(Hopefully) Quick easy pickup wiring question

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thecolourboxthecolourbox Frets: 9654
edited January 2018 in Making & Modding
I'm trying to put some cheap pickups into my diy SG as there's no point having pickups of any value in there, bought a pre made wiring thing for the pots and switch so just have to solder the pickups to the pots.

There are three/four wires from the pickups though and I've just realised I haven't a clue what I'm doing or where to solder them.

https://i.imgur.com/HOdVQnG.jpg

There's a yellow one, a red and white one which seems to be twisted together, and a black one. And they're all made out of ticky tacky... Oh no that's a different thing isn't it

And here are my pots:

https://i.imgur.com/J57ynmy.jpg

Where do I solder each one? I was expecting there to be one wire on each pickup to solder to the sticky out bits on the respective volume pots and then a black one to solder to the back of the pot as a ground, but the extra one/two (depending if they're meant to be twisted together or not) has thrown me

Thanks in advance
Matt


Please note my communication is not very good, so please be patient with me
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Comments

  • FunkfingersFunkfingers Frets: 14324
    Use a D.C. resistance meter to take readings between the four wires. Include the black-insulated ground wire in these tests.

    Assuming that the existing connections are correct, the reading from yellow to black should be double the reading from yellow to red or from red to black. This would indicate that yellow is full humbucker output and that the red/white pair is the series link between the two coils of the humbucker.

    Connecting the red/white pair to ground will coil split the humbucker.
    Be seeing you.
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  • Thanks Nigel, though my "hopefully" bit in the title has, as expected, sadly proven to be optimistic! I don't have a DC resistance meter and buying one negates the benefit of taking the more expensive pickups out so I might just give it up in that case then. Unless I can just assume the above to be correct and wire it up? If it works it's "chicken dinner" if not I'll just go back to the old ones? What do I do with the red/white one though in that scenario?

    Thanks again


    Please note my communication is not very good, so please be patient with me
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  • FunkfingersFunkfingers Frets: 14324
    Based on your control cavity photograph;
    • Black/Shield to chassis of respective volume pot.
    • Yellow to centre terminal of respective volume pot.
    • Red/white soldered together and insulated. 

    Be seeing you.
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  • You're a gentleman thank you
    Please note my communication is not very good, so please be patient with me
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  • ICBMICBM Frets: 71963
    Yellow should go to the top terminal of the volume pots, not the middle. (Upper left in the pic.) 

    "Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski

    "Just because I don't care, doesn't mean I don't understand." - Homer Simpson

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  • FunkfingersFunkfingers Frets: 14324
    ICBM said:
    Yellow should go to the top terminal of the volume pots, not the middle. (Upper left in the pic.) 
    Yeah but no but ...
    Based on [
    OP's] control cavity photograph ...
    ... there are already several things illustrated that do not conform to Gibson wiring conventions. I was trying to keep the soldering task as simple as possible. 
    Be seeing you.
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  • ICBMICBM Frets: 71963
    edited January 2018
    ICBM said:
    Yellow should go to the top terminal of the volume pots, not the middle. (Upper left in the pic.) 
    Yeah but no but ...
    Based on [
    OP's] control cavity photograph ...
    ... there are already several things illustrated that do not conform to Gibson wiring conventions. I was trying to keep the soldering task as simple as possible. 
    You never want to connect the pickups to the middle terminal of the volume pots. (Unless it's a Rickenbacker, but the less said about the usability of their controls the better!) Connecting the pickup to the rotor of the volume pot results in the load resistance decreasing drastically as you turn the volume down, which strangles the tone.

    Anyway, the rest of it - assuming the red and black wires loop round to the switch, which I assume they do since there's no other way for the jack to connect to it - does actually follow basic Gibson wiring, although the tone caps are connected between the pots and ground rather than between the volume and tone pots, but they will work the same.

    "Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski

    "Just because I don't care, doesn't mean I don't understand." - Homer Simpson

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  • Thanks both of you, I don't pretend to understand what you are talking about with the things but I eventually soldered things together (I did use the end one rather than the middle though was much more fiddly!) And a quick test of playing music from my phone through the speakers into a headphone amp seems to suggest there is sound passing through do I think the job may be a good one...  

    Thanks gents
    Please note my communication is not very good, so please be patient with me
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  • FunkfingersFunkfingers Frets: 14324
    ICBM said:
    You never want to connect the pickups to the middle terminal of the volume pots.
    Dear Leo,

    Your revised control circuit for the Jazz Bass is a disaster. 

    Signed,
    Doom and gloom from the womb. 
    (I shall not be born until the end of this year.) :)
    Be seeing you.
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  • ICBMICBM Frets: 71963
    ICBM said:
    You never want to connect the pickups to the middle terminal of the volume pots.
    Dear Leo,

    Your revised control circuit for the Jazz Bass is a disaster. 

    Signed,
    Doom and gloom from the womb. 
    (I shall not be born until the end of this year.) :)
    It's certainly not good if you want to back either pickup off more than just a bit. Luckily most bass players don't, since they rarely use amp overdrive, and even if they did then the dull tone wouldn't matter so much ... because it's a bass ;).

    For a guitar it's awful. A lot of far-east Gibson copies come wired like that - it always greatly improves things to rewire them Gibson-style, even if you don't change anything else.

    "Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski

    "Just because I don't care, doesn't mean I don't understand." - Homer Simpson

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  • I finally got around to taping the ground wires off and thought I'd plug in to check it makes a sound, I think only the bridge pup is working but the neck pup is magnetic still, the pots are odd as they seem to be off at full then full effect at slightly less than full. Also both lots of pots seem to affect the sound and there's quite bad humming so I imagine PVR again I've cocked this up. Really hate this guitar but I have to get it usable as the missus bought me the kit (my error in suggesting it) and she'll expect me to be using it when I have a studio day in March/April time.

    The wiring kit thing was a cheap £10 job off Amazon as I've already spend a load of money trying to work round this pile of junk so that could be it, but seriously, how wrong can I keep getting this????
    Please note my communication is not very good, so please be patient with me
    soundcloud.com/thecolourbox-1
    youtube.com/@TheColourboxMusic
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