Just had pups installed...please help!!

[SymmetricScars]

So its basically been one nightmare after another, but long story short I just picked up my dc727 from my guitar tech after they installed a SD custom in the bridge and a jazz in the neck.


Now, i'm having some serious issues. First off, noisy as fuck. That right there tells me that something is wrong. Both pickups are buzzy and loud, and when i flip up the coil splitting switches it gets worse (which is to be expected, i know but i thought id include that anyways.)

Also, theyre both incredibly thin. And im talking like "wtf i want my stock carvin pickups back in there" thin.



wtf did they do?


Perhaps they wired them in series vs parallel or something. I know nothing about what that means so just a complete guess.


Man after waiting a week with no seven string i was expecting this to be amazing. but now im about to cry.


Help!

 

[arnoroth661]

Hmm. Pictures?

 

[arnoroth661]

Oh, and ofcourse, demand they (whoever did this to your guitar) make the guitar fully functional and noise-free.

 

[SymmetricScars]

hmm okay ill try and get pictures quickly.

also, i havent adjusted the pup height yet..ill do that now...but some how i dont think thats going to magically make these pickups less noisy and 100 times better...

 

[Ishan]

Sounds like a grounding issue, check if there's a wire going from the metal casing of the volume pot to the bridge.

 

[djpharoah]

The guy might have used the wrong wiring diagrams

 

[arnoroth661]

The guy might have used the wrong wiring diagrams

Guitar techs aren't always as knowledgable as you think they might be.

 

[playstopause]

Really sound like there's something wrong in the wiring.
I have both pickups and none of these are issues (noise + sounding thin).

 

[SymmetricScars]

hmm so i took it back and they told me that they couldnt get it to sound meaty and clear AND still be able to use the coil taps...


which sounds stupid to me...but for now ill take it over the tinny, buzzy sound i was getting before

 

[Edroz]

this tech is an idiot, tell him to either do the job right or refund your money. i've swapped out my share of pickups on Carvins and have had no problem getting them working efficiently even with the carvin coil taps switches.

 

[ibznorange]

yeah, umm, coil-cut's shouldnt cause everything to work crazybad, or they wouldnt be popular, at all.
demand a refund, and get a different tech

Zorro

 

[playstopause]

yeah, umm, coil-cut's shouldnt cause everything to work crazybad, or they wouldnt be popular, at all.
demand a refund, and get a different tech

Zorro

That's it.

 

[arnoroth661]

yeah, umm, coil-cut's shouldnt cause everything to work crazybad, or they wouldnt be popular, at all.
demand a refund, and get a different tech

Zorro

Brilliant!

 

[Jongpil Yun]

They're humbuckers, and quite good ones at that. They should be pretty much dead quiet in humbucking mode. Your tech fucked up. Simple.

 

[HaGGuS]

yeah, umm, coil-cut's shouldnt cause everything to work crazybad, or they wouldnt be popular, at all.
demand a refund, and get a different tech

Zorro

dont go back to this tech..
he speaks crapanese

 

[scott from _actual time_]

Sa SD custom in the bridge and a jazz in the neck. ...noisy as fuck.

all the Duncan 7-strings i've ever used are not dead quiet--they have a small, low-volume buzz that is way less than in coil-split mode. my guitars are all pretty well shielded but not rediculously so. several of the Duncan models i have, like the Custom 7, have foil shielding on the coils, so maybe they know their designs can be noisy. i do run very high gain amps.

but everybody else who's posted is right--there is no way that properly wired humbuckers should be noisy as fuck. Carvin guitars are well-shielded, so unless you're right next to a CRT monitor or fluorescent lights, there shouldn't be tons of noise. also, the techs telling you they couldn't get it to work sounds like BS to me--they just don't know what they are doing.

i totally agree with everybody who says demand your money back and take it somewhere else. you could check the wiring diagrams on the Duncan site and see if the wire colors look similar to what's in your guitar. if they are way off, then the techs totally screwed it up.

good luck--it will sound good in the end.

 

[SymmetricScars]

thanks for the replies everybody!

i'll get this sorted out eventually...

 

[Metal Ken]

also, the techs telling you they couldn't get it to work sounds like BS to me--they just don't know what they are doing.

Exactly. And it must be pretty bad. I never wired EMGs before, and i was able to sit down with a wiring diagram and figure out what was up on my C7Hellraiser on my own with my limited knowledge, so if someone's getting paid big cash to install pickups, they should be able to do it better than i can.

 

[ibznorange]

Exactly. And it must be pretty bad. I never wired EMGs before, and i was able to sit down with a wiring diagram and figure out what was up on my C7Hellraiser on my own with my limited knowledge, so if someone's getting paid big cash to install pickups, they should be able to do it better than i can.

if you take shit one step at a time, and go by a diagram, shit's easy

 

[Stitch]

Nice tags.

I can't add anything, but it sounds like the chap is using the wrong diagrams, and his colours mixed up. Sounds like he's taken coil taps as hot/combined leads and not earthed it either. Without pics I can't help you, but take it back, and demand a refund. If they are asshats about it, grab a guitar off the wall with the Jazz/JB combo (most guitars do nowadays ) or hell, anything with a pair of Seymour Duncan humbuckers and a five way selector switch and compare the two wiring arrangements. If they are different, take it to them, show them how it should be done, then charge them a refund since you had to do the work.

More and more people seem to label themselves with the label "tech" when they don't have a clue other than how to restring and set up a guitar.

Half of this forum knows more about guitar repair than a lot of people I've met calling themselves techs.

And yes, I'm looking at you, Scott "From Actual Time".