Wiring advice

CROSS

Hi.

I wired a guitar I built recently.

It has an SD JB Humbucker in the bridge and a Fender Texas Special in the neck. It has a split push/pull pot for the humbucker so I can make it a single. both pots are 250k. It also has a .047mdf capacitor in the tone. The pickups are controlled by a three way toggle switch.

Now!

Why is it when I combine the neck p'up with the bridge p'up does the volume drop and sound thin, when it should be the full combined sound?

Is it an issue with the capacitor? if so, what one do I need?

CROSS

Oh, and don't ever buy a Fender texas special single coil. They don't sound very good.

SawaotheBuster

I am not technical, so I can't help ya. but you got pics?

CROSS

Soon.

It's basically wired up the same was as a duo-sonic. Only it has a split humbucker.

BanditGuitarist1

I have all texas specials in my SRV Strat, I think they sound fantastic! Maybe they dont sound good paired with a humbucker in the bridge? But alone they sound great!

CROSS

The single tex special is near the neck. Perhaps they sound better in the bridge.

But anyway, Does anyone know what causes volume dropout and how capacitors affect this?

Pedro

I'm afraid I can't answer your question but a similar thing happened with my HH jag when I put a new bridge pickup in and split the coils. Now when I have bridge + neck pups on the volume is lower than if I just use bridge OR neck (and this is using the bridge in humbucker mode, not as a single coil). With the stock setup both pickups at once were definitely not quieter than either/or.

I removed the strangle switch capacitor but don't see how that would make any difference. It's a bit confusing, but not so serious it bothers me.

Sorry I can't actually tell you anything useful! 😛

Val-tone

Maybe the toggle switch is junk? I've never had a problem like what you're describing with a toggle switch but I've had nearly new ones go bad on me and no amount of cleaning or adjusting the contacts have helped. Maybe you could test the pickups by bypassing the toggle.

Just a thought.

robertoriginal

I had a lil problem kinda like that, i actually put a .o23 nano on the tone(bleeds differently now) and i think it helped out a bit but i honestly never got it figured out. i think some of it is just that those pups are not really matched for eachother so when they are together the output power is compromised( one compansating for the other)

just a theory.

justa thought.

is everything in phase? try putting one out and seeing if the signal gets a boost of sorts.

TheJagmaster

sounds like a phase issue to me, but not being able to see what you got going on makes it hard to answer really. I'd check how you've got it wired up on the 3 way switches.

screaminglucyfer

yes, i agree...it's one of 2 things..

1. the pickups are wired out of phase. this means the hot and ground are reversed on one of the pickups. out of phase pickups tends to sound nasily.

2. the impedence of one of the pickups is a lot different that the other. this causes volume drop because the pickup with the smaller resistance is the only one you can hear and it's usaually the quieter single coil. in this case all you can really do it move the single coil (texas special) as close to the strings as you can to get more volume out of it.