New G&L owner, faulty push-pull on Tribute S500?

Dear friends,

I am a new and enthusiast owner of a beautiful Tribute S500 with natural finish.
I have the "sensation" that the push pull is not working properly, i.e. when the pot is pushed the sound is very similar for both the bridge or the neck pickup and does not change very much when I pull the pot. In addition, when the pot is pushed and I select the neck pickup, if I touch the pole of the neck or the bridge pickups with a screwdrive, they both make a noise. If I touch the middle p.u. with the same set up (pushed pot and position 5 on p.u. selector) no sound is produced. If I pull the pot and touch the neck or the bridge p.us again, they both produce a sound. With the pot pushed or pulled and position 2 or 4 selected, all p.u. make a noise, while in position 3 only the middle p.u. makes a noise. Is that right, or is that bad? Is there any sound clip I can use as reference? How do I understand if there is something wrong with the electronics without taking off the pickguard?

Thank you,

Marco


I forgot to mention that when I plugged it in my valve amp for the first time , it started producing a crackling sound that stopped after about 4-5 minutes. At first I supposed it was caused by humidity in the guitar or in the amp, in fact it was a rainy day.

Dear friends,

I am a new and enthusiast owner of a beautiful Tribute S500 with natural finish.
I have the "sensation" that the push pull is not working properly, i.e. when the pot is pushed the sound is very similar for both the bridge or the neck pickup and does not change very much when I pull the pot. In addition, when the pot is pushed and I select the neck pickup, if I touch the pole of the neck or the bridge pickups with a screwdrive, they both make a noise. If I touch the middle p.u. with the same set up (pushed pot and position 5 on p.u. selector) no sound is produced. If I pull the pot and touch the neck or the bridge p.us again, they both produce a sound. With the pot pushed or pulled and position 2 or 4 selected, all p.u. make a noise, while in position 3 only the middle p.u. makes a noise. Is that right, or is that bad? Is there any sound clip I can use as reference? How do I understand if there is something wrong with the electronics without taking off the pickguard?

Thank you,

Marco

See this post for the expander switch settings: What is the expander switch used on many of the models?.
If these settings are not working on your Tribute S-500, see the G&L Support page for details on Warranty repair.

Hope this helps.

It looks like it is always "expanded" to me, is the "screwdriver" trick supposed to make "pop"only the selected pickups (i.e. popping only the neck in position 5, only the bridge in position 1 ecc...) when the guitar is not "expanded"?

It looks like it is always "expanded" to me, is the "screwdriver" trick supposed to make "pop"only the selected pickups (i.e. popping only the neck in position 5, only the bridge in position 1 ecc...) when the guitar is not "expanded"?

Yes, the screwdriver test will determine which pickups are active with each setting. An active pickup when tapped with the screwdriver on a pole piece will sound thru
your amp.

The expanded mode should be activated when the push/pull pot is pulled out. Non-expanded mode is when the pot knob is pushed in.

Thanks!

A friend of mine, who owns the shop in which I purchased the S-500, was able to fix the problem. It seems that a drop of tin that was used to weld the cables at the push-pull poured a little bit from one cable to the other and worked like a "brigde". To make the story short, the push-pull was always "on".
Now it works fine, and I am an happy man