Volume Drop with Mis-matched Pickups?

D

dilver

New member
Need some wiring help - I've wired a guitar as follows:

- SH-14 humbucker in bridge position
- Single coil in the neck position
- 3 way toggle switch
- one volume
- one push-pull tone tone to split the humbucker

Everything works as it should except one thing: in the middle position, the humbucker volume seems to drop pretty dramatically. I don't think it's out of phase, when switch the green and black wires on the humbucker, it sounds even thinner. What gives? Is this "normal" with somewhat mismatched pickups? I can't figure this out and I'd really appreciate some help! :yell:

Thanks!
 
Re: Volume Drop with Mis-matched Pickups?

Why kind of single coil do you have? Single coils are typically lower in output than humbuckers and the SH-14 is a mid/powerful humbucker itself. You may just be dealing with an output mismatch. Neck and middle typically handle lower output very will with little/no drop in volume so I'm thinking that the power difference is either really big or the voicing is very very different. For instance, I can switch from my Custom (SH5 about 14k) to the middle and neck position with an AII pro (8isk) and see no volume drop. As you can see, there is a pretty big power difference between the Custom and AIIpro, but I get no drop in volume. You must be using a really low output or very very differently voice single coil from your SH-14.
 
Re: Volume Drop with Mis-matched Pickups?

The "both pickups on" position of the selector switch combines the two pickups in parallel. This affects the notional DC resistance value of the combined output.

If we say that the SH-14 is 14.4kOhms and the single coil is 6.4, the combination is going to work out as 4.4307 blah blah. It will have less drive than either pickup individually. I would expect the tone be resemble a notch filtered version of the bridge pickup.
 
Re: Volume Drop with Mis-matched Pickups?

dilver said:
Is this "normal" with somewhat mismatched pickups?
Click to expand...

Yes, that is fairly normal. It is a benefit when you are going for clean, quacky strat type sounds...or really thin, biting gain tones.

Paul Gilbert used a lot of tones like that over the years to great effect, especially with his classical flavored pieces
 
Re: Volume Drop with Mis-matched Pickups?

Funkfingers said:
The "both pickups on" position of the selector switch combines the two pickups in parallel. This affects the notional DC resistance value of the combined output.

If we say that the SH-14 is 14.4kOhms and the single coil is 6.4, the combination is going to work out as 4.4307 blah blah. It will have less drive than either pickup individually. I would expect the tone be resemble a notch filtered version of the bridge pickup.
Click to expand...

That's exactly it - the SH-14 is around 14Ohms and the single coil is an old Chandler lipstick tube - my meter reads it as 6.5ohms.

So anything I can do to remedy this, other than replace one of the pickups?

Thanks so much for the responses; I appreciate the help!
 
Re: Volume Drop with Mis-matched Pickups?

Using coil split at the same time as combining the two pickups in parallel would even things out a bit. The clever way to do this would involve automating the coil split via the selctor switch. That, in turn, would involve uprating to a special selector switch.
 
Re: Volume Drop with Mis-matched Pickups?

Funkfingers said:
Using coil split at the same time as combining the two pickups in parallel would even things out a bit. The clever way to do this would involve automating the coil split via the selctor switch. That, in turn, would involve uprating to a special selector switch.
Click to expand...
If it is a Tele 3-way you might be able to use one of the two unused lugs on the switch to do auto-split like a standard 5-way?
 
Re: Volume Drop with Mis-matched Pickups?

Have you considered setting it up for N/B series in the middle position? 'May be heavier than you want, but there certainly won't be a volume drop. You already have push-pull in there. It's probably a DPDT & I imagine you're only using one side of it. Maybe use the other side to lift the ground on the single?
 
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