nkay24 Posted January 13, 2011 Share Posted January 13, 2011 Hi there. I recently purchased a dirty fingers pickup and installed it in an old ibanez that i had collecting dust. I made a bit of a mess of the wiring/soldering but did manage to get the pickup working. I wired it up to be 1 humbucker 1 volume. The problem is the pickup itself sounds very twangy and thin compared to what i have heard of the dirty fingers. The single coil in my telecaster gets a much heavier sound. Im sure the sound im getting is not what should be coming out of the pickup. Im not sure if ive got a dud pickup or if ive somehow wired it wrong, or that the old volume pot or input jack are affecting the tone of the pickup. Any help or suggestions would be appreciated Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whitmore Willy Posted January 13, 2011 Share Posted January 13, 2011 NKay, Without personal examination it is a tough call. Depending on the solder job it is possible that it is a cold solder joint or that the pot is shot. More likely, from your description of the sound I would take a wild guess that you have wired it accidentally in a single coil configuration instead of as a humbucker. (Correct me if I am wrong but, to my knowledge, the Dirty Finger is a 4 lead pickup.) See if this helps: http://www.guitarelectronics.com/c=pDiRkAJiOtBFxtVNDhEcMLPAI/category/wiring_resources_guitar_wiring_diagrams.humbucker_wiring_color_codes/ (scroll down page) It's also a good practice to "temp" the wires in and test before making final solder connections. Just out of curiosity what are the pot values? 500k? Willy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nkay24 Posted January 14, 2011 Author Share Posted January 14, 2011 Thanks for the link. Its a 500k pot, but it is quite old so im gonna replace it and try and do a better job of the soldering. I also think i got the black and white wires around the wrong way. Whoops! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Searcy Posted January 16, 2011 Share Posted January 16, 2011 The coils are phased wrong. Is it a 4 wire pickup? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nkay24 Posted January 20, 2011 Author Share Posted January 20, 2011 I replaced the pot and its still doing it. Yes its a 4 wire pickup. How would i fix the phasing on the coils? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnthemBassMan Posted January 20, 2011 Share Posted January 20, 2011 -Can you post a pic of the wiring job so we can see it? Do you have the green and white leads soldered together and taped off so they can't short against something? Black and braided leads soldered to ground? Red lead soldered to the volume pot lug? If all of these are done correctly, you should be up and running. Also check the length of each lead's insulation to make sure it wasn't burnt through with the soldering iron and causing a short. Check the last diagram in this link and make sure your wiring follows this one. http://www.gibson.com/Files/Downloads/PDFs/Diagrams/PUPwiring.pdf L8R, Matt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nkay24 Posted January 24, 2011 Author Share Posted January 24, 2011 i took it to my local guitar tech and he rewired it all the same as the diagrams. It still has a very thin sound. It sounds as if the pickup may be out of phase with itself, there is just no balls to it. Im thinking the pickup may be the problem? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnthemBassMan Posted January 25, 2011 Share Posted January 25, 2011 -That is possible. There could be a short in one of the coils. If you have a multimeter, check each coil, then both together to see if you get a good reading. That will rule out whether or not it's the actual p'up that's the problem. I think the Dirty Fingers is a 16k p'up. Each coil should read roughly 8k. If you get those reading from it, then there is definitley a problem somewhere else. L8R, Matt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
icantbuyafender Posted February 11, 2011 Share Posted February 11, 2011 -That is possible. There could be a short in one of the coils. If you have a multimeter, check each coil, then both together to see if you get a good reading. That will rule out whether or not it's the actual p'up that's the problem. I think the Dirty Fingers is a 16k p'up. Each coil should read roughly 8k. If you get those reading from it, then there is definitley a problem somewhere else. L8R, Matt buy it off ebay? The dirty finger's has been NOTORIOUSLY copied in appearance by imposter pup makers... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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