Did I screw up my Blackout wiring?

M

memphiskat

New member
I put a Blackout set in my Jackson SLSMG. I noticed today that if I turn
down the volume pot on the guitar, and turn up my amp a little, I still get a signal out of my amp. It'll be relatively clean (lacking the distortion tone I had it set on, its a Roland Cube set on recto), but definitely present. Even more bizarre, if I then turn my tone knob down all the way the signal gets louder and regains some distortion. What the heck! I thought I had it wired up right. The only thing I wasn't sure about was the input jack. This is an older SLSMG that had passive EMGs and I originally had the battery ground just soldered to the ground on the tone pot housing. But then I changed it to put the battery ground to the unused short tab on the input jack (so it would save battery life and inactivate when I unplugged from the jack) as it appeared to be identical to the stereo jack pics I saw online. It's definitely a ground as I checked and the pickups played when connected here. So should I get a signal with the volume turned all the way down. Anybody have these and can check that, and if they do get a signal, does it get louder when you turn the tone pot down.

Karl
 
Re: Did I screw up my Blackout wiring?

If its wired correctly, there's no malfunction of the pup itself that can cause that symptom. Usually, what you have is caused by not having a good ground on the volume pot. I mean, the ground lug of the volume pot. If it was me, I'd run a dedicated wire from the volume pot ground lug to the ground lug of the output jack, rather than trying to rely on the connection from the back of the volume pot casing.
 
Re: Did I screw up my Blackout wiring?

Artie, thanks, I'll give it a shot. The big question is..."if it's wired correctly" :-)
I'm really wondering about the battery connection to the input jack. I compared the input jack on the guitar to pictures of similar stereo jacks and it looks identical. The problem is the input jack is the barrel type so you can't just replace it with the standard stereo jack that comes with most actives- it won't fit the route. I'll try running the extra ground wire. Thanks again!

karl
 
Re: Did I screw up my Blackout wiring?

YOU WERE RIGHT!!!!!!

I've learned to test these things with a wire before soldering, so I still have to solder the wire this afternoon, but it worked. I placed a wire between the ground on the input jack and the ground lug on the volume pot with it turned down but still sending signal and poof, signal gone. Turned the pot up and got signal, down and silence. Thanks!

Karl
 
Re: Did I screw up my Blackout wiring?

Outstanding. And its a mistake you'll probably never make again. Maybe. ;)
 
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