Post Type Archives: Faqs

There are several ways to troubleshoot electric guitar wiring. If the guitar exhibits no output from any of its pickups the first thing to check is the wiring at the jack and the switch. One bad solder joint at the output of the switch or at any one of the four connections for the output…

The easiest way to diagnose bad components and pickups is to measure their DC resistance with an ohmmeter. Seymour Duncan has a list of DC resistances in their Tone Chart for all of their pickups. Potentiometers should range from their given values (500k, 250k, etc.) to zero and switches should read either infinite or zero…

This is normally caused by humbucking pickups being wired out of phase. You can either switch the hot and ground connections on one pick up of flip the magnet to correct the out of phase issue.

Amp noise can be caused by a number of things including a poorly grounded source of electricity, poorly shielded guitar cables and fluorescent lighting. Try changing these things one thing at a time to isolate the problem. Also modern high gain amps with cascading gain stages not only amplify your signal many times over but…

The most common problems relating to noisy guitars are improperly wired pickups and poor grounding. With Seymour Duncan humbucker pickups it is important to not only connect the red and white wires but also to insulate them with electrical tape or shrink tubing. If this connection is not insulated it can come into contact with…

There are commercially available electronics parts cleaning solutions that sometimes work. It’s generally better to just replace worn components though. There is a list of parts suppliers on this FAQs page that carry everything necessary to breathe new life into an older guitar. You will also want to double check your solder joints and if…

There are several things you can do to help brighten up your pickups if you are getting a muddy tone. First, try adjusting the height of the pickups by adjusting the screws. If that doesn’t work, try changing your Potentiometer value, if using 250K try 500K. Lastly if that still doesn’t work, try connecting a…

Phase refers to the relationship of two sine waves (signals) to each other. If both signals are at their highest peak (+) at the same time they are in phase. If one signal is at its highest peak (+) while the other signal is at its lowest peak (-) they are 180 degrees out of…

First, let’s define some terms. “Machine Winding” – a machine spins the bobbin and moves back and forth at a regular pace, distributing the wire evenly across the bobbin. “Hand Winding” – a machine spins the bobbin, but the magnet wire goes through the hands of an operator who distributes the wire along the bobbin….

A coil tap refers to a lead connected to an individual coil’s winding and is used to raise and lower a pickup’s output and change its tone. This is most often utilized on single coil pickups where the player wants a higher output pickup but also wants to be able to switch to a lower…