[mikeobrien123]

Hi.. Wow. not sure if ive ever posted on here...been reading alot of good info for sevrl months..thanks to everyone, its awesome to have online support like this...on to my issue...

bought a project 7321 on tha bay for like $140 stock...not bad...put some blaze's in it this week also off tha bay for like $80...

wires were too short, so i spliced them from orig stock pu wires...other than that, a very clean install, followed orig stock wiring exactly....should be the same right? right!

it sounds great tonaly and all 5 positions work as they should, but there is alot of feedback...which goes away when i touch the metal input jack/jack plate cover...

if i can get this to go away, this will be a bad arse $220 guitfiddle....

i know splicing isnt the best option, but i think its so clean of a job it might not be the prob, everything is electrictaped up, so nothing is touching...
do i need to redo my grounding?? that seems like it would be it to me...just thought i'd ask if anyone knows right away whats wrong, before i resolder everything and pos mess up something else....

thanks alot again to everyone in advance

[ZeroSignal]

Have you shielded the cavity? Make sure you put "metallic" paint or tape in the cavity. Like this:

[Apophis]

wrong shielding in guitar or even wrong shielding of your amp

[mikeobrien123]

um..nope...no shielding...except for on the backplate behind the pot's and switch...none in the cavities..

where can i get that stuff? homedepot? radiosnack? and how come none of my other guit's have it? ive swapped p/u's before w/o any noise..hmmm

do i need to put it in the cavity under the pu's only? or under pot's and switch also??

does it need to actually touch anything or just be there...cause i fave foam spacers lifting my p/u's to the correct heighth...

im kinda bummed b/c the p/us were a pain to get in there level and raised corectly...and i restrung and all that.waist of strings..i guess if i redo it ill just put one string on to test.....

[ZeroSignal]

No idea where you could get it.

Put it in your cavity but take out the electronics first.

Put it under the pickups too and tape a wire to the shielding under the pickups to the shielding in the control cavity. You should first thread the wire with the pickup wire.

[ibznorange]

ok guys, im a big shielding fan too, but this sounds wierd. Pup swaps dont generally mean that shielding that was not necessary before is necessary now. I have to suspect a soldering connection somewhere man, especially the tone pot. try adjusting the tone pot, see if that helps the squeal. weak tone pot connections have a tendency to do that.
I do recommend shielding though, i do it to all of my guitars when i rewire em. Just pick up copper shielding foil at radioshack

[technomancer]

Yeah the 7321 cavity should already be shielded with shielding paint. This sounds like a bad solder connection causing a grounding problem.

It's also worth noting that the stock bridge pickup is 3 wire and the DiMarzios are four wire and I believe also have different color codes. The proper wiring for dimarzios with volume / tone / Ibby 5 way switch is this:

[scott from _actual time_]

Originally Posted by mikeobrien123

it sounds great tonaly and all 5 positions work as they should, but there is alot of feedback...which goes away when i touch the metal input jack/jack plate cover...

do you mean buzz/hum or feedback? if you really actually mean feedback, then you have discovered some new thing that i've never heard of before.

if you mean buzz, then as Technomancer correctly points out, you have a grounding problem. poor shielding would cause noise, but that noise would not change when you touched the jack--it would only change if you turned off nearby lights or CRT monitors or other things that produce electric fields.

because the buzzing stops when you touch the jack, i bet you have a faulty ground connection somewhere before/upstream form the jack. double-check all your grounds to make sure one didn't come lose when you changed the pickups [happened to me yesterday on my Tele 7....]

[OzzyC]

Originally Posted by scott from _actual time_

do you mean buzz/hum or feedback? if you really actually mean feedback, then you have discovered some new thing that i've never heard of before.

if you mean buzz, then as Technomancer correctly points out, you have a grounding problem. poor shielding would cause noise, but that noise would not change when you touched the jack--it would only change if you turned off nearby lights or CRT monitors or other things that produce electric fields.

because the buzzing stops when you touch the jack, i bet you have a faulty ground connection somewhere before/upstream form the jack. double-check all your grounds to make sure one didn't come lose when you changed the pickups [happened to me yesterday on my Tele 7....]

And as far as shielding goes, you don't need to spend the money of copper foil- I used aluminum foil and an adhesive spray, spending all of 10 dollars, and that one can would probably be enough for every guitar Zimbloth has ever owned.

[mikeobrien123]

ok...yeah i meant buzz..not feedback and it cuts out when i touch the metal input jack...

i didnt rewire any connections to the tone pot, so im thinking its this one ground on the volume pot...i grounded like 4 wires to the same spot...thats how the orign wiring was so i did it that way, but i think ill seperate them and ground them seperately...thatl prob fix it...

but the wiring does line up...mine were already 4wire pu's and i did have the above diagram..its all the same..

im gonna redo the connections tommorow...i really do appreciate the responses and help..

if i get this finished without any probs, im gonna look for a cheap 7620 and put some blackouts in...ill let you know how things go!