Electric guitar - no sound; just hum

[Kevin Johnson]

Hello all. Just when I thought I was finished with my first guitar build, I ran into an issue with the electronics.

I wired my guitar according to the fourth diagram on this website (http://flashbacksoftomorrow.tripod.com/pickups.html) with two volumes, one tone, and no switch. It was a bit intimidating at first since I'm a total beginner at this whole wiring thing, but lo and behold, I followed the diagram, and my guitar came to life. I put on the low E string, plugged in, and my whole setup was in working condition.

I could barely contain my excitement while finishing stringing the guitar, but much to my dismay, when I plugged the guitar into an amp this time, all that came out was a soft buzzing sound that I was able to amplify by touching the pots and the input jack. No sound from the strings was picked up.

I don't know what could have happened in the few minutes that it took to string the guitar that caused the internals to stop functioning. I know my soldering is kind of sloppy with my having very little experience in the field, but nothing came undone during the stringing process, and there doesn't appear to be a break in the circuit.

Can anyone help me figure out what may have gone wrong? I'll post some pictures (http://postimg.org/gallery/20b32wa2/) but it's kind of hard to make things out with my camera and lighting situation.

Thanks in advance for your time.

[David King]

Everything looks reasonable to me. I'd test your output jack to make sure you haven't got the hot and ground connections reversed.
Generally we like to see a lot less bare wire around soldered connections. Bare wires have a bad habit of shorting out against things that they might bump into.

Is it possible that one of the connection at the pickups is broken or shorted to cavity shielding?

You might also have an open ground. If you have a meter test continuity between the bridge and the outside of the jack.

Speaking of jacks, those barrel jack are pretty unreliable/terrible. Wiggle the cord plug and see if the thing snaps back on.

[Kevin Johnson]

Dang you were right about those pin jacks. A simple wiggle and my guitar was coming in crystal clear. May have to switch that out soon. Thanks a lot!

[Rodger Knox]

One thing to check is whether plugging a cable into the jack makes the tip connection ground out.
It was a switchcraft jack, and plugging in a cable flexed the tip connection back into the cavity shielding.