Screaming Demon and SH-2 GOING DULL

R

RoccoCroce

New member
This is an ongoing issue that I've been dealing with.

I've got a split screaming Demon in the bridge and a split SH-2 in the neck.

I will save the intense details for those who actually respond, because there are other things to consider here.

My question is, is there anything that would cause any type of tonal degradation between these two pups?

My bridge isn't and sharp and my neck isn't as warm and sustained.

The overall attack is dogsh!t..

I can't play any legato because the attack dies after the first hammer.

Pinches are very difficult.

No more pick slides.

I'm finding that my hands hurt after having to play so hard to get the punch I need.

WTH is going on?!

I need an expert because I don't wanna throw away money to have a tech look at it and tell me it's all wired up correctly.

Thank you in advance.
 
Re: Screaming Demon and SH-2 GOING DULL

Interesting. I'm going to try maybe turning the bridge around. It did sound amazing once. Truly amazing.

I used to be able to ground out the outer bridge coil and create this ear shattering lead. Now it's just quiet..

I'm willing to take pictures, ohm measurements and all that.

I've got a full workshop and I'm just honestly looking to get my tone back.

Been about a year now.. Quite depressing. I've since compared it to having a sick child.
 
Re: Screaming Demon and SH-2 GOING DULL

That happened to me twice, first it was a instrument cable gone bad somewhere between my pedals.
Second time was one of the guitar pots that was starting to malfunction.

So try plugging straight into the amp with different cables. If that doesn't work, see if you can replace your pots.

In both cases, my tone lost all the sparkle and clarity, gradually and got worse day after day.
 
Re: Screaming Demon and SH-2 GOING DULL

Dang.. See i've got 3 amps / setups.

My stack goes in clean with a monster cable and it sounds the same.

I'll continue to switch things up when I get home.

Also, every single electronic in the guitar is new.

Ernie ball pots. push / pull 500k

My practice amp in my bedroom I use a DigiTech RP300 preamp.

I'll pop the cover off and take a shot of the internals when I get home.

I honestly believe everything is wired correctly. It could be wrong !
 
Re: Screaming Demon and SH-2 GOING DULL

If it's not a cable/amp problem I'd take a look at the electronics and resolder everything to make shure every connection is solid.
I've had the SH12/SH2 combo for almost 15 years and never noticed anything like you've described.
 
Re: Screaming Demon and SH-2 GOING DULL

Let's see how it's all wired up.

How far from the strings are they?

Do you lean your guitar up against your amp at all? Reason I ask is because players tend to do this at times, and used to a lot back in the old days, and that would weaken the pickup magnet due to it getting on with the speaker magnet field. Doing that actually killed a lot of pickups.

Do you have a multi-meter and know how to use it to check DC resistance and continuity?

How new are your strings?

What kind of guitar is it? (construction, bridge type, etc.)
 
Re: Screaming Demon and SH-2 GOING DULL

How close to the strings do you set the pickups? So-called Stratitis can kill off mechanical sustain.

At this point, we are going to need pics and some idea of the make/model of your guitar.

If you have a Gibson Tun-o-matic style bridge, it could have collapsed. This chokes all of the strings to some extent but, mainly, the D and G.
 
Re: Screaming Demon and SH-2 GOING DULL

ErikH said:
Let's see how it's all wired up.

(Will take a picture or two as soon as I get home)

How far from the strings are they?

(They're as close as they can get to the neck pickup while fretting the 24th fret on each string.)

Do you lean your guitar up against your amp at all? Reason I ask is because players tend to do this at times, and used to a lot back in the old days, and that would weaken the pickup magnet due to it getting on with the speaker magnet field. Doing that actually killed a lot of pickups.

(I never lean it, I've got a stand for it up on the wall away from the amp)

Do you have a multi-meter and know how to use it to check DC resistance and continuity?

(Yes I do, I graduated a technical school for electrical =p So don't be afraid to ask for measurements )

How new are your strings?

(They're in good shape. Elixir's about 4 months now. But keep in mind, it sounded the same when I first put these strings on)

What kind of guitar is it? (construction, bridge type, etc.)
Click to expand...

(It's a H(SH-2) H(Screaming Demon) + V (500K) T (DPDT) T (DPDT)

Adjustable post / Adjustable bridge / screw intonation / NON Whammy
 
Re: Screaming Demon and SH-2 GOING DULL

RoccoCroce said:
Adjustable post / Adjustable bridge / screw intonation / NON Whammy
Click to expand...

Sounds like a T-o-M style to me. You will need a fingerboard radius gauge to check for signs of collapse.
 
Re: Screaming Demon and SH-2 GOING DULL

Does that problem occur with EVERY amp you play through or just with the one you've mentioned? Because recently, I had the very same problem. My tone suffered from the same symptoms as yours and I really didn't know what to do first. After some research, I decided to check my tubes and guess what? My amp's tubes were in a horrific condition so I replaced them and WOW! My tone's back again and it sounds better than ever!

