Help! Silo Special wiring diagram

[sixstrings]

Evening everyone,
Guys, need your help again please.
My silo special has arrived today. Previous owner changed stock pups to a set of:
dimarzio air norton NECK
dimarzio injector MIDDLE
dimarzio crunch lab BRIDGE
Positions 2 and 4 sound very weak, sounds like the whole set wasn't properly wired or a cold solder maybe.
Is there a chance that somebody knows how to wire it the right way?
I have unsoldered all the connections to make the whole job again, clean and right.
Please look at the pic below:
http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/5362/4gqn.jpg
Help, please...

 

[guitvai1]

I can see from your pic that the previous owner has removed the EBMM silent circuit, and replaced the super switch with a standard strat switch. I just replaced the stock humbucker on my PDN (mahogany body) silo spec with a Suhr Doug Aldrich humbucker and it rips. I found inside the pick guard a super switch which allows you to get the proper splitting and combinations. I tried the Crunchlab but I found it to be too muddy in that guitar. I should have taken a picture, I will try and get a pic the next time I change strings.

 

[GWDavis28]

Try the link to the left on this web page.

Silhouette Special

http://www.music-man.com/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&task=download&id=27

Glenn |B)

 

[DrKev]

Positions 2 and 4 sound very weak, sounds like the whole set wasn't properly wired or a cold solder maybe.

First, 'cold solder' joints tend to be intermittent or perhaps noisy but they don't affect tone. (Yeah, some of you will take me to task for that statement but I don't care. Of course you may sill have cold solder joints but you won't tell from the tone.


So, the problem positions - do they sound like the volume is low but the tone is fine, or do they sound thin and weedy?

If the tone is fine but volume is low, it could be normal - expect a lower volume from parallel combinations particularly when one coil is a humbucker coil. Series combinations (like the humbuckers on their own) will be significantly stronger and single coil sounds may also be slightly louder. The 2 and 3 positions on my Silo Special (stock wiring) are noticeably quieter than the others because they each use one coil from the humbucker. I once gave up a great HH guitar because of the volume drop in the some of the combination positions. Annoying. Guitars may not be rocket science but this is just physics, nowt to be done about it.

If the sound is thin, trebly, no bass, then you've mis-wired something. If you have a standard 5-way switch and a HSH layout, then you should look at the DiMarzio wiring diagrams and use those.

Wiring Diagrams | DiMarzio

Remember that each pickup manufacturer has different colour codes for their humbucker wiring. If you get them confused, you'll end up with one coil somewhere wired the wrong way and at least one of the pickup selections will sound 'off'.

 

[sixstrings]

@guitvai1 - The silo was shipped with stock pups, original switch and silent circuit too, I might use them if they would improve the sound. I had a quick run when the guitar arrived and crunchlab sounds awesome with my jvm, very happy with it. I understand that you didn't modified the internals after fitting suhr pickup and left them stock? I would love that picture mate!

@DrKev - Cold solder joint was just my guess mate. Positions 1,3 and 5 sound powerful and exactly as I would expect them to. 2 and 4 suffer from a huge, and I really mean huge, volume drop, very tinny and trebly, definitely not the way they should. For comparison same positions on my super sport (5 way switch too) sound absolutely fine. So I reckon the problem here is wrong wiring.
Will try those dimarzio diagrams, thanks for the link.

One question though - should I put the original switch and silent circuit back in the guitar or use just the replacement switch?

 

[DrKev]

One question though - should I put the original switch and silent circuit back in the guitar or use just the replacement switch?

Depends. If the combinations you want are humbucking and you never run the single coil on it's own, you won't need the silent circuit. (Note that the #3 position on a stock Silo Special is neck pickup in parallel with one coil of the bridge humbucker, and the silent circuit s only used for #5, the neck single coil on it's own). If you want the silent circuit you may need the super switch...

...and two PhDs to figure out how to wire it.

(I have one PhD and it's not enough!)

 

[sixstrings]

Used one of dimarzio diagrams, standard 5 way switch and dpdt coil tap, all works excellent.
Thanks everyone for posting here, check out my NGD here:

http://forums.ernieball.com/music-man-guitars/57509-ngd-silhouette-special-petrucci-pups.html