New 59 neck sounds like crap?!?

[austin]

I put I new, 2-conductor 59 into the neck position of one of my guitars and it sounds quieter and brigher than the SSL1 single coil that I have in the middle position?!? (it's a HSH guitar with a JB in the bridge). It measures out fine (around 7.5K like it should) and it's not the switch, because if I swap the hot wires for the neck and middle pickups it still sounds like crap when it's connected. I haven't had a 59 neck pickup in a while, but I don't remember them sounding anything like this. But I can't figure out what the issue might be. The wiring is idiot-proof and measures out fine, there's only one magnet so it's not like the orientation could be somehow screwed up (that might affect it with other pickups, but not by itself). Discharged magnet? I don't know how to check for that or to fix it if that's the issue.

Anybody got any suggestions?
-
Austin

 

[lemonman]

Re: New 59 neck sounds like crap?!?

It sounds like it was internally wired in parallel, not series like it's supposed to be. If it's under warranty, get it replaced; otherwise, it's not too difficult to correct it yourself.

 

[RayBarbeeMusic]

Re: New 59 neck sounds like crap?!?

Not internally wired in parallel, but internally wired out of phase. I just had to repair a pickup that came from the factory like that. If you can find where the wires from the coils come together, reverse them. If not, send it back to the factory and have them fix it.

 

[austin]

Re: New 59 neck sounds like crap?!?

Not internally wired in parallel, but internally wired out of phase. I just had to repair a pickup that came from the factory like that. If you can find where the wires from the coils come together, reverse them. If not, send it back to the factory and have them fix it.

The 59 definitely seems to be noisy when compared to the JB, so that probably is it. Kind of crappy that something could come out of the factory like this. It's not covered, so I should be able to get to the wires. Not sure what you mean by reversing them, but I assume it will be obvious when I get in their and take a look. Thanks.
-
Austin

 

[uOpt]

Re: New 59 neck sounds like crap?!?

Yeah, maybe it got two coils with same direction wind.

You could McGyver together a testing rig but it's probably easier to send it to SD.

 

[austin]

Re: New 59 neck sounds like crap?!?

Alright, I think I'm going to try to fix it myself, but I'm not sure what wires to swap. The pickup is a reverse zebra 59. Each coil has 2 black wire coming out of it. The cream stud coil has one wire giong to the black coil and one wire going to hot. The black screw coil has one wire going to the cream coil and one wire going to ground. So which wires do I swap? Can I just pick whichever coil I want, desolder the connections and then swap them (for example for the cream coil, swap the two wires so that the one that was going to hot is now going to the black coil and vice versa)?
-
Austin

 

[uOpt]

Re: New 59 neck sounds like crap?!?

If you want to try the theory above, you just exchange the two wires on one coil. You can pick which ever looks easier to do this to. Be careful with the tape so that you can reuse it.

 

[austin]

Re: New 59 neck sounds like crap?!?

If you want to try the theory above, you just exchange the two wires on one coil. You can pick which ever looks easier to do this to. Be careful with the tape so that you can reuse it.

Yes, I thought about it some more last night and this morning and that's what I did. Still reads fine, but I won't get a chance to get it situated back into the guitar until tonight.
-
Austin

 

[austin]

Re: New 59 neck sounds like crap?!?

The rewiring worked. Learn something everyday I guess.
-
Austin

 

[RayBarbeeMusic]

Re: New 59 neck sounds like crap?!?

Great!

 

[uOpt]

Re: New 59 neck sounds like crap?!?

You should still report this to SD.

I think it's the second time in two weeks that somebody found an internally incorrectly wired humbucker.