Using 4 conductor coil tap pots with single conductor SD 59?

[crazydiamond]

Hi all,

This is my first post here. Not my first time using SD pups though. My wife bought me a black Epiphone Custom Pro with coil tap (beautiful guitar) for my 40th this past month. It plays and sounds great, however, it just doesn't have that certain something in the tone department. So I picked up a SD 59 for the bridge to see if it would get me into the tonal territory that I am looking for. I neglected to check to see if the pup was 4 conductor and when I got home I realized upon opening it that it is single conductor. Now my question is can I still wire it in correctly? I am not real big on the coil tap/split anyway and intend to replace the harness along with the neck pick up in the near future. But for now, is this doable? I have never dealt with 4 conductor and coil tap pots before, I have always just replaced single conductor on regular pots. Any help in this area would be greatly appreciated, and I also look forward to chatting with my fellow gear heads and music lovers.

Cheers,
Dan

[darthphineas]

Re: Using 4 conductor coil tap pots with single conductor SD 59?

If you just want to wire it up for regular series mode, you are fine. Check out the SD web site in the support section for wiring schematics.

If you are wanting to get split and parallel sounds from it, I believe you might be out of luck. If you bought it new, you should be able to get an exchange. Or you can send it to someone to get the lead wire changed to 4-con, which typically cost about $20.


Sent from my armored space station using Tapatalk on iPad

[crazydiamond]

Re: Using 4 conductor coil tap pots with single conductor SD 59?

Thanks darth. I will post back tonight after work with pics and tone impressions.

[CountFeedback]

Re: Using 4 conductor coil tap pots with single conductor SD 59?

you can ignore the switch part of the pot and wire it like a regular pot.

[crazydiamond]

Re: Using 4 conductor coil tap pots with single conductor SD 59?

I did some more reading, and now I am more confused. lol. I will post a pic of the way it's wired now and see if you all agree that I am soldering the right wires. I have never worked with push/pull pots and 4 conductor wire, so forgive my ignorance. I'm just glad it's not a JP wiring I am attempting.

[crazydiamond]

Re: Using 4 conductor coil tap pots with single conductor SD 59?









Here's the pics of the pot. My best guess is that I solder the hot wire from the 59 to where the white and green wires are soldered, on the centre terminal, along with the braid being soldered to the outside of the pot like the other braid. Correct? Out to lunch? lol Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[darthphineas]

Re: Using 4 conductor coil tap pots with single conductor SD 59?

If you only have single conductor wiring, ignore those 6 posts up on the switch. Only look at the 3 lugs down on the pot section.


Sent from my armored space station using Tapatalk on iPad

[CountFeedback]

Re: Using 4 conductor coil tap pots with single conductor SD 59?

hard to tell what's going on in the picture. Darth has it Right: Ignore the 6 lugs on the switch box, pull everything off that.
the braid on the 59 grounds to the casing of the pot, hot wire goes to one of the three terminals (hard to tell which one from the pic)

[crazydiamond]

Re: Using 4 conductor coil tap pots with single conductor SD 59?

Thanks to everyone for their input. Everything went very smoothly. Got the stock pup removed, along with a bunch of excess solder. Installed the new 59. Fired it up. WOW! What a difference a pup makes. This thing has balls now. Grunt, growl, scream. The classic PAF sound that I so love. String definition is awesome, can hear each string separately now, compared to mush before. Don't get me wrong, the stock pups were ok. But the 59 is IT! Cleans up very nicely too.
Now to decide on a neck pup and some new pots and caps. Hmmmm. Suggestions?

[CountFeedback]

Re: Using 4 conductor coil tap pots with single conductor SD 59?

awesome!
neck? 59n sounds good with a 59b and is not too expensive.
or maybe one of the Alnico2 pups would be good: A2pro or Seth Lover

[crazydiamond]

Re: Using 4 conductor coil tap pots with single conductor SD 59?





Here's pictures of "Red" with her new pup, as well as pics of the jam room where she and her sisters reside.

[GuitarDoc]

Re: Using 4 conductor coil tap pots with single conductor SD 59?

There are many "good" neck pups for that LP:

'59n, (or '59b in the neck),
Seth,
Pearly Gates,
Screamin Demon (my personal favorite).