anybody care to give us a run down on ways and how to use a multimeter
on our guitar projects?
examples:
how do you test a pup to tell if its not broken?
how do you test volume and tone controls to see if they are good?
can you test your guitar cables to see if there is a short?
anybody care to give step by step examples?

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63supro
"The good thing is in a club situation, most of the patrons are trashed and really can't tell the difference."

I use them to test my grounds. Set the meter to "ohm" and touch each of the leads to whatever I want to test the conductivity of. If its good the meter will read all the way up. I know you can use them to test pots and pickups as well. I have not done that though.

Testing cables with a multimeter.

Set the meter to the HFE setting, check that it bleeps or displays a 0 reading. (0 or O meaning open circuit)
Hit one probe to the sleeve of one jackplug and the other probe to the sleeve of the other jackplug. A beep or O/0 reading should appear. If not the ground wire is bad. Do the same with the tip, look for the same reading. Do the same but hit the sleeve of one plug and the tip of the other. It should read -. If you get a open reading the lead is bad, theres a bad connection shorting the thing.

Though to test cables I usually just plug one end into the amp. Grab the other end. If it hums and buzzes when I grab it, and doesn't when I let my thumb and fingers off it, it's good.

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No no and no

ok matt
say your testing the ground connected to your trem spring claw,
step by step how would you test that ground?

this site should have a "readers tech tips" section.
there is such a vast knowledge on here and one could read for days in that section and learn a lot.

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63supro
"The good thing is in a club situation, most of the patrons are trashed and really can't tell the difference."

and the trap has been sprung ladies and gent's lol.
i knew i could get your attention. lol
easier than i thought.
ok so what is the HFE setting?

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63supro
"The good thing is in a club situation, most of the patrons are trashed and really can't tell the difference."

hey niki

i just bought the 4th one down here on this link today.
not very good with them honestly, but its small enough to put in my guitar tools bag. just learning all the things i can do with them on my guitars.
look at it and blow up the pic on the link and tell me if you think its an ok meter for now please.

http://www.matcotools.com/Catalog/toolc ... ct=&page=2

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63supro
"The good thing is in a club situation, most of the patrons are trashed and really can't tell the difference."

Oh mate you want a pro on this, not me.
If I were to test the ground of my guitars wiring. I'd put the negative probe of the meter on the claw (as it's one end of that circuit) set for HFE and place the probe at various points of the rest of the guitars circuit (back of pots, sleeve of socket. etc). Listen for the beep.

Where it hits the hot side of that circuit (eg wherever the white wires of normal singlecoils wired normaly go), it won't beep it will probably give a resistance reading though. All the negative side should beep, I think. Never checked it.

One thing is for sure in my experience. Using the HFE/Connectivity setting of your meter is the easiest way to get to understand how they work. Everything else after that is just a measure of resistance or voltage, you may be able to measure more with em, but it's way above my kitchen table antics.

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No no and no

You can touch one lead (red or black) to any string and the other lead to the ground part of the plugin jack (side of plug). If the meter maxes out that would indicate that your "string - trem - spring - claw - wire to ground - ground to jack" is good. Don't forget to put a battery in your meter

matt

i just want to learn how to use these meters on guitar issues.
its better to learn this stuff than to pay someone else in my opinion.

niki
i dont think my meter has the beep function like you mentioned.
maybe after i get better with these dang things i'll get a nice fluke, but until then im stuck with the bottom of the line lol.

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63supro
"The good thing is in a club situation, most of the patrons are trashed and really can't tell the difference."

ok niki, we dont always agree but i do respect your opinions highly,
so who would be the pro on this on this forum?
(resets trap)

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63supro
"The good thing is in a club situation, most of the patrons are trashed and really can't tell the difference."

Hi waycooljr,

Using an ohm-meter would cover all of your needs. With each component disconnected from the circuit, the meter readings will be more accurate. You can check the components while still in the circuit, but you may get strange readings. Circuits with batteries are much different, I'll skip those for now.

-Check the resistance (ohms) of each pickup with a meter lead on each of the pickup solder connections, polarity doesn't matter. You should have a reading of somewhere between 5K ohms and 10K ohms, depending on the pickup. No reading would indicate an open pickup, zero or low reading would be a shorted pickup, both mean bad pickup.

-Check the resistance of a pot with a meter lead on each of the two outside terminals of the pot, the meter should read the rated value of the pot, example 250K. Then move one meter lead to the middle terminal, leaving the other lead on one outside terminal, and check the resistance while rotating the pot, it should vary from about zero to 250K ohms, for a 250K pot. Usually a bad pot will give no reading (open), or will read erratically while rotating.

-Check the resistance of a guitar cable for a short by putting one meter lead on the positive (tip), and one lead on the negative (sleeve) of the phone plug on one end of the cable, it should be open, infinite resistance, no reading (make sure that the other end of the cable isn't touching anything). Any resistance reading here means a short, bad cable. Also check the cable for an open by checking the resistance from tip to tip on each plug end, and from sleeve to sleeve, both readings should be a fairly low resistance, a few ohms (one meter lead on each plug end). No reading here indicates an open, bad cable.

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---> "The amp should be SWITCHED OFF AND UNPLUGGED before you do this!" <---

Por favor, disculpe mi español, no se llega a la práctica con mucha frecuencia.

My meter cost $5. Works just fine.

shim

thank you for stepping up like the other two on this topic.
the info already given will help plenty of us out should we choose to
learn andapply it. is there anythinjg else you can add to this post to give us more education on this subject? matt? niki?
if somebody would take a moment and hit the link above.
i bought the 4th one down in hope that this would be all i would need
for some time to come. will my choosen meter get me by or should i go for the fluke?

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63supro
"The good thing is in a club situation, most of the patrons are trashed and really can't tell the difference."

i knew i over paid lol.

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63supro
"The good thing is in a club situation, most of the patrons are trashed and really can't tell the difference."

waycooljr, i checked out your meter and it looks nice, I like the little cover and storage compartment for the leads. Just about any inexpensive VOM will be accurate enough for simple measurements on guitars and amps. The one that you chose should be just fine.

Man, I must type very slow, no one had responded when I started to post.

_________________
---> "The amp should be SWITCHED OFF AND UNPLUGGED before you do this!" <---

Por favor, disculpe mi español, no se llega a la práctica con mucha frecuencia.