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Neck pickup louder than bridge. help!


mr.chEn

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http://static.zoovy.com/img/guitarelectronics/-/wdu_hh3t22_02

 

after rewiring my les paul with that diagram i find my neck pickup to be much louder than my bridge pickup. this was also evident when i had this set of EMG pickups installed, which also came with completly new electronics.

 

I've already tried lowering the height, but the neck pickup is very noticably louder than the bridge.. does anybody have any ideas?

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rewire it

change the ground and the hot???

 

sorry im a bit new to this.. so im a little confused on what exactly you want me to do..

 

im guessing the hot wire.. is the part of the wire connected to the lug? and the ground is the shielded part i soldered to the pot.. but how to I change those?

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You know dude that's a good question. Usually to get a true out of phase sound, 1 you need a axe with 2 pickups and the effect will only occur when both pickups are on, and will be most obvious when the pickups are at approximately the same volume and 1 pickup is wired to a dpdt switch. Giving the one thrown out of phase a weaker thinner sound from the other. In your case I think you do not have a switch installed and you did say your axe once had emg's. So my guess would be you have non factory installed Gibson usa pickups, because they only come with a braided ground wire with the lead in the middle. Non factory installed Gibson usa pickups come with the ground and 3 wires. But I think the 57 pickups come with only 2 or just the ground and a lead. If you have more than 1 lead thats where you screwed up, they both are not the same. If you have only a ground and 1 lead, you need to check the resistance and get the k-ohm reading and put the higher output one in the bridge. And if none of the above fix your problem, your just nuts and need to stop hang-in out by 5-corners and smoke-in all that good **** that out there. Just a joke, I used to play out that way. Or just go to this gibson site, it explains what exactly to do on a 4 wire conductor pickup wiring if you want to make it out of phase. Look under standard humbucking operation.http://www.gibson.com/files/downloads/PDFs/diagrams/PUPwiring.pdf

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Sorry dude I just looked up the 57 classic's. They come with only the steel braided ground wire and the lead. You cant swap them. Don't know what to tell ya, besides do not swap-em. Do not, as far as I know you will ruin the pickup If you solder the inside lead wire to the back of the pot. Just wait and see what everybody else says. All I can say is swap out the neck pickup and put it into the bridge position.

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Sounds to me that you may have melted the volume potentiometer. I had a similar

problem.

 

I'd check and make sure everything is properly soldered to ensure you don't have a

cold solder joint.

 

There's no way it could be out of phase when there's two conductor pickup.

 

OMG, wait. Did you used the pots and output jack from the EMGs ? EMGs use 25k pots,

Gibson put B300k (volume) A500k (tone) and I believe Switchcraft output jack.

 

Start off by telling us what parts are in the guitar right now.

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OMG' date=' wait. Did you used the pots and output jack from the EMGs ? EMGs use 25k pots,

Gibson put B300k (volume) A500k (tone) and I believe Switchcraft output jack.

 

Start off by telling us what parts are in the guitar right now.[/quote']

 

 

That's what I was thinking too.

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Sounds to me that you may have melted the volume potentiometer. I had a similar

problem.

 

I'd check and make sure everything is properly soldered to ensure you don't have a

cold solder joint.

 

There's no way it could be out of phase when there's two conductor pickup.

 

OMG' date=' wait. Did you used the pots and output jack from the EMGs ? EMGs use 25k pots,

Gibson put B300k (volume) A500k (tone) and I believe Switchcraft output jack.

 

Start off by telling us what parts are in the guitar right now.[/quote']

 

 

 

Just what I was thinking... and I think I told someone in another thread (maybe the same guy) that EMG actives come with their own set of wire, pots, and jcak for a reason: different measures.

 

EMG 25K pots... for pasives you need 300K and 500k if you are using humbuckers.

 

 

 

A stupid question here... have you tried just reversing one pickup (the one giving you problems...)?

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I rewired the whole set using Gibson 500k pots. I wanted the CTS but the store i was at only has 2 CTS and 5 gibson pots..

 

Could it really be that i melted a pot? the volume difference here is noticable, but the bridge pickup volume isnt completly faint, and absent, its still there, the signal is just much weaker compared to the neck.

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Do you have a volt/ohm meter. If so desolder everything and check the **** for resistance. If all the pots are good, the higher reading of the 2 two pickups, put in the bridge. How about a photo of your work. A photo of your control cavity.

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are there any other signs showing that it may be a cracked pot?

 

would a cracked volume pot result in a dramatic difference in volume? because its definatly lower than the neck, but its not super low or anything, and still got a decent signal.

 

one more question.. following the diagram i have above, there seems to be a wire on the bottom left labeled "ground from bridge" what exactly is this wire comming from?

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one more question.. following the diagram i have above' date=' there seems to be a wire on the bottom left labeled "ground from bridge" what exactly is this wire comming from?[/quote']

 

If you have the guitar on your lap you should see a wired about the pots in the cavity,

that goes to the bridge post. Could be a stiff wire sometimes not insulated.

 

You maybe missing this wire if it had EMGs, since they are internally grounded that wire

isn't used.

 

Can you post a picture please ?

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