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a friend of mine just had a duncan distortion put in a les paul it sounds fine and everything but i took the comtrol plate off the back and noticed they have the red and white wire hooked to the poton the bottom terminal and dont have the black wire hooked up at all. I was wondering if this will damage the pots or anything or if it is fine like it is.

Sounds like the DD is wired as a single coil pickup instead of a humbucker.

i thought it might be but it has a humbucker sound.

If the black wire is not connected then the slug coil should be disabled.
Try tapping the slug and the screw poles with a small metallic screwdriver while the guitar is plugged in. You should hear a loud ‘click’ if the coil is active.

Could it be that it's wired in parallel?

i'm not sure i never had a guitar wired like that usually the black wire goes to a terminal and the red and white are together and taped off then the green and bare are grounded on back of the pot. i've never seen one like this he just changed the neck pickup and they wired the bridge the same way but with the different color wires. i told him i would try to find out because last time they wired one up for him they messed it up and after being plugged in for 10 minutes the back of the control cavity cover got real hot and just kept getting hotter. and since then he's been caustious.


Originally Posted by man-in-moon. . . because last time they wired one up for him they messed it up and after being plugged in for 10 minutes the back of the control cavity cover got real hot and just kept getting hotter. and since then he's been caustious.

If any part of a guitar starts to get hot, you have a serious amplifier problem. If you short every wire in a guitar together, you still don't generate enough power to create heat.

The one exception might be using actives. Shorted 9-volt battery wires could definitely generate heat - but not for long. The battery would be drained very quickly if supplying heat-generating amounts of power.

The DD in that guitar is definately wired incorrectly. Remove the red and white wires from the volume pot terminal but leave them soldered together and tape them off so they can't contact the guitars electronics. Solder the black wire from the DD to the volume pot terminal.

Be prepared to have a really loud and agressive sounding guitar.

Artie is right about the heat in the cavity. That is seriously not a good sign and if your amp is sending enough juice to heat the guitar you better get it looked at. the thing is though that if your amp was sending current out of the input jack your amp would either not make tone or you'd have serious noise issues involved. The hot guitar was probably caused by holding against your belly for too long.

While I doubt it is your amp, if it is you amp the current used to heat that cavity might be enough to hurt you if the current finds a way to ground through your body. You better figure out what your problem is.