Telecaster Pups with 2 ground wires; What do I do?

[ElDeguello666]

Hello all,

I usually start off by saying that I don't understand pickup wiring, and that is still the case so here I am with another wiring question. I have a telecaster that used to have a 4-way Oak Grigsby switch, which meant the pickups needed 2 ground wires. I recently swapped the neck pickup for a p90, after I wired it up, the middle position was out of phase, so I took it to my local tech to fix it. I have since decided that I want to return to the original neck pickup and a standard 3-way switch (if it ain't broke, don't fix it), but I have two problems:

(1) If I wire it up now, won't the middle position be out of phase again since the tech had to reverse the polarity of the bridge pickup? I'm pretty sure that's what he had to do, not positive.

(2) Since I'm using a 3-way switch now, I don't need the second ground wire on either pickup so what do I do with the extra wires? Where do I connect them?


Thank you all for your help! It has saved me tons of money since I don't have to pay a tech to install pickups for me (I just have to pay them to fix my mistakes).

[ArtieToo]

Re: Telecaster Pups with 2 ground wires; What do I do?

I'm not sure if I understand your question completely, but all "grounds" go to one point. The sleeve of the output jack. Different diagrams show different things, but that's where they all go. Does that help?

[ElDeguello666]

Re: Telecaster Pups with 2 ground wires; What do I do?

Well the tech had to reverse the polarity of the bridge pickup to be in phase with the p90, so if I drop the single-coil back in, won't the two now be out of phase? And you're saying I would just send both of the ground wires to the same ground point?

[ArtieToo]

Re: Telecaster Pups with 2 ground wires; What do I do?

Connect a meter to the wires of one. Bring a screwdriver up against the pole pieces and then yank it away. A Duncan will typically be a positive voltage as you come up against it, and a negative voltage as you yank away. If the other pup does the same thing, you're good to go. If it does the opposite, then reverse the wires. A "tech" should be able to figure this out.

[ElDeguello666]

Re: Telecaster Pups with 2 ground wires; What do I do?

Thanks, I don't have a meter and I don't think I'm going to buy one, so I'll probably just go for it and see what happens. If it ends up out of phase, what exactly do you mean by "switch the wires"?

[jeremy]

Re: Telecaster Pups with 2 ground wires; What do I do?

as far as the two ground wires... for the bridge pup there is a start wire and finish wire, the "other ground" is for the baseplate. that wire should always go to ground. for the neck pup, again start and finish, the other ground is for the cover and should also always go to ground.

when artie says switch the wires, he means flip the start and finish wires on one pup (only bridge or neck, not both) the 2nd ground wires stay grounded