Muddy sounding pickups?

[bacon]

Ok so I've been having nightmares with my new DK2M I just about sold it the other day but I'm going to hang in there it's finally playing really nice. I was previously getting some fret buzzing so I wrote the crappy pickup sound off to being the buzzing. Now I have zero fret buzzing and both the neck and bridge pickup sound really muddy? It's very noticible compared to my other guitars, I just don't think a couple seymour duncan pickups (stock) should sound so crappy. They are not bright at all and just sound muffled. I checked the soldering and everything looks good, I haven't looked up a wiring diagram to make sure it's wired right but it was brand new so I'm assuming it was. Seeing as both pickups sound like crap I'm thinking it might be a resister, pot or switch? Would one of these make it sound muffled and bland and muffled?

[doom]

i also recently got a DK2M and i really dont care for the sound of the JB in the bridge. i looooovvveeee the Jazz in the neck but i think the bridge needs somthing a bit hotter. i also dont know why they would put such a bright pickup on a guitar with a maple fb. however this is based on the sounds coming out of my amp thats been elctrocuting me so the sound may differ once i find time to exchange the amp. ive been looking at a duncan invader, duncan custom or duncan distortion to replace the JB so id like to hear some answer backs aswell. my pickups are not muddy at all so i would check the cap solder joints and the pots aswell. you seem to have quite a bit more problems than you should with your new jackson. any chance of trying to trade it out for another at your guitar store or is it too late?

[Super_shredder]

pots on imports arnt the best quality so those could be to blame, i know once i swapped my dk2s there was a huge difference

[bacon]

I've played with the pickup height but it just goes from muddy to a hollow sound. It definately isn't too bright. I bought the maple neck to get a brighter guitar, which is definately not the case right now.

[wilkinsi]

I initially programmed my guitar FX when I had a SD SH-8 in the bridge position of my WR1. My sound is more coherent with Dimarzio Evolutions, but what I need to do is program my FX from scratch. You may wanna try this yourself.

[Joelski]

We have a winnah!!! Ditch those crappy pots and caps and throw in some good 500k CTS pots and start with a .22 cap of poly mylar film variety. If you aren't getting a decent sound from a JB at 17+k, you'll either have to go to a 1Meg tone pot, or get some blackouts.

pots on imports arnt the best quality so those could be to blame, i know once i swapped my dk2s there was a huge difference

[bacon]

We have a winnah!!! Ditch those crappy pots and caps and throw in some good 500k CTS pots and start with a .22 cap of poly mylar film variety. If you aren't getting a decent sound from a JB at 17+k, you'll either have to go to a 1Meg tone pot, or get some blackouts.

Any advice on where to order from?

[bacon]

FOund em on Warmoth, thanks!

[doom]

ahhah! pots and caps are going to be a great deal cheaper than swaping pups. was also just reading on the SD forum that alot of J/C imports come with 250k tone pots and 500 vol pots. but before i order im wondering if all the leads are still attached to the jb and jazz so i can run a 5 way switch for coil splits? also i know warmoth was mentioned but any idea about stewmac, guitarfetish, guitarhead etc pots and how they compare? also orange drop caps or others? thanks.

[bacon]

Everything looks wired right, my squire pickup blows the duncan away with tons more articulation and it's much brighter. It seems like the duncan should be better than a cheapo 93 squire, even with the factory pots? I ordered a couple new ones so I'll see if that works.

[bacon]

So I pulled up the seymour duncan wiring diagram for two hums, 1 vol, 1 tone and 3 way switch and it was nothing near what Jackson had setup? I found there was actually an extra black wire coming from each pickup, although not attached to the pickup wiring harness? I'm guessing it's a ground from somewhere under the pickups or something? Anyway I decided to rewire the pickups with a volume, volume, three way since I have no use for a tone switch. I must have fried the three way or something cause it stopped working? Not sure how I could have screwed it up? Anyway it was no big deal I have all new wiring, pots, caps, and switches to rewire everything with higher quality stuff to hopefully get a better sound. Since the switch quit I just wired up the bridge pickup only with no tone and it definately sounds better than before. I'm not sure if the capcitor might have been causing the muddiness or what? It's still not blaringly clean and bright but at least it's a start. I'll post further when I get the new stuff in there.

[Joelski]

Both of those pickups are tappable, meaning you can use a switch to run only a single coil if it's hooked up that way. The DK's do not make use of this feature and so I think the wires you are seeing are the extra 2 wires from each pickup heatshrinked together as they are supposed to be connected when using them in continuous HB mode. Don't worry, once you get those higher quality parts in there, it will sound like a million bucks. Or, at least two good humbuckers.

[bacon]

I see the ones for the coil tap. These are different than those. They come in along with the pickup wires through the holes which lead from rear route into the pickup cavities. They were soldered to a screw and screwed into the wood in the electric cavity. Then they grounded to the trem gound? I'm thinking they are some type of extra wires for grounding the pickups. Since I'm rewiring maybe I should think about coil tapping while I'm at it?