My new JB SH-4 has NO sustain. How can I fix it?

Re: My new JB SH-4 has NO sustain. How can I fix it?

Cool. I'll try that. Please bear with the rest of my explanation, it's kind of an overall review of the situation. The old pup had three wires: a red, white and ground. The red and white were seperate and connected to the switch on seperate contacts, the ground was connected to the volume pot. When I replaced the stock pup with the JB, I connected the JB black hot wire where the stock red wire was, soldered the JB red and white together and connected them to the spot where the stock white wire was, and then connected the green and bare to the volume pot. This is where I had good sound but no sustain. Afterwards, I lowered the pickup. This improved the sound, but not the sustain. I noticed the JB black wire solder connection to the switch was cloudy (rather than shiny clean) and decided to clean it up. In the process, I think I burned the switch because afterwards, I had no sound whatsoever. At this point, I decided to bypass the burnt switch (and the neck pickup too, I disabled it completely by unhooking all it's connections) and connect the JB directly to the volume pot. Now I have the JB red and white soldered together to the volume pot, the black soldered to the lug on the volume pot, and the green and bare soldered together (at the tips) and connected to the stock ground wire which is soldered to the trem claw. I guess now I should try soldering the green and bare to the volume pot as well and run the stock ground wire from that connection on the volume pot to the trem claw? Does this make sense?
 
Re: My new JB SH-4 has NO sustain. How can I fix it?

\M/artin said:
Now I have the JB red and white soldered together to the volume pot, the black soldered to the lug on the volume pot, and the green and bare soldered together (at the tips) and connected to the stock ground wire which is soldered to the trem claw. I guess now I should try soldering the green and bare to the volume pot as well and run the stock ground wire from that connection on the volume pot to the trem claw? Does this make sense?

Alright on problem is the red and white should be soldered together but touching nothing. That's the tape DeadSkin was talking about. Your old pup had a hot and 2 grounds, like some old fender pups. The red was fuctioning as the hot and the white as the ground. You should have soldered the green wire where the white was.

To see if the JB works correctly on its own leave the red and white soldered together and put some type of tape around them (right now scotch is even fine) Then solder the green to the back of the pot.

In theory you should only have the JB signal coming out of the guitar.

If everything works fine with nothing on the switch try what I mentioned above.

Keep us updated.

Luke
 
Re: My new JB SH-4 has NO sustain. How can I fix it?

About the EMGs and sustain.
I find it that EMGs sustain like crazy even with low gain. First of all, this goes for their humbuckers but also their single coils. It's probably an advantage with the active design and hasn't really to do with amp saturation. It's like they have zero string pull.

But they don't sound like an antiquity pickup but that's another thing.
 
Re: My new JB SH-4 has NO sustain. How can I fix it?

SUCCESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I've got sweet tone and sustain!!!! Luke, right on the money! Thank you!!! Thanks everyone!! This was my crash course in brain surgery!
 
Re: My new JB SH-4 has NO sustain. How can I fix it?

Hi everyone, I took the advice and replaced all of the stock electronics in my guitar. I got a Mega-Switch, new volume pots and new wiring (since I fried my old stuff). Hooked it all up and now, holy crap!!! It sounds sooooo good!!! I wired it up PRS style -(Positions:1 Bridge pickup, 2 Inner pickup coils, parallel, 3 Outer coils, series, 4 Outer coils, parallel, 5 Neck pickup) and now have so much more tonal range it's opened up a whole new world for me on the 7-string. The new wiring and pots really bring the JB to life. I love this pup. I'm glad I didn't fork out the cash for an EMG and all the routing it requires. I have EMG's in my 6-string ESP and I love them. Now my 7-string sounds just as sweet. Hail to the King of Passive Pickups: Seymour Duncan!!!!
 
Re: My new JB SH-4 has NO sustain. How can I fix it?

Martin, glad to hear the JB works, AND sounds great. Like I said earlier I think that quality components really make a serious improvement in tone. I know they definitely help the feel of the pot's taper.

Luke
 
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