Have i wired my pickup wrong?

[IM04]

i got a JB trembucker yesterday and had a go at wiring it myself. i took out the duncan design i was replacing it for, and soldered all the same coloured wires in exacly the same places they were on the duncan designed pickup (green wire to my pickup selector, white and red soldered together and taped up, and black and bare to a small metal thing) it works ok. but i looked on the wiring diagrams on seymourduncan.com, and it says the black goes to the pickup selector. the pickup works, but i dont know if its working to its full potential. the guitar i put it in was a jackson KVX10

heres a picture of how the duncan design was wired up:

 

[Artie]

Re: Have i wired my pickup wrong?

That simply means that you have the phase of that pickup reversed. If the other pup is wired the same way, then no problem. If its not, you should notice a weak, tinny sound, when the 3-way is in the middle. If it sounds good, then its ok.

btw - I can't really tell from your pic how the other pup is wired.

 

[El Dorado]

Re: Have i wired my pickup wrong?

The black wire is usually soldered to the selector and the green and bare wire go to ground. Check out some of the schematics:
http://www.seymourduncan.com/website/support/schematics.shtml

 

[IM04]

Re: Have i wired my pickup wrong?

That simply means that you have the phase of that pickup reversed. If the other pup is wired the same way, then no problem. If its not, you should notice a weak, tinny sound, when the 3-way is in the middle. If it sounds good, then its ok.

btw - I can't really tell from your pic how the other pup is wired.

i don't know anything about pickups, so what does "phase of that pickup reversed" mean, and is it good or bad thing.

[quoue]The black wire is supposed to be soldered to the selector and the green and bare wire go to ground. Check out some of the schematics:
http://www.seymourduncan.com/websit...chematics.shtml[/quote]

i saw those diagrams, thats why i'm thinking i did it wrong, but i wired everything exactly the same as it was on my duncan designed pickup i took out.

 

[El Dorado]

Re: Have i wired my pickup wrong?

I should have read your entire post, but i would bet you just change the black and green around. Do you have any desoldering braid?

 

[MikeS]

Re: Have i wired my pickup wrong?

It means the pickups are out of phase with each other. When running either pickup by itself your guitar will operate fine. When running both humbuckers at the same time you will hear just as Artie described - weak, nasally, and tinny.

I can't really explain the physics behind it, but when the pickups are running out of phase the two signals combined end up cancelling out certain frequencies. Here's a little blurb about out of phase pickups on the Duncan FAQ: http://www.seymourduncan.com/website/support/faqdescr.shtml#outofphase

 

[Jocelyn]

Re: Have i wired my pickup wrong?

how is the other pup wired?

 

[Artie]

Re: Have i wired my pickup wrong?

Before you change anything around, listen to the pups when both are on. Its possible that Jackson installed both pups with black to ground. Which means that the phase thing isn't a problem.

A pup is an AC voltage generator. When you pull a string down, then release it, it starts to generate a voltage out of the coils. Lets say it starts to go positive. If the two pups are out-of-phase, it just means that one will be going positive, while the other is going negative. The two voltages cancel each other out.

Since the two waveforms won't be exactly identical, the low frequencies tend to cancel, leaving the highs, thus, you get the tinny, weak sound.

 

[IM04]

Re: Have i wired my pickup wrong?

thanks for everyones help, i swapped round the green and black wires like the diagram showed and it sounds great. i probably should read the instructions next time, instead of doing it my own way. :smack:

 

[Luke Duke]

Re: Have i wired my pickup wrong?

thanks for everyones help, i swapped round the green and black wires like the diagram showed and it sounds great. i probably should read the instructions next time, instead of doing it my own way. :smack:

Hey man no harm no foul! It's all a learning experience. Just make sure you have your JB as close to the strings as possible, that way you'll get all the OOPH it's supposed to have.

Luke

 

[Jocelyn]

Re: Have i wired my pickup wrong?

Glad to help. Also how does it sound compared to the previous wiring with black to ground and the green to hot output.