Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum
Forum Ringside => Pickups => Topic started by: Twinfan on October 16, 2006, 10:31:30 PM
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My Mississippi Queen arrived today, and is now installed into my Gordon Smith SG1. It sounds great, and I'll post a three way shootout review shortly.
I've got a problem though. I've got a tapped MQ and when the tap is selected, the volume drops REALLY low. I checked and if I roll the volume of the 'full' MQ down to 2.5/10, it's the same as the 'tapped' volume on 10/10!
Is this normal? Have I got a, shock horror, faulty BKP????
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wiring fault maybe? idk, sounds an awful lot like a dimarzio I installed in my stinger strat a couple years back. Come to find out I had it wired wrong from the begining. Sounded better broke anyways tho lol
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Nope, I'm pretty sure the wiring is OK:
1) Black and shield (bare) to back of pot.
2) White to hot tag on coil tap pot.
3) Green to tap tag.
I've swapped green and white and that was worse. Has anyone else got a tapped MQ who can comment?
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I think Sambo had the same problem - you could PM him
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What's the DC reading when tapped?
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Don't know Ratrod - I have no equipment to check it.
I've spoken to Steve at BKP who said to send it back so they could check it, but that means stripping my guitar down again. I was hoping there would be a simple explanation and I could sort it myself.
I'll try PM'ing Sambo and see what his problem was...
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I have a tapped mq. I just get a tone shift with very little volume drop when I switch. I had to check with a multimeter to find the right wiring though (as mine had all 4 conductors the same length).
Not sure if mine would match yours as it was a prototype, but the full output on mine is red (same as the normal HB's). I really don't remember which of the others I used, I would have to get the guitar out - I will check it later if you are still having a problem).
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Cheers Phil.
I've checked the old posts of Sambo's problem and he had the same issue at one point. He doesn't say how it got fixed though!
I have everything exactly the same as the tapped Mule in my other Gordon Smith so I can't work out what the problem is. I'll double check it all again, but it sounds like some strange wiring issue as Sambo had the same problem. I've PM'd him to see if he knows what was done to fix his.
I'm hoping the wire colour is the same as a humbucker i.e. black and white are start and finish of coil, so black goes to ground and white to hot tag of push/pull volume pot. Green is the tap and goes to the middle tag of the opposite side of the push/pull 3 by 3 than the white?
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How do you tap a single coil? That doesn't make sense to me.
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To tap it, you run a wire out before the end of the coil
e.g. full coil = 6500 winds, tap at 5500 winds.
That way you can get two tones out of one pickup :)
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When the new site is ready I really hope it has the difference between coil taps and splits in big bold lettering across the homepage.
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coil tapping is not to be confused with coil splitting - a split is used to make a humbucker a single coil but a tap drops the active number of winds on the bobbin. You can tap a single and a humbucker - you can't split a single.
Twinfan: Do you know what k reading the full and tapped version gives?
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When the new site is ready I really hope it has the difference between coil taps and splits in big bold lettering across the homepage.
:lol: Me too. Since I learnt the difference it always annoys me when I see a a coil split being called a tap and vice versa :?
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Twinfan: Do you know what k reading the full and tapped version gives?
Not sure my friend...
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Well I sent my MQ back to be checked out and it was fine, so it was down to a wiring issue (which I thought it might be). After an email conversation with Tim and a load of head scratching and wiring research by me I've fixed it!
It's all installed and working perfectly. It sounds great - pretty much the tone I've been looking for! I always knew I'd love P-90s...
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Excellent! Now post some clips! :)
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If I had the right gear I would :(
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any chance of telling us how you fixed it?
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Sure!
I ended up swapping the wires on the volume tag and the back of the tone pot (ground). The way I had it wired was:
* Untapped - full pickup
* Tapped - 1000 turns only
What I now have (which is correct) is:
* Untapped - full pickup
* Tapped - full pickup minus 1000 turns
Took bloody ages to work out though!
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thanks Twinfan, i have a set of tapped single coils and have been experiencing the same problem, now i'll try the same solution!