Wiring SH-6 and SH-6N Duncan Distortion... Help Please!!!

[Pitch Black]

Could someone please help me… I’ve installed pick-ups before and now i’m at a loss. I recently bought a Schecter Omen Extreme FR. It had the Schecter Diamond plus pickups with 2 volume 1 tone (push/pull coil split) and a 3 way toggle. I bought the SD Mayhem Set (sh-6 & sh-6n) and have been trying to install them. First I installed them as per the SD diagrams for 2 volume, 1 tone push pull and a 3 way toggle and except for a faint crackle sound. I don’t use the tone or really need the Push Pull (but I’d like to have it) so i wired them up as 2 Humbuckers, 2 Volume and a 3 way toggle per SD diagram. Now In bridge I get a weak sound and hum then in mid position it sounds great with a little hum and then in neck position i get a weaker signal but close to mid position with hum.

Please help. I’m completely at a loss of what to do and have never had issues before installing SD pickups according to SD diagrams. I did find it odd that the Schecter Diamond Pick ups were wired on the Tone Push/Pull different from the SD diagrams. They were bridged through the center plugs with a capacitor and then grounded on the side of the tone pot. The Green and White were connected to the bottom 2 plugs and the output plug had the sleeve and hot plugs wired together with one wire grounded to the tone pot. I know that wire color code is not universal per say but I thought I’d put this info in here as I found it odd.

One more question. Is there really a difference between the bridge a neck pickups. if so what is it? I’m thinking of using the neck pick up in the bridge off another guitar.

Thanks!!!

 

[Demanic]

Re: Wiring SH-6 and SH-6N Duncan Distortion... Help Please!!!

Sounds like a cold solder joint somewhere.

Sent from my MotoE2(4G-LTE) using Tapatalk

 

[Pitch Black]

Re: Wiring SH-6 and SH-6N Duncan Distortion... Help Please!!!

Thanks Demonic. So I understand you correctly I need to go back through and redo my solder connections?

 

[Demanic]

Re: Wiring SH-6 and SH-6N Duncan Distortion... Help Please!!!

Well I would check them. Investigate the simplest problem first.

Sent from my MotoE2(4G-LTE) using Tapatalk

 

[Pitch Black]

Re: Wiring SH-6 and SH-6N Duncan Distortion... Help Please!!!

Gotcha. Thank You again. I just read up on common soldering problems and I have a bit of that going on.

 

[Mincer]

Re: Wiring SH-6 and SH-6N Duncan Distortion... Help Please!!!

I would also like to add that it might help to post some clear pics of your wiring from many angles. We can't tell everything from pics, but we can tell more than without them. As far as your question about neck and bridge pickups, yes, they are generally different- neck pickups are generally weaker than bridge pickups because there is much more vibration and volume in that position. However, 'neck' and 'bridge' are just names: you can put whatever pickups anywhere you want. Many people like bridge pickups in the neck, and neck in the bridge. So, experiment. But before you do that, it would be awesome if we could get this guitar working for you.

 

[Pitch Black]

Re: Wiring SH-6 and SH-6N Duncan Distortion... Help Please!!!

Mincer - Thanks! I will take a pic. But its a mess in there so please be nice... lol... Now I went back over everything cleaned up and then re-soldered all the solder connections. It helped a lot. No more hum and when the toggle switch is in the Neck or Middle position it sounds great. But when I put it in the bridge position I get a really weak but consistent signal. Now I know all my connections are clean and correct BUT I did by accident switch the neck and bridge connections on the toggle. So when I'm in the neck position the bridge pick up comes on. No big deal and is a simple switch. But would this effect the Neck pick up and give me a weak signal? Logic tells me no because the bridge pickup would do the same if it mattered. I'm to the point I think I may have a bad potentiometer... Just guessing... THANKS AGAIN!!!!!

 

[Mincer]

Re: Wiring SH-6 and SH-6N Duncan Distortion... Help Please!!!

The switch doesn't care what is connected to it, so it is most likely a problem somewhere else. I still am not discounting a bad solder joint, but it could be a pot, too.

 

[GuitarDoc]

Re: Wiring SH-6 and SH-6N Duncan Distortion... Help Please!!!

I don't see any pics.

Do as Mincer suggested...MANY pics from different angles, and move the wires so the connections are visible in the pics.

 

[GuitarDoc]

Re: Wiring SH-6 and SH-6N Duncan Distortion... Help Please!!!

Mincer - Thanks! I will take a pic. But its a mess in there so please be nice... lol...

Well, it wouldn't be "nice" to soft-sell or to compliment you on a very crappy job. We will tell it like it is so you can learn. If you end up thinking that a fat blob of cold solder is OK, then we haven't done our job to help you.

 

[Pitch Black]

Re: Wiring SH-6 and SH-6N Duncan Distortion... Help Please!!!

Mincer - Thank you!
GuitarDoc - Thank you also. I appreciate the honesty. You always learn best from your mistakes.

Sorry been busy but I will get pics up-loaded tonight.

 

[GuitarDoc]

Re: Wiring SH-6 and SH-6N Duncan Distortion... Help Please!!!

Still waiting for pics.

 

[Pitch Black]

Re: Wiring SH-6 and SH-6N Duncan Distortion... Help Please!!!

Hey GuitarDoc. Well I was able to confirm that it is a bad pot. I swapped it with the other pot that I knew was working and no go. Switched it back and I had my bridge pickup left. Thank you again for all your help. I'm going to go to stewmac in the next week or 2 and order a new pot and a push/pull. Now there is an electrical store that has them near me. Aside from the brand and ohm is there a difference? Like are there ones specific or guitars? From all that I read technically they are the same but different pots may change the tone slightly and obviously it will if I switch from a 500 to a 250 obviously.

Thanks again!!! I'm going to take my sh-6n and set it up in the bridge position on my SG and see how it sounds.

 

[GuitarDoc]

Re: Wiring SH-6 and SH-6N Duncan Distortion... Help Please!!!

Hey GuitarDoc. Well I was able to confirm that it is a bad pot. I swapped it with the other pot that I knew was working and no go. Switched it back and I had my bridge pickup left. Thank you again for all your help. I'm going to go to stewmac in the next week or 2 and order a new pot and a push/pull. Now there is an electrical store that has them near me. Aside from the brand and ohm is there a difference? Like are there ones specific or guitars? From all that I read technically they are the same but different pots may change the tone slightly and obviously it will if I switch from a 500 to a 250 obviously.

Thanks again!!! I'm going to take my sh-6n and set it up in the bridge position on my SG and see how it sounds.

Well, obviously it WASN'T a bad pot if you switched in a good one and it still didn't work.

So, come on, we can't help you if you're not going to give us something to work with (pics).