Jackson PC-1 guitar problems anybody know good guitar tech?

[JasonP]

Hi guy's maybe someone with another PC-1 can tell me if they have found the same thing..

I have this guitar with an Aldrich in the bridge and seems like the sustainer circuit is placing this load on the circuit that really chops the balls off the pickup.. makes it like the tone is backed all the way off. When I turn the sustainer on the pickup becomes much bright and more output.. much like if wire the pickup directly to the volume pot.

I disconnect the out from the board to the volume pot when I have the pickup wired right off the volume pot and changes from dull and muffled connected, to bright and has more drive when disconnected. (The pickup isn't even running "in" to the board, is what I don't understand) Maybe this just the nature of the sustainer board and he is going to have to live with it.


Thanks for reading,
Jason

[Hellbat]

rjohnstone should chime in with some useful advice here eventually.

[rjohnstone]

Already exchanged PM's.

He's got a Suhr pickup (SD wiring type) that he color matched the lead connectors to the PCB connector that was designed for DiMarzio pickups.
The hot leads are most likely effed up.
This would explain why it works when wired direct, but get all muddy going through the board.

[RCM78]

Already exchanged PM's.

He's got a Suhr pickup (SD wiring type) that he color matched the lead connectors to the PCB connector that was designed for DiMarzio pickups.
The hot leads are most likely effed up.
This would explain why it works when wired direct, but get all muddy going through the board.

Hmmm, I have the same pickup installed in my PC1. What wires should be connected to where? I've always thought this guitar was kind of dark, even with the aldrich. I had the pick up installed, but I'll check out the wiring when I get home from work...

[JasonP]

Hey Rj,

I think we miss understood eachother. I wired the pickup for SD type and also that way to the PCB connector. So black is hot and green and bare are ground. With white and red soldered together. I have diagram that I found on here that shows what should be hot and ground in the PCB connector. I made sure I have that correct and it is.. Also all the PCB connector's to the board are correct (all colors match from board to connector).

If you wire the pickup directly to the volume pot, while playing you can plug and unplug the sustiainer board out PCB which is soldered to the volume pot at one end.. you can hear the tone change. That is why I say it sounds to me like the board is placing a load..

What doesn't make sense to me is that when doing this is that the pickup isn't routed through the board.. the board is in parallel with the pots and pickup.

[rjohnstone]

The board does place a small load on the pickup.
This is why I like the Super 3 in a standard setup vs. how it sounds in a PC1.
It does darken it a bit. But it is very minimal.

As for the tone difference when you are going direct to the volume pot and then plug/unplug the PCB connector.
This is normal. You are essentially creating a second signal path when you reconnect the vol pot to the board.
This is why it gets darker.