Ok...What Did I Do Wrong ?

[Mickster]

Sort of on a whim....I decided I wanted to have an HSH strat. I took a loaded standard SSS Squire strat pickguard and removed all the electronics as one single wired system. I bought a strat HSH pickguard. I left the old strat single coil middle pickup in the wire harness....removed the neck and bridge single coils.....and soldered in two old Ibanez humbuckers I had.....neck and bridge.....both measured between 7k and 9k as I recall. I left the 5 position switch wired as it was along with the 3 pots and installed them in the new pickguard and onto the guitar. So.....the neck and middle and bridge pickups sound as I expected (not bad actually) when selected by position 1, 3 and 5.....but.....when selecting switch position 2 or 4 I get sound but very low volume and not at all like a combination of the middle and bridge or neck pickup. The sound when played is very high and thin and low volume. And to my surprise.....the sound is exactly the same using position 2 or 4. There's no difference. I need to learn here......so educate me please.

 

[Papanate]

You wired something backwards would be my guess - since it’s the middle combinations - and the Middle sounds good by itself - I’m thinking its
the Ibanez humbuckers - are they two wire or four wire? I would wire one Humbucker and Single direct and see what happens.

 

[Mickster]

You're probably onto something. The neck Ibanez humbucker is 2 wire and the bridge humbucker is actually 3 wire. Both came from the same Ibanez Gio series guitar. I wasn't sure how to wire them into the strat wire harness.....but I took resistance readings on the 2 wire neck pickup and it was around 7k as I recall. I measured the 3 wire neck pickup and one lead was around 3k?????? The other was around 7k so I just used the 7k lead and left the other one open. Since I made no changes to the original 5 position switch wiring...the pots wiring.....and the leads to the middle pup (from how they originally were on the squire strat) I'm stumped. (Disclaimer....it's not hard to stump me) So you're saying....wire one humbucker in at a time to see what happens right?

 

[RFR]

Sounds like the middle pickup is out of phase with the humbuckers.

As to the 3 wire humbucker….. it used to be that splitting a pickup used 4 wires. Two were soldered together and when they touched ground it shorted out one coil giving you a single coil sound. 3 wire is the same thing, it’s just that the two wires are soldered together internally.
In olden days with 4 wires and the right switches you could have a humbucker go single coil, series/parralel, out of phase. Remember all those damn 80s guitars with all the switches? Well, people don’t use that shit now. Capability to go single coil is plenty.

Different manufacturers use different color codes so it can be hard to tell which wire is ground and which is hot.

Flip the wires on the middle pickup and you should be fine

 

[Mickster]

Hey RFR......your advice was perfect. You and Papanate both said I wired something backwards....and you guys were right. I took the easiest route first and switched the leads on the middle single coil pickup first and......that was it! Sounds great...the volumes match pretty well. Now I can do my final adjustments for each pickup. Thanks again!!

 

[Mickster]

So...I have another issue. It turns out that the neck pickup was too loud but the tone is awesome. I lowered the height to flat level with the pickguard and the volume is much better but still a little too high....but the tone is really affected. Long story short.....I want to install a 500k trim pot in the neck pup circuit and rasie my pup for better tone. I know how to wire it properly. My question is how to set the trim pot resistance accurately the first time...without having to keep pulling the pickguard to adjust it. Yes...I know....lazy right? But....I'm guessing there's a way to use my VOM to measure the trim pot output and....somehow....match it to the volume pot....or some other component? I'd understand completely if you all told me to just quit bitchin' and install the pot and adjust it by removing the pickguard each time. And...as an aside....I'm assuming the trim pot will work like a volume control of course.....but will it affect my tone for that pickup? Ok....I can take it....just tell me I'm lazy.

 

[Papanate]

So...I have another issue. It turns out that the neck pickup was too loud but the tone is awesome. I lowered the height to flat level with the pickguard and the volume is much better but still a little too high....but the tone is really affected. Long story short.....I want to install a 500k trim pot in the neck pup circuit and rasie my pup for better tone. I know how to wire it properly. My question is how to set the trim pot resistance accurately the first time...without having to keep pulling the pickguard to adjust it. Yes...I know....lazy right? But....I'm guessing there's a way to use my VOM to measure the trim pot output and....somehow....match it to the volume pot....or some other component? I'd understand completely if you all told me to just quit bitchin' and install the pot and adjust it by removing the pickguard each time. And...as an aside....I'm assuming the trim pot will work like a volume control of course.....but will it affect my tone for that pickup? Ok....I can take it....just tell me I'm lazy.

I wou;d wire the two Humbuckers to a 500K Pot and the Middle Single coil to a 250K pot - I would bother with trim pots - to much junk to pay attention to.

 

[RFR]

A very ‘exotic’ solution to a problem that’s easily solved by installing a lower output pickup.

 

[Mickster]

I wou;d wire the two Humbuckers to a 500K Pot and the Middle Single coil to a 250K pot - I would bother with trim pots - to much junk to pay attention to.

Thanks. I'm thinking I'd just wire one 500k pot to the hot humbucker pickup. The other humbucker has a similar volume output to the single coil.

 

[Mickster]

A very ‘exotic’ solution to a problem that’s easily solved by installing a lower output pickup.

Certainly can't deny that logic.....but I do like the sound of the humbucker that's in there now. I had a thought that I could run shielded wire to connect the trim pot to the volume pot.....but.....run the wire into and out of the back spring cavity so I can mount the trim pot in the back cavity.....and only need to remove the back (spring) cover to make adjustments. Ok....yup....I know....I have too much time on my hands....and might be getting too much protein in my diet.....or not enough.