Pickup wiring question

[BolivarBaLues]

I just had a Seymour Duncan Phat Cat single-coil pickup installed in the bridge position of my Les Paul. I left the neck pickup in, a Seymour Duncan '59 humbucker. I'm wondering if the tech wired the pickups up wrong. When I have both pickups selected, turning the volume of either pickup completely down also turns the volume of the other pickup all the way down. In other words, no sound comes out with either one of the volume knobs on zero. This wasn't the way it worked previously when I had two humbuckers in it. I should be able to completely dial out one of the pickups when both are selected without affecting the volume of the other. I can, however, dial in varying amounts of either pickup, it's just when it's all the way off, it cuts off both pickups. The single-coil has a single-conducter cable, so I'm wondering if this somehow affects the volume function differently. Anyone?

[ginandcigarettes]

It sounds like this is an accepted way of wiring up Les Pauls, but it can be easily changed to how you like it. In other words, your tech didn't screw up, but you can probably get him or her to switch it around for free:

 

From the Stew-Mac website:

 

Les Paul wiring diagram

This wiring setup is considered the standard for Gibson-style instruments. It utilizes a separate volume and tone control for each pickup. The "middle" position of the pickup selector switch doesn't allow you to individually control the two pickups' volumes. If you have turned down the neck pickup's volume to "5" and then go to the middle position, both pickups will be at "5".

 

You can alter this or any other dual volume control instrument to allow you to separately control volume when both pickups are active. Simply reverse the input and output wires on the volume pots. Then, the volume control of one pickup won't affect the other.

 

It is not possible to make the tone controls work independently in the middle position. Since the tone controls work by bleeding part of the signal to ground, and ground is shared, they cannot be isolated.

 

When wiring the long runs (i.e. from the volume to the jack), use shielded or coaxial wire. Coaxial cable is like the cable used between the guitar and an amp. The outer braid is ground and it shields the inner "hot" wire. In the Les Paul diagram below, the thick wires represent coax wire. Use non-shielded wire for connections between pots and other small jumpers. Generally, the white wire is used for "hot" connections and the black is for "ground" wires.

 

 

I hope this helps!

[BolivarBaLues]

It sounds like this is an accepted way of wiring up Les Pauls, but it can be easily changed to how you like it. In other words, your tech didn't screw up, but you can probably get him or her to switch it around for free:

 

From the Stew-Mac website:

I hope this helps!

 

 

Indeed it does. Thanks!

[ginandcigarettes]

Indeed it does. Thanks!

 

No problem. Cheers!