doubleneck guitar wiring advice

Pickups, wiring schemes, switch techniques and onboard active electronics for guitars and basses
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pinkjimiphoton
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Post by pinkjimiphoton »

hi guys, don't know where else to post this, so i figured i'd give it a shot here.

recently i built a doubleneck sg style kit i got on evil bay. nice axe, believe it or not, plays great, sounds great...but it's got one problem that's got me stumped electronically.

each neck's electronics work fine, and i've got it well - balanced output/tone wise from neck to bridge on both necks, and even from neck to neck.

but when i put both necks on in parallel, that's when the prob is hitting....it's not a phasing issue, but i get a substantial volume drop...very noticeable, i'd say probably 3-6 db or so...enough where when you choose just one neck, it's about twice as loud.

i DO NOT remember my old gibson doing this...so i figure there's gotta be something i missed when i wired this puppy up.

does anyone have any idea what the problem is, and if so, how to fix it? i mean, i can live with it, but it's kinda annoying!!

thanks in advance,.
jimi
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GuitarlCarl
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Post by GuitarlCarl »

Did you use 50's style tone control wiring or modern? Rolling the tone down on modern wiring loses a bit of volume too. I wonder if two guitars (doubleneck) wired modern instead of 50's style, could allow some volume to bleed away too? And/or parallel coils are not as loud as series coils either so I'm also thinking that it would almost have to be not as loud... Could the quality of switch be the culprit? Just thinking out loud, lots of variables but let us know what you find.

Carl :blackeye

found this at Gibson...http://www.gibson.com/Files/schematics/ ... wiring.PDF
but its also modern tone wiring...
I want it to sound like bees buzzing around in a 55 gallon drum...

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pinkjimiphoton
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Post by pinkjimiphoton »

hi carl,

i called stewart mcdonald guitar supply, and talked with one of the techs..

you nailed it bro, it's the two necks in parallel.

the pickups are 14k...so when both are on, that's a 7 k load.

put both NECKS on, and suddenly it's a 3.5 k load. that's why the volume is funky.

there's really only a couple things i can do...i can add buffers to the guitar internally, but i'm too lazy...

or i can wire it like a gibson, where it's one volume/tone for both neck pups and both bridge pups,

or i can live with it. for now, i'm gonna just say screw it and live with it i guess.

thanks for the reply!

peace!
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coldcraft
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Post by coldcraft »

excuse my noobness. why is having both necks ON even an option? I would have thought one or the other, on a switch.
Black Dynamite wrote:you need to shut the fuck up when grown folks is talkin.

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pinkjimiphoton
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http://youtube.com/666pinkster
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Post by pinkjimiphoton »

lots of reasons...one, it makes it easier to switch from one to another, 2, you can have one neck drone, 3, you can play on the wrong neck for the pickups that are on, stuff like that. still have a bit of an issue, but i'm getting used to it now. switching to duncan jb's at neck and bridge of the 12 string helped a lot!
"When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace."
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