daddyelmis Posted August 3, 2004 Share Posted August 3, 2004 purchased a BluesBucker wiring rig for my Epi LP from Torres Engineering. Installed as directed. The kit is prewired so all you really do is connect your pickups (no coil splitting or other sexy shenanigans). Problem -- neck volume control has a "cliff" at 8 where the sound goes thin (rather than a typical volume rolloff), and doesn't do much until you hit zero, and volume is off. I've checked and rechecked (and rechecked) the wiring, and all seems right. Emailed Torres twice with Zero Response (last $$ they get from me). Does this seem symptomatic of a bad pot, or something else? And as an aside rant, when the hell are guitar mfg'rs going to go to a standard harness and connector so you can switch stuff easily? Muchas gracias. www.ruleradio.com "Fame is like death: We will never know what it looks like until we've reached the other side. Then it will be impossible to describe and no one will believe you if you try." - Sloane Crosley, Village Voice Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DC Posted August 3, 2004 Share Posted August 3, 2004 Seems like that's happened to me before and that it was a cold solder joint. As far as standardized, it ain't gonna happen unless all of a sudden; everyone wants the same pickups with the same controls. -David http://www.garageband.com/artist/MichaelangelosMuse Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guitarzan Posted August 3, 2004 Share Posted August 3, 2004 i think Daddy means connectors that would snap together. each switch, pot, pickup could come with common tips and snap together. http://www.soundclick.com/bands/pagemusic.cfm?bandID=193274 rock it, i will Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shoes Posted August 3, 2004 Share Posted August 3, 2004 There was a bit of a movement 20 or more years ago where lots of stuff came with 1/8 or 1/4 inch spade lugs. If you were so inclined you could crimp up harnesses for cabinets and andthing else but that's as far as it went before falling to the profit margin god. God of Profit Margins. Cost me money? What are you crazy or something. You no getting anything like that here. Go away! I've pulled apart pots that were bad right from the manufacturer and had flaws in the race. You can't fix that and anyway this should be a warranty issue. Cold joints come from the fire part going out at the other end & when the parts being soldered cool too quickly or more frequesntly are moved while cooling. A cold joint is as reliable and efficient as using wood as a means of transmision. (dry wood that it) Clamp them & keep them still while doing your work. Great solder joints have a shine to them. Cool, cold crap is dull looking. Don't smoke that S&%^$. I still think guitars are like shoes, but louder. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue Strat Posted August 3, 2004 Share Posted August 3, 2004 It could also be the pot Torres specified for the circuit. I've had some audio taper pots that sound like that. I replaced them with linear pots and it was much better. Personal opinion comes into how any guitar is wired. I had this guitar repair guy argue that Tele's weren't wired with 500k pots, ever. I had the 500k pot out of my Mexican Tele trying to find a replacement, and the guy wouldn't order the 500k pot for me because it wasn't the "correct" pot for the guitar. Screw that crap. I did the job myself. Friggin' hack. BlueStrat a.k.a. "El Guapo" ...Better fuzz through science... http://geocities.com/teleman28056/index.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reverse the Curse Posted August 4, 2004 Share Posted August 4, 2004 so how is the bluesbucker setup besides the volume problem? I was checkin it out on torres' site and it looks pretty interesting. Once I finish finishing ( ) my guitar I hope to get a SD JB and Jazz Model. How do you guys think the bluesbucker setup that had the option to bypass all tone controls would react with SD's? The forumite formerly known as Cooper. "Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans." John Lennon "When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will finally know peace." Jimi Hendrix "Knowledge speaks, but wisdom listens." Jimi Hendrix Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Major Tom Posted August 4, 2004 Share Posted August 4, 2004 It could be a combination of a couple things - I looked at that kit on his website, not too many details about exactly what's in it for 80 bux. The drawing shows what I believe to be a "keep the highs" or treble bleed cap across the 2 non-grounded lugs of the volumes - does it also have a resistor there? Anyway, sometimes that cap will make the tone thin sounding when you roll back the volume, since the volume is being attenuated, but the highs passed by the cap are NOT being attenuated. This gives it a little bit of a lopsided freq content, more highs than normal. Usually a .001 mf cap is used, you might be able to improve on it a bit with a different value. When a resistor is used in parallel with that cap like some mods call for, it really trashes the pot's taper. I like the cap by itself because of the non-effectiveness of the volume with the cap+resistor method. Depending on the guitar and the impedance of the signal chain, it will get a little thin past a certain point. Without the cap, IMHO, it just loses too much high end with the volume. I just accept the fact that a guitar's passive electronics are only capable of so much (not very good for controlling tone or volume !), so anything you do is really a compromise of some sort. That's why I mostly use a volume pedal, to keep the volume pots all the way up. You could take out that cap, but then it would sound muffled when you turn it down. Pot's tapers also vary within the same mfr/model, they aren't real precision devices. I have run into a couple goofy ones before. The one in my strat for example has too much attenuation in the first 20% or so of its turn. I've read about a few bad experiences with Torres... