4 conductor humbuckers: ok to leave the 2 "extra" wires for coil split unsoldered?

[brown sound]

4 conductor humbuckers: ok to leave the 2 "extra" wires for coil split unsoldered?

let's say i have a 4 conductor humbucker which i want to wire in series without coil splitting. so i wire the hot wire to the switch, and the 2 ground wires to ground. that leaves me with the 2 "extra" wires meant for coil splitting. in the wiring instructions, it's mentioned to solder the 2 wires together and tape them if you do not want to use them for coil splitting.

my question is: if i do not want to use coil split, and i do not solder the 2 wires together, what happens?

 

[idsnowdog]

Re: 4 conductor humbuckers: ok to leave the 2 "extra" wires for coil split unsoldered

Re: 4 conductor humbuckers: ok to leave the 2 "extra" wires for coil split unsoldered

The two "extra" wires need to be connect in order to complete the series circuit. Otherwise you just have two separate coils.

 

[Zhangliqun]

Re: 4 conductor humbuckers: ok to leave the 2 "extra" wires for coil split unsoldered

Re: 4 conductor humbuckers: ok to leave the 2 "extra" wires for coil split unsoldered

The pickup won't work if they're not soldered together.

 

[brown sound]

Re: 4 conductor humbuckers: ok to leave the 2 "extra" wires for coil split unsoldered

Re: 4 conductor humbuckers: ok to leave the 2 "extra" wires for coil split unsoldered

The two "extra" wires need to be connect in order to complete the series circuit. Otherwise you just have two separate coils.

that means the humbucker will behave as 2 single coils in use together? is this the same as parallel wiring?

 

[trevorus]

Re: 4 conductor humbuckers: ok to leave the 2 "extra" wires for coil split unsoldered

Re: 4 conductor humbuckers: ok to leave the 2 "extra" wires for coil split unsoldered

that means the humbucker will behave as 2 single coils in use together? is this the same as parallel wiring?

No, the red/green is the two ends of one coil, and the white/black is the two ends of the other coil. Either they need to be connected in parallel, or in series. Either way, the circuit needs to be completed somehow.

 

[Zhangliqun]

Re: 4 conductor humbuckers: ok to leave the 2 "extra" wires for coil split unsoldered

Re: 4 conductor humbuckers: ok to leave the 2 "extra" wires for coil split unsoldered

that means the humbucker will behave as 2 single coils in use together? is this the same as parallel wiring?

If the red and white wires are left hanging and not soldered to anything, the pickup won't work, as in, no sound of any kind. Just the same as if you cut the cord from your guitar to your amp.

 

[idsnowdog]

Re: 4 conductor humbuckers: ok to leave the 2 "extra" wires for coil split unsoldered

Re: 4 conductor humbuckers: ok to leave the 2 "extra" wires for coil split unsoldered

that means the humbucker will behave as 2 single coils in use together? is this the same as parallel wiring?

If the wires aren't connect they don't complete the circuit and you get no sound. If you were to wire a humbucker in parallel you are just taking two independent coils, which are wound in opposite directions and combining their output. The two coils do provide hum cancellation for each other, but the two coils cancel a large part of each others signal and the sound you get is the remainder. Parallel is still a useful sound though and works very well with "hot" humbuckers.

I just woke up so the diagram might not be correct, but it should give you a rough idea how they are wired. You basically have hot/hot and ground/ground together with parallel.