Tech help New Pearly Gates neck no worky

[JWR]

HI, I received my Pearly Gates neck pickup for my Les Paul today, in stalled it per the instructions, nothing. I reinstalled my Gibson pickup AND a different Gibson pickup both worked fine.

Now, I've done this before, 4 conductor, red and white together, green and wire together and soldered to the pot, black wire to the third leg of the pot. I tried it three times and I get an almost inaudible tone with the volume at 5 I get nothing on 10 and of course nothing on 1. Anyone see anything blatantly wrong?

Oh, this is connecting to an RS pre-built kit that has been installed for some time now.

 

[Artie]

Re: Tech help New Pearly Gates neck no worky

These are the kinds of problems that are tough to diagnose in a forum, but here's what I would try first. Having made this same mistake myself once, it sounds to me like maybe, the "bare" wire got up against something when you put it all back together. I would just re-install the pup, and be careful where that wire routes when you put it all back together. Maybe even tape it up first.

Try that, then we'll go from there. Its possible you may have cooked a pot too. You'll know better by how you assess your own solder skills. But try what I said above.

Let us know.
Artie

 

[tone4days]

Re: Tech help New Pearly Gates neck no worky

also, try wiring it straight to the output jack to see if it works at all - no pots / no switch ... black to tip, green/bare to sleeve ... red&white soldered and taped off

good luck
t4d

 

[Scott Miller]

Re: Tech help New Pearly Gates neck no worky

Another possibility is that the some of the wires are internally shorting together inside the lead-wire harness. If that is the case, then you may be able to work around the short by trying an alternate hook-up (the PU will still work exactly the same):

Put BLACK & GREEN together (solder and tape off)
Use RED as the hot output.
Put WHITE & BARE to ground.

That may or may not work---if not, call to get an RA#.