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daddyelmis Posted August 4, 2004 Author Share Posted August 4, 2004 thanks for the thoughts folks. First, no the BluesBucker is not worth the money (IMHO). I bought it 'cause I was rewiring the guitar anyway, a basic LP harness with CTS pots goes for about $40-45, so I figured another $30 for some options wasn't horrible, plus the harness was essentially pre-wired and all I had to do was wire the pickups. The Epi had a Duncan JB in the bridge and a 59 in the Neck. I'm now installing some Harmonic Design Z90's. I was not impressed with the BluesBucker tone palette -- not really that great and tended to muddy up the tone more than anything. I am generally a "tone control at 10" guy and use the volume to control drive on the tube amp. Hence the problem with the volume pot not working as I would anticipate. I will likely just pull the harness and replace with a "standard" LP setup with CTS pots, rather than spend hours replacing the current volume pot and screwing the cap and resistor values. I am completely unimpressed with Torres and won't be visiting their store again. www.ruleradio.com "Fame is like death: We will never know what it looks like until we've reached the other side. Then it will be impossible to describe and no one will believe you if you try." - Sloane Crosley, Village Voice Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Major Tom Posted August 4, 2004 Share Posted August 4, 2004 I have pretty much disabled the tone controls on all my humbucker guitars - I just don't like what they do. If you always leave 'em on 10, you might want to do that - just cut or desolder one leg of the tone cap. Personally, I don't find much appealing in most alternative guitar wiring schemes; many of the combinations like both pickups on and out of phase, and many others just sound like crap, and are too much of a volume drop to be useful for live playing. Trying to do fancy EQ stuff with a passive wiring scheme just doesn't work out very well - since there isn't any "juice" available for boosting, they are relegated to just cutting freq's. Now onboard active electronics would be a different story, but there's always pedals and such for that... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue Strat Posted August 4, 2004 Share Posted August 4, 2004 Originally posted by Major Tom: I have pretty much disabled the tone controls on all my humbucker guitars - I just don't like what they do. If you always leave 'em on 10, you might want to do that - just cut or desolder one leg of the tone cap. Personally, I don't find much appealing in most alternative guitar wiring schemes; many of the combinations like both pickups on and out of phase, and many others just sound like crap, and are too much of a volume drop to be useful for live playing. Trying to do fancy EQ stuff with a passive wiring scheme just doesn't work out very well - since there isn't any "juice" available for boosting, they are relegated to just cutting freq's. Now onboard active electronics would be a different story, but there's always pedals and such for that...Except for Gibson's Vari-tone circuit, I'd agree with you. Removing the tone control on my Del Rey doesn seem like a good idea though, but I've got a knob there and it'd be a shame not to use it for something... BlueStrat a.k.a. "El Guapo" ...Better fuzz through science... http://geocities.com/teleman28056/index.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caevan O’Shite Posted August 5, 2004 Share Posted August 5, 2004 I'm sorry to read of your bad experience there, daddyelmis! Too bad; bummer! Hey, Major Tom- I'm very curious to know more of what you "read about a few bad experiences with Torres..." Not looking for a mud-slinging slam-campaign, just some information. To be forwarned is to be forarmed, afterall! Ask yourself- What Would Ren and Stimpy Do? ~ Caevan James-Michael Miller-O'Shite ~ _ ___ _ Leprechaun, Esquire _ ___ _ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Major Tom Posted August 5, 2004 Share Posted August 5, 2004 Hey, Major Tom- I'm very curious to know more of what you "read about a few bad experiences with Torres..." Not looking for a mud-slinging slam-campaign, just some information. To be forwarned is to be forarmed, afterall! The memory is a little hazy... It was a while back on another forum, in a thread that was about amp kits or just torres experiences. A guy had bought a compete tube amp kit (not a mod), as he was putting it together he found shortages of parts, and as I remember, he stated that the instructions were not very detailed and/or accurate - he kept finding discrepancies. He contacted them a couple times 'cause he would discover these issues as he was going along - it may have even been incorrect parts - anyway they sent the missing parts, but on the 3rd time or so, they were not so willing to send them, or accused him of losing parts or... I do remember that he was quite upset about it, and from his description, it didn't seem like it was his fault. There was one other anecdote from a guy who sent them his amp to mod, I think the jist of it was that he got it back and it didn't meet his expectations - maybe some shortcoming about the channel switching circuit and something else. I think they pretty much told him tough luck when he contacted them about it... I do remember reading a couple reviews of one of his amp kits that weren't too favorable too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daddyelmis Posted August 5, 2004 Author Share Posted August 5, 2004 I finally heard back from Torres: "Remove the "volume kit" on the volume pot, this is the small resistor and/or capacitor between two of the tabs of the pot. this may cause the situation you are having trouble with. Torres Engineering " Took them about a week to respond this time (compared to never on my prior email to them 6 months ago). www.ruleradio.com "Fame is like death: We will never know what it looks like until we've reached the other side. Then it will be impossible to describe and no one will believe you if you try." - Sloane Crosley, Village Voice Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daddyelmis Posted August 6, 2004 Author Share Posted August 6, 2004 Yep, Maj. Tom, it was that cap across the volume lugs. Clipped it off and, voila, problem solved. I am not a complete convert . . . standard wiring is the only way to go. www.ruleradio.com "Fame is like death: We will never know what it looks like until we've reached the other side. Then it will be impossible to describe and no one will believe you if you try." - Sloane Crosley, Village Voice Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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