Neck pickup's louder than bridge - help

[Monty717]

Hey, I have just finished installing my first set of BKP's, a Mississippi Queen neck and Riff Raff bridge.  Everything seems ok apart from riff raff is sounding very quiet and thin.

Im not sure what I've done wrong. I got a friend to help me as I'm not exactly  that experienced with all this type of thing, and we wired it up the same way as the original gibson pickups were wired.

Anyone have any ideas as to what the problem could be?  The Mississippi Queen sounds amazing, its just the riff raff which seems to have a problem somewhere.

[Fikealox]

If you've got four conductor wiring, it's likely that you've only connected one coil of the humbucker. I don't know the Gibson colour code, but if you followed it (rather than the Bareknuckle code) it's possible that that's what you've done :)

[Monty717]

Thanks for the reply -  unfortunatley I have 2 conductor wiring, so thats not the problem.  I cant think what I couldve done wrong, its not as if i had a lot of wires to connect   :)

[Fikealox]

Ahh, no worries man. I just checked anyway, and the Gibson code is different to the BKP code, but it's different in a way that would mean the wiring process was the exact same anyway. Do you have a multimeter at all? Is there any chance you did a dry solder joint? I'd just try resoldering the joints and making sure to hold the wires in place carefully for a few seconds as the solder hardened, as a first step

[WezV]

its probably not this so dont take it the wrong way but have you played with the heights of the pickups yet?

stating the obvious maybe

if its not that you need to check all the wiring and components as well as checking for any touching wires.  it helps to have a multimeter

[Monty717]

The bridge pickup is already much higher than the neck, just tried raising it a bit more but doesn't make any difference.

Ah well, looks like I have to open up the guitar again and resolder those joints.  Hopefully it fixes the problem  8)

[Fikealox]

I think you've got a really good chance of that, mate. If you want to check that there's nothing wrong with the pickup itself, you can temporarily wire it directly to the output jack, bypassing all your pots etc. It's really unlikely the pickup is defective though, so simply redoing your solder joints should suffice. Still, if you get frustrated, that's an option :)

[badgermark]

The MQ is a beefy pickup in the neck, it's super strong. Set that bad boy down flush with the body or pickup mounting rings, then get the bridge into a position with the mounting screws until you're happy with the sound. THEN sort out the neck pickup.

[Monty717]

badgermark:

I have just tried what you suggested, and can get both pickups sounding reasonably the same volume, although the Mississippi Queen is still a bit louder and punchier.  It still doesn't seem right that I have to sit the neck pickup flush with the body and have the bridge pickup sticking right out to achieve this  :?

Although if the Mississippi Queen is supposed to be extremely beefy then maybe I'm worrying about nothing?

[badgermark]

Possibly worrying about nothing, it is a loud pickup, some people pair the stock neck pickup with a warpig in the bridge! your riff raff is a fairly low output pickup, so it makes sense to have the MQ as low as it needs to go in order to balance. The P90 design of the MQ gives it more power than the DC resistance lets on.

Don't worry about it, don't feel that they have to be at equal heights to work, go by your ears not your eyes.

[Lazy_McDoesnothing]

badgermark:

I have just tried what you suggested, and can get both pickups sounding reasonably the same volume, although the Mississippi Queen is still a bit louder and punchier.  It still doesn't seem right that I have to sit the neck pickup flush with the body and have the bridge pickup sticking right out to achieve this  :?

Although if the Mississippi Queen is supposed to be extremely beefy then maybe I'm worrying about nothing?

That's basically how I have my pickups set up in my SG.  The neck pickup is almost flush with the pickguard and the bridge pickup sticks out between 1-2 centimeters.  It has to do with the tune-o-matic bridge and the angle of the neck and strings.  What kind of guitar is it?

[Monty717]

Its a flying V, and I think that may have been the problem.  Ive just raised the bridge pickup a bit more, just under 2cm, and it sounds good.  I didn't realise how responsive these things were to height, but raising it a bit more has made a load of difference.

There is still a problem with the wiring as sometimes when I switch to the bridge it is extremely quiet, but if I move the switch back and forth it fixes itself.

Thanks guys for the help, looks like it was just me being stupid as usual  :)

[badgermark]

You mean your pickup is 2 cm from the strings? Pah! Whack that bad boy up so the cover or pole pieces are around 2 mm from the strings when you're holding the string at the last fret. Then play around with the heights in that sort of area. BKP usually recommend somewhere around 2 to 3 mm for string to pickup distance.

Just keep tweaking heights until you are 100% happy, i know myself and a few others around here spent ages getting everything peachy before setting and leaving it. Trust me, a few hours on and off adjusting will make your ears happy, and your tone excellent.

[Monty717]

Hehe, I meant the pickup is sticking out about 2cm.

But yeah, I'm still adjusting it here and there.  These are the sweetest pickups ive ever heard , extremely happy with them  :D