Wiring problem?PUP problem?

pdiddy · March 5th, 2008, 04:20 PM

I recently bought a used Les Paul special double cut away faded w/ p-90's. I'm not sure of the age but it is relatively new judging from the condition and very little fret wear. It played and sounded wonderful, since I have been playing Fender Strats and Tele's for the last 20 yr's. The previous owner had modded it by changing the use of the the double volume and tone into the single volume and tone controlled by the upper 2 pots normally used for the neck pickup. I decided to change it back to the normal configuration. Downloading a wiring diagram off the internet, I changed it back. Everything seemed to work perfectly when I was done. Other then the less than perfect soldering job done by the original owner and finished up with my job, there was alot of messy solder on the pots and surrounding parts. Before I closed up the back cavity I played it for several days. It sounded and responded great. I decided to close the back up. The next Time I played it the bridge pickup didn't work. I opened it back up and noticed the shielding from the bridge pup had touched the pickup selector,so I made sure it didn't touch and closed it up. When I played it after that episode both pups in all three positions seemed to be very blah sounding. They seem to lack the normal brightness and liveliness associated with P-90's. It almost sounds like I have lost the use of at least half of the usefulness of both tone controls. What the heck have I done!!!! Please help

GuitarHut · July 1st, 2009, 05:00 PM

try to match everything on the diagram with what's in front of you. If all else fails, undo and redo everything.

tazzboy · July 1st, 2009, 06:20 PM

agreed you need to get wiring diagram that will help you with what you are doing.

anfontan · July 8th, 2009, 08:37 PM

One thing that comes to mind could be that the pots themselves have been overheated and damaged. If the previous owner had done as bad as it sounds, he very well could have damaged them.
I thought that 250K pots were used on P-90's but others on this site use 500K or even 1Meg for their pot values-higher values would allow more high end too....

And I also agree with the other posts that undoing everything and starting fresh is much easier for me than reheating connections. I will also replace the wiring in case there might be corrosion in there that is not obvious.

chuckedup · August 1st, 2009, 01:36 PM

could you post a picture of the pots and the cavity? are all the pots linked by a ground leg? if all else fails send Wally a personal msg. He knows everything.... seriously!
......laters......chuck

anfontan · August 1st, 2009, 04:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chuckedup

could you post a picture of the pots and the cavity? are all the pots linked by a ground leg? if all else fails send Wally a personal msg. He knows everything.... seriously!
......laters......chuck

Wally is THE MAN---he's the Wizard of Wiring!