Fix electric guitar wiring by following this simple step by step guide.
Find a clean, well-lighted surface free from dust. Place your guitar in a position where you can easily access the main body cavity, where the wiring you will fix is located. Depending on your model of guitar, this will either be under the pickguard, such as on a Fender Stratocaster, or behind a removable panel on the back of the guitar, such as on Les Paul models and their clones.
Run your fingers along each of the wires slowly and carefully. If your guitar has simply stopped responding, or doesn't produce any sound when switched between certain pickups, the problem can be in a few different places. The most likely culprit is the wiring headed toward the instrument cable input. These wires can easily become broken or twisted out of place as the guitar is moved and cables are often quickly pushed in and out, or twisted around. The same goes for your volume and tone pots. If the pots themselves have gone bad, more intensive repairs are necessary, which are best left to a professional. But it is likely that the problem will simply be a wire that has broken free at one end from its intended connection.
Use a wire stripping tool, or a pocket knife if you do not have a wire stripper, to strip about 3/4 inch of the plastic casing protecting the wire. This is about the time you should plug in your soldering iron, and have lead-free solder at ready while the soldering iron heats up. While stripping the wire, especially if you are using a blade, make sure not to cut the very fine threads. If these become scored or uneven, your problem will likely come back.
Set your soldering iron down on a surface where the tip can sit free in the air, then let the hot metal cool down hard. Leave it for several minutes before you attempt to move anything around. Carefully plug a cable into the guitar's instrument cable input and into an amplifier. The idea is to test out your repair to see if you have isolated the problem, before you start closing things back up. If you get a tone and your guitar has full functionality again, give yourself a pat on the back. You have fixed the problem and saved a good bit of money in the process. If not, carefully search for any more broken or frayed wires. If there is none, you will likely need to take your guitar into a professional, as further repairs are beyond the scope of the average hobbyist.