What causes bad wiring?

[Matt Till]

I take fairly good care of my instruments, but for some reason, the ground on my guitar went bad. I mean, all I get is low hum, unless I stick the whammy bar to the input on the instrument cable. Then it's grounded and produces guitar like noises.

And now, the wiring on my Dean (almost 2 years old) is going. I have to smack it to get it to work.... and I've tried different cables.

What gives? What makes wiring "go bad"... I changed the battery on my dean... same deal...

I ask this as a general question mostly.

[nashvillebill]

Wiring shouldn't "go bad" ...unless it starts hanging out with other bad wiring, you know, then next thing you know the wiring will be staying out late and smoking and coming home drunk......

Seriously, though, it's not as likely that a wire would just break or become unsoldered "on its own". Usually it has help: like a volume pot that comes a little loose and wiggles (thereby wiggling the soldered connection) or an input jack that gets loose and twists around. Or somebody, say a previous owner, has messed around in the electronic cavity and inadvertently done something; or maybe soldered something really crappy. Bad solder joints can break loose from the weight of the solder and lots of vibration.

I would suggest getting a soldering iron and learning how to solder your wiring yourself, it's easy and will save you a ton of money....there's lots of articles on the 'net on bass wiring, for instance pickup wiring diagrams from here www.stewmac.com

[BurningSkies]

Weasels.


They're hell on wiring.

[canopener]

And mice.

Clearly, your wiring problems are the doings of rodents. Set up a mouse trap under your control plate.

[Matt Till]

Originally Posted by nashvillebill

Wiring shouldn't "go bad" ...unless it starts hanging out with other bad wiring, you know, then next thing you know the wiring will be staying out late and smoking and coming home drunk......

Seriously, though, it's not as likely that a wire would just break or become unsoldered "on its own". Usually it has help: like a volume pot that comes a little loose and wiggles (thereby wiggling the soldered connection) or an input jack that gets loose and twists around. Or somebody, say a previous owner, has messed around in the electronic cavity and inadvertently done something; or maybe soldered something really crappy. Bad solder joints can break loose from the weight of the solder and lots of vibration.

I would suggest getting a soldering iron and learning how to solder your wiring yourself, it's easy and will save you a ton of money....there's lots of articles on the 'net on bass wiring, for instance pickup wiring diagrams from here www.stewmac.com

Thanks for the advice, I do know how to solder... not well though. I usually end up with a huge pile of solder that falls off. My bass, I'm pretty easy on. My guitar has been thrown around a bit during my bedroom noise rock concerts... so I'll have to get this figured out. It just seems like things have a way of falling apart on me sometimes.

[Trevorus]

Matt, if you want to solder better, get a 30+ watt soldering iron. Make sure to leave it plugged in about 10 minutes before you start using it, and your solder joints will start to form better. Remember, a dull looking solder joint is a bad one, a shiny one is a good one. The hotter the iron, the less time it takes for you to get a good bead of solder. One problem is galvanized casings of potentiometers. You have to sand off the galvanized coating before solder will stick.

[Matt Till]

Yeah, that's my problem. I've got a very very weak soldering iron.

I need to start commiting crimes so I can afford things. I'm so damn broke.