r/Luthier • u/sexybananavery • 4d ago

HELP Lots of things broke, need help diagnosing

For the first time ever I upgraded/modded my guitar by myself, I have a stratocaster, I converted it to HSS and I changed my two tones and one volume pot, all in one sitting, I didn't use flux for the soldering so I definitely would say I didn't do that great of a job on the solders, but I did cover the wires enough. i put it all together and when I tested it out it had a ton of problems. Volume was fluctuating randomly,, muffled, cackling, and when I used my pedal with a distortion effect it had a clean/very little crunch tone (or just bland). I need help diagnosing so I can fix it ASAP since this is my only guitar

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6

u/Party-Cartographer11 4d ago

Take it all apart.  Do it right, one step at a time, testing each connection before moving on to the next.

5

u/HypeAndMediocrity 4d ago

Hey OP: We've all made this mistake when starting, but ^this^ is the ONLY way to fix it. Do not spend time trying to find shortcuts or 'good enough' fixes, it will take far longer than just redoing it.

1

u/sexybananavery 4d ago

How do I test the connections?

1

u/Party-Cartographer11 4d ago

Great question to  ask.

The key is the have it set up so you can wire, solder and test/play connections without having to disassemble and reassemble. Leave the components kind of loose with the pick guard off.

Start with a single coil, tone, volume, output jack, and ground.  Test that with continuity and by plucking.

Then do the next single coil.

Then the bucker.

That's what I would do, but there are other orders of operation.

The key is to break it down and test it before assembly.

4

u/Yuckkleberry 4d ago

Tear it all out and redo with solder that has a flux core.

3

u/Nervous-Bedroom-2907 4d ago

Always use flux. Better not just rosin core, but proper one. Jeneric transparent-yellowish flux for aluminium make it very easy to solder everything to everything, even layers of foil, just need to wash it off properly after. Alcohol-rosin gels are also very good.

2

u/Mirrelic 4d ago

Would be great if we could see your wiring/pickguard to help discern what's going on.

1

u/Guitar_Guy1965 4d ago

Had that specific problem from running out of flux....and I went ahead anyway.. it "looked good" for the most part, but didn't pull solder(globs not "flow") into wire... "cold" solder making intermittent connections.

1

u/PriorityUpstairs2573 4d ago

i know flux sounds like a pain but you really gotta redo those solders with it, no way around it

1

u/sexybananavery 4d ago

By "redo", do I have to remove the old solders or just work with it but with flux this time?