HELP!!! WIRING ISSUES SSH STRAT W PEARLY GATES @ BRIDGE

Longboarder

Longboarder

New member
Recently did some rewiring on a Strat. This guitar had a set of Dimarzio Area Pickups and a Mojotone Blender wiring, for those who are familiar with it. It was working alright, but I had a Bridge Seymour Pearly Gates on another guitar and wanted to try it on the strat. I'm no pro, but have done my share of wiring on different guitar projects.
Replaced the pickguard for an SSH and replaced the existing bridge pup with the Pearly Gates LEAVING ALL THE REST OF THE WIRING AS IT WAS. When I tested, the pups worked OK individually but when on position 2 using the bridge and mid, sound dropped to very thin and weak. ANY IDEA WHAT IS GOING ON HERE????
Same happened while @ Bridge position and I engaged the blender pot to blend in the Neck with the Bridge. Rechecked and all wiring seemed right. THe RED wires on the Dimarzio pups and the Black from the Pearly Gates was going to the 5 way switch. All greens grounded to pot back.
Rewired completely checking all solder points and nothing. Then I started guessing it could be some kind of polarity problem, so I first inverted the wires on the Pearly Gates sending green and bare to switch and black to ground........... no sound on Bridge pup.
As a last try re inverted the wires on the Pearly Gates to what they were before and inverted the wires on the mid and neck (sending green to switch and reds to ground).
Then It started working, no sound drop as before but I think I have lost some brightness on the overall sound. Actually I love the sound of THE PEARLY GATES AT THE STRAT BRIDGE, but it seems too much on the warm side. WHY IS THIS?

Your help will be much appreciated.
 
Re: HELP!!! WIRING ISSUES SSH STRAT W PEARLY GATES @ BRIDGE

When you put the bare wire on the switch you goofed. You only swap the black and green wire, not the bare, it stays to ground. When you split (position 2) with that setup you'd be splitting to the screw coil rather than the slug coil. I think most people like splitting to the slug coil, but it would have worked just fine.

You shouldn't hear any difference in full series with green as the hot vs. black.
 
Re: HELP!!! WIRING ISSUES SSH STRAT W PEARLY GATES @ BRIDGE

SO............. Should I make any changes?

Right Now both Area pups on neck and mid are wired red to ground and green to switch (hot). The bridge PG has black to switch and green and bare to ground.
 
Re: HELP!!! WIRING ISSUES SSH STRAT W PEARLY GATES @ BRIDGE

Longboarder said:
SO............. Should I make any changes?

Right Now both Area pups on neck and mid are wired red to ground and green to switch (hot). The bridge PG has black to switch and green and bare to ground.
Click to expand...

If Areas are direct fender replacement pickups, the rule is to swap conductors in the SD humbucker or (I prefer this one) to swap wires in your singles.
Try swapping red and green in your areas.
 
Re: HELP!!! WIRING ISSUES SSH STRAT W PEARLY GATES @ BRIDGE

Longboarder said:
SO............. Should I make any changes?

Right Now both Area pups on neck and mid are wired red to ground and green to switch (hot). The bridge PG has black to switch and green and bare to ground.
Click to expand...

That's correct to my knowledge.
 
Re: HELP!!! WIRING ISSUES SSH STRAT W PEARLY GATES @ BRIDGE

Thanks for your replies. Was only checking if the AREA pups were losing brightness because of the wire swap. They have a nice sound but they are really not single coils so will never sound like sc's. My other guitar is a 2012 American Standard Strat that came w custom shop Fat 50 pups and they have a nice fat sound but are brighter than the Areas.

Just out of curiosity...............WHY WAS I GETTING THAT WEAK SOUND IN MY FIRST WIRING ATTEMPT whenever I switched to an Area and The HB together ( all greens were grounded and all reds from the areas and the black from the SD HB were going to hot) ?????? Is this normal????
 
Re: HELP!!! WIRING ISSUES SSH STRAT W PEARLY GATES @ BRIDGE

they were out of phase
 
Re: HELP!!! WIRING ISSUES SSH STRAT W PEARLY GATES @ BRIDGE

One last Q

Will there be any sound difference if I swap the wires on the Bridge HB instead of the Areas?
 
Re: HELP!!! WIRING ISSUES SSH STRAT W PEARLY GATES @ BRIDGE

Only when you split it, because it will split to the screw coil instead of the slug coil.
 
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