Members Mr_GoodBomb Posted January 24, 2010 Members Share Posted January 24, 2010 I had asked here if this would work a few weeks ago, and was told yes, but I'm thinking... maybe not. Our guitarist's guitar sounded terrible, very muddy and lifeless, so I replaced his bridge pickup (stock humbuckers) with a GFS Dream 90, and added Orange Drop caps and 1meg pots. It works fine, but it's SUPER low volume. Not even "from an EMG 81 to a tele singlecoil" change in output, but entirely too low. We had to crank his amp to get it to be usable for practice. Then, we swapped his guitar for the other guitarists, a semi-hollow, and he couldn't get his volume knob on the guitar past 2 without feedback, so clearly, there's an issue with volume from the guitar. The stock neck pickup, with 1megs, is about the same output as the bridge pickup, so it's not just the new pickup, which leads me to believe it's the pots. Should I not have used 1megs? Would that be causing the volume/output issue? I was told it would make the tone brighter and less tubby, but nothing about output... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members mrbrown49 Posted January 24, 2010 Members Share Posted January 24, 2010 Sounds like a wiring issue. Was it a 4 conductor pup?If it's a 4 conductor, did you solder the other two conductors together? Are you sure all the correct conductors going to the right place? Did you remember to ground the last lug of the volume pot? Is there a short somewhere? Is the out put jack wired backwards? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members MattLivingInVan Posted January 24, 2010 Members Share Posted January 24, 2010 Sounds like a wiring issue. i agree. i dont believe the 1meg pots have anything to do with it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members tlbonehead Posted January 24, 2010 Members Share Posted January 24, 2010 i agree. i dont believe the 1meg pots have anything to do with itthey would just make it kinda ice picky and course sounding, I would think. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Mr_GoodBomb Posted January 24, 2010 Author Members Share Posted January 24, 2010 Both of the pickups are wired in and works just fine, and the low output is consistant with both, so it must be something else. They're both 2-conductor, a humbucker and a singlecoil. The volumes both work, though the cut isn't very gradual. The tones... it's hard to tell if they are doing much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members tlbonehead Posted January 24, 2010 Members Share Posted January 24, 2010 from what I've heard, the GFS diagrams aren't always totally correct. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Mr_GoodBomb Posted January 24, 2010 Author Members Share Posted January 24, 2010 I basically wired it by backtracking from the original wiring and, if it got confusing, used the Duncan diagram, because the GFS diagram looked wrong. It must be close enough, because it produces sound from both pickups, and the switch and volumes definitely work. I'm just trying to figure out what would make it produce sound like this all over. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members curseoftruth Posted January 24, 2010 Members Share Posted January 24, 2010 Its a wiring issue, I put some GFS Mean 90s into an old SG, could never get it to work - same thing, really low volume issues. I had to take it into a tech to get it figured out. And I thought I was pretty good at wiring guitars up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Mr_GoodBomb Posted January 24, 2010 Author Members Share Posted January 24, 2010 I definitely didn't use their diagram, it looked pretty screwed up. Did he tell you what ended up being the problem? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members GAS Man Posted January 24, 2010 Members Share Posted January 24, 2010 I'm no pro at all in this area, but I agree with the others and believe it's a wiring issue, but my only reason for posting is that I also think that once you find the problem, the 1 megs might be too bright "ice-picky". Usually folks only consider 1 megs for humbucker pickups that tend to be too muddy sounding. It's typically 500K for humbuckers and 250K for single coils. So maybe if you have to rewire it anyway, you should try a compromise of 500K. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members alphamarquis Posted January 24, 2010 Members Share Posted January 24, 2010 Are the pickups too low? I smell a wiring issue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Mr_GoodBomb Posted January 24, 2010 Author Members Share Posted January 24, 2010 Yes, we've established it's a wiring issue, thank you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members mrbrown49 Posted January 24, 2010 Members Share Posted January 24, 2010 I definitely didn't use their diagram, it looked pretty screwed up. Did he tell you what ended up being the problem? Remember that wire colors in diagrams are NOT universal. If you used the duncan colors they may not match your GFS pups. Most of my wiring issues tend to be a bad ground somewhere, so check those while you are at it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Mr_GoodBomb Posted January 24, 2010 Author Members Share Posted January 24, 2010 Yeah, I didn't use anything vaguely resembling color diagrams, because nothing matched, aside from white being hot and black being ground from the Dream 90. However, they're 2 conductor, so there's not much to screw up there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members mrbrown49 Posted January 25, 2010 Members Share Posted January 25, 2010 Yeah, I didn't use anything vaguely resembling color diagrams, because nothing matched, aside from white being hot and black being ground from the Dream 90. However, they're 2 conductor, so there's not much to screw up there. Did you double check your grounds and jack wiring? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members alphamarquis Posted January 25, 2010 Members Share Posted January 25, 2010 Is your pickup high enough? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members vintage clubber Posted January 25, 2010 Members Share Posted January 25, 2010 Is it possible that the wires going to the output jack are backwards? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members PlinytheWelder Posted January 25, 2010 Members Share Posted January 25, 2010 Check your 3-way switch, they're easy to mess up... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Mr_GoodBomb Posted January 25, 2010 Author Members Share Posted January 25, 2010 As far as the switch, I didn't unwire it. I unsoldered what they connected to, and reconnected it to the new pots and pickup. Is your pickup high enough? The guitar PRODUCES sound, and both pickups work equally well (which is just very low), so it's not a pickup height or grounding issue. The jack could be the problem. What would have happened if the jack wires got switched? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members vintage clubber Posted January 25, 2010 Members Share Posted January 25, 2010 As far as the switch, I didn't unwire it. I unsoldered what they connected to, and reconnected it to the new pots and pickup. The guitar PRODUCES sound, and both pickups work equally well (which is just very low), so it's not a pickup height or grounding issue. The jack could be the problem. What would have happened if the jack wires got switched? weak sound lots of noise... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Mr_GoodBomb Posted January 25, 2010 Author Members Share Posted January 25, 2010 There's not much noise, short of the fact that the amp is cranked so high. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members MattLivingInVan Posted January 25, 2010 Members Share Posted January 25, 2010 they would just make it kinda ice picky and course sounding, I would think. i have 1 meg pots in my jazzmaster with a tv jones powertron humbucker in a basswood body and it doesnt have that effect. it just makes it really bright on 10. but up to 9 its great Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Wyatt Posted January 25, 2010 Members Share Posted January 25, 2010 First common mistake is incorrect hookup at the jack. Otherwise, I'm guessing you need check how the pickups, the cap, the grounds and the switch are connected to the wipers of the pots. Something is probably swapped there. People always seem to run into problems when they try and hook it up "like it was before" by sight. Hard to say without even a pic. Did you measure the pots and caps before installing? Are they Audio taper...Linear...Reverse Audio? And you remove the Tone pots from the circuit fast enough to keep them out of the loop until you know everything else is working. The 1M pots should be giving you the exact opposite of what you are getting, you should get significantly more output (and high end) than before. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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