color codes

[mich van sever]

I don't get the full humbucking mode by using the standard color codes (red & white together / black - hot / green & bare - ground). Instead I tried : green & white together / black - hot / red & bare to ground. This seems to work well : both coils are on. Is it possible that Seymour Duncan used a different color code in the past (these pick-ups I'm working on are not recent purchases)?

[Scott_F]

Re: color codes

While it's entirely possible that they might have used different color codes way back when, it's highly unlikely. How old are these? Where did you get them? Are you sure they are Duncans or maybe sold off ebay as duncans and not really so?

Either way, welcome to the forum.

If you go to www.guitarelectronics.com you can find the wiring color codes to most makers humbuckers. Go look and see which yours match up to. That might be a clue.

[Robert S.]

Re: color codes

It may be that you got a hold of an incorrectly wired pickup, but more than one mis-wired in a simular fashion is highly unlikely. In the 3-4 years I've been hanging around and posting on this site I have never heard that SD has ever used a different color code for leads and it surely would have come up by now.

The only way to tell what is actually going on is to meter the leads to determine which pairs of leads go together. Since you are getting both coils working we can be sure that the red and black are from seperate coils.

If the pickups are correctly wired internally from the factory the way you are wired will allow both coils to be active but the pickup will not be hum cancelling.

If the pickup is very noisey, especially under gain then the coils are not connected together properly.

It's very hard to diagnose a problem (if there is one) without knowing if you have a noise problem and without verification of the coil lead pairs.