72 Tele Custom bridge pickup mod issue... help???

[scottv74]

I have a '72 tele custom reissue and decided to change the bridge pickup to a Dimarzio DP381 fast track T, that a friend gave me awhile ago. followed the wiring instructions by Dimarzio on their website... the issue i'm running into i believe is the phasing? when the neck humbucker and the bridge pickup are either switched alone i get about equal volume, when i flip to have both p-ups engaged i notice a volume drop, so i reversed the 2 wires (green and red) as outlined by Dimarzio if "phasing" is an issue and i still notice the volume drop when switched to both p-ups... is this because the tele custom has a neck humbucker? and the Dimarzio p-up is designed to work in conjunction w/ a single coil in the neck???

unfortunately i've put it all back together and strung the guitar, i usually only use the neck position but i wanted more options and didn't exactly like the stock bridge pickup but i might put it back in if i can't resolve the volume drop.

[sumgai]

scott,

Hi, and welcome to the NutzHouse! ;D

Phasing issues refer to tonality, the sound you hear when pickups are combined. The volume levels will tend to drop a bit when the combinations are in parallel, such as found on nearly all stock factory guitars sold at retail. If those combinations are in series, however, the overall volume will tend to rise a little bit.

Now, if you reversed the leads as per DiMarzio's instructions, what happened to the tone? Did it get fuller and more robust? Or did it suddenly go thin and wimpy? If there was no change, then you reversed the wrong wires, plain and simple. That's not your fault, nor DiMarzio's, they can't anticipate every possible scenario out there.

The DiMarzio pup doesn't care if the other pup is a humbucker or single-coil, there's no difference in that regard. But yes, I do suspect that one or both of your pickups may be wired incorrectly for combined operation. They sound fine individually, but that's possible even with a mis-wired setup.

Do you have a diagram of what you did, and can you post it for us, please?

HTH


sumgai

[scottv74]

thanks for welcoming me and i look forward to finding information from this forward and hopefully providing some to users as well...

now onto the subject, i don't have pics or a diagram though i could easily make one. first off i followed Dimarzio's 4 conductor pickup instructions for "standard humbucking series wiring", four colored wires exist plus bare or ground (black, white, green, red). black and white are to be connected together, and i taped them off. red is hot and green and bare are ground, but when i did this i found the sound to be weird and "hollow", weak and thin when p-ups on together, so i switched the red and green (green - hot, red - ground) and it still sounds similar weak and thin and "hollow" i can't tell the difference when switching these wires. i did this listening through the speaker on my amp and also the headphone jack on another practice amp. is it possible that the p-up hs become demagnitized or has become microphonic from aging, i'm guess its at least 10 years old, not really that old to be a significant issue unless exposed to some harsh elements???

Funny though that the instructions make this statement in regards to the phasing which made me think that it doesn't like the humbucker in the neck: "...this applies to all Dimarzio pick-ups w/ side by side coils or blades when installed in guitars w/ single-coil pickups similar to stratocasters" ...though this pickup is specifically designed for a telecaster bridge that has standard tele electronics, and the custom is slightly an oddball.

also i guess it could be possible that the neck pickup which is stock is wired in an odd way? i didn't take a close look at the wiring of it when i had all the guts exposed. when i removed the stock bridge pickup it had only 2 wire connections (blue - ground, yellow - hot running to the pot) when i put the Dimarzio in i just connected the green wire to the same place on the tone pot and the red to ground on the pot also i had to ground to the bridge to stop some hum. my understanding is in order to get parallel wiring the black and white wires are used, but thats not what i'm looking for.

[scottv74]

also i should mention when the stock bridge was in the guitar i did not get a significant volume drop when both p-ups are "on"...i got about equal volume on all 3 switch positions.

this is where i got the instructions for the "hum-cancelling, fast track T", pickup:

www.dimarzio.com/site/#/pickups/