Neck pickup sounds weak and muffled after rewire

[SunIsLoco]

I just rewired my les paul with 4 push pulls, and now the neck pickup is super quiet and muddy sounding. I know I screwed something up, but I cant find any glaring issues.

I know I cant expect someone here to diagnose the issue, but can anyone tell me if this is obviously symptomatic of something in particular like a short or a ground issue? There is also a staticy sound when I hit the low strings, sounds almost like a bad tube.

 

[Discharged]

Re: Neck pickup sounds weak and muffled after rewire

Well, to do the Jimmy Page wiring is not an easy task, and that's quite the understatement.

There are many different days to screw this up, starting with a less than optimal soldering ability and/or soldering tools, opening to the possibility of every soldering point being a cold solder joint.

It I was you, I'd swallow my pride and start over, as cold solder joints are practically impossible to detect.

 

[Artie]

Re: Neck pickup sounds weak and muffled after rewire

"Weak", as opposed to "no output", is usually caused by the red/white wires not being connected. On the JP wiring, that would be easy to do. Check those connections first.

 

[SunIsLoco]

Re: Neck pickup sounds weak and muffled after rewire

My connections were okay, it appears to be a bad volume pot on the neck. My multimeter can't even get a reading between the two lugs.

It's not exactly JP wiring, its my own spin. I replaced the OOP switch with a toggle to split to the stud coil on both pickups.

BV splits to screw coil on bridge
NV splits to screw coil on neck
BT puts the two pickups in series
NT splits both neck and bridge to stud coils

That way I can get several virtual humbuckers when in series mode

 

[SunIsLoco]

Re: Neck pickup sounds weak and muffled after rewire

That said, it was still almost certainly my screwup because I tested the pots before I started without any issues.

 

[Artie]

Re: Neck pickup sounds weak and muffled after rewire

That's odd. It's not uncommon to "toast" a regular pot when grounding the back. But it is unusual to toast a push-pull because of the grounding lug on the end of the switch assembly.

 

[SunIsLoco]

Re: Neck pickup sounds weak and muffled after rewire

Agreed, I have no clue what could have happened. I've burned out pots when grounding to the casing, but I assumed that grounding to the tab on the push pull would be totally safe.

 

[Artie]

Re: Neck pickup sounds weak and muffled after rewire

Stuff happens.

 

[SunIsLoco]

Re: Neck pickup sounds weak and muffled after rewire

Yep. This is only the second time I screwed up so late in the game without realizing it.

..of course, I've only done this 3 times...

 

[SunIsLoco]

Re: Neck pickup sounds weak and muffled after rewire

I thought it was odd that both coils on the neck worked when split (although still weak and muffled) - I'd assumed a bad connection too, and that only one would work since the other one was shot.

 

[SunIsLoco]

Re: Neck pickup sounds weak and muffled after rewire

Artie, since you're the resident expert on all things wiring around here, would you mind taking a look at my diagram to make sure it makes sense?



Bridge Volume:
- Pulled: splits bridge pickup to screw coil
- Pushed: when Neck Tone is pushed, bridge series HB. When neck tone is pulled, splits bridge to stud coil.

Neck Volume:
- Pulled: splits neck pickup to screw coil
- Pushed: when Neck Tone is pushed, neck series HB. When neck tone is pulled, splits neck to stud coil.

Bridge Tone:
- Pulled: bridge and neck wired in series
- Pushed: bridge and neck wired in parallel

Neck Tone (acts on both pickups):
- Pulled: pickup volume switches select between screw (pulled) and stud (pushed) coil splits
- Pushed: pickup volume switches select between screw split (pulled) and series HB (pushed)


Also, ignore the P-Rails - I just grabbed them off of the diagram I was editing. I have PGB and JazzN.

 

[Artie]

Re: Neck pickup sounds weak and muffled after rewire

It appears to be ok. I assume the blue lines are the white wires.

Btw, thanks for the compliment, but there are quite a few people here who probably know this stuff better than me.

 

[SunIsLoco]

Re: Neck pickup sounds weak and muffled after rewire

Yep, blue is the white wire.

Believe me, I know how knowledgeable people are here - I wouldn't have even known where to start without reading dozens of threads from dozens of people.

But it seems as though every single one of those threads mentions you by name at least once, even if you don't appear in the thread.

Either way, this is my first real guitar wiring project, and it would be dead in the water without you and many others, so thank YOU!