650D - HB out, Hi Gain in!

[ledbye]

Hi

I've been a long time lurker and tried signing up a while back but something must have happened with my rego, anyway, I'm approved now and ready to ask some Q's! Ha ha!

Basically, I got hold of a '76 Hi Gain on eBay and I put it in the bridge position on my Ric 650D in place of the HB that was in there. Now, the HB had three wires (two went onto the back of the pot and one on the switch), the Hi Gain only has two. If I wire it one way (white sleeve to pot, bare to switch) I get all three switch positions at the same volume, however, I have really bad hum/buzz unless my finger is touching the pick up (which effects the tone as my palm will hit it sometimes and others not). If I wire it the opposite way round, it sounds great, no buzz/hum BUT I get a funny out-of-phase (I think) and a big drop in volume when I select both pick ups on the selector.

Now, I believe the first way I have a bad ground somewhere and the other way...well, I have no idea! Ha ha!

Could anyone tell me how I get all three pick up selections at the same volume and stop the hum/buzz?

I'm pretty handy with the soldering iron, but I can't read schematics to save my life, so if someone can put it in laymans (?) terms that'd be awesome! Ha ha! Cheers

[jps]

Welcome, Ben.

You have the two wires reversed. The braided wire is your ground connection and the inner conductor with the white insulation is the hot lead that should be connected to the switch.

[ledbye]

Welcome, Ben.

Thanks!

You have the two wires reversed. The braided wire is your ground connection and the inner conductor with the white insulation is the hot lead that should be connected to the switch.

Hrm...see, if have it that way I get a terrible buzz Can I earth it at all??

[ledbye]

You have the two wires reversed. The braided wire is your ground connection and the inner conductor with the white insulation is the hot lead that should be connected to the switch.

I just opened her up again and swapped. Nup, still has a terrible buzz

When you say 'ground connection' where should that go? On the selector switch or elsewhere?

[jps]

Here is a photo of the wiring in my '73 4001, in this case the hot lead from the bridge pickup has a black insulation as opposed to the white on yours. The braided shield gets soldered to the case of the potentiometers.

[ledbye]

Thanks for taking the time to upload a pic jps

I have the braded wire to the potentiometer and the white insulated wire to the selector. This is my best setting as the bridge pick up sounds great, as does the neck one. But when I have them both on (i.e. selector in the middle) I get this weird out of phase sound with a volume drop and no bottom end. Your 4001 looks like its wired much differently to this. Yours has wires going from one potentiometer to the switch and an extra capacitor/resistor in there.

I'm going to leave mine wired like it is for the time being, but if anyone knows how to stop this weird out phase sound, I'd really appreciate the assistance!

Thanks heaps

[jps]

Are both your pickups wired the same way? It sounds like one of them is reversed. The extra cap in my 4001 is the .0047µf bass cut cap that is in series with the bridge pickup to roll off the low end. This was a major characteristic of the older basses to increase the fidelity in the days of lousy bass amps with no high end to them.

Regarding the loud hum, is the ground wire to the bridge plate connected?

[jps]

Thanks for taking the time to upload a pic jps

BTW, call me Jeff or Jeffrey, only my mother calls me jps!

[ledbye]

Are both your pickups wired the same way? It sounds like one of them is reversed.

It's a just a standard HB and a '76 Hi Gain, both wired/wound as they should be. When I took the HB out, it had two wires connected to the pot and the hot one to the switch, the neck is the same.

Regarding the loud hum, is the ground wire to the bridge plate connected?

Yeah, the ground is def. wired to the bridge plate...prior to the Hi Gain going in, there was no hum what-so-ever with the HB in...an incredibly quiet guitar! However, I only get this hum when I have the hot wire on the pot and the braded on the switch...which seems to be the wrong way round...

Thanks Jeff

[johnallg]

Some of the hum is due to the higain being a single coil pickup. Why you are experiencing the loss of lows and volume loss with both pickups on is because they are out of phase. You need to reverse the leads of one from the coil windings, and it would probably be easiest to do on the humbucker.

http://www.rickenbacker.com/pdfs/19521-HB1%20Wiring.pdf

[ledbye]

Thanks John. I don't know how to read schematics and I like the sound of either pick up so I'm going to leave it wired out of phase.

When I swap the wiring, I get not so much of a hum as a buzz which sounds like bad grounding/shielding somewhere, but not being an electronics type of guy, I don't know how to solve it!

I'll take it to a tech when I can be without the guitar for a while.

Cheers
Ben