Dad3353

Good evening... Difficult to do this at a distance, but I'll try. I think you'd be best off working backwards from the jack. Un-solder the wire going to the jack and touch it to the amp input jack. Do you get a sound from any of the pick-ups..? Go through each switch position, any sound at all, or nothing..? If there's at least some sound, check carefully how the guitar output jack should be wired, and connect again the wire you took off. If there's still nothing, un-solder the wire from the volume pot, coming from the switch. Same test. If sound, check the pot and its connections. If nothing, disconnect one, then the other, tone pots. Sound..? Check the tone pot connections. No sound..? Check the switch connections. In general, I'd not be at all happy with solder joints like that. I don't want to discourage, and you're doubtless doing your best, but it's so easy to overheat and melt the inner wire, causing a short-circuit, very difficult to see. I can't do much to help with that except recommend using a decent iron (a Weller station is a Good Purchase...), to carefully strip the wires cleanly, and 'tin' them straight away. Don't 'pigtail' too tightly the outer braid; leave a bit of play where it separates from the inner core, and make sure that the outer is not heated for too long when tinning. It may pay to use a good flux paste for the braids and pot shielding; just make sure that it's flux for electronics, and not acid-based, such as used by plumbers. Hope this helps a little. Any more issues will need the use of a multi-meter (always a Good Purchase, too..!).

The hum doesn't come from the instrument, really, it's coming from the environment, but is picked up by the guitar pick-ups, then amplified. The Gibson (and maybe the other, successful...) guitars have 'humbucking' pick-ups; that term tells us something. Their pick-ups have been so designed and made to pick up hum twice (with double coils...), then cleverly have one of these signals cancel out the other. The hum you cured was picked up, not by the pick-up, but from the cabling and switch stuff which, once shielded, picked up the hum no more. The Tele, on the other hand, has single -coil pick-ups, designed and made precisely to pick up electrical signals from the magnetic field around the strings, but also any other stray hum, without distinction, nor this clever method of cancelling. That's why shielding, so efficient on the other guitars, won't help the Tele, unless you shield the pick-ups, in which case they won't pick up the strings..! Two solutions, really. The first is to swap out the Tele pick-ups for single-coil-shaped humbuckers. You'll lose the hum, but will no longer have that delicious 'Tele' twang, and they're not cheap. The other is to track down the source of the hum (electrical fittings such as halogen or neon lighting, or light dimmer switches, some transformers... The list is long...). This can sometimes be aided by stalking around with the guitar, offering it up to all points in the room, trying to find where the hum is loudest. Not always easy, nor successful. We have a six-string bass with 'J'-type pick-ups (and so single-coil...) which picks up hum when too close to the bass amp (a valve Hiwatt, so huge transformers...). Turning the amp off cures the hum, but leaves the bass with much lower volume..! D'oh..! Hope this helps.

Jerry Garcia (Grateful Dead...) Jorma Kaukonen (Jefferson Airplane...) Richard Thomson (Fairport Convention...) ... and many more, but those three set me off, back then.

Good afternoon, Patrick , and ... Plenty to read and amuse you here, and lots to learn and share.

With an instrument like this, it would be wise to take it to a reputable, competent luthier, to have it inspected, repaired/restored if necessary, and set up for how you'll be playing it. Think of it, not as a cost, but as an investment, as the guitar will be good for another half a century or so. It's quite normal for any quality instrument to benefit from a check-up now and again. A good workman will know exactly what to look for, and how to remedy any flaws. Just my tuppence-worth; hope this helps.

A topic for photos of folks' Builds. I'll start it off with a photo of the guitar built by Our Eldest, and finished (but are they ever really finished..?) the other day. It plays well, too... Over to you, then; show us your Builds...