I recently wired some new pickups into a guitar but am finding there is a lot of (a lot more than with my non-project guitar) unwanted buzz when i'm not touching the strings or bridge/tuners etc.

Is this just the amp (crate combo) making things seem worse? as its better in my mates fender deville, or is it more likely to be a problem with my grounding/wires used. It noticably worse on the neck pickup too....

Whilst i'm here,
1. my pots crackle - does this indicate that they're porbably old? - if it does i'll have a bone to pick with an ebayer.....
2. My tone pot is extremely uresponsive for 9/10ths of its motion, and cuts all highs out after that. Do i need to consider a different capacitor? its got a pretty standard 223 in at the moment.....

Cheers for any advice you have.