If your tone starts to suck and you don't know why - check your tubes!
 
Re: Screaming Demon and SH-2 GOING DULL

Ok, since you know how to use the multi-meter (I love that), let's get some numbers.

Open the pots all the way up, plug a short cable in to the guitar. Take DC Resistance measurement at the end of the cable of the bridge and neck pickup separately. I do know that the pots being "in circuit" will affect the number slightly, I'm looking to see how far off from the actual spec'd number of the pickups the readings are while "in circuit".

Do you split with the DPDT?
 
Re: Screaming Demon and SH-2 GOING DULL

Chuck_Norris said:
Does that problem occur with EVERY amp you play through or just with the one you've mentioned? Because recently, I had the very same problem. My tone suffered from the same symptoms as yours and I really didn't know what to do first. After some research, I decided to check my tubes and guess what? My amp's tubes were in a horrific condition so I replaced them and WOW! My tone's back again and it sounds better than ever!

If your tone starts to suck and you don't know why - check your tubes!
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, i don't hav tubes. But it DOES sound this way through all of my amps :( I will test with other guitars.

ErikH said:
Ok, since you know how to use the multi-meter (I love that), let's get some numbers.

Open the pots all the way up, plug a short cable in to the guitar. Take DC Resistance measurement at the end of the cable of the bridge and neck pickup separately. I do know that the pots being "in circuit" will affect the number slightly, I'm looking to see how far off from the actual spec'd number of the pickups the readings are while "in circuit".

Do you split with the DPDT?
Click to expand...

I've often wondered about how they will read IN CIRCUIT.. I'm thinking it will be slightly different.

I DO split with the push-pull pots (all 500k).
I split outer-most extreme coils (Closest to fingerboard / closest to bridge )

I promise I'll take some readings as soon as I get home from work today. I'm very excited to get to the bottom of this. So hang onto that thought !
 
Re: Screaming Demon and SH-2 GOING DULL

RoccoCroce said:
I've often wondered about how they will read IN CIRCUIT.. I'm thinking it will be slightly different.

I DO split with the push-pull pots (all 500k).
I split outer-most extreme coils (Closest to fingerboard / closest to bridge )

I promise I'll take some readings as soon as I get home from work today. I'm very excited to get to the bottom of this. So hang onto that thought !
Click to expand...

You might see an approx. 1K difference in the reading in circuit.

Clear pics of the wiring would be good too, or even a clear diagram. Could be a simple issue there.

Part of me wonders if they are in parallel rather than series when not split. That'll decrease the output right there.
 
Re: Screaming Demon and SH-2 GOING DULL

ErikH said:
You might see an approx. 1K difference in the reading in circuit.

Clear pics of the wiring would be good too, or even a clear diagram. Could be a simple issue there.

Part of me wonders if they are in parallel rather than series when not split. That'll decrease the output right there.
Click to expand...

Interesting. They sound different than when they first sounded in both split and full. On a side note, I have the diagram at home along with a nice way to take some clear pictures.

I'll take many measurements from both coils with different combination and different split combinations. I'm thinking all with all knobs maxed out for consistency. Tone caps are new and doing their job lol Sounded the same after i replaced them.
 
Re: Screaming Demon and SH-2 GOING DULL

Also, if they WERE series/parallel swapped, that doesn't cause damage to anything right?
I'm pretty sure the answer is no cause magnets are permanent, but hey why not ask.
 
Re: Screaming Demon and SH-2 GOING DULL

RoccoCroce said:
Also, if they WERE series/parallel swapped, that doesn't cause damage to anything right?
I'm pretty sure the answer is no cause magnets are permanent, but hey why not ask.
Click to expand...

No, it does not. Just a matter of how the coils are wired together. Series gives full output of the pickup. Parallel is like split, but noiseless and less output.
 
Re: Screaming Demon and SH-2 GOING DULL

Maybe that's what happened. God I hope it's that easy. Like I said, there's a whole story behind this. I started with just the screaming demon in the bridge and i split it BUT for some reason i split it with the actual split being wired to the neck tone lol. and it sounded AMAZING. then i bought the sh-2 and decided to just wire the "split" to the opposing bridge tone nob. Bought another dpdt and put it in the tone spot and wired is so one split the other, but normal tone controls were to their respective pickup. make sense? ass backwards, i know, but it DID work ! and they sounds I was getting were exactly what I thought they should be.

After this, i decided to swap them back the way they SHOULD be, splits being respective to their pickup and then thereafter that, chaos.

Got on a forum, got a special wiring diagram. For some reason, seymour duncan doesn't display a wiring diagram for splitting BOTH pickups with TWO DIFFERENT pots RESPECTIVE to their pup.

This is where some of the confusion set in. I completely rewired the electronics OUT OF GUITAR and put them back in. Still sounded dead or attenuated. Sometimes while I'm playing, i feel like the attack/volume/tone will roll off about 65% and single notes during fast playing just disappear..

It's a sad state of affairs.
 
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