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Wiring Help!!!

Malacypse

Malacypse

Nov 20, 2007
44
0
Wilmington, NC
#1
Tried doing my first electronics upgrade/swap. Started with a stock OLP MM2, single humbucker, V/V/T setup.

Bought 2 500k CTS pots, an orange drop cap, and a two way on/on switch for series/parallel.

The main idea being to upgrade the electronics, lose one of the volumes (I keep them both maxed all the time anyway) and just go series/parallel, single volume, single tone.

Attached a (crappy MS Paint) diagram of how I did the wiring. Kinda bastardized some of the stuff on Seymour Duncan to get it, not sure if it's even remotely correct.

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I get zero output. Not a sound. Much thanks in advance for any help you can give.
 
#2
The wiring looks OK. Take a circuit tester and check that all connections are sound (check for bad solder joints/broken wires). Other than that, are you certain the coils are wired right? In phase, and the right wire to the right lug on the switch?
 
#6
Um...that one differs from the one the OP posted in these ways:
1. Different solution to the switch wiring. Both are common, both are viable. No practical difference between the two.

2. Tone pot is placed before, rather than after, the volume pot. Yields a different tonal nuance, but in the end, is just a matter of taste.

So, no critical difference. No, the problem lies, most likely, in a broken component (including wires and solder joints here) or an accidental shortcut.

One thing I do see, now, though, after looking at the other diagrams; the pots might be wired backwards, unless you're a leftie/drew them backwards.

Oh, and hail Erin.
 
#7
Cernael,

The pots are wired as in the diagram, with the post facing down. Is that backwards?

Also, thanks to everyone for the info. I've never done this sort of thing before, and it's a total trial by fire. Bad part is, it's my main axe... so I really want to get it fixed asap.
 
#9
I got it, I'm a moron and had the output jack backwards... gee, wonder why that didn't work??? Well, at the very least, I learned a whole lot about guitar wiring...

Thanks for the help all, exactly the sort of thing that keeps me coming back to TB.
 
#10
What? Turning the jack around helped? I find that strange - the only difference between hot & ground that I can imagine would be that the amp may handle hum/noise better when it comes chiefly through the "ground" part of the cable...and I'm not too certain that makes a big difference, either.

Anyone got the time to explain why that'd help?
 
#11
Cernael, you're right, that isn't the whole story.

First off, I screwed up on one of the pots, needed to change one wire off the volume, and one off the tone to make it right. Also, I redid the entire switch three times explained a bit further below. (Didn't mean to be disleading, it's just when I found that the jack was wired backwards, I was so excited to actually hear sound I forgot about the rest.)

Upon further experimentation, I found that the leads from the pickups were reversed in one case, which seems pretty common based on other posts about the same bass. When I swapped the output jack leads, I got sound, except it was really tinny and weak. From other things I've read on here, I figured it was an out of phase issue, switched the two leads from one of the pickups, and wow. Not only do I have a ton more tone that I started with, the tone knob actually does something besides making it sound like crap in any setting but full on. Best twenty dollars I could have spent. (Minus the three days of frustration getting the wiring right, but at least I learned a few things in the process.)
 

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