TALK @ PhilMusic.com - The Online Home of the Pinoy Musician
The Musician Forums => Guitar Central => Topic started by: dannygatton on February 14, 2013, 01:20:43 PM
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Need your help GC community. My Greco Les Paul, a sudden drop of volume level everytime I switch from neck pickup to bridgeup. I adjusted the bridge pickup to bring it closer to the strings, still weaker volume compared to the neck output. Thanks in advance.
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How old is your greco guitar? If it is still stock, baka weak na yung magnet nyan kaya di na masyadong maka pickup ng vibration.
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How old is your greco guitar? If it is still stock, baka weak na yung magnet nyan kaya di na masyadong maka pickup ng vibration.
mid-80s. I owned GRECO LPs from the same period-- stock pickups but have not experienced weakening of the magnet. anyway, how would one measure the strength of the magnet? thanks.
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Danny,
I've experienced the same before on perfectly working pickups. Swapped out the stock pickups of a guitar with a pair of perfectly working Gibson Burstbucker Pros. Same findings, whenever I switched to the bridge pickup, the output was so weak. Not even pickup height can compensate.
I found out later on that the 3-way toggle switch was faulty. It looked and toggled fine, but in reality, it's the cause of the weak output. Swapped out the 3-way toggle switch with a new one and it did the trick. Worked perfectly again.
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Danny,
I've experienced the same before on perfectly working pickups. Swapped out the stock pickups of a guitar with a pair of perfectly working Gibson Burstbucker Pros. Same findings, whenever I switched to the bridge pickup, the output was so weak. Not even pickup height can compensate.
I found out later on that the 3-way toggle switch was faulty. It looked and toggles fine, but in reality, it's the cause of the weak output. Swapped out the 3-way toggle switch to a new one and it did the trick. Worked perfectly again.
+1 Same thing happened to me. ^-^
P.S. Both Chino and I have Greco LPs. :-)
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+1 Same thing happened to me. ^-^
P.S. Both Chino and I have Greco LPs. :-)
:-)
It didn't happen to my Greco, though.. It was on a friend's Epiphone LP.. Haha.. I've long put a Switchcraft 3-way toggle on my Greco LP, never had any problems. :-)
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Is that a Korean Greco? It's a problem with Korean switches. I've encountered it with 2 Epi LPs frome Korea and haven't had a problem with 4 of my late 70's Greco LPs
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Danny,
I've experienced the same before on perfectly working pickups. Swapped out the stock pickups of a guitar with a pair of perfectly working Gibson Burstbucker Pros. Same findings, whenever I switched to the bridge pickup, the output was so weak. Not even pickup height can compensate.
I found out later on that the 3-way toggle switch was faulty. It looked and toggled fine, but in reality, it's the cause of the weak output. Swapped out the 3-way toggle switch with a new one and it did the trick. Worked perfectly again.
:lol: yeah. +1
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:-)
It didn't happen to my Greco, though.. It was on a friend's Epiphone LP.. Haha.. I've long put a Switchcraft 3-way toggle on my Greco LP, never had any problems. :-)
Ah. I see. :-D
I've long bypassed the 3-way toggle on mine, never had any problems since. ^-^
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:lol: yeah. +1
Kamusta LP mo AJ? Ayos pa rin hanggang ngayon? :-)
Ah. I see. :-D
I've long bypassed the 3-way toggle on mine, never had any problems since. ^-^
:-o :-o
Both pickups always on? Isa kang legend. Haha!
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Both pickups always on? Isa kang legend. Haha!
Bridge lang. Hehe
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Maraming salamat, my deepest gratitude for all your expert advise. It could just be the switch ... my friends.
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Kamusta LP mo AJ? Ayos pa rin hanggang ngayon? :-)
No problems naman! :-D
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kung shielded yung guitar check ung mga wiring particularly ung 3 way toggle switch baka naskadikit ung terminal sa shield ,it happened to me before
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Kudos for a helping thread!
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If it's only a decrease in volume, it just that maybe the current flowing through the switch are diminished by a reduction in contact area resulting from mechanical stress (misalignment, chipping, etc) or rust. Use the following alternatives before replacing it with a new switch:
1. cleaning - use WD40 or contact cleaner to loosen and remove rust and make sure the contacts are aligned
2. check the pickup, especially the black vulcanized fiber - look for signs of water, the black fiberboard will suck and hold water longer especially if the coils are potted with wax. This may create shorts that reduce the magnet's power; inspect the copper eyelets (magnet wire terminals) also.
3. silver plate the contacts to widen/build-up the contact area - jewellers in the local palengke will accept the job for less than a hundred bucks; a silver plated contact will sometimes sound even better than a new switch!
4. check the circuit path of the bridge pickup (wires, solders joints, capacitor, if any) Rust under solder is a usual culprit to the symptoms you mentioned
5. Make sure that the pickup in question is really a bridge pickup - you might have had this guitar checked by an amateur tech and unknowingly switched the pickups. The Bridge and Neck pickups are not interchangeable, the bridge pups are normally stronger with bigger coils. If these are original OEM pups, you can verify their resistances using an ohmmeter and compare with standard values. Again, the bridge coil's resistance is bigger than that of the neck.
6. Everything else fails, replace the switch.
Goodluck.
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Danny,
I've experienced the same before on perfectly working pickups. Swapped out the stock pickups of a guitar with a pair of perfectly working Gibson Burstbucker Pros. Same findings, whenever I switched to the bridge pickup, the output was so weak. Not even pickup height can compensate.
I found out later on that the 3-way toggle switch was faulty. It looked and toggled fine, but in reality, it's the cause of the weak output. Swapped out the 3-way toggle switch with a new one and it did the trick. Worked perfectly again.
This! ganyan din sakin.. toggle switch pala may problema!
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This! ganyan din sakin.. toggle switch pala may problema!
me too! Greco LP user here...
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may gitara akong ganyan din ang problema...baka nga sa switch din..thanks sa share