Pickup wiring woes!

[andyg_prs]

So, after trying out a quite complicated design from another forum, I decided to implement the following, official Dimarzio design on my self-build strat. All dimarzio, neck Evolution, middle Cruiser, bridge ToneZone.



It seems simple enough. I have 2 audiolog push/push 500k pots. I couldn't see what cap value to use, and as it was on the tone wasn't sure it was doing so I took that lug straight to ground.

Initially the volume was off fully clockwise / on fully counterclockwise so I swapped the bottom and top lug connections on that pot.

Everything appears to work in the coil tap and ‘add bridge’ positions. Without the tap or add bridge selected, there is something very strange going on – in the neck position with the tone fully open, it mutes…..as soon as the pot is turned, even a little, the sound returns. It doesn’t do this in the other 5 way switch positions. The tone also seems to work more like a volume/phase control than a tone control with the neck selected.

I have tried swapping from the bottom to top lug on the tone pot but the issue is still there.

Also, the loudest position appears to be neck and middle humbuckers together....which is surprising as the middle humbucker alone is quite quiet.

I would have suspected a faulty tone pot, but in the other 5 way positions the tone operates normally turned to each extreme.

Do you have any ideas as I am really stumped and spent hours testing and re-checking all of the connections were correct.

Thanks,
Andy

[Demina]

Re: Pickup wiring woes!

I couldn't see what cap value to use, and as it was on the tone wasn't sure it was doing so I took that lug straight to ground.

I haven't really looked at your diagram or description of the problems yet, but this caught my eye right away. You are saying that you grounded the side of the tone pot that the capacitor is supposed to go to? You can't do that! If you don't know what you want to use just leave the cap out for now, remove the ground to that terminal and then troubleshoot the rest. The tone control will not do anything without a cap, but it will act like a poor (and backward) volume control if it's grounded.

Edit: OK, after looking at the diagram, all I can conclude is you've got something connected wrong (besides the tone cap issue). Exactly what, I don't know. You need to double check all the connections and make sure they are exactly as shown, and that you have the 5-way oriented properly (the terminal on the right in the diagram should be the one that connects to the moving contact on the switch in all positions). If you initially wired it exactly like the diagram, you should not have had to reverse the volume pot connections.

[andyg_prs]

Re: Pickup wiring woes!

I haven't really looked at your diagram or description of the problems yet, but this caught my eye right away. You are saying that you grounded the side of the tone pot that the capacitor is supposed to go to? You can't do that! If you don't know what you want to use just leave the cap out for now, remove the ground to that terminal and then troubleshoot the rest. The tone control will not do anything without a cap, but it will act like a poor (and backward) volume control if it's grounded.

Fantastic, this might be a quick win!

1. On that diagram it is the other side of the cap that goes to ground. I did try it with a 1000 and ~500 pf cap and I just got noise. I interpreted the diagram as lug to capacitor leg. Capacitor leg to casing of pot. Pot to earth. Did I do something wrong.

2. If I did exclude the cap, where would I take the ground lead to the jack socket connector from?

Thanks!
Andy

[Demina]

Re: Pickup wiring woes!

1. You interpreted right, but your description sounded like you connected the pot lug directly to the pot case

2. The jack ground would go to the same place it does without the cap, to the pot case. All grounds should go to the same place basically. While they don't have to be soldered together at one single point, it is good practice to do so to make sure you don't get ground loops. Just make sure that all pickup grounds, pot cases, pot ground lugs, capacitor grounds, metal plates, shielding and the bridge are ultimately connected to the ground lug on the jack. Common practice is to connect all the grounds to the volume pot, however I know this can be difficult with the push-pull switches on there.

The most common cap values for guitar are .047mfd (or .05) and .02 ( or .022).

Check the edit of my first post, because I think you have something else wrong there.

[andyg_prs]

Re: Pickup wiring woes!

I haven't really looked at your diagram or description of the problems yet, but this caught my eye right away. You are saying that you grounded the side of the tone pot that the capacitor is supposed to go to? You can't do that! If you don't know what you want to use just leave the cap out for now, remove the ground to that terminal and then troubleshoot the rest. The tone control will not do anything without a cap, but it will act like a poor (and backward) volume control if it's grounded.

Edit: OK, after looking at the diagram, all I can conclude is you've got something connected wrong (besides the tone cap issue). Exactly what, I don't know. You need to double check all the connections and make sure they are exactly as shown, and that you have the 5-way oriented properly (the terminal on the right in the diagram should be the one that connects to the moving contact on the switch in all positions). If you initially wired it exactly like the diagram, you should not have had to reverse the volume pot connections.

Unless it was some weird interaction of two pots trying to be volume controls....I'll sort out the cap to the tone pot first and then reverse the volume one!

Off I go now, wish me luck!

Thanks for your help!

[andyg_prs]

Re: Pickup wiring woes!

Unless it was some weird interaction of two pots trying to be volume controls....I'll sort out the cap to the tone pot first and then reverse the volume one!

Off I go now, wish me luck!

Thanks for your help!

So, thanks to your help, I got everything but the tone pot working....I've been using too thick gauge wire - I thought thick would equal but audio qualities but it is too thick and therefore hard to solder neatly / fit the wires in. I think I'll re-do the whole lot when I have time with more appropriate wire and hopefully everything will work....but let's see!

Cheers,
Andy