3 way toggle gone bad?

[jimmbo]

Hi folks,
Got a situation here that is driving me batty!:eyecrazy:
I am putting SD Distortion pickups in my brother's SG. With the previous set in the guitar, My bro was complaining that the neck pickup had TONS of volume and the bridge was barely audible.I got to hear this for myself before I put the new p'ups in. After wiring the SDs in, it STILL has the same problem. I checked with the wiring diagram posted here on the site,everything is wired the way it should be. WHERE do you folks recommend I start looking at some things? The bridge controls? The three way?(BTW, the switch does feel a little flimsy).
I don't know if this is of any importance or not, but aside from the VERY low volume level coming out of the bridge pickup, The tone control has VERY minimal effect on the tone as well.

As always, Thank you very much in advance for the help!:cool2:

 

[hamerfan]

Re: 3 way toggle gone bad?

You have to check the whole wiring from the connection of the pup to the volume pot, tone pot and the lead to the toggle. It could be every part, but the most likely are the pots. Play a cord and let ring while you turn the pots. This could give you a hint.

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: 3 way toggle gone bad?

Something is shorting to ground.

Could be the three-way selector touching screening materials in its cavity. Could be a braided pickup screen touching a pot contact. The Bridge PU tone control can hardly be expected to filterl off treble frequencies from a signal that has already been robbed away somewhere else within the circuit.

 

[jimmbo]

Re: 3 way toggle gone bad?

Sounds good,fellas! I'm going to be going through EVERY circuit with a fine tooth comb here in a few minutes. Should be interesting in what I find!

 

[DrNewcenstein]

Re: 3 way toggle gone bad?

You really need jumper leads for this.

Start by disconnecting everything - pots, pickups, switch - then connect each pickup directly to the jack. That will eliminate the pickups and jack being bad.

Next, connect each pickup to its respective volume pot - no Tone pot - then to the jack. That rules out the Volume pots.

Add the Tone pot, then run those to the jack.

If that's all good, connect each signal path (pickups->Volume->Tone) to the switch, then the switch to the jack.