2 LPs, way different sound

[jchabalk]

Hi there, i have an R9 and recently an R8. the other day i was playing both of them and noticed that the sound out of each of them is much different. My R9 seems to have much more output than the R8. I can get the amp to start breaking up around 3-4 on the volume knob but the R8 won't start breaking up until >8. I posted about this over at mlp while the gibson forums were down last week but it seems that my topic has gone dark.

 

I checked both guitars and they're both BB1,2 pickups. My R9 is from 2008, my R8 is from 2010, so both pretty recent.

 

the string height over the pickups is also mostly identical on each guitar. It seems to be that the output is just much different between the two.

 

Is there any light anyone can shed on this for me? Anything else i could or should measure to tell where this difference is coming from? The behavior is the same with both the bridge and neck pickups..

 

thanks in advance.

[swleary]

I've heard this problem before on here. I've never experienced it myself. Are they the same pots and caps ? It's forsure an odd problem.

[FennRx]

if it's not the pickup heights, it could just be the pickups. i had a similar problem: my 2008 R8 's bridge was weaker than my 2007 R9's. after swapping the pots,caps and pickups, i concluded that i just had a (particularly) bad set of BBs.

[Tom99SS]

2009 and 2010 Reissues now have CTS audio taper volume pots where prior years had linear taper volume pots. This is contributing to the volume difference as the taper is very difference between the 2.

[Tim Plains]

Tom, there's no difference when everything's on 10. I think he means the volume knob on his amp.

[Tom99SS]

Tim,

I agree the volume pots on the guitar should produce the same volume when they are on 10. This is why I thought he was talking about the knobs on the guitar as the audio vs. linear will produce this type of result he was describing. If the OP is talking about the volume knob on the amp then I was confused by his post.