American Series Strat Pups

A

Adam

New member
A long time ago I had a tech install the current SD's I have in my Strat, now I wanna take them out and put the old ones back in, and also of course I'm going to do it myself.

But I am more familliar with SD's, these Fenders have 2 wires both with a 'white' and then each have their own seperate color being:

Red (pinkish)
Blue
Yellow

Are these a way to determine what is neck/middle/bridge? I looked at a diagram from the fender site and it just says White/Black, White/Yellow, White/Black.

http://www.fender.com/support/diagrams/pdf_temp1/stratocaster/0117400_02B/SD0117400_02BPg2upg2.pdf

So maybe some of you can provide some insight?
 
Re: American Series Strat Pups

That probably is how they color code neck, middle and bridge. They used to do it with blue, red and black dots on the bottom of the pu.

The best way to determine neck/middle/bridge without any of that is with a multi-meter and a polarity tester.
 
Re: American Series Strat Pups

Very true, I was hoping that their schematic would clarifiy which goes where in order. But it dosen't seem to, I don't have those tools and lack experience with them.

Hopefully somebody chimes in who has worked with such a color code before.
 
Re: American Series Strat Pups

Fender pickup color code:

RED = bridge
BLUE = neck
either YELLOW, GREY, or no color = middle

They either make the hot wire this color, or put a dot on the back of the pickup.

The white wire is ground.
 
Re: American Series Strat Pups

ratherdashing said:
Fender pickup color code:

RED = bridge
BLUE = neck
either YELLOW, GREY, or no color = middle

They either make the hot wire this color, or put a dot on the back of the pickup.

The white wire is ground.
Click to expand...

Thank you very much sir! :bigok:
 
Re: American Series Strat Pups

Dude, if it's an American Standard set:

Blue=Neck
Red=Middle
Yellow=Bridge

You should also have 2 large screws on the underside of the bridge pickup.

The bridge pickups on, say, a Texas Special set, do have a red dot on the bottom of the pickup (actually on the bottom of one of the polepiece mags) so don't get confused. The non custom shop American Standards are I as I pointed out above, if they were stock to start with.
 
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Re: American Series Strat Pups

Well I just finished installing the pups, and the one with the 2 screws is the yellow one. And I just stuck it in the middle position. So 2 different folks with knowledge here. So....I guess I'm going to have to switch em out again.

Can I get a confirmation before I go back to the iron? :)
 
Re: American Series Strat Pups

If you've already got them soldered in plug in the guitar and see if you have hum in the neck/middle position...I think that you've got the bridge pup in the middle. Note that it WILL be hum cancelling in middle/bridge b/c you're mixing the pup that is RWRP (red wire) with the actual bridge (yellow wire). So, if I'm correct you'll have:

Neck=Humming
Neck+middle=humming
middle=humming
middle+bridge=no hum
bridge=humming

Check it out and get back to us.

PS If you don't have them soldered already, I'm pretty sure about the wiring bro.
 
Re: American Series Strat Pups

Farkus said:
If you've already got them soldered in plug in the guitar and see if you have hum in the neck/middle position...I think that you've got the bridge pup in the middle. Note that it WILL be hum cancelling in middle/bridge b/c you're mixing the pup that is RWRP (red wire) with the actual bridge (yellow wire). So, if I'm correct you'll have:

Neck=Humming
Neck+middle=humming
middle=humming
middle+bridge=no hum
bridge=humming

Check it out and get back to us.

PS If you don't have them soldered already, I'm pretty sure about the wiring bro.
Click to expand...

Yeah its already soldered, its cool I can fix it pretty quick. I was wondering why the yellow was so damn short, that tech really took a chop on the wire dude!

So yeah your diagram is correct, in the boogie I'm getting hum everywhere but themiddle and bridge.

So swap it up!
 
Re: American Series Strat Pups

It totally did. Smooth Fender tone all over again, I'm sure maybe I'll get tired of it. After looking down into that pickup Cavity I may go grab a one humbucker pick gaurd and make my strat a monster! But its back to its originality and I'm digging what I'm hearing!

I'm kinda in a SRV phase so hence the reason why!

Maybe i'll take that vintage rails and drop it in the SL1, its white so it'll contrast the other black pups. Could make it awsome!

And once again thanks to ya all!
 
Re: American Series Strat Pups

Wow, sorry about that. You can thank Fender for using different colour schemes on different models :smack:
 
Re: American Series Strat Pups

ratherdashing said:
Wow, sorry about that. You can thank Fender for using different colour schemes on different models :smack:
Click to expand...

Heck, my '94 had blue for the bridge, not yellow. The neck is blue and the middle is red like above though. So it's not just different colors on different models but different years too.

The newer stock pickups aren't bad. Much more alive than they used to be.
 
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