Can you wire a single-conductor with a four-conductor?

[SirMurder]

Hey guys. (Skip the the read and head to the bottom if you get bored)

Recently purchased a new (new to me) Epiphone G-400 (before and after pics below) for about $150. I'll have to note that it came with no pickups, no strings, minimal electronics (4 ****ty pots, no caps, ****ty 3-way and a ****ty jack), and no wire.
It did however come with a chrome thumb-roller bridge and tailpiece, and chrome Grover tuners (lucked out on that aspect.)

I bought the Gibson SG wiring kit from stewmac and it consisted of:
4 CTS 500K pots,
Switchcraft 3-way switch,
2 Orange Drop .022 caps
and a Switchcraft jack.


In addition to that I replaced:
The nut with a GraphTech,
the ugly chrome bridge with a black Tune-o-matic and black tailpiece,
the ugly chrome straplocks with black ones,
all knobs, pickup rings, and even the switch cover with Gibson parts.

Well, I've been reading the forums for quite a while now to get some do's and dont's about what pickups would sound best with my guitar, and thanks to some posts from you guys i decided to buy:

-------------------------THE IMPORTANT PART--------------------------------

A Seymour Duncan '59 model SH-1n for the neck position. (single-conductor, braided outer wire)
A Seymour Duncan Custom SH-5b for the bridge position. (four conductor, red green black white and bare wires)

Now, while being perfectly happy up to this point, I can't find a wiring diagram that shows how to wire the two together in the same guitar. All diagrams on SD's site that I can find show a four-conductor neck pup with a four-conductor bridge, or a single-conductor neck with a single-conductor bridge. Both of these diagrams are also somewhat different from each other.

I am working with a single-conductor neck pup, a four-conductor bridge pup, and all the above listed hardware.
2 humbuckers, 2 volumes, 2 tones, and a 3-way switch is what I'm looking for, cant it be done? And if so, can ANYONE can help me get a diagram or let me know if I need to make any additional purchases? It would be GREATLY APPRECIATED. Even if not a diagram, just WHAT do I need to solder WHERE?! Lmao. Trying to make this fat lady sing!
Thanks very much.

 

[mlimbolimbo]

Re: Can you wire a single-conductor with a four-conductor?

This should be fairly straight forward. I've never worked with an SH-1 but I trust you if you say that it has only the braid and the one wire. The braid will be the ground and the other wire the hot. on the SH-5b the wires will be as follows: Black is hot, Green is ground, White and Red are the finish of the North coil and start of the South. Solder the RED and WHITE of the 4 conductor SH-5b together. You now have two pickups that each have a ground and a hot. The SH-5b will have an additional grounding wire that can be soldered straight to the back of whatever pot you choose to host most of your ground connections.

Now, look at the wiring diagram at http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/wiring-diagrams/schematics.php?schematic=2h_2v_2t_3w and simply ignore the RED, WHITE, and GREEN wires on one of the pickups.

That's it. Have fun playing it.

 

[Kam]

Re: Can you wire a single-conductor with a four-conductor?

You can't wire a single-con like a four-con without relatively major surgery on the pup.

If you're not trying to get split sounds or any other fancy wiring tricks, just follow the diagram for each pickup. The inner wire from the single-con pup goes to the volume pot and the braid on the outside gets grounded to the back of the pot. For the bridge pup, you need to solder the bare and green wires to ground on the back of the pot and black to the lug on the volume pot where the hot wire from your current pickup is. Red and white get soldered together and wrapped in tape.

Here's the colour code chart = http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/schematics/schematics.php?schematic=color_codes

It probably sounds more complicated written out like that than it actually is. Just follow the diagram for four-con, ignore the four wires it shows coming from the neck pup and wire it like I mentioned above (inside to volume pot, braid to ground) and you're good.

Great choice of pups, by the way. They should sound great in that guitar.

 

[darthphineas]

Re: Can you wire a single-conductor with a four-conductor?

Yeah, you'll have to open the pup, remove the lead wire and replace it 4-con. If you've not been inside a pup and/or are not comfortable with the concept, you can send it in to Duncan for a nominal fee and they can swap the lead wire for you.

And yes, if you are doing a straight-ahead wiring without any splitting or parallel options, you can use them both the way they are. To dig around in the wiring diagrams a bit more and you'll find everything you need to make it all fit together.


Sent from my armored space station using Tapatalk on iPad

 

[mlimbolimbo]

Re: Can you wire a single-conductor with a four-conductor?

Check out the diagram at http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/wiring-diagrams/schematics.php?schematic=2h_2v_2t_3w . The pickup with two wires (one braided) will be treated as though the coil taps were just not there (they aren't). It's really that simple.

 

[SirMurder]

Re: Can you wire a single-conductor with a four-conductor?

You can't wire a single-con like a four-con without relatively major surgery on the pup.

If you're not trying to get split sounds or any other fancy wiring tricks, just follow the diagram for each pickup. The inner wire from the single-con pup goes to the volume pot and the braid on the outside gets grounded to the back of the pot. For the bridge pup, you need to solder the bare and green wires to ground on the back of the pot and black to the lug on the volume pot where the hot wire from your current pickup is. Red and white get soldered together and wrapped in tape.

Here's the colour code chart = http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/schematics/schematics.php?schematic=color_codes

It probably sounds more complicated written out like that than it actually is. Just follow the diagram for four-con, ignore the four wires it shows coming from the neck pup and wire it like I mentioned above (inside to volume pot, braid to ground) and you're good.

Great choice of pups, by the way. They should sound great in that guitar.

So, correct me if I'm wrong here, but you're saying use the single-conductor diagram for that pickup, and the four-conductor one for the other? If I'm not mistaken that means I'll also need a .047 cap, right? What about the wiring to the tone pots? Just follow the diagrams independently for each pup? Sorry if I sound confused or even confusing. I'm pretty new to the electronics part of guitars, just learning as I go. Thanks again for the help. It's definitely appreciated.

 

[ItsaBass]

Re: Can you wire a single-conductor with a four-conductor?

No problem at all mixing the two. Don't worry about the overall diagram matching what you have in your guitar; you probably won't find a diagram that has one of each type. Just wire each pickup the way it's type is supposed to be wired. Braided is easy. The braid gets grounded, and the center is hot.

 

[SirMurder]

Re: Can you wire a single-conductor with a four-conductor?

So correct me if I'm wrong, but this means I'll need a .047uF cap, right? And what about the wiring to the tone controls, still follow each diagram independently or is there something special I should know? I'm gonna give this a shot tomorrow night, and hopefully this and any info I get between now and then will be just what I need. Thanks again guys.

 

[Johnny the Kid]

Re: Can you wire a single-conductor with a four-conductor?

You don't need the .047 cap, but it is recommended. Also, as long as you don't plan on wiring the 59 with a coil split, yeah you can easily mix the two. And just follow each diagram independently when wiring to their respective volume controls. Good luck.

 

[SirMurder]

Re: Can you wire a single-conductor with a four-conductor?

I'm having no luck with this at all. Thought I followed everything perfect. Could anyone possibly hook me up with a hand drawn diagram of what I need? I have the .022 cap, .047 cap, 2 volumes, 2 tones, and a 3-way. This is frustrating me to no end, lol. My neck pickup produces (very little) sound, but the bridge pickup is doing nothing unless I touch the black wire directly to the output jack. Also, when I flip the guitar over as I would if I was playing it, touching the 3-way switch without the cover on it produces some humming in the amp. Not sure if that's normal or a wiring problem. Thanks again guys.

 

[SirMurder]

Re: Can you wire a single-conductor with a four-conductor?

Bump for my sanity.