Very low output after pickup change?

T

TheBearPenguin

New member
Greetings fellow SD users. I just completed(or half completed?) my first pickup change by my self. I changed from active emgs to SD Distortion in bridge and jazz in neck position. However the sound is weird, it's like the volume knob is turned down to 1 or 2, I get almost no output, playing the super high gain patched in my line 6 pod x3 sounds like I'm playing on the clean channel with almost no sustain I had to max out the pre gain on my peavey 5150 to get some gain and I rarely go past 3. And forget about doing pinch harmonics. The guitar tech that sold me the pickups gave me 250k volume and tone pots so I just used them without thinking too much about it. Is that the reason for my weird sound? Or is it something else? Bad soldering or wrong connections? I had my father-inlaw who is an electrician take a look and he said the connections according to the diagram should be alright. I might add that I used the .047 cap which was recommended by the diagram. I just wanted to ask before I rip the pots out again and put in 500ks.
 
Re: Very low output after pickup change?

Changing the pots to 500k will not cure your problem...it may give you a bit more treble but that's about it.

You need to look at your wiring again. There is either a bad solder connection, a wrong connection, or wrong color wire connection, or a missing ground connection.

What diagram did you use?

It would be helpful if you could give us some good clear photos of your wiring.
 
Re: Very low output after pickup change?

Ive had one that acted like that - it got demagnetized during shipping. It was a Tele pickup though.
 
Re: Very low output after pickup change?

I experienced the same problem when i change from active pickups to passive's on my Ibby

Check the soldering joint on the output jack maybe?

No sure if i'm right but actives were wired stereo and passives should be mono?
 
Re: Very low output after pickup change?

Probably a bad solder joint or you smoked a pot or the switch by getting it too hot. The DD will be on par with EMG output, even on a 250K. Go over your connections again, solder joints should be shiny, not grey looking. If you see a cloudy, grey-ish looking joint that's probably the culprit.

And yeah, check the jack, you might have wired ground to the wrong ring if you didn't change out the stereo jack.
 
Re: Very low output after pickup change?

What make and model of guitar is under discussion? What type of selector switch does the guitar have? Is it in the same routed cavity as the pots or elsewhere on the guitar? How many pots?

There is probably a simple explanation to the problem and an equally simple solution.
 
Re: Very low output after pickup change?

Esp horizon nt II. 3 way switch and two pots. Like everyone said its probably bad soldering, I did a terrible job of it. I'm getting a friend who is used to soldering to redo it for me.
 
Re: Very low output after pickup change?

I think this can be a ground issue.
Ground is the "zero reference" point. As you measure mountain heights from sea side, you measure voltage from ground.
Bad ground, bad "height" reading.

Other possibility is that you have your pickups' heights wrong.
With active pickups, you can raise them close to strings but, magnetic pickups have a lot of pull off, that acts as a brake to your strings movement.
Weird things happen when pickups are really close to strings.
 
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