Hi folks, just blew some more of the boy's inheritance on another guitar, an orange 5120 retrofitted with bridge tv jones powertron plus and tv jones classic neck pu's, tv jones wiring harness and v cut bigsby. I love individual settings but hard to distinguish both on from neck alone no matter what I do. I've checked heights etc, but I'm obviously tone deaf or something. Strangely I can't hear much if any difference regardless of amp used. It's not just this 5120 though, the 5129 I used to have with the dearmonds was the same and my Peerless Gigmaster Custom took a heck of a lot of sorting out to get a usable mid selection.

Any thoughts/advice?

Turn down the neck pickup volume ever so slightly.

Is it possible that it is wired incorrectly? Check it by hooking the guitar to an amp. Make sure all three volume controls are maxed. Place the pickup selector in the up (neck) position and gently tap on each pickup with a screw driver tip. You should hear it "click" when tapping on the neck pickup, but get no sound on the bridge pickup.

Then place the pickup selector in the middle (both) position. You should hear clicking from both pickups when you tap them. Repeat for the bridge pickup.

If this checks out OK, I'm not sure what the problem is...

Turn down the neck pickup volume ever so slightly.

Uh, what Geosh said.

To elaborate: Up until recently I've been less than enthusiastic about individual pickup volume controls but I'm starting to see things differently. There is, however, a down side to this. If you cut the neck pickup volume and then switch to the neck pickup alone you might experience a volume drop you hadn't anticipated.

Uh, what Geosh said.

To elaborate: Up until recently I've been less than enthusiastic about individual pickup volume controls but I'm starting to see things differently. There is, however, a down side to this. If you cut the neck pickup volume and then switch to the neck pickup alone you might experience a volume drop you hadn't anticipated.

if youre talking about this in the paradigm of our master volume control with individual pkup volume controls.. flip the wiring on lugs 3 and 2 as tvjones suggests. I hate how gretsch wires the harness.

btw.. a powertron plus is basically a fatass PAF and a HUGE difference in sound than a classic neck. How about dropping the low E side of the Pwrtron+ to 7/16 from top of cover to bottom of string but keep the high E at the proper 3/16th spacing. Then be sure the low e side of the classic is at 3/16ths but drop the high E side to 7/16ths... after you do this then raise the neck pickups inside coil's D and G pole screws a half turn and on the bridge pickup slighter raise the outer (bridge saddle side) A and D pole screws but be sure to have the B and high E pole screws flat to the bobbin.

Thanks guys, that has given me something to work on. Btw have already tried balancing individual volumes but not the poles, will get back to y'all once I've tried it. Until now didn't know optimum pickup heights for tvj's (starts and teles are easy).

[QUOTE="Restless Native"]Thanks guys, that has given me something to work on. Btw have already tried balancing individual volumes but not the poles, will get back to y'all once I've tried it. Until now didn't know optimum pickup heights for tvj's (strats and teles are easy).

[QUOTE="Restless Native"]Thanks guys, that has given me something to work on. Btw have already tried balancing individual volumes but not the poles, will get back to y'all once I've tried it. Until now didn't know optimum pickup heights for tvj's (strats and teles are easy).

btw.. dont bother messing with the pole screws until the pickups are both set at TVJONES benchmark since there is a bar magnet in these pickups and its essential to have it right up close as tvjones specs 3/16ths from the bottom of the Low E strings and High E string to the top of the pickup cover. If you dont start here at least you'll NEVER hear the full potential of the pickups.. Also you may find you dont have enough compression rubber or any at all under your pickups.. mouse pad will take care of that and be sure to put a drop of super glue into the screw holes and wait 30 minutes before employing the new compression rubber. This super glue will fortify the screw holes and keep the screws from breaking out from the tension of the compression rubber shims.

I had these problems w/ my DeArmonds for a while, and at this point all I can say is dont be afraid to toss out and move the rings around. I found using 1 of the thinner bridge shims, on the neck literally just to make it flush mount cause it doesn't really need the height, Then I raised the poles at least 2/16ths maybe 3/16ths. Then used the 2 thicker neck shims (from the neck pickup) on the bridge pickup and put the remaining 3 thin shims in a drawer. and that ended up working to my advantage.

I dont like the individual volume controls at all. I personally just make sure my pickups are at balanced height.

So I generally mount BRIDGE humbuckers @ about 1/8th of an inch away from the strings, and then balance the poles, and then I start low w/ the neck pickup, and raise it until its balanced in. Never touched my individual pup vol's ever since.

Many thanks guys for not letting this thread die whilst I've been away on Service. Still struggling with the mid position but will try again following all advice from scratch again when I get the '20 back from set-up/tlc.

if youre talking about this in the paradigm of our master volume control with individual pkup volume controls.. flip the wiring on lugs 3 and 2 as tvjones suggests. I hate how gretsch wires the harness.


Where is the diagram for this? I looked at the TV Jones and Gretsch wiring and it looks pretty much the same.