Help with wiring 3 hotrail style pickups+coil splitting/middle pickup buzz..

[TheDarkOne]

Hello all, okay a few weeks ago I ordered a few of those cheap Chinese "hotrails" of Ebay to throw into a cheap guitar I have lying around.

I thought it would be a bit of a laugh to have 3 "humbuckers" in it. I also ordered a couple of push/pull potentiometres, with the goal of being able to split them all back to single coils if required (Neck and Bridge pickups 'split' from furthest tone push/pull pot, Middle one 'splits' via centre tone push/pull pot).

So I wired it all up, and on humbucker mode it sounds and works fine, but I noticed that when in single coil mode, it is buzzing on the "in between" positions (Neck and mid, or mid and bridge pickup settings).

I had failed to factor in the reverse wound/wired thing on the middle pickup, so it is not humbucking on those mid 2 positions..

Any ideas on what to do here? Is it a matter of just installing the middle pickup backwards? Or do I need to wire it up in reverse somehow? Or does it need a complete backwards rewind or turn the magnet around or something? As, yeah, definitely not worth that for a $5 pickup haha.

Be good to get it a bit quieter on the in between settings though, its pretty buzzy at the moment when on single coil mode, distortion mode sounds okay considering the price though.

They are a 4 conductor pickup, and come wired with green and red twisted together, a white positive and a black and bare twisted as the negative.

I will attach pics.

Thanks in advance guys, from The Dark One

 

[jeremy]

Re: Help with wiring 3 hotrail style pickups+coil splitting/middle pickup buzz..

are they all the same wind and polarity? if so youd want the middle rw/rp to cancel hum and be in phase but i dont think you can do that easily. its not like a bucker where you can pop the magnet out and flip it. the extra hum is from having two humming pups on at the same time. nothings broken and i dont think its wired wrong. you could shield the heck out of the guitar and that will help some

 

[TheDarkOne]

Re: Help with wiring 3 hotrail style pickups+coil splitting/middle pickup buzz..

are they all the same wind and polarity? if so youd want the middle rw/rp to cancel hum and be in phase but i dont think you can do that easily. its not like a bucker where you can pop the magnet out and flip it. the extra hum is from having two humming pups on at the same time. nothings broken and i dont think its wired wrong. you could shield the heck out of the guitar and that will help some

Hello Jeremy and thanks for the quick reply.

Yep all pickups are identical wiring/polarity. When the push pulls are "on" the guitar is quiet in every position (humbucking mode), its just the single coil mode that buzzes in all positions instead of humbucking on the mid positions, Silly me I just didn't think about that when I ordered them.

I like your idea about the shielding too.

Would swapping the magnet around help? If so, how/which way do I flip it? It may not be easy, but by the looks of it, it may be possible? *Attaches Pic of Rear*

 

[jeremy]

Re: Help with wiring 3 hotrail style pickups+coil splitting/middle pickup buzz..

you would rotate magnet so the side near the black/white wires is now near the red/green wires, youd also need to flip the hot and ground wires.

the coils are wound around a bobbin with a rail in the middle of it, that rail is what is on the side of the magnet. if you try and remove the magnet you make break the coil and kill your pup.

 

[TheDarkOne]

Re: Help with wiring 3 hotrail style pickups+coil splitting/middle pickup buzz..

you would rotate magnet so the side near the black/white wires is now near the red/green wires, youd also need to flip the hot and ground wires.

the coils are wound around a bobbin with a rail in the middle of it, that rail is what is on the side of the magnet. if you try and remove the magnet you make break the coil and kill your pup.

Ahh, I see. So I may not try remove the magnet then.

In theory, instead of turning just the magnet around and reversing the hot wires, what would happen if I just installed the whole pickup backwards and didn't reverse the wiring? Or install it backwards and did reverse the wiring? Would that help or not? I mean, at least the magnet would be reversed? Or am I missing something? (I a certain that I am haha).

Or, would just putting a standard middle single coil in the middle position help if all else fails? I'm pretty good at standard wirings, but this is just doing my head in.

Thanks again.

 

[TheDarkOne]

Re: Help with wiring 3 hotrail style pickups+coil splitting/middle pickup buzz..

Hmm, I am wondering if I have stuffed up.

In theory, a humbucker has two coils, so can I just wire up the "other" coil on the mid pickup if that makes sense? Like, use the coils closest to bridge for the bridge and neck pickups, and use the coil closest to the neck for the middle pickup?

I am getting a bit confused with it all.

I have also noticed the rails on them are buzzing to touch.. I am suspicious it is to do with my wiring on the push pull pots as they didn't buzz before I put those in.

Sigh,I thought I knew what I was doing but bit out of my league I think.

Can somebody help please.

 

[thebingopete]

Re: Help with wiring 3 hotrail style pickups+coil splitting/middle pickup buzz..

Swap which coil you use when splitting the middle pup.

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

 

[TheDarkOne]

Re: Help with wiring 3 hotrail style pickups+coil splitting/middle pickup buzz..

I was thinking that may help, but not sure if having the other coil in the way will spoil the humbucking in the 4 and 3 positions?

Also, which wires would I swap?

Also, on the push/pull pots, I have the green and red twisted and going to the middle lug, out put on the bottom lug, and earthed out the top lug, so in theory, pushed it is in Humbucking mode, pulled it earths out the other coil? Is this right?

It made sense when I did it, but now I am wondering if having the other coil still "connected" (twisted together) is causing them to buzz when touched?

Anybody got any wiring diagrams for a situation like this? As I said, thought I knew what I was doing, but maybe not haha.

I would keep experimenting, but the wires are a bit fragile looking don't want to break them by constantly rewiring and soldering etc.

Cheers.