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Volume "dies" when selector is in the middle on a Les Paul Standard?


Jay thomas

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Hi! Jay Thomas from Sweden.

Just bought myself an EPI Les Paul Standard and I'm kind of confused about the volume knobs when the selector is in the middle position. I thought that the volume knobs were totally independent, ie there's always sound even if one of them is in the 0 position (as long as the other isn't). On my guitar it seems that the knobs must be at least in the no 2 position to get any sound at all. If any of the knobs is turned down to 0, no matter the other is set to, the sound dissappears? Any ideas or am I wrong? =D>

 

A confused greeting from Stockholm/Sweden

 

//JT

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Hi! Jay Thomas from Sweden.

Just bought myself an EPI Les Paul Standard and I'm kind of confused about the volume knobs when the selector is in the middle position. I thought that the volume knobs were totally independent' date=' ie there's always sound even if one of them is in the 0 position (as long as the other isn't). On my guitar it seems that the knobs must be at least in the no 2 position to get any sound at all. If any of the knobs is turned down to 0, no matter the other is set to, the sound dissappears? Any ideas or am I wrong? =D>

 

[/quote'] Welcome !!! I have a LP Std+ , and the knobs work the same as you. It did seem odd at first, but I assumed that "just the way they are" and am now quite used to it. Guess they figured if you have the switch in the middle, you'd be wanting both pickups turned up to some degree.....although it does seem quite strange that having one turned down mutes the other, but....oh, well...)

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Yes' date=' this is who it works. You must have BOTH volume knobs turned up to get any volume on middle switch position. Thought was, that way you can vary overall volume from just one knob, but still set the blend by adjusting both.

[/quote'] Hmmmmmm......makes sense of what seemed an odd situation. Thanks for the explanation =D>

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Basically, the way these guitars are wired, when you dial the volume down to zero it shorts the pickup to ground. In the middle switch position, the two pickups are now connected together and they will both see this ground connection, and therefore you get no output even if one of the volumes is still at ten.

 

FYI there is an alternate way to wire the volumes so that this doesn't happen; simply interchange the two non-grounded connections on the volume pots.

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My pleasure. Here, I whipped up some diagrams explaining what's going on for anyone that's interested:

 

Normal wiring; red line shows path to ground causing the top pickup to 'die':

 

normal.gif

 

...and here's the alternate wiring method; see how the path to ground (red line) is now blocked by the bottom pickup's volume control.

 

alternate.gif

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