Someone tell me what I should do...

[xenophobe]

Pickups do not have gain or distortion. You want more output.

1. Maximum output: Wire the pickup straight to the output jack.

2. Little less: Use a 1Meg volume only

3. If yyou really need a tone, look into Fender's no-load pots. When you turn them to 10 they disconnect the tone from the output.

I want it to go Chugga-Chugga-Chugga-weedly-weedly-we instead of Chugga-Chugga-meedly-meedly-me. Is that better? I told you I'm an idiot when it comes to this shit.

[JACKSONFREAK]

Left lug, center lug, right lug us all in refference to the lugs facing you. Or lugs south of the post. Hope that made sense.
BTW I believe my explanation is the same as the Duncan site.
Gil

[petez0r]

just sounds like that pickup isnt for you, swap it for something more aggressive.

[Newc]

Looking at the pic, the top cap is wired correctly, in that one end is connected to a hot tone lug and the other to ground. This can either be the tone casing or the volume casing, or to the volume's grounded lug. doesn't matter as long as it's grounded.

The bottom cap looks like it may either be a treble bleed mod or it cuts the volume down to 250K, for some reason. Might be set up so that when you roll the volume back you get less bass or treble.

[Newc]

http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/wiring-diagrams/schematics.php?schematic=treble_bleed

Is there a small resistor buried under the 2nd cap?

[xenophobe]

No, there is no resistor. I'll cut that cap off later this afternoon (I don't have a work bench setup anymore since I moved to an apartment :\ ) and play a bit and see how that sounds. If that isn't good enough, I guess I'll be one of the first people to review that Stew-Mac overdrive chip. If that doesn't do what I want, I will replace the pickups.

petezor, yes, I may end up replacing it, but I wanted to check my options for not replacing it first. It's kind of a rare guitar and its had stock pickups for 23 years and replacing them is my last choice. It's kinda my holy grail, so I'm being quite a bit more timid doing anything with it than I would any other guitar.

Anyways, THANK YOU ALL for your help. I'll report back tonight.

[xenophobe]

God, I don't know why I'm being so neurotic...

Took off the cap, no positive change. Guess I'll try something different.

After a little thought, I think I'm just in denial of missing my EMGs.

[jeff5]

God, I don't know why I'm being so neurotic...

Took off the cap, no positive change. Guess I'll try something different.

After a little thought, I think I'm just in denial of missing my EMGs.

Haha maybe! It definitely sounds like you need a pick up change.

[xenophobe]

Haha maybe! It definitely sounds like you need a pick up change.

Yeah, I ended up ordering them last night. I know I won't be displeased because most of my gigging guitars had EMGs in it.

[murkat]

God, I don't know why I'm being so neurotic...
I think I'm just in denial

Bring it on over, I'll take care of it for ya. I specialize in neurotics.

[straycat]

What I was saying unsolder the top cap from the vol pot and solder that lead to the back of the tone pot.
Looks like you are going that other route so its all good.

[RobRR]

Im an EMG guy too, and it NEVER feels right playing through anything other an EMG's... the only exception being Jackson pickups through a JE1200. Thats why I have so many damn sets of EMG's, they just "feel" right to me.

[xenophobe]

^ yep. Though I usually like the 85 in the bridge, but I ordered an 81/85, so I'll swap them to see which I like better. I don't know what body wood the guitar is, but EMGs make it all very simple.

What I was saying unsolder the top cap from the vol pot and solder that lead to the back of the tone pot.
Looks like you are going that other route so its all good.

Well, I'll give that try that tomorrow.

[Newc]

What I was saying unsolder the top cap from the vol pot and solder that lead to the back of the tone pot.
Looks like you are going that other route so its all good.

That won't matter since that lug of the cap merely has to be grounded. Doesn't matter if it's the same pot the hot runs to, or the jack ground, or the bridge ground.

The one on the volume pot seems odd to me.


But then, Jackson's pickups always did sound better to me with their active circuitry than without it.

[xenophobe]

Ok, I just changed out my pickups to the EMGs that I ordered... I was totally overthinking everything. I just followed the simple directions and got it right the first time. I'd be embarrassed, but I have no shame. lol

Oh, and it sounds killer. I put the 81 in the bridge and didn't like it as usual. 85 in the bridge... it's only wired 9v right now, but I'll probably add the 2nd battery soon.