Anfontan
Banned by eurt
You'll need a couple of magnets-I would just grab a few of those refrigerator magnets-they are on every refrigerator, I think all new frig's come with them these days--they should work just fine!
I installed a couple of the 4 conductor 'buckers in my SG and my Firebird-DiMarzio PAF in the SG & Seymour Duncan Seymourized Mini'bucker in the 'Bird & did the coil split thing with them as well. New pots for the coil split and pickup install & rewiring took 2 hours at most.
It's just too cool to get a Tele sound from the Firebird & SG-and then the screaming humbucker tone with the flick of a switch....
G
ggunn
Crystal Flavolian
I put a split coil 'bucker at the bridge on my Les Paul with a pull knob on the volume control. It was pretty easy to do and it works fine - but I never use it. When I want single coil sound, I play my Strat.
TelePaul
J to the R O C
Success!
Ah the sweet smell of success and melted solder! Swapped the LP set and while I havn't strung it up fully yet, I did a quick test with one string and to my great surprise, the pickups are working perfectly! The hardest part of this whole process was removing the old braid from the back of the pots as they had been held with a small mountain of solder and the tip of my iron is quite slim (there's a joke in there somewhere).
Buoyed on by this success I decided to put one of the replaced 'buckers in my trusty Yamaha Pacifica, as well as a middle position Texas Special I had left over from a Nashville Tele. This was tougher as it took me a while to find out which of the Texas Special's wires was the earth, and also because the old humbucker used four-point conductor wire. I took a bit of a chance with the humbucker, as I'm still not sure of the significance of the 'extra' red and green wires. But I removed them, earthed the braid on the volume pot once again and attached the live core to the last lug on the pickup selector switch.
I only have one slight issue. All pickups on the Pacifica seem to work and work fine by themselves, and the neck single coil and Texas Special sound fine when played together. However, when I select the Texas Special and the Gibson Humbucker, the sound is quite thin, almost piezo-like. I'm not sure if this is something I've done or whether certain pickups compliment each other better than others. Is it possible to wire it out-of-phase? The Texas Special is RW/RP but I'm not sure what difference that would make. Any thoughts?
Thanks for all the suggestions and the confidence boosts! I'm thrilled that I had a go at this myself.
Ah the sweet smell of success and melted solder! Swapped the LP set and while I havn't strung it up fully yet, I did a quick test with one string and to my great surprise, the pickups are working perfectly! The hardest part of this whole process was removing the old braid from the back of the pots as they had been held with a small mountain of solder and the tip of my iron is quite slim (there's a joke in there somewhere).
Buoyed on by this success I decided to put one of the replaced 'buckers in my trusty Yamaha Pacifica, as well as a middle position Texas Special I had left over from a Nashville Tele. This was tougher as it took me a while to find out which of the Texas Special's wires was the earth, and also because the old humbucker used four-point conductor wire. I took a bit of a chance with the humbucker, as I'm still not sure of the significance of the 'extra' red and green wires. But I removed them, earthed the braid on the volume pot once again and attached the live core to the last lug on the pickup selector switch.
I only have one slight issue. All pickups on the Pacifica seem to work and work fine by themselves, and the neck single coil and Texas Special sound fine when played together. However, when I select the Texas Special and the Gibson Humbucker, the sound is quite thin, almost piezo-like. I'm not sure if this is something I've done or whether certain pickups compliment each other better than others. Is it possible to wire it out-of-phase? The Texas Special is RW/RP but I'm not sure what difference that would make. Any thoughts?
Thanks for all the suggestions and the confidence boosts! I'm thrilled that I had a go at this myself.
Lt. Bob
Spread the Daf!
sounds like they're out of phase but they're both 2 conductor p'ups?
TelePaul
J to the R O C
Well the new humbucker certainly is two conductor. I believe the old bucker that i removed was four conductor. As for the Texas Special, I sort of assumed that it was two conductor as it only had two wires connected to it. Is reversing the polarity as simple as changing the switching of contacts on the pickup?
Lt. Bob
Spread the Daf!
yes ......
TelePaul
J to the R O C
Interesting. I may not even have to re-solder. I guess swapping the humbucker would be easier than the single coil. It call end up going a bit Peter Green-y
G
ggunn
Crystal Flavolian
Here's a page that will answer all your questions, I believe:
http://www.dimarzio.com/media/diagrams/4Conductor.pdf
ocnor
Lord Of The Thighs
No in order to reverse a pickups polarity you have to remove it's magnet and spin it around 180 degrees.
