Liberator stack wiring

[Astrojam]

Hi,

I installed a loaded pickguard with the classic stack plus pickups and liberator volume pot and push/pull tone split. I’m running into an issue where I lose lows and essentially all volume in positions 2 and 4. It almost seems like something is wired out of phase. I switched wires around a couple times (swapped pickup leads) and can’t seem to find a solution without knocking something else out of balance. I also can’t seem to find a wiring diagram for the liberator with stack plus pickups, including the tone push/pull split on any site. If anyone has any suggestions or ideas I’m all ears.

two photos are of my wiring and what the system is if that helps.

Thanks

 

[Artie]

This is difficult to answer without seeing how you have the Liberator wires connected. The Liberator simply takes the screw terminals, and connects them to the flying leads. So it's how you have the flying leads connected that determine how you connect the pups.

Also, the Liberator is designed for swapping pickups easily. If you're happy with the stacks, you'd actually be better off to use a standard volume pot, and then hardwire the pups to the switch using the supplied diagram.

Otherwise, wire the Liberator wires using the supplied, or website stack diagram, and take notes, (or draw a map), of what went where, so you can then connect the stack wires accordingly.

 

[Astrojam]

Thank Artie. Yes I understand the idea behind the liberator for easy pickup swaps. It’s just the system that was available nearby and figured I’d give it a shot. I’ve scoured the site and net for a wiring diagram and cannot seem to find anything with this particular setup. The closest I’ve found I’ve attached. It’s what I have installed sans liberator. Tracing all wires back this is identical to how it is currently wired. I guess what I’m asking is if anyone has a fix or solution to switching something around to get positions 2 and 4 working properly. Thanks

 

[Artie]

Are you using a standard Fender 5-way? Are using a push-pull for the red wires?

 

[Astrojam]

Yes it’s a standard 5 way. The way it’s wired (as per diagram) the only red that goes directly to the push/pull on the tone knob is the middle red. The neck and bridge go directly to the switch. I’m starting to wonder if the middle isn’t reverse wound…

 

[Artie]

If it's a standard 5-way, I'm confused on how #2 and #4 aren't working. This could be hard to figure out without the guitar in front of me.

 

[Astrojam]

Well thanks anyways for the help. And it’s not that 2 and 4 don’t work at all. It’s just that they have a major drop in tone and volume and sound pretty bad.

I did reach out to SD support as well and got the correct wiring diagram. They also mentioned thats how positions 2 and 4 sound. However I’d find it hard to believe given none of my other strats have this much volume and tone drop. In fact some seem a bit fuller.

I’d be curious to hear if anyone else has this p/u set and what their sound is like.

 

[Artie]

Is it possible that wires going into the Liberator are correct, but the flying leads coming out of the Liberator are flipped?

 

[Astrojam]

Hmmm. That’s a thought. I’m going to throw a normal volume pot in there today and get rid of the liberator. If that is the case that should solve that. I’ll let you know how it goes.

 

[Artie]

Cool. Let us know.

 

[Astrojam]

Wow….this was a day I’d like to never repeat. However at the end of a headache of a wiring marathon things are working good. The only thing I’m now missing is that the neck and bridge cut out when split to true single coils. but I can live with that. The middle still works and splits oddly enough.

anyways so I dropped the neck and middle into another setup without a liberator pot and they were doing same thing. Working fine but tone/volume loss on position 2. So I put the whole setup back together and just on a whim flipped the bridge and neck leads. What I did find was that the ground and drain wires were loose in the liberator jacks due to it not being able to grab both wires together well. So I soldered all doubled up wires together.
All positions work perfectly now. I can only assume there’s a polarity/reverse winding issue with the middle causing it to go out of phase when wired correctly.

anyways I’m done for now with this. O yeah and they are great sounding pickups!