Hello guys and gals... Introduction & problem.

J

Jrex

New member
Hi, this is my 1st post so I'll introduce myself. I'm an active musician from TN (Just north of Knoxville). I play just about any style of music from blues to metal. See my equipment in my profile. Ok, now my problem. I just installed some Dave Mustaine LiveWires about 2 weeks ago, ironed out a few things and loved the sound. Lows, highs, mids, sustain, crunch, clean, it's all phenominal BUT.. When the bridge pup is selected at full volume and at idle (in other words, turned up with amp on with volume but not playing anything) I have a static noise or an interference of some sort. It's not completely obnoxious but it's there and getting on my nerves. It's not a hum but a static (hmm reminds me of ants crawling around in the pup) I never noticed it on my line 6 cause of the noise gate, but on my hotrod deville it's very apparent. I have it wired at 18 volts, using energizer industrial 9 volts (maybe that has something to do with it?) and I also resoldered everything thinking maybe it's a cold joint somewhere. The neck pup is completely silent and I have no noise at all while turning the volume and tone pots or using the selector switch? My setup is a Jackson dkmg with 2 volume and 1 tone with a 3-way selector. Could this be a defective pup? I still have about 1 month to return to musicians friend and get more... Any tips at all will be appreciated.. thnx

Jrex :scratchch
 
Re: Hello guys and gals... Introduction & problem.

Can't help, I'm waiting on my first set of actives myself. But welcome to the forum, it's great in here! :)
 
Re: Hello guys and gals... Introduction & problem.

Thanks for the welcome. I have found a lot of useful info so far. Gluck with your active set of pups when ya get em. Cheers! :friday:
 
Re: Hello guys and gals... Introduction & problem.

Welcome to the forum. You're kind of in Jolly-ville-land area..... Are you close to the old Guitar Heaven?
I would recheck solder and try a more standard battery setup to see if it changes. Just a thought.

-dave
 
Re: Hello guys and gals... Introduction & problem.

Thnx for the reply.. I actually just returned home from (Lord forgive me) Wal-Mart. So I went ahead and purchased some good old fashioned 9 volts. Gonna try that and see what happens. In regards to jollyville I'm actually in Campbell County which is probably about 70 miles from the Kentucky Virginia line. I love it in the mountains!!! Beautiful scenery and nice people. (And no it's not like deliverance contrary to popular belief?) :) Anywho.. I'll post back in a few, after I see what these batteries do..
 
Re: Hello guys and gals... Introduction & problem.

welcome!

first check - different lead, see if the problem stops!
second check - wiggle everything inside the guitar. one solder joint might look weak.
third check - check out your switch - if one position on the switch is dodgy, maybe some solder is bridging to ground from dripping in?

keep us posted!
 
Re: Hello guys and gals... Introduction & problem.

OK.. I just redone all the solder.. even at the input jack. Changed batteries and it still has that slight crackle at volume while idle? There might be a possibility that my selector is bad (thnx for tip Imp). I'm not good with selectors, I have actually looked at a few online and they all look different than mine? Mine has 8 connectors in a row on top and is square and sealed. I would replace it if I could find it. Any tips? Also - does it matter where on each pot that I ground the pups? I know the bridge pup grounds to bridge volume etc... but I noticed on the diagram that they ground the pups to the empty pot connectors then to the pot itself for each corresponding pickup? I thought a ground was a ground but maybe thats my problem? I have the empty connector on each pot grounded independently and then the pups grounded to the pot in another spot along with the chain grounds running from pot to pot. Sorry, I can solder pretty good but I'm not the best at guitar electronics (as you can tell). BTW Thanks for all the help guys!
 
Re: Hello guys and gals... Introduction & problem.

I was kind of wondering if there was a problem with the the volume pot. It might be interesting to switch the pots and see what happens. Or... take the pots out of the picture and go direct. You could do the same with the switch - or wire the offending pickup directly to output and see what it does. If it still hums, send it back.
 
Re: Hello guys and gals... Introduction & problem.

Yes.. I will try this, I'll take neck pup out of picture and wire my bridge pup to the necks pot.. Good Idea RW! SO, off to work for now. I'll post my results after I get home tonight. Thanks
 
Re: Hello guys and gals... Introduction & problem.

Update! So, here's what's new (other than screwing up my bridge volume pot)... I took the neck pickup out of the picture completely, wired the bridge pup to the necks initial pot (which is completely silent with the neck pup), and still got static or crackle with bridge pup? SO, I took the 2nd battery out of picture and wired up 9 volt to see what happens, same static like crackle? I don't know what else to do? Tomorrow I'm going to eliminate the bridge pup and wire neck pup back in and see if it's silent just to satisfy myself! This way I'm using exactly the same wiring and pot for each pup. The bad thing is - is that I know the neck pup is going to be silent because all I've basically done is unwired it and wired it back up again? Son of a motherless goat this is agitating? Well, if neck pup turns up silent tomorrow I'll be calling musicians friend for an exchange. Thats all I know to do? Problem is I broke a connector off of one of the pots! Maybe it will be ok with them since I was troubleshooting? Wish me luck!
 
Re: Hello guys and gals... Introduction & problem.

Disconnect the bridge pickup and output jack from the pots/switch and connect the bridge pickup directly to the output jack. If you still get the noise then you have a problem with the pickup.

If you bought the pickup new from an authorized SD dealer you can 21 day return it for a replacement.
 
Re: Hello guys and gals... Introduction & problem.

Robert S. said:
Disconnect the bridge pickup and output jack from the pots/switch and connect the bridge pickup directly to the output jack. If you still get the noise then you have a problem with the pickup.

If you bought the pickup new from an authorized SD dealer you can 21 day return it for a replacement.
Click to expand...

Ok, I'll try this approach because it seems to bypass everything but, I do not know how to wire straight to the jack? Red: white: bare: red goes to battery, where does the white and bare go on the stereo jack? I think I know, bare to ground and white to center lug. I'll try..
 
Re: Hello guys and gals... Introduction & problem.

Ok, now I just wired bridge pup straight to the jack, and I still have static at idle? I also wired the neck pup straight to the jack: Silent as can be (except your normal slight hiss while at volume)? Maybe this is normal for the bridge pup? Like I said earlier in post, it's not overbearing but if your a sound guru then you can here this static at idle. I just don't want to go through the mess of sending these back for an exchange just to have the same results? I've tried different amps in different rooms of the house also so I don't think it's anything in the house lead? I'm going to try a couple more cables just to be sure on that and then I'm done with this. :angryfire :angryfire :angryfire
 
Re: Hello guys and gals... Introduction & problem.

Welcome to the forum. I'm afraid I'm useless in regard to your problem but you seem like a cool guy and I hope you stick around.

This is the best guitar-related forum on the internet.
 
Re: Hello guys and gals... Introduction & problem.

sosomething said:
Welcome to the forum. I'm afraid I'm useless in regard to your problem but you seem like a cool guy and I hope you stick around.

This is the best guitar-related forum on the internet.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the warm welcome! I really like this forum so far. These guys have helped a lot on helping me diagnose this problem. Well I have actually finished with the troubleshooting. I wired the bridge pup back direct and tried different cables and still have that faint crackle? All I can say now is that I have a bad pup or it's normal for this setup and I'll have to live with it! *exhausted* :(
 
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