amps.

 

[Bad Penguin]

\ Still have hum but only when the neck pickup is split and when I am touching metal? All other pickup configurations are dead quiet. I did notice the sleeve on the neck pickup had been burned but not into the wiring.

THAT there tells me that somehow when the switch is pulled up, the ground and hot seems to be reversed.

 

[Tim D.]

It has the stock pickups, I didn’t make changes but can’t speak to the previous owner unless he modded and returned the stock pickups. The soldiering doesn’t appear to be “redone”.

 

[jackietreehorn612]

I don’t want to sound like a jerk, but are you sure it’s actually a grounding issue? A split coil is going to make more noise than a humbucker by nature. It sounds to me like everything is grounded fine, and when you split the coil, making the pickup a single coil, you get the noise that is inherent with that kind of pickup. Depending how the coils split, if it’s the inner coils for instance, and you have them both on, that could be him canceling depending on how the pickups are wound. But if one one coil is on, it’s going to be noisy, like a strat.

 

[jtees4]

I don’t want to sound like a jerk, but are you sure it’s actually a grounding issue? A split coil is going to make more noise than a humbucker by nature. It sounds to me like everything is grounded fine, and when you split the coil, making the pickup a single coil, you get the noise that is inherent with that kind of pickup. Depending how the coils split, if it’s the inner coils for instance, and you have them both on, that could be him canceling depending on how the pickups are wound. But if one one coil is on, it’s going to be noisy, like a strat.

Exactly what I was thinking, you beat me to it. (if you're wrong at least I won't get blamed)

 

[Tim D.]

So my luthier replaced the push/pull pots and “cleaned up the wiring” while he was in there. Problem solved, she’s as quiet as a church mouse in any configuration. Thanks to everyone for the input.

 

[pancake81]

So my luthier replaced the push/pull pots and “cleaned up the wiring” while he was in there. Problem solved, she’s as quiet as a church mouse in any configuration. Thanks to everyone for the input.

All is well that ends well. I am glad you got it sorted and can enjoy the guitar to its fullest now. I guess we have mostly been staring at its guts the whole time, but she looked like a stunner from the one shot. I love that translucent black