Why are two pickups way softer?

My M-85 now has a bridge I can intonate. And since the magnificent JS-II is in the shop getting all filtered up, sorta like Jack & Phil did way back then, I am using the M-85 a lot.

So, why am I noticing a HUGE drop-off in volume when I have the switch on for both pickups? With the switch on for one or the other, the bass sounds great. But when it's in the middle position, it only puts out the sound of whatever pickup volume is maxed. Is neither is maxed, the volume drops to something like 25% of a single pickup. Way different than on the JS-II where I could set the neck pickup volume and then move the bridge pup volume up & down to modify the sound on the fly.

I don't recall this before I sent it in to have the smasheroo repaired, but then, I never played it a whole lot before that. I recall the seller said that he had replaced all of the wiring. I wonder if something went amiss then? It's the hollow version, so I don't imagine it's a fun project to check out the wiring.

Any suggestions, tips etc would be most welcome.

(PS there is no suck switch)

Out of phase comes to mind. Does it sound good if both are maxed?

Thanks. That makes sense. No different than speakers out of phase, I suppose. Not so hard to fix? Just reverse wiring on one pup?

It's worth a try and easy enough to do.

If your pickups and volume controls are wired in series, then turning down the volume on one P/U will turn both down, and if you turn either one all the way down, you get nothing. I believe that's the case with my NS M-75, and my '97 X-170. (Not sure I'm remembering correctly, but I'm not ready to drag one out and fire it up just now).

If what I'm describing is not the same as what you're experiencing, then please disregard.

+1 on being out of phase as the first guess.

two pickups in parallel are always a little softer than a single pickup. But if they're WAY softer, thin sounding with hardly any low end with both of the pickup volumes up full, they're out of phase.

Walter Broes said:

two pickups in parallel are always a little softer than a single pickup. But if they're WAY softer, thin sounding with hardly any low end with both of the pickup volumes up full, they're out of phase.

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Thanks everyone. I do believe you have diagnosed the issue.

I remember a debate coming up a while back about wiring out of phase and its relationship to hum canceling. I think for the two pickups to hum cancel they have to be out of phase if they're not a reverse wound/reverse polarity pair. Mine weren't and I wired them to be In phase and therefore they no longer him cancel when both pickups are on. But it's waaaay more useful now. I basically couldn't use the back pickup when the bass was wired out of phase. So do it for sure! Let us know the results.