How To Troubleshoot Guitar Wiring - The Basics Episode #656

In this video we go through the basic steps to troubleshoot an electric guitar

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0:00 Intro
1:35 tools for guitar wiring troubleshooting
2:45 Step One Tap test pickups
3:45 Step Two Make Sure Your Guitar Cable Is Good
5:51 Step Three Test Pickup Resistance With Cable
9:30 Step Four Check Pickups Directly
10:05 Common Issues With Guitar Wiring And How To Test Them

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[choimdachoim]

Everything you demonstrated here is so blatantly obvious and I feel so stupid for not figuring it out myself. This video is pure gold.

[wyldeslash]

Thanks for going thru this slowly. A sign of a good teacher and not someone trying show you how much he knows as quickly as possible.

[redicoyote]

Dylan, I want to thank you. I followed the steps shown here and found that my neck humbucker has a dead coil. I've been trying for months to learn how to diagnose the problem, but you're the first person to actually explain what I need to know. BIG THANK YOU

[floattheboat]

Good stuff, even for someone who knows a bit about what you’re talking about, it’s still communicated thoroughly and you have great patience. You don’t assume people know, I’m not trying to sound cool like I know, but I actually happened to know what you were talking about. But I don’t think I could’ve communicated it that well, and for someone trying to figure this out I get a feeling you’re a valuable resource. Good work brother.

[ltcm]

4:20 “Mary Tyler Moore hair”😂 I never thought of it that way.

[dragonsage]

Really great reference share, thanks!

[fat-hand]

Thanks for the excellent intel - a friend is asking me to troubleshoot his strat and this is will help immensely!

[ServiceOrchestramegastore]

very good explanation. much details in every aria of the guitar, and the best part is you talk good English that everyone can understand. thank you!!

[michaelcordeiro]

O L on your fluke meter actually means" Over Load". Not Open. I just thought I would let you know, I'm an Electronic Engineer, this is what I do for a living.. but that reading does mean that you do not have Continuity between both connections that you tested. So you do not have a short between both of the connections...

[patrikfeketend]

These videos is my favourite! Thank you Dylan for your good work!

[carpo]

Also Just a side note to people who do their own wiring, when I was being Hasty I somehow got my positive and negative crossed when I was soldering to the output Jack. I checked everything else and nothing worked.... and I realized it was that simple.
I thought it might be the switch but I was getting no output from any of the pickups so I switched those wires and it works now.

So if none of the pickups work at all, the first place you might want to start is that output Jack knowing that everything is grounded there

[sixtyrainy]

Thx a lot!! You're so kind sharing these knowledge for free, God Bless you!!

[jeremymura-gr]

bro awsome info n demo i got 4 electric guitars that belongs to my unkle who played in a band the 4 electric guitar needs rewiring 3 gibson n 1 tokai electic guitar i had them 4 30yrs watching your video makes me want to learn how to play the electric guitar now😄👌🎸🎸

[FrugalFixerSpike]

Good info, most i knew, but still learned.

[MustafaBaabad]

I may have missed the explanation of the wiring diagram, it would be really useful to understand how it works. Thanks chief. Cheers from Indonesia.

[Hexspa]

For anyone looking for a multimeter, I did all the specs research and the Kaiweets 118E is one of the best for the price. You can literally spend over $500 on a DMM and not even have it be able to measure the kinds of values you need for guitar. Whatever you get, check the ranges of values for current, resistance, capacitance, and whatever else you might want. Some dmms are meant for different tasks and paying more doesn't necessarily get you a better tool for your needs.

[streetlegal]

Great methodical presentation and explanation for problem shooting. Just one other thing that might present as the source of a problem would be one of the small wires themselves being faulty (broken copper wire) and needing to be replaced. I think this might be more likely on a new guitar, where the fault hasn't been picked up by factory quality control, so a new guitar should be returned for refund in that case.

[matdube]

What's up Dylan? Great vid. Quick question: When I check the resistance and flipping the p/u switch, my reader shows half the resistance from what Seymour Duncan suggest on their website? Configuration is 2 humbuckers. BTW, was installed by a luthier! Would it be installed paralleled instead of series? Thanks again ;)

[WilliamLohan]

I have an Epiphone SG that is very very quiet after sitting for a while. Both pick-ups are open 0ohm. The jack looks good. 1 tone and 1 volume seems good but the other 2 are open 0ohm. Not sure next step / sceptical because you said pick-ups typically don't go bad.

[prestonbowden]

Great video man! This helps me a lot. I have a couple guitars I’m working on atm and I’m new to the tech side of things.