Help with Chapman ML1 Pickup Swap

[Blues357]

Hi,

I'm about to swap the stock pickups in my 2015 Chapman ML1 with Seymour Duncans (the ML1 is a great guitar, by the way, but I'd like something a bit better than the stock G&B pickups). The wiring is a somewhat unusual, however. It's an HSS configuration, but with a 3-way toggle and a push-pull tone coil split. I've attached a homemade diagram, using the stock Chapman color codes. Please enlarge the image to see the wiring. Of course, I know SD wire colors are different.

I'd like to keep the current pickup/coil selection configuration.

The pickups I'm swapping in are a SD Classic Stack Plus neck, SD Classic Stack Plus Middle, and a JB SH-4 Bridge.

Could I get some wiring advice? There's no diagram that I can find in the SD archives that's a perfect fit for this. Do I solder and tape off the red/white wires on the Stacks? Then, where does the black (hot?) wire go? Bare goes to ground on the volume pot, right?

What about the humbucker?

I've done some guitar wiring in the past, but this is puzzling me a bit.

Thanks so much.

Blues357

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: Help with Chapman ML1 Pickup Swap

Welcome to the forum.

The solution to your problem is to translate the colour codes from Chapman to SD. Until a few months ago, the Support/Wiring Diagrams area of this website included a nice, clear, idiot proof diagram to illustrate this exact issue. Now, all that one finds is donkey balls. I am unwilling to post a link to the afore-mentioned page for fear of misleading you.

 

[Blues357]

Re: Help with Chapman ML1 Pickup Swap

Welcome to the forum.

The solution to your problem is to translate the colour codes from Chapman to SD. Until a few months ago, the Support/Wiring Diagrams area of this website included a nice, clear, idiot proof diagram to illustrate this exact issue. Now, all that one finds is donkey balls. I am unwilling to post a link to the afore-mentioned page for fear of misleading you.

Okay, thanks. Went the old-fashioned way, broke out the multimeter, experimented.

For reference, if anyone else is swapping stock ML1 pickups for SDs, here's what worked for me:

NECK: black and bare to ground on volume pot; red taped off; white to the neck side of the 3-way toggle (where the white lead is on original ML1 wiring).

MID: black and bare to ground on volume pot; red taped off; white to the neck side middle terminal of the push-pull tone pot (where the yellow lead is on the original wiring).

HUMBUCKER: Green and bare to ground on the bridge side of push-pull tone pot (replaces the black lead on original wiring); red and white together to the bridge-side middle terminal of the push-pull tone pot; black to 3-way toggle (replaces the red lead on the original wiring).

This sounds good to me. It keeps the original switch configuration and the single coils are hum free. This combination is dark and bluesy sounding, but not muddy. This suits my taste.

Thanks.

Blues357

 

[Blues357]

Re: Help with Chapman ML1 Pickup Swap

Oh, an additional note: The pickups mount directly to the body. When you remove the stock ones, save the spacers. The single coils have a double spring and foam spacer, while the humbucker is just a couple of pieces of foam. You can reuse the screws from the singles, but for the humbucker mount you'll have to get a bit narrower screws if you don't want to strip the threads in the SD bracket (you want to save those threads in case you decide to swap pickups again). I used a couple of extra truss rod screws I had around. Worked fine.

Cheers.

Blues357

 

[dotsdad]

Re: Help with Chapman ML1 Pickup Swap

Sweet guitar! Great pickup selecion as well! Enjoy!!!

 

[PFDarkside]

Re: Help with Chapman ML1 Pickup Swap

I'm having a little difficulty following your diagram. Is that essentially a 3-way for bridge and neck, with a volume/tone, and the tone is a push/pull that both splits the bridge and adds the middle?

 

[Blues357]

Re: Help with Chapman ML1 Pickup Swap

Yep, the push-pull adds the middle and splits the humbucker. Here's the configuration:

Without/With Coil Tap
P1 - Neck Single Coil/Neck & Middle Single Coil
P2 - Neck Single Coil & Bridge Humbucker/All 3
P3 - Bridge Humbucker/Bridge Humbucker (coil split) & Middle Coil

I probably should spend some time cleaning up my diagram, and adding one with the lead colors for the SDs installed.

Cheers.

 

[chriskodiac]

Re: Help with Chapman ML1 Pickup Swap

Hello, can you help me with some questions please ??

well I bought a SSH+ Suhr and 2 ML Suhr Pickups, and I never change a pickup on a guitar in my life hehe.. but I want to have the best sound from the new ones, so:

1: If I wiring the news with the same specification as my ML1 it would sound really good?
2: split coil works in your setting?
3: how I can get my ML1 could be soft (talking about strings) I set up the guitar.. but some times I feel a little hard to play :/


Thanks ....

Cheers.