How should a jaguar bridge pickup sound?

[triviani]

Hi

I need a bit of help here..

I have tried 3 different pickup in the bridge position of my CIJ jaguar, and I always get the same thin and flat sound from them.

Last one is a p90 for jaguar, it has less "punch" than the neck (stock) pickup. It sounds more like the intro of "wish you were here" or pearl jam's "Black" than a regular pickup. The volume is even, it's the "body" of the sound that lacks ..power?

The middle position, with both pickups on, is even less interesting and flat.

It's not a phase issue, because I have tried to reverse the wires without solving the problem, and the polarity seems to be ok.

How should a bridge pickup sound? My Jaguar came without the original bridge pickup so I don't know..

So.. is it that way? Maybe is a wiring problem? Could the grounding affect the sound? The neck pickup seems to be fine..

Any ideas?

Thanks!

[null.fuzz]

Does the strangle switch have an effect? If so maybe that switch is stuck in the on position. I've had a few of those slider switches stick on me before.

[triviani]

Yap, the strangle switch works ok.

I guess I'll have to to a shop and try other jags, to see if they sound any different from mine..

[wardpike]

A healthy Jag pickup shoudl sound very similar to a G&L MFD pickup, not quite as much output but very similar tone. a bit of "Gonk" to it and about 125% of the output of a typical strat pickup.

What you are describing sounds like a wiring problem. something you may have overlooked or might be missing; such as a grounded out strangle switch that you might not necessarily see straight away. The sound you are describing is TOTALLY different to mine.

Consult with a repair pro.

Best regards,

Ward

[triviani]

Thanks for the answers.

Definitively should be a wiring thing. I tried the strangle switch again and it has just a subtle effect on the sound.. Maybe something about the ground wiring, that looks a bit messy! The pickup that came with the guitar was a SD hot rails, that should be beefy not thin!

I can try to remove the grounding and put a copper shielding system to see if it works better that way.

Or take it to the tech, for a complete "clean up"..

thanks again!

[Jaguar018]

I would go to a guitar tech first before you try anything else on your own.