Pickup selector problem

bryan1234

New member
i had this problem just 2 days after i bought my guitar. when i switch to rhythm it works fine but when i switch to treble or select both pickups, there is a huge volume drop. it happened occasionally not all the time though. so i brought it to a tech and he changed the pickup selector to a gotoh one (supposedly better cause its made in japan) whereas my old pickup selector is made in china. Now the problem is coming back again. Barely 1 week after i replaced the pickup selector. its fustrating me and getting on my nerves!!
any solution guys? coz i dont wanna make another trip to the tech coz he's located quite far
 
^Wow that's pretty bad advice.

TS: Your best bet would be to get diagnostics done by a qualified tech, it could be a lot of things, and our suggestions of what's wrong with your guitar can only help you so much.
 
The problem might be caused by the potentiometers or wiring. You can use a multimeter to check. If you are not sure how, bring it to a guitar tech for a wiring check.
 
The problem is NOT caused by pots. and will not be rectified even if you change pickups.

Its all about pickup HEIGHT. Which tech did you go too? he should have advised you to get a set up.. Adjusting the pickup height will allow you to balance the vol between the bridge and neck pickup. It also affects the tone, in different ways.
 
the answer to the problem is so simple, i shall explain it in point form

Theres 2 path to take now, to determine the problem

1) Go back to guitar tech or another guitar tech, do a through search and have them explain why was there such problem and how to prevent it or at least cut down to minimum

2) Learn from online, read through pages and pages of info, search via google on how the guitar electronic wiring are done. Understand it. Open up own guitar, check through everything.

for 1) Its easier, since the only thing that need to be done, is travelling. And if lazy to travel, then be prepared to spend some time/lotsa time, trying to learn the electronic behind guitar pickup wiring and stuff

for 2) its the longer way, but will result in leanring how to fish, aka knowing how to work on future geetar wiring, do extra mods etc etc.

and if 1) and 2) doesnt sound logical, then 3) Play acoustic geetar.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

and for why most of the time, asking on forum bout troubleshooting issues on wiring wont work so efficiently(when it aint in a diy forum kinda place)

1) Coz we have no idea, cant see, cant check nor troubleshoot with the gear right infront of us

2) Coz we can only make a guess according to what was written, but might be misleading somehow, thus coming out with solution which might not be accurate.

3) Coz we will come out with many solutions, but which are the one that might be a solution, no one knows. And its definitely much harder if threadstarter who has problem in geetar wiring etc, having absolute no idea of how the thing work inside. Even if we can give the right solution, theres no way to fix the problem on own.

imho
if it doesnt sound logical, shoot
icon10.gif
 
i had this problem just 2 days after i bought my guitar. when i switch to rhythm it works fine but when i switch to treble or select both pickups, there is a huge volume drop. it happened occasionally not all the time though. so i brought it to a tech and he changed the pickup selector to a gotoh one (supposedly better cause its made in japan) whereas my old pickup selector is made in china. Now the problem is coming back again. Barely 1 week after i replaced the pickup selector. its fustrating me and getting on my nerves!!
any solution guys? coz i dont wanna make another trip to the tech coz he's located quite far

Here's what I see as it happened occassionally...sort of intermittent problem. This maybe due to the cable used. If you have intermittent on and off, that could be dry solder. For this case, the intermittent seems to be affecting the volume. Probability, high resistance(partial broken wire) on the cables may cause such things. Since you've mentioned it as a les paul, I presume you have two vol and two tone. Normally, each tone has a separate capacitor, some are valued equally some are valued differently. Your treble cap may have dry joint against ground or faulty. Try targeting on this areas. You should have told the guitar tech the problem rather than telling him to change the selector switch.

Otherwise, you should sent to a good guitar tech who would do a thorough checks if you are not sure about the wirings.

Saluti!
Tetragrammaton
 
went down to the tech again today and he told me the conductive paint is touching the wire so he help me adjust it for free
 
problem came back again. Beez suggested i rewire and change the pots
Oh darn....I thought you got it fixed. Hmm...as I suspected, there might be some intermittently broken cables. Well, rewiring is alright but changing all the pots..if for certain that it's one of the causes than that would be worthy. But, sadly I have to say many guitar tech just take the easy way out especially if you're sending it out. By changing everything, he'll charge you more and save all the hassles of trouble-shooting. But I can't blame them as trouble-shooting can be time consuming.

Well, by doing so will definitely solve all problems you've had.

Good luck!

Saluti!
Tetragrammaton
 
finally found out the cause! Dead pickup! Anyway, i still changed pots and wires to gotoh coz its made in japan coz better quality coz i dun wan any more problems in future just change it once and for all. So now my china made epi become japan made
 
200 plus including pickup which i havent change. Dont ever buy guitars on display coz i bought the piece on display. Regretted it.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top