Is you're amp grounded?IS YOU'RE HOUSE GROUNDED?Do all you're guitars buzz?

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The ground and hot wires are soldered to their correct position, inner jack and outer rim respectively. Some people suggested that there would be grounding issues where I live, but I'm fairly certain that it isn't true. It was working fine 4 months ago before I swapped the 5 way switch, after that it was buzzing.

Does the switch need to be grounded

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My understanding is that essentially everything needs to be grounded. The purpose of ground wires is that they allow the signal to travel in a complete circuit without any stops. Correct?

And I gave up on mine. After three failed wiring attempts, I just dropped it off at Sam Ash and basically said, "You fix it." ha.

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There's more to grounding than just bringing the signal out in a guitar. It also blocks 120hz noise (double line frequency) from stuff around you like lights, etc.

Things you can do to reduce noise......

any signal/ground combination wires in the pick guard, twist them. This helps reject noise. This includes the output jack.

If you did not get a brand new output jack, get one. Corrosion, once started can be impossible to remove enough to get a good enough contact. Where you think you have a ground, you have a high impedance path which helps to channel in noise. I just replaced a perfectly good jack on a 1969 guitar that I've had since new. Went from a complete buzz bomb to a nice quiet, usable guitar.

If you want to go further in your diy noise reduction, first, I assume that the PG has an aluminum patch under the controls. If it doesn't, get one (either aluminum or copper tape). While you're at it, line the control cavity with that tape and solder a line to go to the trem claw.

Sometimes the system is the cause of the noise. As mentioned, have you tried another guitar in the same system? I've had wiring problems where I am plugging into the show venue's equipment and could not get rid of the noise. I use a digital wireless guitar transmitter to completely break any connection so there is positively no ground loop problems being caused by my guitar.

Some guitars have a coil for capturing ambient noise and feeding it in to the signal to cancel ambient noise being picked up by the pickups.....but if your guitar does not already have this setup, it's not really a diy kind of solution (unless you do like I did and buy a complete system).

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2002 mim Telecaster
Jimmie Vaughan Stratocaster
Mexican HSS Stratocaster
6 non-fender guitars
2 kids (not for sale)
1 wife (uh....no comment)

Jack, It's definitely just this one guitar. My other axes work fine. All of the parts in this guitar are brand new as well. The pickguard has an aluminum patch where the electronics go. I thought about shielding the entire cavity, but I'm using humbuckers.

So what you're suggesting is to twist together any wires at the connection to the back of a pot? (That are meant to connect there)

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Try this!!! http://www.fender.com/community/forums/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=53915

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I LIKE PIE!!!!!

IF I DO SOMETHING STUPID,DON'T SAY A WORD...

The easiest one is the set of wires from the pot out to the output jack. Easy to twist nice and tight. You might have to replace the wires to get the length, but that's an easy fix. I did a complete change of pots, switch, pickups on one guitar and initially had buzzing. I ended up twisting any set of wires.....even between the switch and pot as best I could. At the least, get the wires as close together as possible. Noise gets into loops of wire, so by putting the signal and ground wires really close, the effective loop is smaller. Twisting makes the wires approach 90 degrees, which would 100% cancel noise entering the wires. For shielded wires going to the pickups, you don't have much exposed wire to worry about, but putting them close together helps.

You could also try other amps in other places. I've brought my guitars into a Guitar Center, saying that I want to try an amp with my guitar. If it's quiet on their amp, then you know the guitar is ok.

Yes, I'm an engineer

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2002 mim Telecaster
Jimmie Vaughan Stratocaster
Mexican HSS Stratocaster
6 non-fender guitars
2 kids (not for sale)
1 wife (uh....no comment)