Ok man, I think it's time you break down and take it to your local tech....this is getting to involved, and without the guitar in hand it is getting harder and harder to diagnose the problem. You'd probably be looking at less than $50.00 to have a tech look at it....worst case scenario would be a replacement. Sorry I couldn't help you more on this, but like I said, this is getting too involved and I don't want for you to mess up anything and cause a bigger problem.

Good luck.