pickup leak?

[capibat]

Hi all.
I have a HH single pot push/pull vol and 3 way switch guitar where the neck pickup is wired for parallel/series.

While testing a new neck pickup I left the lid of the control cavity off and the hot wire going coming from the DPDT out to the neck lug of the 3 way switch got hooked to my belt buckle and broke the soldering point. I could still hear the neck pickup coming though although the switch was set to the neck pickup position.

When swapping pickups I've never left one side of the switch unsoldered so I've never encountered this issue before, my understanding of a 3 way switch is that it will take out of the circuit whatever pickup is not selected.

I've checked all my connections and the wiring is done as it should be and as clean as possible. The pot is a new bourns and the switch is an economy type one.

Could this be a bad switch or a bad pot?
Any idea why this would happen? Is this normal?

 

[guitarSQUIRELL]

Re: pickup leak?

Hi all.
I have a HH single pot push/pull vol and 3 way switch guitar where the neck pickup is wired for parallel/series.

While testing a new neck pickup I left the lid of the control cavity off and the hot wire going coming from the DPDT out to the neck lug of the 3 way switch got hooked to my belt buckle and broke the soldering point. I could still hear the neck pickup coming though although the switch was set to the neck pickup position.

When swapping pickups I've never left one side of the switch unsoldered so I've never encountered this issue before, my understanding of a 3 way switch is that it will take out of the circuit whatever pickup is not selected.

I've checked all my connections and the wiring is done as it should be and as clean as possible. The pot is a new bourns and the switch is an economy type one.

Could this be a bad switch or a bad pot?
Any idea why this would happen? Is this normal?

You don't have a microphone pickup do you? I have an Agile and it's an HH setup that the pups are extremely MICROPHONIC. When I play at church, I can pick up the choir in my pickups if I don't turn the volume off.

 

[capibat]

Re: pickup leak?

This guitar has a SD Jazz on the neck and a SD distortion on the bridge and I haven't had any microphonic problems with them.
I'm just confused as this shouldn't be happening as far as I know :disappoin

 

[guitarSQUIRELL]

Re: pickup leak?

This guitar has a SD Jazz on the neck and a SD distortion on the bridge and I haven't had any microphonic problems with them.
I'm just confused as this shouldn't be happening as far as I know :disappoin

I'm reading this again. What I'm thinking is you may have a switch that got messed up when that wire got pulled from it since it was an economy style. What you need to do is unsolder your switch and check each pole with a multimeter for continuity across all switch positions. This will tell you if one position is stuck closed when you are switched to another resulting in a bad switch.

 

[Aku Tonklips]

Re: pickup leak?

I think it's the switch itself because my 2 epiphones have economy toggles with round discs on the top. When a put my neck pickup on zero and switch to it from the bridge on 10 I can sometimes still hear it on like 1.

 

[DrNewcenstein]

Re: pickup leak?

Could be you've cooked the pot.

I put a 500T in the bridge of LP Standard some years ago, and with the switch set to bridge and the volume on 0, I still got a faint signal (which was great when combined with high gain and a flanger, since the feedback could get some really freaky sounds, like an old rusty, squeaky chain-mounted swingset.)

 

[guitarSQUIRELL]

Re: pickup leak?

Nice. Just need a multi meter to check. That's the easiest way I think.

 

[capibat]

Re: pickup leak?

Thanks for the replies.
I just checked for continuity with a multimeter and all lugs and connections test OK on both the pot and the switch.
According to the multimeter everything is working as it should. At this moment the switch has only the bridge PU on one lug and nothing on the other one; when the switch is set to the neck position with the vol all the way up, the bridge PU can be heard as if I was on the bridge position playing it with the vol on 3-4, and I should be hearing nothing correct?

:?: :?:

I have an extra switch (switchcraft) and extra pots which test OK on the multimeter as well so I'll replace them later tonight to see if this fixes the problem.
I'm tempted to unsolder a connection of the switches of my other guitars to see if this is a constant.

 

[DrNewcenstein]

Re: pickup leak?

With only one pickup attached to one side of the switch, and the empty side of the switch active, you should be getting 0 sound.

Wire the pickup to the other side instead and flip the switch and see if you get the same effect.


Check the switch itself and make sure the internal plates are separating when they should.

 

[HALENisking]

Re: pickup leak?

I currently have no neck pup hooked up to my 5 way selector yet still get the slightest bit of output on neck pos. My wiring is clean.

 

[Aku Tonklips]

Re: pickup leak?

I really believe it's the switch itself, 3-way blades never do it but toggle switches do. Did you ever try a 3-way toggle sold at a automotive shop?

 

[capibat]

Re: pickup leak?

Finally had the chance to do some testing on different guitars, pickups and switches.
No matter what combination I used and even if I had only 1 humbucker soldered to one terminal, I could still hear that humbucker when I put the switch on the position where there is no humbucker.

When the whole circuit is wired complete I can't tell if there is any leakage from the other humbucker in either position, and since neither guitar muds up on the bridge position nor is overly bright on the neck position, I guess this is not a critical problem.
I just wonder if this is how the 3 way switches actually perform since it happens regardless of the switch brand.

 

[BriGuy1968]

Re: pickup leak?

Finally had the chance to do some testing on different guitars, pickups and switches.
No matter what combination I used and even if I had only 1 humbucker soldered to one terminal, I could still hear that humbucker when I put the switch on the position where there is no humbucker.

When the whole circuit is wired complete I can't tell if there is any leakage from the other humbucker in either position, and since neither guitar muds up on the bridge position nor is overly bright on the neck position, I guess this is not a critical problem.
I just wonder if this is how the 3 way switches actually perform since it happens regardless of the switch brand.

:33: Hmmm... I think I'd be interested in seeing the rest of your wiring. With what you're describing, and the steps you've taken, it kinda makes me wonder if something else is awry causing the switch to be bypassed or something.

 

[capibat]

Re: pickup leak?

The test I did that made me think all 3 way switches work that way was when I removed everything and only wired 1 humbucker to the 3 way switch and 1 volume pot, nothing else.
I've checked for continuity the 4 switches that I have as spare (2 are switchcraft) as well as the ones in the guitars and they all perform OK.
After a visual inspection I also can confirm that when the switches are in either up/down position the opposite pole is not making contact.

I just took a pic of the wiring in one guitar.
My other guitars are the same HH configuration but with master volume and master tone, so the switch wiring is the same.
The second photo is the master volume push/pull pot that is for neck series/parallel switching, which has nothing to do with the 3 way switch.
Can you spot something that I'm doing wrong in the wiring? I like to think that it is a decent wiring/soldering job nder:

 

[BriGuy1968]

Re: pickup leak?

Can you spot something that I'm doing wrong in the wiring? I like to think that it is a decent wiring/soldering job nder:

Nope... I don't see anything except a nice, neat wiring/soldering job! :fing2:

I was kind of hoping something would stick out, but as far as I can tell it looks good... sorry not much help! :dunno: