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Topic: Er....which wires where? |
Tony Boadle
From:
Skibbereen, County Cork, Ireland
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Posted 27 Oct 2021 9:03 am |
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Hi team,
I have an eight-string pick-up that's going into my project build. I want to make sure it's wired correctly, there's a twisted red and white, a twisted green and white, and a single black. I connected the red/white to the jack tip and the green/while to the earth and it works fine tapping on the poles but not so loud on the adjustment screws. But then I touched the black to the earth instead of the green, and tapping the adjustment
screws got louder. Help!
PS:Any thoughts on wiring the volume control?
All advice appreciated.
PPS: By earth, I mean the jack plug body.
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Brad Richard
From:
Chisago City, Minnesota
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Posted 27 Oct 2021 2:37 pm
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| Tony - Any idea who made the pickup? If it's a name brand, they usually have wiring info available. If not, there's good deal of info at Seymour Duncan and others. Also, there's good info on the Bill Lawrence website. That's about the best I can do. |
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Tony Boadle
From:
Skibbereen, County Cork, Ireland
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Posted 27 Oct 2021 3:09 pm
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Made by some nice people somewhere in China! I'll check out those websites, thanks.
I'm thinking that maybe there are two separate magnets involved, one with the red wire, one with the green. Then the black could be a common earth. That would mean there are two pick-ups, one fixed height poles and one adjustable poles.
But why do the red and green have a white twisted with them?
I'm just guessing here, I play mainly 5-string b***o, hence I'm easily puzzled and confused. |
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Lee Warren
From:
Nashville, Tennessee, USA
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Posted 27 Oct 2021 3:11 pm
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Hi Tony,
As Brad said, different manufacturers use different colour coding.
Here’s a chart that ‘might’ help.
Earth / ground is shown as negative (-), then positive (+) would be the ‘hot output in a standard humbucking application.
For coil taps etc, you’d attach the other two wires to a switch.
The bare wire is always earth / ground.
I hope this helps.
Lee
p.s.
If the wires came twisted together that way from the factory, I’d bet that (for standard humbucking use):
green/bare both go to ground
black is hot
red/white are joined together and then taped off so as not to touch any other parts.
Last edited by Lee Warren on 27 Oct 2021 3:37 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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Bill A. Moore
From:
Silver City, New Mexico, USA
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Posted 27 Oct 2021 3:12 pm
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Like Brad said!
I suspect the red/white, and green/white are the individual coil windings, and the black is the housing ground. You have the option of series or parallel operation. Generally, the humbuckers are series connected to "buck hum". In that case I would try red to the output, the white from the red to the green, and the white from the green to ground. |
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Don Downes
From:
New Hampshire, USA
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Posted 27 Oct 2021 3:20 pm
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It's odd that a bare wire is twisted with the green, and the black wire is hanging out there by its lonesome. If you have a voltmeter, you can check the resistance between the different twisted pairs. Nominally, each twisted pair should be ~ 16-18Kohms (and that's really approximate) If you read no resistance between the green wire and the bare wire, check the green and black. If you get the reading above, then the green and black is the pickup winding, and the bare wire is your shield/ground.
Wiring is a different issue based on your application.
_________________
Tele, Strat, Gretsch 12-string, 335, Yamaha Bass, Blues Deluxe Reissue, JC-120, Hammond BV, Yamaha MO8, DW Collector Series drums, Cubase, and more stuff |
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Tony Boadle
From:
Skibbereen, County Cork, Ireland
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Posted 27 Oct 2021 3:31 pm
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Every day's a learning day! It's a humbucker pickup, and on closer examination it's red/white and green/BARE not green white.
I've found a wiring diagram, pic attached.
Thanks for all input, happy picking (and stay safe!)
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Don Downes
From:
New Hampshire, USA
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Posted 27 Oct 2021 3:37 pm
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Is it a Seymore Duncan? That's a badass looking pickup!
_________________
Tele, Strat, Gretsch 12-string, 335, Yamaha Bass, Blues Deluxe Reissue, JC-120, Hammond BV, Yamaha MO8, DW Collector Series drums, Cubase, and more stuff |
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Fred
From:
Amesbury, MA
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Posted 27 Oct 2021 8:01 pm
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| It looks like you have two coils wired in series. That’s the most common humbucker wiring. The green has the shield wrapped around it. Use that as your ground. The black is hot. |
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Tony Boadle
From:
Skibbereen, County Cork, Ireland
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Posted 28 Oct 2021 12:20 am
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| Thanks! Black was the confusing one..... |
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Jerry Erickson
From:
Atlanta,IL 61723
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Posted 1 Nov 2021 7:53 pm
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| Do you have a volt/ohm meter? If you do, set it to resistance and find which two connections give you the largest resistance reading. I'm guessing that you might get 9-15,000(9K-15K) ohms. |
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Tony Boadle
From:
Skibbereen, County Cork, Ireland
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Posted 2 Nov 2021 12:24 am
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| Thanks Jerry, I followed the wiring diagram pic above and it works fine! |
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