bellbottom Posted October 20, 2008 Share Posted October 20, 2008 Hi all , new user (but old time Gibson player) here! A couple of days ago I swapped the '57classic and 57classic plus pickups on my LP custom with a brand new couple of Burstbuckers: BB1 in the neck, BB2 in the bridge. the new pickup have a nice sound (the bb2 is not so far from a '57classic anyway) but I have the feeling that's something is wrong, because there is a HUGE output differente between neck and bridge. the pickups resistance value are 7.7K (BB1) and 8.1K (BB2), I had pickups with greater difference in Res values, but never had so much difference in volume when switching from neck to bridge. I tried to adjust both pickup heights bringin BB1 closer to the string and keeping BB2 away, but i had no useful results. the pots are ok, never had a problem with them (and i changed pickups on this guitar many times) and the wiring is '50 style (if this can give you some hint). anyone ever had the same problem? any suggestion wil be highly appreciated! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cvansickle Posted October 20, 2008 Share Posted October 20, 2008 I'll watch this thread myself. I played a new Axxess LP over the weekend at the Arlington Guitar Show. While I thought the guitar was fantastic for the most part, I did notice relatively weak output from the neck pickup. I believe this guitar use the BB 1 & 2 combo, right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rybass Posted October 20, 2008 Share Posted October 20, 2008 I had this problem when I changed the pups on my faded sg to bb2 and bb3. I tried all the easy fixes, pole height, pup height, resolder, etc but the only thing that fixed it was new cts pots and OD caps. The old pots tested good but putting the new ones in fixed the output volume difference. Could not tell you why though. Maybe just consciously going in and resoldering the whole rig found the problem and made the difference. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bellbottom Posted October 20, 2008 Author Share Posted October 20, 2008 thank you for the reply. I just re did all soldering on the two pu, but nothing changed. Then i swapped the pot connections: Neck pickup soldered to the bridge pot and vice versa, but again, no changes: BB1 alwayas has less volume than BB2. I did a small sample to let you hear the difference in output between neck and bridge. http://www.i3fighters.com/mic/bb1bb2-vs.mp3 the European Gibson support team has been really quick to answer my email, anyway they say that everything is ok, a small difference in output is expected betweenBB1 & 2. Now I will send them the same sample, maybe we just give different meaning to the terms "small difference" ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bellbottom Posted October 22, 2008 Author Share Posted October 22, 2008 ok, I redid all the solderings and wirings and now everything works fine. just some comparative samples for you: recording gear: Les paul custom - 10-52strings - '50 wiring scheme - direct plug into sound board. Neck 57classic http://www.i3fighters.com/mic/57neck.mp3 BB1 http://www.i3fighters.com/mic/bb1neck.mp3 Bridge 57classic+ http://www.i3fighters.com/mic/57plusbridge.mp3 BB2 http://www.i3fighters.com/mic/bb2bridge.mp3 Volume level switching BB1/BB2 http://www.i3fighters.com/mic/bb1bb2.mp3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rybass Posted October 28, 2008 Share Posted October 28, 2008 Nice so just reworking the whole thing fixed it again. I still wonder if it's just the concious effort of reslodering everything or if there is something about the pots + pups that causes the issue. And yes there should be a bit of a difference but not huge as my BB's were and as yours were based on your description. Congrats! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dixie Posted October 30, 2008 Share Posted October 30, 2008 Hi everyone, i’m from Italy, i’m sorry about my english. I hope you gonna understand my words anyway. I got the same problem by 3 months and i did not solve it yet. In august i bought a pre-owned 2007 Les Paul R9 on ebay, with Burstbucker 1 and 2. The guitar is simply perfect but when i received it i heard the big difference of volume between the 2 pickups. The neck volume is really lower than the bridge one. Also the tone pot for the neck pickup did not work. I heard the ebay seller and he told me that the original owner (not the seller) changed the pickups and then he put back the orginal Burstbuckers 1 and 2. I guessed the PU change, made by the owner, maybe caused something wrong in the wiring. I took the guitar to a technician here in Italy. He changed the pot and checked the wiring but the problem is still present. I don’t know if the italian technician made again all the wiring soldering, but i don’t think so. The big difference of volume between Burstbucker 1 and 2 was (and “is”) enormous and the technician said to me the problem has got to be on the neck pickup. So i ordered a new Burstbucker 1 and i ‘m waiting to have it, but this post makes me think one more time about the wiring soldering problem and maybe a possible solution. Maybe, after all, i don’t need a new Burstbucker 1 (i already paid for it, so now i have to get it). I got others two Les Pauls with Burstbuckers but there is not any problem on them. I would ask: - when you make again the wiring soldering. do you make it ALL again ? I mean: the bridge pickup works fine, Do you think I have to do the wiring again for it too ? - I read in this post maybe the problem could be in the pots. Perhaps the original owner changed the pots too (i don’t think so, but i’m not sure). Do you know wich kind of pots a LP Std Custom Shop R9 got to have ? (i heard 500K and others people saying 300K…). I would like to put push-pull pots to switch PU in single coils, i bought 2 gibson 500K push-pull pots.. do you think they will work fine ? Thanks a lot in advance for your help. I got a wonderful guitar since august that i still can’t play properly I attach pics of the wiring on my LP R9 http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s194/dixielespaul/LesPaul%20R9/IMG_0518.jpg http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s194/dixielespaul/LesPaul%20R9/IMG_0514.jpg Best regards. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rybass Posted November 3, 2008 Share Posted November 3, 2008 Based off the two testimonials here I would say redo the whole thing to be sure. New pots caps and wires. The pots could have been damaged inside from soldering or the cap could be fried also. It solved my volume issues. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dynadude Posted November 7, 2008 Share Posted November 7, 2008 I had a pickup on one of my frankensteins stop working a few months ago. It had worked fine for better than 3 years, and then the volume started going south, and the tone pot seemed to have no affect at all. After a week or two, it just quit completely. I removed the cap and tested all the wiring, the pot and the pickup. No problems. I finally just decided to replace the tone pot, so I desolderd the pickup ground at the pot, and was about to remove it, but I decided to try redoing the ground before going further. Sure enough, the volume was normal again. No problem at all. I'll never understand how that ground went bad after that long, and with nothing disturbing the connection, but I did learn that it's a good idea to check them before replacing any parts. Ground joints can be a source of problems in anything electrical. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Custom.... Posted November 10, 2008 Share Posted November 10, 2008 Ok here is the deal man. 57's or burstbuckers. Which ones should i get? i like the sound of the 57's because they are warm. But i also like the sound of the burstbucker pros because they have BALLZ if you know what i mean. ya so tell me what you think i have no idea but im leaning to the burstbucker pros. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dixie Posted November 12, 2008 Share Posted November 12, 2008 Yes, i did it too some days ago. I desoldered the wire from pickup to the volume pot. I cutted it a little, cleaned and solved it again. Yes now it works. The volume is pretty OK just like the bridge pick up. I have some more doubts about the tone, it seems too warm, too low frequencies. I will check the tone pot too. Thanks a lot. ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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