Caparison pickups in ESP/ltd guitar

**Celdric** · 27-09-2014, 08:55 AM

Hi there,
I bought some Caparison Pickups from axe Palace to change it with my EMG's HZ on my esp ltd mh 250 guitar. This is a ten years old neck through guitar so i decided to buy new pots and condenser. I took 500kohm A pots from g�ldo and a New 0,022mf condenser. After rewireing and setting up the guitar i realised , that the clean Sounds are much loader than on my distortion channel. I am on C Tuning and iwas blowing away by the amaring Output of the pickups. My tube amp is growling now and i Never saw the speaker so vibriting! The Point is, that the Sound is very muddy! Anyone has experiance with this?

Pictures coming soon

**Trypios** · 27-09-2014, 10:21 AM

If you're using the same pickup when switching between amp channels, then it's your amp's fault for the volume difference. Probably a preamp tube, if it's a tube amp.
If you're switching pickups and the volume is different, you need to adjust the height or maybe one of them is demagnetized/faulty.
You didn't say which pups you bought, maybe the pickups themselves are muddy...or you need to adjust your EQ settings. Muddiness is usually around 250-400hz

**Celdric** · 27-09-2014, 01:44 PM

Originally Posted by Trypios

If you're using the same pickup when switching between amp channels, then it's your amp's fault for the volume difference. Probably a preamp tube, if it's a tube amp.
If you're switching pickups and the volume is different, you need to adjust the height or maybe one of them is demagnetized/faulty.
You didn't say which pups you bought, maybe the pickups themselves are muddy...or you need to adjust your EQ settings. Muddiness is usually around 250-400hz

The pickups are PH-R and PH-F. The loudness is on the Same pickup (Bridge). Neck didnt tried.
The Problem is on my krank halfstack and my combo at home. Ill try to Change my eq... how can i test It by demagnetized? Bad wiring?
Thx

**Trypios** · 27-09-2014, 03:05 PM

It doesn't make sense...Are you saying that by using the bridge pickup ONLY (vol & tone pots full), the amplifier channels sound different volume-wise? The pickup is not different for each channel's output, thus the problem lies with the amp. But you're saying that the problem occurs on two different amps (Krank and other combo). If the source stays the same (guitar + pickup), then you either have to adjust the volume of your amps' channels correctly, or (unlikely) both your amps have a bad preamp tube.

If on the other case, you have difference in volume on the same channel because of switching pickups, then one of your pickups must be raised/lowered OR is demagnetized/faulty.
To test a pickup you need a gauss meter. It's very rare for a pickup to go degauss, I wouldn't worry about that. Also my PH-R was no muddy at all. It was a very bright pickup, similar to a SD JB.

Another thing I can think of is that you wired the tone pot incorrectly and now it works like it's rolled off, cutting off all the high frequencies leaving you with a muddy sound. Maybe the problem of your volume difference as well.

Can you make schematics of the wiring you did, or post a few pictures of your guitar's electronics cavity? You can try to bypass the vol. and tone pots, wiring the 3-way switch directly to output and check your sound. If it sounds good, then you did something wrong with the tone pot (or vol pot).

**Celdric** · 27-09-2014, 08:18 PM

Originally Posted by Trypios

It doesn't make sense...Are you saying that by using the bridge pickup ONLY (vol & tone pots full), the amplifier channels sound different volume-wise? The pickup is not different for each channel's output, thus the problem lies with the amp. But you're saying that the problem occurs on two different amps (Krank and other combo). If the source stays the same (guitar + pickup), then you either have to adjust the volume of your amps' channels correctly, or (unlikely) both your amps have a bad preamp tube.

If on the other case, you have difference in volume on the same channel because of switching pickups, then one of your pickups must be raised/lowered OR is demagnetized/faulty.
To test a pickup you need a gauss meter. It's very rare for a pickup to go degauss, I wouldn't worry about that. Also my PH-R was no muddy at all. It was a very bright pickup, similar to a SD JB.

Another thing I can think of is that you wired the tone pot incorrectly and now it works like it's rolled off, cutting off all the high frequencies leaving you with a muddy sound. Maybe the problem of your volume difference as well.

Can you make schematics of the wiring you did, or post a few pictures of your guitar's electronics cavity? You can try to bypass the vol. and tone pots, wiring the 3-way switch directly to output and check your sound. If it sounds good, then you did something wrong with the tone pot (or vol pot).

Thank you for your quick answer.
Ive changed the preamp tubes, but it stays the same.
Its on both pickups:
bridge -> clean and distortion difference about 15 db
neck -> clean and distortion difference about 15 db, too.
Its not the difference between neck and bridge pickup! thats clear about the pickuphight.
i made some picks... hopeit helps

http://s1376.photobucket.com/user/Ce...bile%20Uploads

**Trypios** · 29-09-2014, 06:08 PM

sorry, I didn't see that sooner.

Sounds to me that the pots might be the problem.
Try to bypass them and go from the switcher directly to the jack socket.

White is hot, green and red are soldered together and left isolated, black and bare go to ground.

wiring.jpg

Even better, if you have the time, connect the white lead of one of the pickups directly to the jack socket and ground the black and bare, just to test the pickup by itself. Do the same for the other pickup just to compare, even though you said they have the same output.

**Celdric** · 02-10-2014, 10:24 PM

Its the Tone pot...
Ive wired back and its Bassy! Now it workes like an Volume pot!
How to wire without Tone and with vol?
Thx

**Trypios** · 02-10-2014, 11:40 PM

I'd suggest this:

wiring.png

If it doesn't work correctly, I blame your tone pot/capacitor

**Celdric** · 03-10-2014, 12:11 AM

what i did is:

Is the condenser nessesary ?
Sounds good so far... ;o)
thank you dude

**Trypios** · 03-10-2014, 11:48 AM

It's correct, but now you have no tone and no coil tap option. At least you figured out the bad link. You can try adding the tone pot following my schematics, it's no big deal:
- add red+green cables of each pickup to the middle pins of the push-pull (isolated),
- ground the lower pins and connect the middle pins of both pots (vol + tone) together.
- connect one capacitor leg to the right pin of tone pot and the other leg to ground

If it doesn't work correctly, buy another pot and capacitor and try again.

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