LTD SC207 noise

[Dougal]

Greetings.

Apologies for my first post being a request for help / moan. Hopefully I'll be able to join in on other threads too later.

So I got my first 7 string (after 15 years of playing), a LTD SC 207. Love the guitar from a feel point a view, but apart from the obvious fact that the pickups are crap, the guitar is VERY noisy. The peak happened today when, whilst my wife was cutting the grass in the garden (25m away) the guitar started signing along with the electric motor in the lawnmower.

Now whilst I understand that cheaper guitars' shielding is not going to perfect... that seems a bit extreme to me.

Whether it's linked or not I don't know, but the pickups have a VERY low output. My other two guitars both outputs at roughly the same level, and they're both passive too. The LTD is outputting at maybe half that.

So, crap guitar (or crap pickups rather) or fault?

Thanks for any input.

 

[jymellis]

does the ground wire have a good solder joint?

 

[Dougal]

I think calling ANY of the soldering good with be an fallacy.

Todays stupid question - where's the ground wire most likely to be?

 

[jymellis]

open the control cavitiy on the back. check all the wires for good solders. give gentle tugs to the wires (only if you have a soldering gun to solder anythng that may come loose) check ALL the wires. if anything comes loose re-solder it. if anything seems loose or like it has a cold solder re-solder it. you can also try raising the pups closer to the strings for more output but this will not help the inteference from the electric mower (i wish my wife mowed the lawn).

 

[Dougal]

Yeah, pickups are damn close to the strings already, first thing I did when I got it.

I've done as you suggested with the wiring, it all seems fairly solid.

How ever, I've just noticed that there's a channel running from the bridge down to the wiring... and no wire.

Could it be that this guitar is, in fact, not earthed?

Thanks for the quick help by the way.

 

[jymellis]

wow! yeah there really should be a wire there! im not familiar with the ltd/esp wiring schems. but i have worked on a good many other brand of guitars and they should almost always have the ground wire going there. lemme try and find some diagrams for that fiddle! brb.

check this out!

http://www.sevenstring.org/forum/pi...-tech/16004-esp-ltd-h-207-wiring-diagram.html

 

[Dougal]

So counting that posters guitar, the SD diagram, and now mine there appears to be 3 different ways to wire a guitar. Hmmm... stupid question part 3 - I assume the SD website would be the one to trust?

On mine, the pups are wired straight onto the 3 way selector, but via the red and black wires, with the green and white being soldered together and taped off; found the ground wire I think, but it's going onto the volume pot which I was always lead to believe is a bad idea. There's a couple of other bits and pieces that look like time / cost saving tricks to me, can't imagine they're helping either.

Man, I'm tempted just to undo everything and start again. I won't... but it's tempting...

Thanks for all your help dude, much appreciated.

 

[Andrew_B]

are the pups actives?

is it hardtail or trem?

if its trem then the ground wire will be on the claw rather than on the bridge,
if its hardtail and theres no wire under it then theres your issue,
if its a t-o-m then it should have a wire going to the closest threaded insiert to the control cavity....

maybe just upgrade your pups....
that would be the best thing to do (seems like your not happy with them at all)
a tech will do it all for a decent price