pickup volume mismatch- halp!

[NDominy]

ok, so I just loaded a p-rail and a dimarzio super distortion into my guitar, both in triple shots, and I'm getting a pretty severe volume mismatch. the p-rail is in the neck and it's way louder than the dimarzio, but there's also some slight crackliness when I jiggle the pickup selector. I figure this could be a couple things: the dimarzio not getting along with the triple shot, something fishy in the rest of the wiring, or that the pickups themselves are just mismatched. anybody got any experience with these pickups/ mounting rings? suggestions? thanks!

[McSpunckle]

The color codes for Dimarzio and Duncan pickups are different. The Triple Shot's board is set up fro Duncan color codes, so if you wired them exactly the same way, that could be the problem.

Dimarzio/Duncan
Red/Black
Black/White
White/Red
Green/Green

So, the red wire on the Dimarzio is the black one on a Duncan, etc.

If you had the color codes right... maybe it's the toggle.

[NDominy]

yeah, I figured that out after my first wiring attempt, thanks to this super handy chart:
http://www.seymourduncan.com/images/support/schematics/color_codes.jpg

I guess they had a meeting and decided to all use the same colors, in different combinations? makes sense.


I've got a gut feeling that it's the toggle or one of the pots for some reason, do you have any suggestions as to how I might be able to test them without totally disassembling everything? I've got alligator clip jumpers, there's gotta be a way. thanks for the help dude!

[McSpunckle]

yeah, I figured that out after my first wiring attempt, thanks to this super handy chart:
http://www.seymourduncan.com/images/support/schematics/color_codes.jpg

I guess they had a meeting and decided to all use the same colors, in different combinations? makes sense.


I've got a gut feeling that it's the toggle or one of the pots for some reason, do you have any suggestions as to how I might be able to test them without totally disassembling everything? I've got alligator clip jumpers, there's gotta be a way. thanks for the help dude!

If you have a multimeter, you can measure the resistance across the output jack (just stick the probes on the two lugs, and select the Super Distortion. You should get about 13K ohms with the pickups in series, and half that in parallel/single coil. The volume control will bring the resistance down a bit, but enough to hurt anything. Just make sure it's all the way up.

[NDominy]

tinkered with everything again this morning, realized that the p-rail I have is meant for the bridge and as such is some 5Kohm's hotter than the dimarzio. lowered the p-rail, raised the dimarzio, problem solved. always with the overthinking.