Hotrails pickup problem.....

[Shadow On The Sun]

Hi,
I recently bought a seymour duncan hotrails off ebay (dodgy I know) and recently put it into my guitar as the neck pickup. I also have one for the bridge pickup and thought I'd see what its like in the neck pickup. When I put it in the neck up and wired it to what I think is wired right. (all I did was copy the original pickup)
It was all earthed properly before wired correctly as according to my mate who owns a music shop and has experience in guitar maintenance. When I tested the pickup it was quiet compered to the other pickups. Before I put the new pickup in I noticed that the "Bare" wire was thinner than the old hotrails. What could be the problem ??



I'll have photos of the pickup for you soon.

Phil

[Rainmaker]

Re: Hotrails pickup problem.....

I'm not actually sure what the problem is Shadow on the Sun, but welcome to the forum!!

[Shadow On The Sun]

Re: Hotrails pickup problem.....

Sorry, just recently re-edited my post.

[ArtieToo]

Re: Hotrails pickup problem.....

Phil; The only thing I can think of, and this would only be relevant if the "old" HotRails was available with a two-conductor cable, is that it would have a co-axial cable. That is, a thick braided wire, with the "hot" conductor coming out of the middle. Like as shown in this diagram:

Two single-conductor humbuckers

The "new" HotRails, would have 4-conductors and a bare ground wire, which would be thin. If you connected the one wire and the bare one only on the new one, that would account for the problem.

On the new HotRails, you need to connect the black wire to the switch, red and white together, and taped off, and green and bare together and grounded.

Of course, if the old Hotrails wasn't 2-conductor . . . my point is moot!

[Shadow On The Sun]

Re: Hotrails pickup problem.....

it is a 4-conductor sorry, by "old" I mean the 1st pickup that was already put in. I've soldered it like green + bare together on the volume and red + white are taped together. While the black is soldered to the pickup selector (if my memory is right)

[ArtieToo]

Re: Hotrails pickup problem.....

Thats definitely the correct way to do it. So, as the next step, I would just look the wiring over carefully and double-check your work. Look for wires that might be touching in the wrong place, solder "blobs" or "drips" in the wrong places. That kind of thing.

[Shadow On The Sun]

Re: Hotrails pickup problem.....

I just re-soldered it and tested it and I still have the problem of the pickup being quiet.
What are the red and white wires for ?? and
what else could the problem be ??

[ArtieToo]

Re: Hotrails pickup problem.....

Your Hotrails is actually constructed of two individual coils. One coil has black & white wires, the other coil has red & green wires. So for "normal" humbucker operation, you use green for ground, black for hot, and connect the red and white together. (Making sure to tape them up so they don't short against anything.)

[Breaking the law]

Re: Hotrails pickup problem.....

Just to make sure.. it IS a SD pickup, right?
Different manufacurers use different color codes..

[Shadow On The Sun]

Re: Hotrails pickup problem.....

yeh, its a SD pickup, its the hotrails one. it has green,black,red,white and a bare wire. What would happen if I wired the red and white instead of the green and black ?? (I won't try anything before I know)