Silver Sky bridge tone pot acting as volume

[sixOHfour]

I just received my brand new Silver Sky and the bridge tone pot is acting as a volume.
The overall output of the bridge pickup is significantly lower than the others and it is very harsh sounding. Guitar is fine in all 4 other positions.

I have tried measuring the resistance of the pickups and I can’t get a reading from the bridge either no matter what. Other pickups measure 6.1 & 6.2 and sound great.
Took the pickguard off and it looks to be wired correctly. No obvious shorts to ground, switch is making contact in all positions.

looking for some testing advice or guidance as to what’s wrong.

since I can’t get a reading from the bridge pickup and the sound it makes I’m leaning towards that being the problem, but I’m very open to other suggestions.

love the guitar, don’t want to send it back if it’s something simple.

 

[sixOHfour]

I suppose I should elaborate that the harsh sound is super thin, brittle, and ice picky with zero bass.

 

[RickP]

I’d contact the PTC directly, they can Help you sort it out. If you can get it done on the phone, I’d think you could just ship the loaded pickguard for repair. They’ll have options.

410-643-9970 or by email at [email protected]

 

[Guitar54]

I just received my brand new Silver Sky and the bridge tone pot is acting as a volume.
The overall output of the bridge pickup is significantly lower than the others and it is very harsh sounding. Guitar is fine in all 4 other positions.

I have tried measuring the resistance of the pickups and I can’t get a reading from the bridge either no matter what. Other pickups measure 6.1 & 6.2 and sound great.
Took the pickguard off and it looks to be wired correctly. No obvious shorts to ground, switch is making contact in all positions.

looking for some testing advice or guidance as to what’s wrong.

since I can’t get a reading from the bridge pickup and the sound it makes I’m leaning towards that being the problem, but I’m very open to other suggestions.

love the guitar, don’t want to send it back if it’s something simple.

I have the same issue. How did you sort this out? Thx.

 

[aphantomvaper]

This def sounds like shorted out pickup. PTC will sort it!

Move the wires around slightly and see if output changes. I had to do that on my new out of the box S2 594. Two out of the three 594 guitars I tried had this issue in fact!

 

[Guitar54]

This def sounds like shorted out pickup. PTC will sort it!

Move the wires around slightly and see if output changes. I had to do that on my new out of the box S2 594. Two out of the three 594 guitars I tried had this issue in fact!

Wow - this is bizarre. For a company like PRS to have these kinds of issues. I'll check it out...thanks.

 

[sixOHfour]

I have the same issue. How did you sort this out? Thx.

it was a bad pickup. Open coil so somewhere in the winds it was broken. I was told that one of two things happens when the coil wire is broken/open.
1. You get what happened to our guitars
2. No sound

Obviously we got #1

I sent it to the PTC and they replaced the entire guitar.

 

[Guitar54]

it was a bad pickup. Open coil so somewhere in the winds it was broken. I was told that one of two things happens when the coil wire is broken/open.
1. You get what happened to our guitars
2. No sound

Obviously we got #1

I sent it to the PTC and they replaced the entire guitar.

Dang...I just bought mine from the original owner. Don't plan on sending it back. Electronics are fixable. I also like like an hour from PTC/PRS. So I could easily drop it off. Did your issue come and go? Mine comes and goes and can't be duplicated. That's the bad thing. If I could duplicate it, I'd know for sure before I send it in. I could ohm out the pups but unless I can duplicate...that's a crap shoot.

 

[sixOHfour]

Dang...I just bought mine from the original owner. Don't plan on sending it back. Electronics are fixable. I also like like an hour from PTC/PRS. So I could easily drop it off. Did your issue come and go? Mine comes and goes and can't be duplicated. That's the bad thing. If I could duplicate it, I'd know for sure before I send it in. I could ohm out the pups but unless I can duplicate...that's a crap shoot.

My issue did not come and go, it was constant. I took it to a local tech first and he said that he would have to re-wind the pickup to fix it.
It was brand new so it was a no brainer to send it back.

if your issue is intermittent then it’s probably not an open coil. It would more than likely be a short somewhere.

 

[Guitar54]

My issue did not come and go, it was constant. I took it to a local tech first and he said that he would have to re-wind the pickup to fix it.
It was brand new so it was a no brainer to send it back.

if your issue is intermittent then it’s probably not an open coil. It would more than likely be a short somewhere.

OH - I saw you posted this:

it was a bad pickup. Open coil so somewhere in the winds it was broken. I was told that one of two things happens when the coil wire is broken/open.
1. You get what happened to our guitars
2. No sound

So it sounded like number 1 was similar to what I described!

I'm not sure though (responding to your current comment) because for the past 48 hours - everything is working again???? haha (wait, what?) - which lends to your comment, but there is a lot of static electricity in my studio - I usually humidify but now I'm trying to purposely wanting to generate static to see if this is somehow the issue. When I draw a line with my finger onto the pick guard from the middle pickup right hand screw down to the top screw of the 5-way - there is static. Nothing elsewhere. If I remember correctly from seeing pictures, the wires to the input are there. So I'm going to leave things alone and see if the problem comes back. If it does, I'll then open up the pick guard and ohm out the POTS firstly, then I'll do what someone else suggested about moving the wires, I'll also put something around the wires to isolate them from the pick guard. I have a Michael Kelly guitar (amazing guitars - build is on par with PRS but the electronics were crap) that had the static pick guard issue. dryer sheets fixed it but never did the static cause electrical issue....anyway, time to play that sweet guitar! I'm hoping the problem comes back...need to nail this before gig season returns....thx for your thoughts! Appreciate everyones thinking!!