Question Silhouette Special Silent Circuit

[Rivers]

Have some questions regarding the Silent circuit on my Silhouette special and would appreciate if anyone could chime in.

• Would going clockwise or anti-clockwise on a silent circuit trim pot activates the hum cancellation more?
  
  
• I'm thinking of switching over to rechargable 9V batteries, is there any preferred rechargable types that I should probably use?
  
  
• I read from another post that there shouldn't be any change in tone in any pickup position whether the battery is in or out? If that might be the case, what would be the downsides of activating the silent circuit in its maximum setting position?

Thanks!

 

[beej]

Have some questions regarding the Silent circuit on my Silhouette special and would appreciate if anyone could chime in.

• Would going clockwise or anti-clockwise on a silent circuit trim pot activates the hum cancellation more?

Turning it clockwise increases the output of the (out-of-phase) hum from the circuit. So what happens is that as you increase its output, it will gradually reduce the hum from the pickup. However, once you hit maximum reduction, adjusting the trimpot further will increase the hum. So basically, there's a sweet spot.

• I'm thinking of switching over to rechargable 9V batteries, is there any preferred rechargable types that I should probably use?

No idea which rechargeable battery would be best. The current draw is really low, so probably anything would work. I find I almost never have to replace batteries on guitars that just have the SC.

• I read from another post that there shouldn't be any change in tone in any pickup position whether the battery is in or out? If that might be the case, what would be the downsides of activating the silent circuit in its maximum setting position?

I don't find the SC to change the tone of the guitar, with or without the battery. It's not like a normal dummy coil; you're wiring the ground of your pickup to a buffer circuit which is fed by the SC. It becomes a 'virtual ground'. When it's not powered, the output of it sits at ground, so from this perspective it's the same as if you had just wired your pickup to ground and taken the SC out of the circuit. This is unrelated to maximizing the output of the SC though.

As you turn the trimpot on the SC, you'll find the spot where maximum hum reduction occurs. Increasing it beyond that is just going to put more hum back in your signal.

Hope that helps.

 

[Rivers]

Thanks Beej! By any chance, did you ever swap out your bridge humbucker for a replacement one?

I just changed to a Suhr humbucker (4 wire) and weirdly enough, both coils from the humbucker seem to be working / picking up the signal in position 2 (middle + outer coil) together with the middle PU, which I'm trying to remember of the stock Dimarzio humbucker did the same?

 

[beej]

Yeah, many times. Plus I've wired up SCs in other guitars for coil splits, etc. It's a handy little device.

Sounds like something isn't wired correctly. Hard to say without seeing the guitar though.

 

[Rivers]

Hmm ok, must be my wiring skills then

 

[beej]

Hah! Well you can always post some pics and we can critique

 

[DrKev]

I just changed to a Suhr humbucker (4 wire) and weirdly enough, both coils from the humbucker seem to be working / picking up the signal in position 2 (middle + outer coil) together with the middle PU, which I'm trying to remember of the stock Dimarzio humbucker did the same?

I prefer it that way (I hate the volume drop from half a humbucker) but if it's not what you intended you should figure out why.

 

[Rivers]

Here are the pics, hopefully it's enough to give some information which part of my bridge wiring is off? Have mercy on my soldering skills

I forgot to mention that I replaced both neck and middle pickups with Suhr V63s' realized that my position 4 (neck + middle) is currently out of phase, which is weird because I replaced each pickup wires one by by (Suhr hot for Dimarzio hot). I took a compass and checked that both Suhr neck and middle pickups are running in different directions. I'm guessing this calls for my middle? (or should it be neck PU) hot and ground wires to be switched?

Thanks for the help folks, much appreciated!

 

[Rivers]

Ok, I swapped the middle pickup hot and ground wires and it seems like position 4 (neck + middle PUs) is working well now.

Position 3 and 2 still sounds really soft / thin so I'm assuming it's probably a part of the humbucker wiring that is causing the issue?

I referenced the wiring diagram but can't seem to figure out what I'm doing wrong.

Edit: Solved it!! I swopped the hot & ground wires on the bridge humbucker as well and everything seems to be working well now. I'm curious why I had to swap both middle and bridge PU hot/ground wires for this to work whilst the neck didn't require it, considering I was following the stock Dimarzio wiring codes (with a different color, that is)?

Also, I guess it would have been solved easier by just flipping the ground/hot wires on the neck pickup instead of doing the other 2 pickups?

 

[Vito Porkleone]

I almost had the same issue when I installed my Thornbucker, but reversing the black/green did not help. I gave up, ripped everything out, and went back to a traditional 5-way switch (non-superswitch), with everything grounded to the Vol pot, including the bridge ground. That last one took me a couple of hours or so to figure out where that hum was coming from.

 

[jqspiller]

Loosely related question here: I'm trying to reassemble the wiring on an old Silhouette Special SSS with the Silent Circuit. I have a diagram showing all the wiring on the pick guard and that's all reassembled. What I'm trying to determine now is how to configure the wiring for the battery compartment and input jack. There are black, white, and red wires involved. Someone marked the battery connectors with red and black which I assume correct. So where does the white wire go? I think I'm almost there! Thanks for any insight.