A question for the pickup wiring gurus...

Joined: 27 Feb 2006 Posts: 13396 Location: Earth

Pickup bleed.... I have noticed this on 4 or 5 other guitars I have owned including my new one. With super high gain pickups when you have 2 volume knobs and one is off, for example:

Neck volume is all the up and bridge volume is off and the pickup selector is on bridge, you can still get a little bleed through on your amp on the lead channel.

The reverse can be said for the neck pickup if the switch is on the neck pickup and the neck volume is off and the bridge pickup volume is turned on.

With both volumes off though it's completely silent.

I thought it may have been a wiring error, however they did a great job of wiring the guitar, but being a guy I am, I took it to my local tech who is AMAZING. I had him re-wire the guitar just in case... Same thing... He said it's likely because the pickups are so high gain that there is just bleed through. I called Seymour Duncan and they don't have an answer for me either.

The pickup cavity on the guitar is completely shielded as are the pickup cavities. The wiring is super clean and all wire lengths are cut to the exact lengths needed, there is no excess at all. One other thing my tech said it could be is the pots. He said if I changed from the mini pots that come with the Blackouts to standard size pots it could help...

Like I said before I have had this on a few other guitars and this is the second time I have seen it on a custom guitar. The last custom was a US Masters V. Is it the configuration? Is it faulty pickups? Is it gremlins? Is it just something that happens? I love the tone and it in no way takes away from the guitar itself and it turns off enough to not be a big deal. I just don't understand why it's happening.

Joined: 03 May 2008 Posts: 6624 Location: Minnesota

I have a Dillion V, that has been rewired numerous times to try and eliminate this problem. And for the record, the PU's are HOT AS HELL.

I've changed pots, switch, jack, wires, everything, and it is properly shielded.

I blame Gremlins.

Joined: 27 Feb 2006 Posts: 13396 Location: Earth

Graunke wrote:

I have a Dillion V, that has been rewired numerous times to try and eliminate this problem. And for the record, the PU's are HOT AS HELL.

I've changed pots, switch, jack, wires, everything, and it is properly shielded.

I blame Gremlins.

It's an odd phenomena huh?

Joined: 28 May 2008 Posts: 80

I know you had Blackouts but I went on emg's website I hope this is helpful

"Sound bleed: swap the volume output and pup cable wires on the volume pots. This will get rid of the bleedthrough."

Sound bleeding it's one of the reasons I switched off from active pickups.

Posted: Wed Nov 07, 2012 1:14 am

I like this defect..., and I have it on some of my guitars.

While playing live, I sometimes like to roll my vol down to "1" when I play my Fix'd Fuzz. With a slow phaser on, it sounds absolutely hypnotic. I love it!!! Very Happy

On guitars that go silent when I do this..., I have the potential to mute my guitar accidentally if I roll below the "1" on my volume. On my "good or defective" guitars..., depending how you look at it, it never happens Cool

I use my Mark V mute button to silence my rig anyway.

Joined: 29 Nov 2003 Posts: 5798

The wiring on a guitar is a continuous circuit. The only way to defeat the bleed through is to have on/off switches inline with whatever pickups you're having the trouble with. The switch breaks the circuit.

Joined: 27 Feb 2006 Posts: 13396 Location: Earth

Viper_Rising wrote:

I know you had Blackouts but I went on emg's website I hope this is helpful

"Sound bleed: swap the volume output and pup cable wires on the volume pots. This will get rid of the bleedthrough."

Sound bleeding it's one of the reasons I switched off from active pickups.

For the record though, the last guitar I had which had this issue was with passives. So it's not that the pickups are faulty? This is normal and much more pronounced on certain setups? I will try and swap the tabs that the two wires are hooked up to and see what happens. If it doesn't totally fix it I'll just deal with it. It's not a big deal just want to fix it if I can.

Joined: 07 Aug 2007 Posts: 2739 Location: Southeast MI

Lanning is Killdozer wrote:

Viper_Rising wrote:

I know you had Blackouts but I went on emg's website I hope this is helpful

"Sound bleed: swap the volume output and pup cable wires on the volume pots. This will get rid of the bleedthrough."

