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jaymzHal
Silver Member
United Kingdom
297 Posts |
 Posted - 11/02/2007 : 18:53:42
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A friend of mine wants to learn guitar. I was walking past a charity shop and they had a rather nice looking tanglewood superstrat in the window for �50. It had a floyd rose which had clearly been set up by an infant but other than that, looked perfect, even had a coil tap mini toggle switch.
I asked him if he wanted me to buy it and set it up for him, which i duly did. The previous owner had made a bit of a mess of some modifications but once i undid all their bad work the guitar was fine. The problem is when played through an amp the output level varies. About 20% of the time it is proper volume, but the rest of the time it is rather quiet. Not uselessly quiet, just annoyingly quiet. It doesn't jump between the two so it's completely playable but it is a problem. I don't want to get it fixed in a shop because they would probably charge the price of the guitar to fix whatever the problem is, and I'm a perfectly capable solderer (from a previous job) but i haven't done any guitar soldering before. Any ideas what the problem could be? I'm not sure if anything is lose because when it is being quiet no amount of shaking will make it loud again, it just comes back on its own accord.
Please help me!
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jack
Platinum Member
USA
1418 Posts |
Posted - 11/02/2007 : 20:14:37
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To me it sounds as if there is some bad wires or wiring within the guitar most likley.
Are the pots scratchy upon turning them? If so, then the pots may be dirty, and may need cleaning, and might also affect the output.
I was initially going to say pickup height as well, but that would probably affect the sound all the time and not part of the time, but maybe a pickup is going bad or something.
If the previous owners mods are that bad, they may have messed something up themselves, but what you might want to do is take out all the previous owners work, and start from the beginning yourself. That way you might have a better idea if its the wiring or a component within the wiring, because right now, not knowing the full extent of what the previous owner may have done (and ruined), its hard to figure out what it can be. |
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pedals 4 pv
Platinum Member
Canada
1351 Posts |
Posted - 11/02/2007 : 21:08:24
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| If all the connections and wiring looks OK the pickups might be out of phase. I bought a Matsumoku SG copy and the pickups were out of phase and it acted real weird. |
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DeFrag
Moderator
USA
3409 Posts |
Posted - 11/02/2007 : 21:15:27
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| Even though banging on it doesn't help, I think shorted coils can show lower output (intermittently). Do you have dusty open-coils? Even if not, perhaps the insulating varnish has oxidized off. Just thoughts. |
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FRANZONI
Double Platinum Member
Ireland
3543 Posts |
Posted - 11/02/2007 : 23:28:46
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what sort of pickups are in it when you say it's a super strat is it a s/c,s/c..humbucker in the bridge...? is it active or passive...?...if there is a humbucker in the bridge position check for a coil tap..i.e the volume or tone pots might be a push/pull pot to tap the coil..or is there a mini toggle somewhere one of these controls could be gone bogey or the selector switch might need to be cleaned(i normally use servsol switch cleaner from maplins)..i had a washburn years ago and something similar happened ..i traced it to the bridge humbucker which basically just exploded inside..... but if it's active the battery might need changing(if not in it's own compartment,check inside the tremolo cavity at the back)also check the input jack and the wires attached to it....there isn't much inside an electric guitar..i've wired up a few of my own and if i can do it without burning down the house anyone can... pedals4pv has a good point about the pickups being out of phase..... check out.. www.seymourduncan.com or www.guitarelectronics.com both of these sites have schematics of different pickup wiring diagrams which might help you fault find the problem..... but the best piece of advice i can give you is check all the simple,brain numbing things first...i.e try a different guitar lead or even a different amp if possible...i've jumped in feet first myself a few times pulling amps and guitars apart only to find a valve needed replacing or a wire had come loose on a input socket on the guitar.......good luck.... |
Edited by - FRANZONI on 11/02/2007 23:34:05 |
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DeFrag
Moderator
USA
3409 Posts |
Posted - 11/03/2007 : 01:30:18
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| I believe all pickups have resistance ratings as well. Maybe you can identify them, search for specs, & test with a meter. |
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jaymzHal
Silver Member
United Kingdom
297 Posts |
Posted - 11/03/2007 : 13:19:49
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Thankyou for all your suggestions guys, I've sorted the problem! There was a loose connection to the input jack, which was due to the jack being tightened from the outside i guess, so it has twisted off the wire a little. The wiring is still a little strange though, in that essentially the 5 way switch works as follows:
Bridge position, coil tap off - humbucker.
bridge/mid, coil tap off - inner humbucker coil and centre single coil.
mid position, coil tap off - single coil.
neck/mid position, coil tap off - inner neck humbucker coil and centre single coil.
Neck position, coil tap off - no signal.
With the coil tap engaged only the tapped bridge, middle and tapped neck positions have a signal, so i guess it taps the inner of the humbuckers coils.
From looking at the pickup selector it looks as though having the neck pickup dead is on purpose, because there is no solder or anything on the connection, and no spare wire. Is this a relatively normal mod, to effectively give yourself a kill switch, or did the previous owner really make a bit of a hash of it? Now that the guitar works i'm going to let my friend have it anyway because he says he doesn't mind, but still, it's very puzzling. I emailed tanglewood to ask what the standard electronics should be. It's a tanglewood aviator, any thoughts? The neck on it is just beautiful and the body is a nice rich dark brown wood, possibly basswood? If i was more into shred I would be tempted to keep it for myself, but I think I'm a singlecut player at heart! |
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FRANZONI
Double Platinum Member
Ireland
3543 Posts |
Posted - 11/03/2007 : 13:49:44
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Personally if it was me i would rip all the wiring out and start again... i would wire the guitar to standard and install either a push/pull pot on the volume or tone pots or a mini toggle to split the coil so you could have the option of the humbucker on with the middle pickup at the same time,i have a yamaha SG2000s will humbuckers and coil taps,the neck humbucker split and the bridge humbucker full on together can sound great..!! you have the power of the humbucker with the 'snap' of a single coil sound or you can have it the other way around.!!.... i certainly would do away with the kill switch linked to the selector and have the neck pickup working ..some of the best tones from strat style guitars comes from this pickup....!! if a kill switch is needed i would wire on up to a toggle switch on the scratchplate like tom morello..... .. |
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Guitar output problem please help!
