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Doug Carpenter
04-05-2011, 9:47 PM
My son got an electric guitar that needs a little help.

We bout strings for it and no sound comes out when it is plugged in to the amp.

It is a c. e. martin stinger ssl-10

I opened it up and found a red wire not connected. for the life of me I can't find where it was attached.

This model has two single pick ups and one humbucker. It also has a volume control two tone controls a 5 way. it also has a mystery toggle that I thought is for distortion or something.

Can anybody help with a wiring diagram. I have looked on the net but I can't find a diagram with that extra toggle switch.

Perhaps I need a good direction for diagnosing the electrical problems too.

Thanks, Doug

John Coloccia
04-05-2011, 10:12 PM
I'm not too familiar with the Stingers, but let's start simple. Do you get no sound ever when all of the knobs are turned all the way up (everything is turned fully clockwise) and tried in all pickup positions? If you get absolutely no sound, and assuming it's wired like a strat (which is what it resembles) then there's a good chance that the red wire goes from either:

1) center lug on volume pot to the center contact of the output jack
2) the pickup selector to the left lug of the volume pot

I say that because there are only two single points of failure I can think of that will utgterly kill the guitar output in all positions AND would be appropriate to wire with a red wire.

The single toggle is almost certainly a "coil tap" for the humbucker. It's sort of a misnomer as it's not really a traditional coil tap, but that's what we call it when you take a humbucker and switch out one of the coils so it essentially turns into a single coil. Sometimes it's wired so that it will connect the two coils in parallel instead of series. At this point, though, I would ignore that. You need to get that red wire hooked up.

John Coloccia
04-05-2011, 10:25 PM
I'll also mention that a very common place for a wire to break is the output jack. They have a tendency to come loose. When they do, they twist around and bust off wires. If I had to bet money. I would bet that you only have one wire going to your output jack. The second most common place for a wire to break loose is on the volume and/or tone controls (and often the volume because it's used the most), for the same reason. The control gets loose and starts to twist, and one of the wires breaks off.

If you want, you can take a picture of the wiring, post it here and I'll be happy to try and figure out what goes where and what that extra switch is doing for you.

Doug Carpenter
04-06-2011, 9:07 AM
The red wire that come from the pick up selector was connected to the selector but broken off at the other end.

I took a guess and soldered it to the right port on the volume pot. I will disconnect it and solder it to the left lug and see what happens.

Here is a picture but it is hard to tell from the pic. Fortunately the wire is really short so I think there is a limited set of choices but it certainly isn't clear where it broke off.

Doug Carpenter
04-06-2011, 9:48 AM
John,

I have sound. It seems the 5 way switch is a little loose. I get static when it is in some positions.

You can wiggle the switch a little and get it to work.

Are these worth replacing?

John Coloccia
04-06-2011, 10:04 AM
You can try contact cleaner in the switch and then blow it out with compressed air. They oxidize and stop working from non-use. Often times, just blowing them out and moving the switch back and forth vigourously can bring it back to life. The next step would be contact cleaner, though use some paper towels to keep it off the pickguard. Beyond that, they're cheap and easy to replace. If yours is loose, you can sometimes sneak something in there and bend the wiper so it makes better contact.

That extra switch looks like a standard coil split (or what everyone calls a coil tap). It should turn off one of the humbucker coils, giving you a thinner sound similar to a standard single coil at the expensive of a little noise.

Glad you have sound. Before you reassemble it, get all the pots and the output jack snugged up well so they can't turn and break again :)
The guy you bought it from probably snugged them all up just before selling it, and that's usually when it breaks because everyone's too lazy to pop off the pick guard and do it right (i.e. do it without letting the pot turn!).

Doug Carpenter
04-06-2011, 10:08 AM
Thanks for your help John. It was in the basement of a house my brother bought. It was a freebee. It probrably sufferes from non use more than anything else.

Doug