VOLUME DROP OFF OR OUTPUT?

[WES1965]

I will try this again. I have a guitar that I installed some custom pickups of sort, I took G&B pickup that where made for a Se Prs custom 24. I changed the magnets and installed a A2 in the neck and a short A5 in the bridge pickup. The neck pickup came out great! clear responsive could not ask for more, it reads 8.94 ohms rest. Bridge comes in at almost 16k ohms or rest. Its a easy set up 1 volume 1 tone and a 3 way. When in the middle guitar sounds really good, when in the neck position sounds great loud and clear. Now when switching from neck to bridge the drop off in volume seems to be way too much, you actually have to turn it up to get enough sound to hear it? Strange that it being that high of Resistance 16k? So I am wondering what I can do to fix this problem? I have checked it to make sure that I was using the right pickup, and did not have them confused. At first I thought that maybe they where too far apart in resistance to use together? Could I have the magnet position wrong? or wiring messed up? I did use the wiring diagram from this site. If some one has a diagram handy to post I could review to double check, but I have not had this problem before. The magnets I replace where cheap ceramic magnets, if that is any help. I did use caps neck is .018 and bridge is .047 if that is any help. I hope this is clear enough on what is happening so that some one understands whats going on with these pickup? It seems that you have to adjust the bridge pickup up about a third to get the smae volume as the neck?

 

[AlexR]

Re: VOLUME DROP OFF OR OUTPUT?

You either need to adjust the pickups position under the strings, or go in there and check the pickup is working properly. Have you followed the wiring colour codes for the specific pickup you bought??

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: VOLUME DROP OFF OR OUTPUT?

ELECTRICAL #1
It is possible that you have either broken a coil, severed one of the coil start/finish wire to output conductor connections or broken the grounding wire from the metal baseplate.

MAGNETIC
It is possible that the bar magnet in the bridge/Treble position pickup has become de-Gaussed and, hence, unable to produce a worthwhile signal.

ELECTRICAL #2
It is possible that something is wrong at the selector switch. Try connecting the offending pickup directly to a jack socket and, thence, to an amplifier. If this works, your selector switch is the problem.

 

[beaubrummels]

Re: VOLUME DROP OFF OR OUTPUT?

ELECTRICAL #1
It is possible that you have either broken a coil, severed one of the coil start/finish wire to output conductor connections or broken the grounding wire from the metal baseplate.

MAGNETIC
It is possible that the bar magnet in the bridge/Treble position pickup has become de-Gaussed and, hence, unable to produce a worthwhile signal.

ELECTRICAL #2
It is possible that something is wrong at the selector switch. Try connecting the offending pickup directly to a jack socket and, thence, to an amplifier. If this works, your selector switch is the problem.

I second the possibility of #1 above. I had a Rickenbacker with an effed coil that behaved exactly as described.

 

[Darg1911]

Re: VOLUME DROP OFF OR OUTPUT?

Re-check resistance of the bridge pickup. At least that rules one thing out.

 

[WES1965]

Re: VOLUME DROP OFF OR OUTPUT?

Thank you great ideas!! U all R Best

Best Wish

 

[GuitarDoc]

Re: VOLUME DROP OFF OR OUTPUT?

If your bridge pup measures 16k ohms, it doesn't have a broken wire.

Chances are that the magnet is fine. Especially if you get a "really good" sound in the middle position relative to the neck pup.

That brings us to the switch. It is possible to have a bad connection in the leaves of the switch in the bridge position only. The contacts may be corroded, be dirty, or one leaf or the other may need to be slightly bent to get a better contact.

However, if you measured the bridge pup at 16k, then treated it like a bull in a china shop during the installation, it is possible that you broke or shorted one of the wires. Like was suggested, unsolder the pup and recheck the resistance.