Pickup wiring question

Billy Cardine · Post by **Billy Cardine** » 15 Jan 2025 8:01 am

Hey folks, my new/old Sierra steel pickup has 3 wires, red, yellow and brown. There is no volume pot nor tone control currently on this guitar. I am getting no signal to the 1/4” jack atm. I assume this brown wire has a purpose, eh?

Raybob Bowman · Post by **Raybob Bowman** » 15 Jan 2025 10:18 am

I have a '91 Sierra with 3 wires from pickup to switch. Switch is for one or other or both coils. Don't recall the colors but the extra wire is probably center tap for coils.

My guitar sounded best with both coils parallel wired. I had trouble with the switch not working so I just wired mine with both coils on, no center tap wire connected.

Billy Cardine · Post by **Billy Cardine** » 15 Jan 2025 11:33 am

Thanks for the input there. I don’t have a switch on this guitar. It’s just direct to jack at the moment. If you get a sec, would you mind taking a pic of the switch wiring?

Update: I removed the modular pickup and reseated it. It works now. Probably got bumped in shipping.

Raybob Bowman · Post by **Raybob Bowman** » 15 Jan 2025 4:22 pm

The Sierra is currently packed away, I've been using a Mullen. On the Sierra the switch is no longer wired up. I measured the resistance of the wire combos to find the highest ohms from a pair of the three. That had to be both coils, and I wired those direct to the jack. If I can set up the Sierra soon, I'll take a pic of what I ended up doing.

Billy Cardine · Post by **Billy Cardine** » 16 Jan 2025 9:51 am

All good, thanks man.