How do I install a trim pot to lower the output of my Neck Pickup?

[Pcor]

I have a Jazzmaster with some new Noiseless pickups I just bought from a major highly rated boutique pick up manufacturer... The neck pickup is 30% louder than the bridge and middle position. I want to add a trim pot to the neck pickup - find the sweet spot then leave it in the guitar. I have tried switching the pickups, raising and lowering to no avail. It's got 500 K volume and tone pots.

Does anyone know which trim pot to get (on Amazon) and how to wire it up?

[ArtieToo]

Hey Pcor. Welcome to the forum. A "trim pot" is nothing more than a smaller volume control. There's no good way to implement it into the guitar that won't change the tonal character of the pup. I'm not trying to tell you spend more money, but you simply need to find the pup combination that works for you. Sorry. Trim pots won't do it.

But wait for other opinions.

[Dave Locher]

Not to ask the obvious, but since you posted very little info...
did you try raising the bridge pickup close to the strings and lowering the neck pickup down from the strings to balance the volume?
Are you positive your pickup selector switch is good? A dirty or worn one will cause volume drop, in this case for the bridge and middle settings. Try temporarily hooking up a wire to bypass the switch and see what happens.
Are you certain the wiring is good?

Forgive me if this is all elementary to you, but it's always best to rule out simple problems first and you didn't mention any of these things.

[Jack_TriPpEr]

Hey Pcor. Welcome to the forum. A "trim pot" is nothing more than a smaller volume control. There's no good way to implement it into the guitar that won't change the tonal character of the pup. I'm not trying to tell you spend more money, but you simply need to find the pup combination that works for you. Sorry. Trim pots won't do it.

But wait for other opinions.

Hey Artie,

What about rewiring the current Master Volume as a Bridge pup only volume control, to mitigate the double-loading issues caused by adding the trimpot to the Neck pup? As long as OP is ok with losing Master Volume functionality .... an additional option here is wiring those 2 volumes in Independent fashion.

[Jack_TriPpEr]

Not to ask the obvious, but since you posted very little info...
did you try raising the bridge pickup close to the strings and lowering the neck pickup down from the strings to balance the volume?
Are you positive your pickup selector switch is good? A dirty or worn one will cause volume drop, in this case for the bridge and middle settings. Try temporarily hooking up a wire to bypass the switch and see what happens.
Are you certain the wiring is good?

Forgive me if this is all elementary to you, but it's always best to rule out simple problems first and you didn't mention any of these things.

I agree that the existing soldering connections should be verified as well as using a meter to check that that the pots and jack are all in good order.

e.g. unless the Bridge and Neck pups are similar in output rating, there should have been a noticeable change in that volume disparity after OP swapped places btw Neck and Bridge pups... yet OP wrote the volume disparity was the same in either configuration.

[Clint 55]

Take a bar magnet and force the like pole towards the neck pickup's poles to degauss it a bit.

[Erlend_G]

Personally, I don't think the "trim pot" idea is too bad? :o

Using a resistor in series is going to affect the sound somewhat- the same thing that happens when you turn down the master volume control.

But if that is OK with you, I think a 50k (? just to be sure?) variable resistor, in series with the hot wire- (if it has three lugs- one lug to ground... like a normal volume pot) will do the trick. It doesn't cost more than 1-3 dollars, (i think), so it's worth a try .

good luck

-Erl

[Erlend_G]

Another idea I had- if the pickup set is so, that the middle pickup is RP/RW, and the neck and bridge ones can be exchanged-

maybe the louder pickup (the neck one?) would work better in the bridge position, and vice versa?

Have you measured the DC resistance of all the pickups?

-E

[Mincer]

Is the neck pickup supposed to be that much louder than the bridge pickup? If it isn't, I'd contact the maker, and maybe they can take some turns of wire off, unless that is there by design.