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Hey All,
I picked up a pair of 4-lead 59's for my SG, and tried to wire them up each up with a coil-split option. I used the schematics from this site, entitled: "2 Hum, 2 Vol, 2 Tone, 3-way switch with coil split". I noticed in that diagram that only the bridge was shown as split, while the neck was just the simple traditional way. I wired both the same way, utilizing the bridge pot design for both pups to be split. so far so good??
The guitar barely works now, and I am hoping to see if anyone can help me troubleshoot before I tear it all out and start over. I have 3 basic problems. They may all be related, or not. All comments below apply to both pups, as they are both behaving the same way, so I'm hoping there's some obvious symptom here that one of you experts can pick up on and save me from starting over.
1- In its current state, the output volume is seriously low. I already adjusted pups to near-ideal height, and that helped them somewhat, but I really think I have a problem here. I can't imagine that the 59's are less than half the volume of the gibson 490's that I replaced.
2 - Tone sweep is not functioning. it doesn't matter whether its at 10 or 0, it all sounds the same. Also, sound is very "raw", with little or no overtones, shimmer, sparkle or what have you.
3- coil split switch is not functioning . There is no difference is tone or output when the pot switch is in or out.
In case this factors in to your diagnosis, you should know that I upgraded all 4 pots to 500, from the stock 300ish gibbys. I left the original (.22?) caps in there for now, as I wanted to objectively notice the changes from the pup upgrade before I confused the issue with simultaneous cap swap as well. The volumes are standard cts, and the tone pots are "mini-push-push" type, which were unbranded, but came in a generic all-parts package . The leads on these things are tiny as heck, and I think I've done a clean job in there.
I've already inspected all contacts with a magnifying glass, and they all look solid. I have moderate level soldering skills, and in the past, I have successfully changed pots, fixed jacks and cable leads, and replaced capacitors in other guitar projects. However, I've never taken on a double hummer coil split schematic before. I know the ultimate solution is to rip it out and start over, but I'm naturally hoping to avoid that, as it took me close to 4 hours to work though it all. So if there's any direction you can point me in before it comes to that, please help me now...
regards,
sabe
I picked up a pair of 4-lead 59's for my SG, and tried to wire them up each up with a coil-split option. I used the schematics from this site, entitled: "2 Hum, 2 Vol, 2 Tone, 3-way switch with coil split". I noticed in that diagram that only the bridge was shown as split, while the neck was just the simple traditional way. I wired both the same way, utilizing the bridge pot design for both pups to be split. so far so good??
The guitar barely works now, and I am hoping to see if anyone can help me troubleshoot before I tear it all out and start over. I have 3 basic problems. They may all be related, or not. All comments below apply to both pups, as they are both behaving the same way, so I'm hoping there's some obvious symptom here that one of you experts can pick up on and save me from starting over.
1- In its current state, the output volume is seriously low. I already adjusted pups to near-ideal height, and that helped them somewhat, but I really think I have a problem here. I can't imagine that the 59's are less than half the volume of the gibson 490's that I replaced.
2 - Tone sweep is not functioning. it doesn't matter whether its at 10 or 0, it all sounds the same. Also, sound is very "raw", with little or no overtones, shimmer, sparkle or what have you.
3- coil split switch is not functioning . There is no difference is tone or output when the pot switch is in or out.
In case this factors in to your diagnosis, you should know that I upgraded all 4 pots to 500, from the stock 300ish gibbys. I left the original (.22?) caps in there for now, as I wanted to objectively notice the changes from the pup upgrade before I confused the issue with simultaneous cap swap as well. The volumes are standard cts, and the tone pots are "mini-push-push" type, which were unbranded, but came in a generic all-parts package . The leads on these things are tiny as heck, and I think I've done a clean job in there.
I've already inspected all contacts with a magnifying glass, and they all look solid. I have moderate level soldering skills, and in the past, I have successfully changed pots, fixed jacks and cable leads, and replaced capacitors in other guitar projects. However, I've never taken on a double hummer coil split schematic before. I know the ultimate solution is to rip it out and start over, but I'm naturally hoping to avoid that, as it took me close to 4 hours to work though it all. So if there's any direction you can point me in before it comes to that, please help me now...
regards,
sabe
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