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Trying to figure out unknown humbucker wiring

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  • Trying to figure out unknown humbucker wiring

    Hi all,

    Just joined the forum, although I've lurked before, but this forum seems to really know their pickups so I was hoping for some help.

    I'm trying to figure out the wiring on a pair of unknown humbuckers. They are 4 wire PUPs that I believe I've figured out which wires go to which coils, etc., the polarity of the coils and the polarity of the magnets. See the image at the bottom of the post.

    Note that the screws are not shown but the screws on the bridge pickup are closest to the bridge and the neck pickup are closest to the neck as is typically seen.

    One thing I noticed is that the polarity of the magnets don't seem to match the info I've read on other humbuckers. It seems like usually the same polarities are together (south on the neck pickup towards the bridge and south on the bridge pickup towards the neck). It looks like the neck magnets are backward.

    What I'm not sure of is which wires to connect to turn them into two wire humbuckers. I"m not looking to install phase witches or coil splits. I just want to use them as "standard" humbuckers. I've done some reading and thought that I wanted to tie the red and green together, run the white to ground and the black to the volume pot. The rest of the wiring is per the modern Les Paul shown here https://www.seymourduncan.com/blog/w...ringModern.jpg.

    Everything works (switch, volume and tone pots) but it doesn't sound like a typical dual humbucker guitar. The output seems low and it sounds thinner and brighter than I expected. The neck pickup is 4.2K on each coil (8.4K total) and the bridge is 6.1K each (12.2K total) which seems pretty normal. Another issue is they are farther from the strings than what is typical. The guitar is a pretty bad LP copy and neck joint is higher than a typical LP. The PUP height screws are all the way tight (highest position) and the only way to get them closer to the strings would be to space them up. Maybe they are just terrible PUPs on a terrible guitar.

    Do you guys think they are wired incorrectly and if so what would you suggest?

    Thanks!


    Click image for larger version

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  • #2
    Re: Trying to figure out unknown humbucker wiring

    Normally humbuckers go +/- +/- with the middle two wires being combined to create a series circuit. I think your diagram labeling may be off.

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    • #3
      Re: Trying to figure out unknown humbucker wiring

      Originally posted by idsnowdog View Post
      Normally humbuckers go +/- +/- with the middle two wires being combined to create a series circuit. I think your diagram labeling may be off.
      Thanks for the reply!

      My diagram is what I determined the wires to be on the actual PUPs, at least as in terms of the colors going to each coil and which wires are positive and negative. I probably should have shown the black and red wires swapped for clarity as shown below. The wires are in a shielded cable and the PUPs have the metal cover so I don't know where they actually attach to the coils.

      It sounds like maybe I should have connected the red to white and run the black to the volume pot and the green to ground instead of the red to green?

      Click image for larger version

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      • #4
        Re: Trying to figure out unknown humbucker wiring

        Originally posted by stoneattic View Post
        Thanks for the reply!

        My diagram is what I determined the wires to be on the actual PUPs, at least as in terms of the colors going to each coil and which wires are positive and negative. I probably should have shown the black and red wires swapped for clarity as shown below. The wires are in a shielded cable and the PUPs have the metal cover so I don't know where they actually attach to the coils.

        It sounds like maybe I should have connected the red to white and run the black to the volume pot and the green to ground instead of the red to green?

        [ATTACH=CONFIG]103544[/ATTACH]
        "Yes" to the question at the end of your last reply.
        Sanford: "The hardest part about tone chasing is losing the expectations associated with the hardware."

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: Trying to figure out unknown humbucker wiring

          Originally posted by Jack_TriPpEr View Post
          "Yes" to the question at the end of your last reply.
          I just rewired and that did it! Thanks!

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