G
ggunn
Crystal Flavolian
True enough, but if the pickups are merely out of phase (coil reversed but magnet not, which is what it sounds like from his description), swapping the wires will fix it.
TelePaul
J to the R O C
Hey guys, thanks for all the replies. Sorry to be bringing this up again. As I understand it, phase can be electronically or magnetically reversed. I'm not really sure which is preferable or whether the effects differ sonically. But I was hoping that inside the humbucker, there might be a wire connected to North and South terminals, and that it's be as easy as flipping these. Is this understanding way off?
ocnor
Lord Of The Thighs
In your case I believe that it's wired out of phase and you just need to reverse the wires. No need to tear into the pickup.
Just FYI:To reverse the polarity of a humbucker you need to loosen the coils from the baseplate and physically pull the bar magnet and turn it 180 degrees.
Just FYI:To reverse the polarity of a humbucker you need to loosen the coils from the baseplate and physically pull the bar magnet and turn it 180 degrees.
TelePaul
J to the R O C
In your case I believe that it's wired out of phase and you just need to reverse the wires. No need to tear into the pickup.
Just FYI:To reverse the polarity of a humbucker you need to loosen the coils from the baseplate and physically pull the bar magnet and turn it 180 degrees.
Cheers for that Ocnor, that's great! I know I must be driving you crazy here, but again, I'm faced with one braid entering the pickup - I'm assuming that this splits into two inside? Or which wires exactly are to be switched?
Sorry, i know I'm melting your head, just wanna get this right for future generations fo pickup replacement
G
ggunn
Crystal Flavolian
In a standard humbucker, the pickup is both electrically and magnetically reversed, which is sort of a double negative which makes the signal from the strings in phase but RF noise from the surroundings out of phase, hence it is bucking (canceling) the hum.
Did you read that DiMarzio page? It describes in some detail what is what. There won't be two braided (shield) wires; in a tapped 'bucker there will actually be 5 wires: pos and neg for each coil and a braided shield connected to the case of the pickup. This is so you can wire it up any way you choose. What you want for standard 'bucker wiring is this: pos from coil 1 to the pot lug, neg of coil 1 to neg of coil 2, pos of coil 2 tied to the shield wire and both tied to ground. If that results in an out of phase sound, swap the pos of coil 1 with the pos of coil 2.
TelePaul
J to the R O C
Hey mate, yep, I did, but my problem (and it's something I guess i just have a mental block about) is that the DiMarzio page explains alot about four-conductor wiring. For instance: "if you install the DiMarzio pickup in a two-pickup instrument and find the pickups to be out of phase (weak and thin), you must reverse the phase of one of the pickups...to reverse the phase of the DiMarzio pickup, reverse the red and green wires. Solder the red wire to the GROUND and the green wire to the HOT."
My problem is again with the two-conductor braid. If I swap the braid for the inner core, I'd be soldering the braid to the switch and the inner core to the back of the volume pot 9which just doesn't sound right to me?)
Thanks for taking the time to respond.
Lt. Bob
Spread the Daf!
well ..... it would work either way .... the braid is one of your conductors as well as being a shield.
Personally I wouldn't go back to the pickup ...... I'd simply switch the braid and center at the controls and see if that took care of it. If it does, then it was out of phase.
I kinda doubt the shielding effect of the braid is very important in a 2 conductor p'up since there really isn't a hot or ground there. The two conductors simply go to opposite ends of the windings.
I'd be surprised if switching the wires at the controls added any noise. It's not that uncommon to have a phase switch which actually does that exact thing.
ocnor
Lord Of The Thighs
You are correct the braided wire always goes to the back of the pot. So the problem must be with the Texas special. Do you have the white wire going to the switch?
TelePaul
J to the R O C
Actually, it's a strat Tex Special from a Nashville Deluxe with red and yellow wires (http://support.fender.com/diagrams/telecaster/0135300_02B/SD0135300_02BPg2.pdf). I used the wiring in this diagram with red going to Earth and yellow going to the switch. Reckon I should swap?
Lt. Bob
Spread the Daf!
yep .................