Low output in middle position

[66musicmaster]

Alright, I need some help from the tele experts on here. Turns out I asked the same question a couple months back.

My boy has a BSB affinity tele. The middle position is weak. The bridge and neck are quite noticeably louder. Wiring is correct from Symour Duncan site - we replaced the crappy switch early on with a "traditional" 3 way switch. THe music store also gave us a Duncan Designed bridge pup out of a Vintage Mod tele. Wired in correctly as far as I can tell.

Is that normal? It's not normal with my strats. I don't play the tele much - I can't seem to find a tone I like, but the boy loves it and it sounds better when he plays it. It's just a bit frustrating to him and me that the mid position is so much quieter.

Teles normally have a trebly biting tone in the bridge position, right? That thing will part your hair. Thinking we'll eventually change the neck pup too - it's pretty muddy. But would like to fix the mid posiition issue first, if we can.

THanks
Randy

[Teleblooz]

Sounds like you're getting phase cancellation from out-of-phase pickups. Seymour Duncan pups, for some reason, are backwards from Fender stock pups. I had the same problem when I first installed a SD Lil'59 in combination with a standard Tele neck pup.

Switch the green & black wires on the SD around and you should be fine. Alternatively you could switch the leads around on the neck pup, but you'd also have to change the jumper so that the cover is grounded to the white lead.

And before you spend money on replacing the neck pup, play around with pickup height a little. Sometimes it makes a big difference tone-wise.

[DreadSi]

I agree with Teleblooz - out of phase. I picked up a strat with the same symptoms and reversing the middle pickup wiring fixed it.

[66musicmaster]

I switched the wires on the bridge pup. The bridge pup didn't work at all then. So back to "normal". I rechecked all my wiring and joints. All good. Adjusted pup hgt a little. Middle position sounds "nasally" - like the guitar is holding its nose. Guess we'll have to live with it for a while. Til we decide on pups for it.

The bridge and neck pos have big, full sound. Mid position is quiet and nasal.

NExt question: What is the second green capacitor for? One on tone knob - like a strat. What is the one on the vol knob for? Affintiy BSB.

Randy

[YeahDoIt]

Sometimes a capacitor - a higher voltage one, perhaps rated 400 volts - is in series with the volume control to lessen electrical shocks. People get shocked pretty good sometimes from different polarity equipment.

[manticus]

The one on the volume pot is most likely a treble bleed cap. It will help you keep the highs when you roll off the volume instead of getting muddy.

Andy

[66musicmaster]

Thanks for the answer.

Randy