Problems with FIshman's Switchjack and K&K Pure Mini

[Bluesaddict]

Hi folks, first poster here, so...be clement -_-

Here's the problem: i decided to put a K&K Pure Mini in my ole Takamine EF350MHC with palathetic pickup and Graph-Ex preamp onboard. The K&K comes with the Switchjack and its 4 tabs, including the one for battery switching operation. Let alone, the K&K works a charm. It is connected to tip, with ground wire to sleeve as usual. When i try to connect the palathetic pickup (and preamp), that's were the problems occur...i basically follow the scheme on the Fishman site for the passive+active pickup setup: so the three conductors from the K&K go to ring tab, the signal wire (red) from the preamp goes to tip, its battery wire (white) goes to the longest tab, and both grounds go to sleeve. No cold soldering joints, no odd contacts, i have become pretty much skilled on soldering, so i assume there are no problems there. Anyway i checked all the soldering via tester, just to be sure.

Well, here are some of the phenomena:
- when i insert a mono plug on the jack, i get no sound from the palathetic pickup (soldered on the tip contact). The battery connection works fine, but the signal simply isn't there. If i pull the jack a little bit, i get the K&K signal, only somewhat weaker and with strange hum.
- if i connect a stereo "Y" cable (a simple and economic 3.5mm connector for iphone, with a 1/4" adapter), and check signals with the multimeter, i have the K&K signal on the tip and sleeve of both cables (but it is connected to the second tab, so it's nonsense).
- if i turn the volume of the Takamine preamp, i got the volume increased...ON THE K&K. Plus, the volume goes up 'til halfway, then backs down from there 'til all the way up o.O

There's obviously something NOT working here....what else can i check, or are there any kind of workarounds to figure and fix things out?

[Bluesaddict]

...well, a bit *too* clement :-/

Anyone out there who could help me out?

[joeguam]

Blues, I'm a bit confused here as it seems you're connecting 2 different pickup sources to a TRSS (tip-ring-sleeve-secondsleeve) endpin jack...but then using a mono (TS) jack? Did I get that right?

If so, that won't work because you need a blender preamp to mix the two signals. You can either do this onboard using a preamp like the K&K PowerMix Pure, or external using the K&K Dual Channel Pro or Dtar Solstice. It's not possible to just wire the two different signals to the endpin jack and then just use the single sleeve of a TS mono plug to combine the two.

Did I understand your post correctly?

[SimplyLuo]

I think the problem (besides the weird volume thing) is that he's getting the K&K signal with the TS cable, but the K&K is wired to the ring.
I have zero idea what's going on. I'd just try soldering one pickup at a time and switch cables, try to find at what point the system gets screwed up.

[Bluesaddict]

You're right, maybe i didn't get myself clear on that point....anyways, i hooked a TS cable just to verify (one at a time) if the two sources were going correctly to the Switchjack. I planned stickin' the connector all the way in so to get the tip signal (which should be the palathetic one from its preamp), then back it off a little bit in order to make contact with the ring connector, thus getting the K&K signal. The result is the one i described.

As i also stated, i made a try with a TRS 1/4" jack, getting those strange behaviour on the multimeter.

I'll disassembly the system and proceed as SimplyLuo suggested: one source at a time, and see what happens.....