musicman777
New member
Hey everyone, signed up here as I have nowhere else to turn! I have a vintage Japanese Les Paul (picture attached). This guitar was my late mothers who passed away back in June. Considering it was hers, I decided to restore it. All the electronics were bad, it had these cheap, off-brand single coil pickups designed to look like humbuckers. I've been playing guitar for 14 years but NEVER dabbled in the electronics of one (although I am by no means a total amateur at wiring, I work on cars and computers).
I replaced all the wiring, put four brand new 250k pots in the guitar, a switchcraft three-way toggle switch, and last but not least, Seymour Duncan's "hot-rodded humbuckers" set I bought at Guitar Center. I didn't do any deep research on them; they were just the price-range I was looking at and I trust the Seymour Duncan name as I own a Schecter that came installed with SD's out of the factory that sound terrific.
So, the guitar works, it sounds great (to me), there's just one issue; the bridge pickup sounds like the neck, and the neck sounds like the bridge! I've attached an MP3 file of me playing some simple open chords to hear what I'm talking about. This is with all the volume and tone controls turned up. I play an E minor and G chord a few times; the first is with the toggle switch on rhythm, the second is the treble (neck), and the third is the middle toggle switch position. As you can hear, my rhythm (bridge) pickup sounds like the neck should, it's got a bright tone, whereas the neck (treble) has a lower, less brighter tone. The middle position sounds good to me, it doesn't sound like there's any sort of phase cancellation going on.
If you look at the photo, the picks up NOT installed backwards. And, I know I didn't put the toggle switch in backwards because you can tap on the bridge with a screwdriver when it's set to bridge, and you get sound from that pickup but none from the neck. Same when vice-versa on the neck. Everything sounds and plays exactly as it should, I followed all the diagrams, everything is soldered correctly to my knowledge. So why does my bridge have a bright sound? And why does the neck sound like the bridge pickup should???? Is it just these pickups or is something else going on here? Did I do something backwards?!
I replaced all the wiring, put four brand new 250k pots in the guitar, a switchcraft three-way toggle switch, and last but not least, Seymour Duncan's "hot-rodded humbuckers" set I bought at Guitar Center. I didn't do any deep research on them; they were just the price-range I was looking at and I trust the Seymour Duncan name as I own a Schecter that came installed with SD's out of the factory that sound terrific.
So, the guitar works, it sounds great (to me), there's just one issue; the bridge pickup sounds like the neck, and the neck sounds like the bridge! I've attached an MP3 file of me playing some simple open chords to hear what I'm talking about. This is with all the volume and tone controls turned up. I play an E minor and G chord a few times; the first is with the toggle switch on rhythm, the second is the treble (neck), and the third is the middle toggle switch position. As you can hear, my rhythm (bridge) pickup sounds like the neck should, it's got a bright tone, whereas the neck (treble) has a lower, less brighter tone. The middle position sounds good to me, it doesn't sound like there's any sort of phase cancellation going on.
If you look at the photo, the picks up NOT installed backwards. And, I know I didn't put the toggle switch in backwards because you can tap on the bridge with a screwdriver when it's set to bridge, and you get sound from that pickup but none from the neck. Same when vice-versa on the neck. Everything sounds and plays exactly as it should, I followed all the diagrams, everything is soldered correctly to my knowledge. So why does my bridge have a bright sound? And why does the neck sound like the bridge pickup should???? Is it just these pickups or is something else going on here? Did I do something backwards?!
This guitar is a "Sekova" brand guitar out of Japan. My mother bought it in the early 1970's at a music store in New Jersey, right outside of NYC. I've done a lot of research on it. Sekova is a Japanese imported guitar by "US Musical Merchandise Corporation of New York". Many parts of it (like the original tuners, which I replaced) had "Japan" written on them. They were made in the late 60's and 70's. There's several Sekova guitars floating around out there, many of them replicate the look and feel of popular guitars. 
