Newbie Help: bridge Humbucker weak

[rickmorgan2003]

I've only wound a few pickups but I am being stymied here. I have wound and installed a pair if HBs and the neck one sound awesome, much more power than I anticipated. Wound with 42 PE, 4500 turns with 6.65K ohms. Very clean, no harmonics issues etc. The bridge is wound same wire but 5500 turns with 8.86K ohms. When played they definitely have a different sound to them like I expected but the overall volume difference is huge. In order to balance the neck to bridge in volume I have to turn the neck volume to half and the bridge all the way up. I even wound a second bridge pickup that was a hair less in ohms same result. The guitar is wired as a traditional 59 LP with pushback wires, switchcraft switch, B500k pots (all reading between 497 and 505) NOS russian PIO k90 .022 caps. The other issue is the bridge PU is getting some hum that varies based on the direction I am facing. Everything checks out as far as grounded, I even used shielding paint in all the cavities with a spray on rubber topcoat to prevent accidental ground loops. Any thoughts?

[copperheadroads]

So Hows the adjustment height of the pickups ?
I fret the last fret & usually keep the pole piece of the pickups about 1/8" away from the string as a basic starting point ,try that & lower the neck a little

[Mike Sulzer]

Have you tried putting the bridge pickup in the neck position?

[rickmorgan2003]

I've adjusted the pole pieces up as close to the strings as possible with out hitting them. I haven't switched the bridge to the neck because I cur the wires too short for that although I could put longer ones on if I had to.

[copperheadroads]

Did you charge the magnet before putting them in ?

[streamz1]

My first thought is grounding issue. solder joints may look good but still may have 1 wire not grounded properly.

[SonnyW]

One possibility is that on your bridge humbucker, you have one of the coils shorted out somehow but not the other. That would cause weak output and the hum.

[rickmorgan2003]

I've gone through with a volt meter and everything seems to have a good ground. The resistance is still 8.85k wired into the guitar so I don't think one of the bobbins is shorted. I think I am going to drop the other bridge pickup I made into the neck and see what happens.

[John_H]

Are the coils in the pickup wired properly? Try wiring it directly to the output jack, and see what you get...

[rickmorgan2003]

Start wire of north bobbin is wired to hot lead, finish wire of north soldered to start wire of south bobbin. Finish wire of south to outer ground

[jack briggs]

Start wire of north bobbin is wired to hot lead, finish wire of north soldered to start wire of south bobbin. Finish wire of south to outer ground

Here may be your problem. Sounds like they're out of phases electrically. If you wound both bobbins in the same direction (CW or CCW) you need to tie either the starts or the finishes together. The remaining leads become output and ground.


Cheers,

[rickmorgan2003]

I'm a bonehead- Thanks

[jack briggs]

So - how's it sound now??


Cheers,

[rickmorgan2003]

Frickin awesome!!! I'm just amazed that for the costs of a decent set of buckers I was able to make the tools and supplies to create my own and they sound better than the ones I bought for my last project. I'm hooked on making pickups now. All of the guitars I make from now on will have my own pickups! Thanks for all the help guys.

So - how's it sound now??


Cheers,

[John_H]

I'm a bonehead- Thanks

YW