New Set of SDs, Wiring Help Please

[StevieRaveOn]

Hey guys,
I just got my Jazz and Custom 5 in to put i my PRS McCarty. I put a Jazz/JB set in my LP without reading too much besides the color codes and all. I started digging a little more on this one with the coil tap and all and I've been seeing a lot on flipping the bridge magnet.

First off, anyone have any pointers on the PRS wiring scheme? I figured I was just going to follow the way the axe is now, but this phase issue is bothering me.

Also, I didn't flip anything for the LP and I've never really paid attention to listen for the out-of-phaseness too much. The middle position is a pretty full tone so I thought it was wired right. Any suggestions?

I'd appreciate any help, thanks guys.


EDIT: I found a schem that's really close to what I'm doing, the only thing is that it only splits the bridge HB and not the neck. I know I just use the other side of the switch to do the neck HB, but I'm just curious if I use the the red and grey wires like the bridge HB? Does grounding the grey/red connection always cancel the coil without the screws or do I need to ground another set? I'm guessing it's the first one, and I just duplicate it the same, but I'd like to make sure before I jump in.

[Kent S.]

Re: New Set of SDs, Wiring Help Please

I'm not familar with the McCarty's, but on the old PRS pups the bridge pup magnet was reversed (I just reverse the neck mag on after market pups), then you have to correct for phase (as reversing the magnet reverses the phase of the induced voltage across the coil). On an LP you shouldn't have to do anything but install the pups according to the colour code.

I can't comment on the splitting issue because I have no idea what you are doing (I never cared for the McCarty's), on an SD grounding the red and *white* wires kills whichever coil is hooked to ground, if the green is grounded it kills that one, if the black is grounded it kills that one.
If you take the output from the red and white wires it's reversed as to which coil is on or off, according to the pups wired phase.
The standard PRS coil splits use one ground tap, and one hot tap to accomplish splits (at least that's what they did on many of theirs, no idea what the MCs are supposed to do though).

[jeremy]

Re: New Set of SDs, Wiring Help Please

on the mccartys there is a 3 way and a coil split right?
you wont need to flip any magnets, that comes from using the prs 5 way switch. to have all the split coil options be humcancelling the neck and bridge pups need to be out of phase, not so in the mccarty. infact id advise against flipping a magnet since then the middle position would be kinda thin and bright. when you have independant volumes on the two pups like on a les paul you can get some cool tones but with both pups at the same volume i dont find it a very usable tone.

anyway, wire the hot and ground wires as usual. the series links will be soldered to the middle contacts of the switch

[StevieRaveOn]

Re: New Set of SDs, Wiring Help Please

on the mccartys there is a 3 way and a coil split right?
you wont need to flip any magnets, that comes from using the prs 5 way switch. to have all the split coil options be humcancelling the neck and bridge pups need to be out of phase, not so in the mccarty. infact id advise against flipping a magnet since then the middle position would be kinda thin and bright. when you have independant volumes on the two pups like on a les paul you can get some cool tones but with both pups at the same volume i dont find it a very usable tone.

anyway, wire the hot and ground wires as usual. the series links will be soldered to the middle contacts of the switch

Sweet, thanks for the info bro. I just got it restrung and checked it out... I didn't even screw anything up.

Is it just me or is the bridge pup mounting on PRSi not as big as they are on LPs? I think the spring bottomed out because I can't get anywhere near 3/32 for the pup heights... I guess I should clip the spring, eh?

Thanks for your help, peace out.

[jeremy]

Re: New Set of SDs, Wiring Help Please

if thats really your problem (the spring being totally compressed), ive cut springs before with good success. just be careful you dont lose the half you want

the mounting ring on a lp are probably taller than yours

[Kent S.]

Re: New Set of SDs, Wiring Help Please

on the mccartys there is a 3 way and a coil split right?
you wont need to flip any magnets, that comes from using the prs 5 way switch. to have all the split coil options be humcancelling the neck and bridge pups need to be out of phase, not so in the mccarty. infact id advise against flipping a magnet since then the middle position would be kinda thin and bright. when you have independant volumes on the two pups like on a les paul you can get some cool tones but with both pups at the same volume i dont find it a very usable tone.

anyway, wire the hot and ground wires as usual. the series links will be soldered to the middle contacts of the switch

Jeremy concerning the comments on the PRS, well to get the outside or inside coils on and have them hum-cancelling you have to invert the magnet on one pup (if it doesn't come that way already, and SD's don't), you change the wiring so it ISN'T out of phase. So the middle positon isn't out of phase when wired properly. It depends on what coils are left on in the splits, and that's what I don't know about with the McCartys'. Again, it depends on what coils he wants on, the bridge inner and the neck outer are a nice combo.
And for that you don't have to change the magnets around ...
For that: Bridge pup... black hot, green ground, white and red to connect to ground in the split; Neck pup ... one of two ways, 1) black to hot, green to ground, and white and red connect to hot (the black) in split ... Or
Neck Red to hot, white to ground, green and black connect to ground in split.
Just run the series links from both pups to two separate poles on the switch.