i'm rewiring a les paul for a friend of mine, going from active pickups back to single conductor passives, i've got it to where i get sound from all 3 switch positions, but if it's on the neck or middle setting i get a hum that starts as soon as i touch anything metal on the guitar, can anyone help me track down my problem, seems like it's gotta be something simple i'm just overlooking, but i've looked it over and can't see anything wrong with it

there is a bunch of sites that show the wiring for just about any type of guitar setup.  just google  something like "guitar wiring" or "Les Paul wiring"  several sites should come up..

see that's the thing i've looked it up and it's wired like it should be, i think i must just have a bad ground somewhere cause like i said it's fine unless it's on the neck or neck and bridge settings, and then whenever i touch anything metallic i get a pop and hiss

did you ground the bridge ? areyour going to single coils. or humbuckers with one hot and a ground ?Check  the grounds on everything you may have to run a ground wire to the bridge and solder it back into the ground on one of the pots. If you are going with single coils you will need to shield the cavity area. with shield tape too.

i grounded the bridge, and it's humbuckers with single conductor wire ie there's braided wire on the outisde of the hotwire, and you use the braids as your ground, the guy had already done part of it and decided he couldn't finish it and asked me to do it, i'm wondering if maybe he cold soldered one of the few grounds that he did

for sh!te'z and grinz..  run a seperate common
ground following the same exact path as the
standard ground.. make sure you get everything
from the switch to the jack.. (yes the bridge too)
I have owned my share of lp's and twice I have
had to run a second common ground...  hope
this helps.... cause the next thing would be to look
at your cables and their shielded grounds...

blessings,

bluey