Humbucker Installation?

  • Thread starter Thread starter TelePaul
  • Start date Start date
Lt. Bob said:
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.
Click to expand...

So wire the braid to the switch and core to the pot? Interesting...
 
I really need to buy all you guys a round of pints, you've been really, really helpful! Seriously, thanks for being so patient! /no homo
 
According to the diagram it seems like you've wired it correctly. You could try switching the red and yellow wires. Some fender pickups use the red as the hot so who knows.
 
ocnor said:
According to the diagram it seems like you've wired it correctly. You could try switching the red and yellow wires. Some fender pickups use the red as the hot so who knows.
Click to expand...
yeah . try switching them ...... when I do pickups and I'm not sure how I'm gonna wire them ..... I use little jumpers with alligator clips on them ( I have a zillion of 'em from electronics school so many years ago) and that way I can clip and reclip, trying out different schemes before soldering anything. You actually don't want to be repeatedly heating up the backs of pots for grounding wires if you can avoid it. You have to get them fairly hot to get a good joint and it's easy for a novice solderer to heat them too much.
 
Lt. Bob said:
yeah . try switching them ...... when I do pickups and I'm not sure how I'm gonna wire them ..... I use little jumpers with alligator clips on them ( I have a zillion of 'em from electronics school so many years ago) and that way I can clip and reclip, trying out different schemes before soldering anything. You actually don't want to be repeatedly heating up the backs of pots for grounding wires if you can avoid it. You have to get them fairly hot to get a good joint and it's easy for a novice solderer to heat them too much.
Click to expand...

Especially if you have cheap chinese pots. You can easily kill one of those even if you do know how to solder.
 
ocnor said:
Especially if you have cheap chinese pots. You can easily kill one of those even if you do know how to solder.
Click to expand...
absolutely ....... and I promise you ..... it'll piss you off!

:laughings:

All of a sudden you've got to find a replacement pot!

Been there ........ done that.
:laughings::laughings:
 
TelePaul said:
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.
Click to expand...
There are 4 wires PLUS the braid to the humbucker, right? The braid always goes to ground (back of the pot) and the other 4 wires determine the phase/polarity series/parallel configuration of the two coils in the 'bucker.

For normal humbucker operation:

Connect the pos of coil 1 to the lug on the pot.

Connect the neg of coil one to neg of coil 2.

Connect the pos of coil 2 to shield (braid) and solder them both to the back of the pot.

If it comes up out of phase with the Texas Special, swap the pos of coil 1 with the pos of coil 2.

The shield/braid is always ground (back of the pot). Do not flip the phase of the Texas Special if they come up out of phase, swap the wires on the humbucker as above.
 
ggunn said:
There are 4 wires PLUS the braid to the humbucker, right?
Click to expand...

What he explained is that there is only one wire plus the braid. This means that the other wires are already wired correctly and are not visible because they are tucked into the pickup assembly and taped over.
 
ocnor said:
What he explained is that there is only one wire plus the braid. This means that the other wires are already wired correctly and are not visible because they are tucked into the pickup assembly and taped over.
Click to expand...
well ...... ok, that's gonna always be the case since you have two coils.
But from a practical standpoint, unless you want to go into the p'up itself, which I don't recommend if you don't know what you're doing, there are pickups that come with only two conductors in the lead.
You'd essentially be doing a mod to the p'up if you went into it to access those wires.
 
ocnor said:
What he explained is that there is only one wire plus the braid. This means that the other wires are already wired correctly and are not visible because they are tucked into the pickup assembly and taped over.
Click to expand...
I was going by what he said in post #24:"...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."

The "old humbucker" I understood to be the one he is dropping into the other guitar with the Texas Special(s).

I could have got it all wrong, though.
 
Last edited:
Thanks all for bearing with me so far. To clarify, this is a two conductor bucker with braid and core. All references to green and red wires concerned the old pickup that was to be replaced. Sorry for any confusion and thanks for sticking with me on this. I've been doing some wiring since but I might have to admit defeat - the phase issue seems to have shifted to the neck/middle combo (which to me suggests the neck pup needs to be reversed, last piece of the puzzle!). However, I'm also unable to distinguish tonslly between the mid/bridge combo and the bridge by itself. I've also just realised it's a megaswitch with 24 lugs to which to wire to. Havn't been able to find a wiring diagram of H/S/S for this switch type.
 
Yes those mega switches can be a real bitch. The best thing to do is use a multi-meter and figure out which poles are which. I had to do that once before.
 
TelePaul said:
Thanks all for bearing with me so far. To clarify, this is a two conductor bucker with braid and core. All references to green and red wires concerned the old pickup that was to be replaced. Sorry for any confusion and thanks for sticking with me on this. I've been doing some wiring since but I might have to admit defeat - the phase issue seems to have shifted to the neck/middle combo (which to me suggests the neck pup needs to be reversed, last piece of the puzzle!). However, I'm also unable to distinguish tonslly between the mid/bridge combo and the bridge by itself. I've also just realised it's a megaswitch with 24 lugs to which to wire to. Havn't been able to find a wiring diagram of H/S/S for this switch type.
Click to expand...
Ah, I see. To further complicate things, the pickups in my Strat (three standard singles, middle RWRP) has two individual black wires (no shield) per pickup, so getting them accidentally reverse phased is pretty easy, but then again, so is fixing it. I will google the megaswitch; I've never seen one.
 
ggunn said:
Ah, I see. To further complicate things, the pickups in my Strat (three standard singles, middle RWRP) has two individual black wires (no shield) per pickup, so getting them accidentally reverse phased is pretty easy, but then again, so is fixing it. I will google the megaswitch; I've never seen one.
Click to expand...

Thanks mate, it's actually a suowrswitch, 24 terminals. But all the wiring diagrams are for heavily customised setuos and I'm trying to go back to the basic arrangement! :)
 
TelePaul said:
Thanks mate, it's actually a suowrswitch, 24 terminals. But all the wiring diagrams are for heavily customised setuos and I'm trying to go back to the basic arrangement! :)
Click to expand...
When I google "suowrswitch", I get: "Did you mean: superswitch?" Since O is next to P and W is next to E, I'm betting yes. :D
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top