Pickup installation difficulties

J

jwt55

New member
I am switching out my Epiphone LP pickups for a pearly gates pair. I soldered according to the diagram for 2 pickups, 2 vol, 2 tone, 3 way switch and at least they both worked. But the neck pickup didn't turn down. It just stayed about the same level from 1-10 on the vol or maybe a little quieter about 5. I tested the resistance of the pot and it is about 1 instead of 500K. The bridge pickup worked normally until I tried to fix the neck pickups wires and inadvertantly disconnected the bridge wires that were on top of the pot. After I reconnected them I had a similar problem with the bridge pickup too.
I am afraid I overheated the pots. It shows in the SD wiring diagram a single solder point on top of the pot for the switch ground, green and bare pickup conductors. It seems difficult to get all of them to stick.
How do you avoid overheating the pots?
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated?
Thanks,
James
 
Re: Pickup installation difficulties

Never had that problem and I'm no wiz when it comes to soldering itself, but... It's not necessary to have them all stick to one single point. It's just a connection to ground. The position of which ground wire is connected to which top of the pot is merely a suggestion. Do what's convenient to you (but try to avoid your control cavity from looking like a bowl of spagetti).
Besides that, I have read that some pots overheat quicker than others. Maybe that's the only problem. I use CTS pots and never had a problem after countless pickup changes.
 
Re: Pickup installation difficulties

Sounds like a simple oversight during the soldering process. If a pot fails to roll off the signal, either the pot is knackered or the connections to its terminals have been made incorrectly.

A photograph of the wiring inside your guitar's control cavity would be of enormous help.
 
Re: Pickup installation difficulties

sounds like a bad ground, check the grounded lug on the volume pot to make sure its good all the way to the jack. have a mutimeter?
 
Re: Pickup installation difficulties

+1 on the ground

at first it sounds like you misplaced the ground on the neck volume

it acted like a tone control, didnt it?

then horked the bridge ground too


so yea
you've got ground problems

as Mr Funk says
Photos would help
 
Re: Pickup installation difficulties

It can sometimes be difficult to get solder to stick to the back of pots.

A couple suggestions to make the process easier:

1) Use a soldering iron at least 40 watts and wait for it to get totally hot before starting (keep the tip clean and tinned);
2) Use very thin rosin core solder;
3) Lightly sand the back of the pot with fine (220 or finer) sandpaper to get a clean, slightly rough surface;
4) If you have multiple wires, solder each to a different location;
5) Use only a small amount of solder so you can make it flow...it will look shiney and wet;
6) Do not allow the wires to move until the solder has cooled enough to set and hold the wire solid.
 
Re: Pickup installation difficulties

Thanks so much for your extremely knowledgeable help. It was a ground connection problem and you were exactly correct that it was the terminal ground that they showed in the diagram bending back and soldering to the case. It had enough spring that it pulled away from the case just slightly but enough to look good but it wasn't grounded.
So, Now it works. But the pots show slightly different resistance readings, like 300 and 420 instead of 500? Is that effecting the sound of the pickups?
 
Re: Pickup installation difficulties

if I understand correctly,
the lower resistance volume pots will make
the pickups sound a bit darker - more bassy

I have a bunch of 500K pots lying round
there is some variation in the pots actual resistance
between 480 and 520 seems to be an acceptable range
 
Re: Pickup installation difficulties

The 420 will be an underspecced 500k, it will darken the tone a bit. The 300k sounds like it is actually a 300k as specced. These are often put into guitars as well as 500k.
 
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