Sound bleeding it's one of the reasons I switched off from active pickups.

For the record though, the last guitar I had which had this issue was with passives. So it's not that the pickups are faulty? This is normal and much more pronounced on certain setups? I will try and swap the tabs that the two wires are hooked up to and see what happens. If it doesn't totally fix it I'll just deal with it. It's not a big deal just want to fix it if I can.

That's what I was thinking might work. Flip the in and out connections on the potentiometer, and that might work. I believe that changed how it acts on the middle position on the selector switch though. On one of those, you roll down either volume and it controls the output volume, the other it controls just that pickup in the mix. If that doesn't change I have no idea. I've never noticed this issue so I don't have any experience with it!

Joined: 27 Feb 2006 Posts: 13396 Location: Earth

Yes, in the middle one is volume and the other is mix. I actually prefer that too so switching the tabs may be against my best interest. Either way not a big deal.

Joined: 29 Nov 2003 Posts: 12247 Location: PEORIA ILLINOIS

you have a shitty pickup selector. i have had this a couple times on the stock switches. replaced them with a quality switch and phenom went away.

Joined: 27 Feb 2006 Posts: 13396 Location: Earth

BLOODROOT wrote:

you have a shitty pickup selector. i have had this a couple times on the stock switches. replaced them with a quality switch and phenom went away.

The switch is from Switchcraft. What do you suggest I replace it with? I'll order it if it's better.

Joined: 21 Sep 2010 Posts: 436

Viper_Rising wrote:

I know you had Blackouts but I went on emg's website I hope this is helpful

"Sound bleed: swap the volume output and pup cable wires on the volume pots. This will get rid of the bleedthrough."

Sound bleeding it's one of the reasons I switched off from active pickups.

This should fix your problem. I hate when my guitars do this and that usually works for me. I have even gone to the lengths of running independant ground wires to each pot from the input jack to resolve problems of this nature.

Joined: 19 Jan 2007 Posts: 3195 Location: UK

Lanning is Killdozer wrote:

BLOODROOT wrote:

you have a shitty pickup selector. i have had this a couple times on the stock switches. replaced them with a quality switch and phenom went away.

The switch is from Switchcraft. What do you suggest I replace it with? I'll order it if it's better.

C&K 7000 series switches are the way to go. I've got one in my washburn stealth and they came standard. It's the only one i have and it's superior in feel and quality. I have swtichcraft too and they suffer the same problem as normal swtiches they are using the same design.

It's a fully sealed unit and they do military grade ones too Very Happy

Joined: 27 Feb 2006 Posts: 13396 Location: Earth

kingoflight wrote:

Lanning is Killdozer wrote:

BLOODROOT wrote:

you have a shitty pickup selector. i have had this a couple times on the stock switches. replaced them with a quality switch and phenom went away.

The switch is from Switchcraft. What do you suggest I replace it with? I'll order it if it's better.

C&K 7000 series switches are the way to go. I've got one in my washburn stealth and they came standard. It's the only one i have and it's superior in feel and quality. I have swtichcraft too and they suffer the same problem as normal swtiches they are using the same design.

It's a fully sealed unit and they do military grade ones too Very Happy

OK Thanks I'll check it out.

koury73 wrote:

Viper_Rising wrote:

I know you had Blackouts but I went on emg's website I hope this is helpful

"Sound bleed: swap the volume output and pup cable wires on the volume pots. This will get rid of the bleedthrough."

Sound bleeding it's one of the reasons I switched off from active pickups.

This should fix your problem. I hate when my guitars do this and that usually works for me. I have even gone to the lengths of running independant ground wires to each pot from the input jack to resolve problems of this nature.

So does this mean just swap the tabs on one pot or both? It will only take a minute to do it but I don't want to guess lol

Joined: 27 Feb 2006 Posts: 13396 Location: Earth

Swapped the tabs on the pots and it's all fixed now! \m/