HELP!! Wiring Problem Seymour Duncan pickups

[JRISS138]

I (hope) I am not done with wiring the new Seymour Duncan pickups in my Gibson les Paul. I soldered the Green and Bare wires of the bridge pickup to the back of the upper left Pot. I soldered the Black wire to the lefthand tab of that same Pot. I did the same for the Neck pickup (wiring them to the upper right Pot). Now I am a little confused on what to do with the Red and White wires of each pickup. In the diagram it says to tape the Red and White wires together. I did this and the guitar sounds horrible, it almost sounds like a strat(no offense to Strat users... lol) I have to turn my amp up louder than with stock pickups and the tone has no bottom end. Also the tone knobs seem to be controlling my volume, even though I did not touch or interfere with any of the tone pots or any other wires I drew a diagram and the wires are all still connected. I was wondering if I should twist and solder THEN tape the Red and White wires together. The diagram just says to tape them together and nowhere in the numbered instructions tells me to actually connect the Red and White wire. Any help would be greatly appreciated as I am severely bumed out with the tone of my beloved Paul, and somewhat regreting taking out the stock pickups.

[lpdeluxe]

When you solder the red and white together, you are in effect bypassing the coil tap facility. It sounds as though yu have some connections touching.

 

On my Epiphone Sheraton II, I twisted the red and white together, then put a coat of solder over the joint, and sealed it with a piece of heat shrink tubing.

 

I did the same to the green and bare wires (both go to ground) and soldered a white"tail" to the resulting single lead so the wire would be long enough, and added another tail to the black wire.

 

White was soldered to the pot back (it helps to roughen up the surface with a file so the solder will stick) and the black to the center tab on the pot. I followed the Stewart0McDonald and Seymour-Duncan wiring diagrams. Both are available at http://www.stewmac.com/freeinfo/Electronics/Wiring_diagrams/i-1217.html and http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/wiring-diagrams/schematics.php?schematic=2h_2v_2t_3w.

 

Patience is rewarded, making sure all contacts are well soldered: use a multimeter to ensure that all grounds, especially, are robust.

 

Since everything on the Epi had to go in and out through the treble f-hole, I had to be extra careful, but the results are well worth it (Seymour Duncan Jazz neck humbucker and JB bridge pickups).

 

I also wired SDs into my Gibson LP Deluxe but it was much easier and also a couple of years ago, so I don't remember exactly what I did; nonetheless, I've been gigging happily with it ever since.

[surfpup]

I encountered the same thing. Duncans can be tricky because of the 4 conductor wiring. I think you have to twist and tape the red and white together then tape them off to take the coil tapping out of the equation - hard to remember. Once you've done it right though you will notice the difference, so if you haven't done so I would try twisting them together.

 

Check your wiring against the Duncan diagram.

 

[DoubleSixx]

You can twist and solder the red and white wires together the tape or heat shrink tubing.

 

Look closely at the schematics :

 

http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/wiring-diagrams/schematics.php?schematic=2h_2v_2t_3w

 

Duncan's north start/finish and south start/finish wires are completely different than Gibson's.

 

If you look at that diagram you'll see the number three lug on the tone pots aren't grounded to the can. Gibons grounds to the can, so you have two volume controls per pickup.

 

To solve this you need to desolder the lugs on each potentiometer. There's two ways to do this, with a desoldering iron or use a desoldering braid.

 

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2062744&cp=&sr=1&origkw=solder+braid&kw=solder+braid&parentPage=search

 

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2062731&cp=&sr=1&origkw=desolder+iron&kw=desolder+iron&parentPage=search

 

Which ever you choose the packages have instructions.

 

Be carefull, pots act like big heat sinks and melt very easy.

 

Double check that diagram and I bet you'll see what I'm talking about.

 

Good luck.