3 pickups, 3 toggle switches...

[NicJimBass]

I have a bass that I installed 3 EMG pickups into (45CS at the neck, 45DC at middle and bridge), and each pickup has it's own on/off toggle switch. The rest of the electronics are master volume, into a Darkglass Tone Capsule.

When any pickup is soloed, it sounds as it should. When I add another pickup, it seems to lower the volume of at least one of the other pickups. It's most noticeable when I tap on each pickup with something metal. Trying to see if this is normal, or if there is anything I can do to remedy the situation.

These are the toggle switches I used. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07QGDDTWJ?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2_dt_b_product_details I have the top lugs all connected together, going to the master volume. The pickup leads are each wired to the second lug on their corresponding switch. Everything else is wired correctly, according to the wiring diagram that Darkglass provides.

Any and all help is really appreciated!

 

[ctmullins]

Seems like that should be fine. Just normal parallel wiring of the hot leads, and all ground leads go straight to ground, right? I have a similar setup in a bass of mine, wired essentially the same way, and it works fine.

Note that “works fine” includes some attenuation of mid-frequencies when any pair of pickups is activated. In the passive pickup world there is interaction between the pickups that affects tone and output, but since your EMGs contain active buffers, this doesn’t apply. What does apply, however, is the inherent mid-cancellations of two sensors positioned at different points along the string. No way around that, and it’s a good tone anyway, just different. But sometimes the brain perceives attenuated mids as quieter.