Wiring Questions/help

[Gtrjunior]

I recently put a Custom 8 bridge and a Bluesbucker neck set into my Les Paul. I have the BB wired to coil split.
I seldom use the middle position but last night while playing I noticed it was OOP. It is especially noticeable on the clean channel.

So today, I flipped the hot and ground of the Dimarzio and it fixed the OOP.
BUT now when I engage with the coil split there is a huge drop in volume and power. It’s not a good sound. Lol
When I originally bought the guitar it had the circuit board and I replaced it with regular parts. I had it done at a local shop. This was back before I felt confident enough to do it myself.
I looked on the Duncan site at the wiring diagrams and noticed my guitar was not wired the same as the diagram. I know there are usually a variety of ways to wire something but now since it’s not working right, I’m thinking maybe it’s time to start over and rewire it myself.

1) any ideas what might cause the very noticeable drop in volume and power in the Bluesbucker?

2) if I replace the tone pots all I can find online is audio taper push/pulls....is that what would he recommended for tone pots?
The volume pots are only a few months old and they are working fine.

3) are Duncans and Dimarzios usually OOP with each other? I thought that was usually a Fender/Duncan thing?
I did swap the A8 mag into the Custom but I’m pretty sure I oriented it correctly.... and that said, I’ve made mistakes before and this sure won’t be the last one I make...

Any thought on what might be happening would be appreciated guys!

Thanks!!

[Gtrjunior]

Just had a thought.
Maybe I should put the Dimarzio wiring back and flip the Duncan.
The Bluesbucker has sort of a “dummy coil” to keep the pickup humbucking while still approaching the p90 type sound.
Maybe since I flipped the BB wiring it is now splitting to the dummy coil?

[GuitarDoc]

Just had a thought.
Maybe I should put the Dimarzio wiring back and flip the Duncan.
The Bluesbucker has sort of a “dummy coil” to keep the pickup humbucking while still approaching the p90 type sound.
Maybe since I flipped the BB wiring it is now splitting to the dummy coil?

I was going to suggest that same thing. Since you're not splitting the C8, that's the one that I would flip.

You can get away with flipping the DMZ pup, but then you'd also have to reverse the wiring to split to the other coil. Might as well keep it simple and flip the pup that isn't getting split.

[Gtrjunior]

Just saw this reply....for some reason I didn’t get a notification. Thank you


Well, since I posted this I tinkered around a little too much in the guitar and now I have a horrendous grounding issue at the jack. I’ve tried every combination there is and can’t seem to figure it out.

I thought it might be good time to clean up the messy wiring and start over fresh again.
I’m he issue I’m having now is that I’m seeing a few discrepancies in wiring diagrams online.
Some show the tone pot being grounded to itself by soldering a lug to the back and other diagrams do not show this.

Secondly some diagrams show the tone cap solders between the vol and tone pots and others show it soldered only on the tone pot.


What I wanted to do was run the bridge pickup with modern wiring and the neck pickup with 50’s wiring and wired to split to the screw coil.

Any help with this would be appreciated.


I’m also going to rewire the connections from the switch to the jack.
The wire bundle coming from the switch has 4 wires plus a bare ground. The bare ground is taped off.
So one wires go to the middle lug of each volume pot, bridge and neck respectively.
Another goes to the jacks hot and I’m not sure where to ground the last wire. Does it go to the jack or should I use a common ground and then run another ground off the jack back into the control cavity and ground it on another pot?

If I wire it that he jack, do I still need to run another ground back to the cavity to complete the circuit?

[Gtrjunior]

Anyone?

[beaubrummels]

Whether the cap is between the volume and tone, or between the tone and ground is irrelevant - it will electrically do the same thing the same way. If the cap is between the volume and tone, you'll need to ground a pot lug. If the cap is between the tone lug and ground, you don't. (I've even clipped the unused lug before.)

[Gtrjunior]

Whether the cap is between the volume and tone, or between the tone and ground is irrelevant - it will electrically do the same thing the same way. If the cap is between the volume and tone, you'll need to ground a pot lug. If the cap is between the tone lug and ground, you don't. (I've even clipped the unused lug before.)

Thanks...I found the ground issue this morning before I had to leave for work.
This coming weekend I’m going to start over with the wiring and completely shield the cavity an NEATLY solder it all up again.