Super Switch Wiring Problemo

[Stew]

I have a two humbucker config with a 5 way Super Switch. The pickups are Suhr DSV's. John Suhr sent me this diagram. This is what it's supposed to do..

1. full bridge

2. inner coils split

3. both humbuckers

4. neck split

5 full neck

I wired everything up including the treble bleed mod. I have to turn my amp up to 10 to hear any output, and it's still not even room volume. All positions seem to be fine (all seem separate, no two tones are the same).

Also, I can't roll off the volume on the guitar. I have the same output from 1-10. Plus I can hear a little static while rotating the volume knob and I get a faint hum when I roll past volume settings 4-7. Each end of the volume spectrum is hum free. But then maybe since the output is so low, I may not be hearing any hum that may be present.

I've got the ground wires from the switch, output jack, and claw wire soldered to the back of the volume pot as well as the bare wire and green ground wires from the pickups. My claw ground (what normally would go to the trem claw) is screwed into the contro cavity which has been painted with two coats of Electrodag 112 shielding paint.

I've got a wire from the outer lug of the tone pot going to the middle volume pot lug which is also sharing the resistor and cap treble bleed, and a wire coming from the other resistor/cap shared lug to the switch's pole (near #5).

Sorry, I'm new to this site and don't know how to post the pic directly to the message so I'll have to leave a link right now. The wiring is colored for reference, not actual wire color codes. So please refer to a particular color on the diagram so that I know where to concentrate on. I have no idea why this concept escapes me. Thanks for your patience. I want to learn from this. After asking John himself for what seemed like many clarification emails, he wanted me to just bring it in and have himself wire it up. That's not what I want.

http://community.webshots.com/photo/246749...272690964tEzpQv

[Stew]

Wow, nobody can respond?

This must be a real idiot question.

Edited February 14, 2005 by Stew

[Southpa]

I'm not familiar w/ the workings of the superswitch, most of my experience has revolved around standard, basic setups w/ maybe some coil cutting mixed in, .

Lots of diagrams aren't complete and usually don't show whats normally taken for granted. I see no mention of a ground wire between the vol and tone pots. I have always linked all my pots together with a ground wire soldered to the casings. Could you have missed that? Sorry, thats all I can suggest without overstepping my experience.

[lovekraft]

Start with the volume - if your volume control isn't changing the volume, either the pot is defective, it's not grounded, or there's something bypassing it. I'd temporarily hardwire one pickup to the volume pot (and disconnect everything else), get that working, then reconnect the tone pot and get it working, and finally debug the switch wiring. If you only have to fix one problem at a time, it's a lot easier to troubleshoot.

[Stew]

Well, the problem was that both black wires coming off the humbucker wiring was not quite soldered to the lugs. Some of the lugs are shared by jumper wire so both were hiding behind solder.

Now I full volume but now I loose my signal when I mount the control plate. Aaaaagh!

With the Super Switch, it's kind of a tight fit so I may Dremel some material off of the sides near the switch area. Something is pressing up against something else and shorting out. All connections are solid so it's back to the drawing board.