Help with pickup wiring problem

[brock29609]

I'm wiring a P/J pickup set using Vol-Blen-tone pots. I have everything wired perfectly per a diagram I got off of guitarelectronics.com, but here's my problem. When I pan all the way to either pickup, it plays beautifully. When I try to blend the pickups 50/50, I get silence.

I thought maybe the pickups were out of phase with each other (is that the correct term?), so I swapped the hot and ground wire on the bridge pickup. It didn't work. I still have the same problem.

Ideas??

 

[Espidog]

Can you post a nice big, clear photo or two of what you've done? Difficult to say unless we have something to examine.

 

[brock29609]

This is my wiring, except with a P pickup in the neck postion. I've checked it over and over again and my wiring matches this exactly. The only insignificant difference is you can't solder to the blend pot case. I, instead, have that wire attached to the case of one of the other pots.

 

[Rune Bivrin]

Key question here is what the value of the potentiometers are. The balance pot must be just right, but it's a balancing act (pun intended).

And in my opinion not a very good circuit, anyway. The mid position will always compromise tone and level to some degree.

Rune

 

[brock29609]

The vol & blend pots are 500K. The tone pot is 250K. Is that a problem?

 

[Espidog]

This is my wiring, except with a P pickup in the neck postion. I've checked it over and over again and my wiring matches this exactly. The only insignificant difference is you can't solder to the blend pot case. I, instead, have that wire attached to the case of one of the other pots.

Thanks for the diagram, but what I would like to see is a photo of what you have actually done with a soldering iron and components. Of course, you believe that you have followed the diagram to the letter (don't we always?), but the evidence of your ears tells you otherwise. Even the best of us make little mistakes.

 

[brock29609]

I dug up another older post where someone had the same problem. At the center position, both pickups were full off instead of full on because the hots and grounds were backwards. Even though my wiring is just like the diagram above, maybe my blend pot is backwards. I'll leave the pickup hot wires on the center posts, but swap the wires on the lateral posts and see if that works.

Edit: It worked.