Low volume on Legacy HB

Sun Oct 09, 2011 7:37 am

So I plug in to my micro cube & start noodling around with my axe.. I switch down to a acoustic channel and my volume drops waay down. Not gone but a drop of at least 80%.
Add some gain it gets a little better but not much. switch to the crunch side & its alot better.
I plug into my tube amp & again a big volume loss.
I try my other 3 guitars..no loss in volume.
Im thinking a bad pot What say you?.......
I Have a usa Legacy HB w/coil split

Re: Low volume on Legacy HB

Sun Oct 09, 2011 3:04 pm

Hi. I have a Roland Cube 30 with the acoustic simulator, and there is a big volume drop with ALL guitars when I switch to it. The clean channel is also relatively low volume compared to the amp modelling side (or crunch as you called it). I don't think the guitar is 100% to blame for what you're observing with the cube.

BUT...the blue S-500 in my avatar also had noticeably less output than all my other single coil guitars when I got it. I'd say less than 50% of the output of my other guitars. I tried different cables, pickups and amps but it was always the same. In the end I pulled out the PTB wiring and put standard strat wiring in it. It fixed the problem and the guitar now sounds much better to boot.

I'd tip a problem somewhere with your wiring. The PTB system is not easy to troubleshoot however. All my pots checked out OK but who knows how the caps were performing? That's why I pulled mine out and started again with new components and a wiring scheme I understand. One day, if I fancy giving myself a headache, I may have a shot at getting the PTB wiring working properly. A lot of people love it so it must be great when it's functioning as intended.

Re: Low volume on Legacy HB

Sun Oct 09, 2011 5:51 pm

Thanks for the tip, Im baffeled about the loss of volume with the tube amp , I plugged it into a epi valve jr & the volume loss was alot more than I remembered.
I thought I could have damaged something when I kicked on my EH Holy stain pedal, it was set on fuss, maybee the boost cooked something in the circutry. I thought these G&ls were a littlle more robust

Re: Low volume on Legacy HB

Sun Oct 09, 2011 5:53 pm

Oh yeah ..Whats the PTB Wireing?
Thanks again

Re: Low volume on Legacy HB

Sun Oct 09, 2011 7:35 pm

MrD wrote:Oh yeah ..Whats the PTB Wireing?
Thanks again


See this post: Legacy Tone Control Circuit.

You might want to see the Gallery Album: Instrument Manuals and Wiring Schematics for Legacy HB Wiring Schematic and Picture Diagram.

Hope this helps.

Re: Low volume on Legacy HB

Sun Oct 09, 2011 7:57 pm

MrD wrote:I thought I could have damaged something when I kicked on my EH Holy stain pedal, it was set on fuss, maybee the boost cooked something in the circutry. I thought these G&ls were a littlle more robust

I doubt whether your pedal could have affected the wiring in the Legacy. It's more likely there's a problem with your output jack making a partial contact, or something in the guitar's circuitry is not quite right.

Re: Low volume on Legacy HB

Mon Oct 10, 2011 5:16 pm

You pegged it Philby...bad connection . I gave it a wiggle & it came back on full bore.
Lotts to learn with these 6 stringed buggers. I've been at it for 3 years now.
Nasty habbit, 10 assorted guitars 4 amps tough to keep it all sorted out.
Thanks for your input

PS: Knophler is one of my favorites, thank god for the aussies!