Duckbucker wiring

[Sid Vicious]

Hey guys, I'm trying to sort out some wiring on my HSS strat. Heres what we are working with. Vintage rails in the neck, duck in mid and patb in bridge, yes it has a FR.

Originally I had a Mega Switch in it but some how it hummed real bad thought the new amp, so I bought a new all parts 5 way and wired it according to this.

The hum is all gone but the in the second position(switch pointed to the neck) I get very little volume from the pickup. This is a 4 lead duck so it was wired the same as the humbucker. Is it possible the pickup is out of phase?

 

[KeeperOS]

Re: Duckbucker wiring

Could be, then again both the Duckbucker and the Vintage Rails are Mini-Humbuckers so you should wire their WHITE+RED together and tape them (like the humbucker in the schematic), their respective BLACK wires go where the WHITE wires go in the schematic while their GREEN+BARE go where the BLACK wires go in the schematic. Then, logically, all should work well.

Unless, of course you've wired them in parallel or, these two are not 4-conductor but rather 2-conductor and wired internally in which case, I'm not sure...

 

[Sid Vicious]

Re: Duckbucker wiring

Could be, then again both the Duckbucker and the Vintage Rails are Mini-Humbuckers so you should wire their WHITE+RED together and tape them (like the humbucker in the schematic), their respective BLACK wires go where the WHITE wires go in the schematic while their GREEN+BARE go where the BLACK wires go in the schematic. Then, logically, all should work well.

Unless, of course you've wired them in parallel or, these two are not 4-conductor but rather 2-conductor and wired internally in which case, I'm not sure...

I could be wrong but neither the duck or the VR are buckers. The VR has two wires and the duck 4. I assume the extra wires are to split the duck in some way. The duck is wired like the patb.

Alas. if I had the cash I would just stick another VR in the mid. Killer pup.

Thanks for the help.


Update... You are correct. they are humbuckers. I thought they were singles.

 

[DazH]

Re: Duckbucker wiring

both the vintage rails & duckbuckers are wired in parallel, not series.

 

[Sid Vicious]

Re: Duckbucker wiring

Could be, then again both the Duckbucker and the Vintage Rails are Mini-Humbuckers so you should wire their WHITE+RED together and tape them (like the humbucker in the schematic), their respective BLACK wires go where the WHITE wires go in the schematic while their GREEN+BARE go where the BLACK wires go in the schematic. Then, logically, all should work well.

Unless, of course you've wired them in parallel or, these two are not 4-conductor but rather 2-conductor and wired internally in which case, I'm not sure...

Well that's how its wired now.

Any other suggestions on the wiring?

 

[KeeperOS]

Re: Duckbucker wiring

If the VR is 2-conductor then no problem, just wire it up like any other strat pickup.
It means they're wired in parallel internally and you're set.
You probably wire it right the first tiem so don't even touch it unless you have problems when doing the DB (read bellow).

Now the duckbuckers (which are in essence the VR with poles instead of rails for a strattier behavior in bends so no need to replace them) just need to also have "two" leads, I think. You'll need to wire together the Green and the Black and then wire together the Red, White and the bare.

Now wire it like a Strat pickup. the R+W+B goes where the black is at that schematic (ground on the back of the pot) and the B+G goes at the 5-way where the white is at that schematic.

I think this should do it...

EDIT: OK, I was reading that pink paper that comes with SDs and they have a parallel wiring with a schematic for a DPDT switch. Now If I'm reading this correctly they seem to be doing it the other way around i.e. wire the White+Red to hot and the Green+Black to ground.

Now this basically means that they (or I) wired it Reverse Wound. I'm not sure which is which since the VR was wired internally. In essence both ways will work right when you use the pickup on it's own but will produce out-of-phase results when you go at the Neck+Middle position. Out-of-phase is when you hear a very thin, nasal tone.
If that happens just swap positions for the B+G and W+R (remember, the bare goes to ground regardless so you will either have to ground it seperate than the other two pairs or if you wire it together with one pair and it ends up being the wrong one, remove it and wire it to the other pair...).

That's about it I think...

 

[Sid Vicious]

Re: Duckbucker wiring

Thanks KeeperOS for your help. So let me ask you a really stupid question.... OK, I know about circuits and how they work and can read schematics. I don't have any on how the switch is laid out nor did I look at it when it was replaced.

So, looking at this diagram is the forward position the neck the second the both neck and mid, third mid, 4th ? and rear the humbucker???

 

[Sid Vicious]

Re: Duckbucker wiring

It ended up with green and black to hot and red and white to ground.

Thanks again, it sounds like it should now.

 

[KeeperOS]

Re: Duckbucker wiring

The switch goes upside down i.e. when the switch's tip is up (neck) then the switch is actually touching the lowest lungs and vice versa.
I think if you spend a minute reading the schematic you posted it will become easily clear.

So the lowest one is the neck (obviously), then the middle is added in parallel, then it's the middle alone, then the bridge is added in parallel and then the bridge alone. Simple huh?

Glad it all worked out fine man. Enjoy!!!

 

[Sid Vicious]

Re: Duckbucker wiring

So the lowest one is the neck (obviously), then the middle is added in parallel, then it's the middle alone, then the bridge is added in parallel and then the bridge alone. Simple huh?

I figured out all of them after I had to yank the gaurd out again then I just hit the leads with a DVOM.

Thanks again guys. Sound much, much better.

 

[KeeperOS]

Re: Duckbucker wiring

Glad to hear it man, tell us how you'll like them lil'buckers