Greetings all - first post. Long time Dimarzio user who wandered over to SD and back again. I have a weird wiring situation. I have three guitars with the same pickup configuration and the exact same wiring. Two sound identical, but one is not playing nice. I run HSH so I can get my strat tones along with my 'buckers. Each guitar has Dark Matter 2 single coils and either Transition or Dark Matter buckers. Actually the problem child has Sterling Transition clones - which I really like.

The issue is position 4 (neck/middle) (all have 5-ways) on the Transition clones is extremely and unnaturally thin. Position 2 sounds as it should - nice quacky strat tone. I have gone back through all three guitars today and verified all are wired the same, so I have no clue as to why this one position is off, especially since P4 works but P2 doesn't.

Anyone have any thoughts on this curious issue? Any info is very much appreciated.

Also - on the DM2 single coil...what is with the gray wire. I don't have it attached to anything in any of the guitars and I can find nothing as far as wiring diagrams that even references a gray Dimarzio wire.