Wiring or balance

[StephenSLR]

Hi,

I have a question about my neck and bridge pick up in my Jackson Kelly.

they are non-standard pick ups.

They both work well on their own however when I flick the selector switch to make both pick ups active the volume drops significantly (to about half) for both pick ups.

Could it be a wiring problem or the pick up combination?

s

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[yeti]

Re: Wiring or balance

It sounds like you might have them wired out of phase to each other. Did you install them yourself or did they come in the guitar like that?

 

[StephenSLR]

Re: Wiring or balance

It sounds like you might have them wired out of phase to each other. Did you install them yourself or did they come in the guitar like that?

I wired them myself and the instructions say that the black wire is HOT and the white is ground - I found this weird as black is usually ground.

Though some people tend to wire pick ups out of phase for a different sound so I thought that even if out of phase the volume levels should be similar.

What is it that goes out of phase?

I know about sin waves and being 180 degrees out of phase they cancel each other out.

s

 

[JB1592]

Re: Wiring or balance

I wired them myself and the instructions say that the black wire is HOT and the white is ground - I found this weird as black is usually ground.

Though some people tend to wire pick ups out of phase for a different sound so I thought that even if out of phase the volume levels should be similar.

What is it that goes out of phase?

I know about sin waves and being 180 degrees out of phase they cancel each other out.

s

What goes "out of phase" is the output signal.

A single humbucker wired out of phase is usually not a pleasant sound. First of all, since the opposite polarities of the coils already has the noise out of phase, reversing the signal phase puts the noise back IN PHASE (ie; a humbucker out of phase is noise amplifying, not canceling) and the two coils are close enough together that the signal is just about the same from both coils and a majority of signal will be canceled out.

Wiring two humbuckers out of phase, on the other hand, doesn't produce any noise problems, nor as dramatic of a volume drop. The output from each pickup isn't similar enough to cause that much cancelation, but there's still some drop. Whether or not this is a useful tone is a matter of opinion.

 

[StephenSLR]

Re: Wiring or balance

Wiring two humbuckers out of phase, on the other hand, doesn't produce any noise problems, nor as dramatic of a volume drop. The output from each pickup isn't similar enough to cause that much cancelation, but there's still some drop.

I have just played the guitar through an amp and the volume drop isn't as noticable as when I was playing into my 4 track.

s

 

[yeti]

Re: Wiring or balance

I had my Les Paul wired with a push/pull to put the bridge out of phase to the neck, and it produced a tinny, "transistor radio" type signal. Most sites say its a "good sound for funk", but i just found it annoying as hell. You could Eq that sound if you really needed it.