Low pickup output - Steve Morse Bridge

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Offline Jacob_X23

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Low pickup output - Steve Morse Bridge
« on: June 29, 2016, 01:06:59 PM »
My neck and middle pickups (Ibanez V7 and S1) work good. They have normal amount of gain and are loud. I have changed ibz V8 for Steve Morse bridge and despite it has 450 mV output it gives less gain and it's less loud. I've soldered red wire where was previous red wire, black and white together instead ibz white wire and green with bare together to volume pot. Have I soldered it bad or something? Maybe in wrong place?

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Offline darkbluemurder

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Re: Low pickup output - Steve Morse Bridge
« Reply #1 on: June 30, 2016, 04:18:00 AM »
I guess that when you wrote "green and bare together to the volume pot" you really meant "to the back of the volume pot". These two wires need to go to ground (which the back of the pot is) - if you put these to the volume pot input you would short the pickup and killing the output. Under the assumption that you soldered green and bare to the back of the volume pot, your wiring appears to be correct.

Do you have a multimeter? If yes, put a guitar cord into the guitar's output jack, set the pickup selector to bridge, make sure that the volume pot is turned up full and measure the DC resistance between the tip and the shaft (which would be signal hot and ground respectively). You should get a reading close to the pickup's specified DC resistance, e.g. 9k to 9.5k (it will be a bit lower than the specified resistance because when it's in the circuit it is in parallel with the volume pot). If you get something wildly different from that, the pickup may be faulty.

If you don't have a multimeter, get one. They are not expensive and are IMHO indisipensible for working on guitar electronics.

If everything reads correctly we have to look for other potential problems.

Good luck,
Stephan
Area 67, Area 58, Area 61, VV Pro 54, Injectors, VV HB2, Virtual Solo, SDS-1, Area T, Area Hot T, Area T 615, Virtual Hot T, Chopper T, Bluesbucker, Breed set, Air Norton, Super Distortion, DLX+ set, DLX-90, DP240, DP198, DP168, VPAF b, AT-1, Mo' Joe, FRED, Super 2; GS b

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Offline Jacob_X23

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Re: Low pickup output - Steve Morse Bridge
« Reply #2 on: June 30, 2016, 09:52:42 AM »
I have measured a resistance of pickup and started playing​ the guitar and now it's strange because pickup has more power than yesterday and is louder than neck. I'd like to find out what may be a reason of variable output level

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Offline darkbluemurder

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Re: Low pickup output - Steve Morse Bridge
« Reply #3 on: July 01, 2016, 03:31:52 AM »
Most likely a bad solder joint or a wire touching a connection where it should not.

I would reflow all the solder joints of the bridge pickup, especially those at the switch terminals.

Good luck,
Stephan
Area 67, Area 58, Area 61, VV Pro 54, Injectors, VV HB2, Virtual Solo, SDS-1, Area T, Area Hot T, Area T 615, Virtual Hot T, Chopper T, Bluesbucker, Breed set, Air Norton, Super Distortion, DLX+ set, DLX-90, DP240, DP198, DP168, VPAF b, AT-1, Mo' Joe, FRED, Super 2; GS b

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Offline Jacob_X23

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Re: Low pickup output - Steve Morse Bridge
« Reply #4 on: July 03, 2016, 08:32:25 AM »
I improved solders. Now when output is low and I take out cable from input in amp and then put it there again, output becomes high again. Can this information help in some way?

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Offline darkbluemurder

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Re: Low pickup output - Steve Morse Bridge
« Reply #5 on: July 04, 2016, 04:02:42 AM »
I improved solders. Now when output is low and I take out cable from input in amp and then put it there again, output becomes high again. Can this information help in some way?

If this also happens with other guitars and/or other pickups, then the amp is a (or the) problem. I would use a little contact cleaner on the tip of the guitar cord plug and plug in/out of the amp jack several times. Do that and see if the problem persists.

Good luck,
Stephan
Area 67, Area 58, Area 61, VV Pro 54, Injectors, VV HB2, Virtual Solo, SDS-1, Area T, Area Hot T, Area T 615, Virtual Hot T, Chopper T, Bluesbucker, Breed set, Air Norton, Super Distortion, DLX+ set, DLX-90, DP240, DP198, DP168, VPAF b, AT-1, Mo' Joe, FRED, Super 2; GS b

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Offline Aceman

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Re: Low pickup output - Steve Morse Bridge
« Reply #6 on: July 04, 2016, 10:22:33 AM »
Sounds like a bad jack to me.

Resolder the jack - the bridge hot ring…

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Offline appar111

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Re: Low pickup output - Steve Morse Bridge
« Reply #7 on: July 10, 2016, 06:45:43 PM »
Bad jack or bad cable.  Try a different cable first, then look at the jack as the culprit.


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