software

I have a Charvel Model 6 guitar(late 80's). I had a Duncan SH-6 put in the bridge position and 2 Duncan Cool Rails put in both the mid and neck positions yesterday. I replaced the original Jackson active pickups that were in there.

My guitar has 3 on-off pots, each controlling 1 of the pickups. The guitar also has 1 volume and 2 tone controls. 1 of the tone controls was connected mainly as a mid-range boost tone control.

The problem I have is that the guitar sounds horrible. The output I get from all of the pickups seems low. The sound seems very muffled and mid-rangy. I would compare the sound to what I might expect if I put my amp in the middle of a cardboard box filled with cotton balls. As it is right now, it's pretty much useless.

I talked to the technician who installed the Duncans and he is not sure what the best configuration for this guitar would be. He also thinks the sound is wrong.

I play all kinds of music from hard rock to classical, but not country(yuck ).

I’m looking for a good punch from the SH-6 and a strong, good clean tone from the Cool Rails.

Anyone know what the best wiring configuration may be for this guitar or have a wiring schematic?

Any help would be great.

Thanks

I had the same trouble when I installed my dimebucker. Turns out I overheated the volume pot when I was soldering the grounds. Sounds like this might be your problem, although I'm sure there are other people here that are more knowledgeable(sp?).

I've got a Distortion/Cool Rails/Hot Rails in my 650xl which is just the updated Model 6. It sounds amazing to me. First of all, I left the mid-boost intact. Supposedly it was designed to work best with the Jackson pickups, but I think it works just fine with the Duncans as well. If you're not getting the tone that you just described from that set-up, then it had to have been wired wrong. Check it over again and make sure that everything is as it should be. I would check the pots as well.

If you took out the boost, then you need to replace the pots as well. I think that the volume and boost knobs were 50k with a 250k tone or something like that. It's been a while since I checked, but that's close at least.

If it had active pups it could have very low value pots (100meg or lower) that would filter off a lot of high end. I would start with checking the value of the pots. 500meg is what I would go with.

Next I would make sure that you aren't still running through any ofthe active circuitry. Really not needed and very likely bad tonewise for what you put in.

Check the pot values, check to make sure you didn't fry any pots. Those pickups should sound amazing.

Thank you all.
I know these Duncans should crank out some good sound. I'll definitely check the pots and the wiring. I'm also passing along a couple wiring schematics to the tech that installed them. Maybe we'll try it again.

My guess is that there is a cold solder joint, or a pot/s got melted. In either case if your tech thinks he did a good enough job take it somewhere else, or do it yourself, then you KNOW it's right. You say you have 3 on off switches?

Luke

Yep, 3 on off switches. Each is an on-off toggle switch. I'm wondering if these might be the issue. Should I think of replacing these also?