Horribly confusing wiring instructions

[larry_emder]

Hi, i bought a Puretone "scorpion" (Les Paul type humbucker from www.puretone.com.au) a while ago, and am having a shocker trying to wire it. I originally wired it how seymour duncan pickups are wired.....and while it worked...it was a bit noisy (both in humbucking and split mode).

Here are the wiring instructions for the scorpion. I was hoping someone could make sense of these because i sure as heck cant! All i need to know is which wires and for hot, ground and for coil splitting. Thanks if you can help.

"The scorpion is a splitable Humbucker and can be wired in two different ways. For a splitable scorpion the hot, or active wires are red and white, and the grounds are black, green and bare. Connect the red and white wires to the hot connections on your phase switch and the grounds to the ground found on the 5 way switch or potentiometer. For a non splitable scorpion just join the green, bare and black wires and connect to ground source then join the red and white wires and connect to the hot section of your 5 way switch."

And whats this talk in the instructions about "phase switch?!" I just dont get it. And im Sure it can be wired in THREE different ways cant it? (Hum, Split, Parallel?)

Thanks a load if you can help.

 

[Robert S.]

Re: Horribly confusing wiring instructions

Hey Larry, I don't see how those instructions could possibly confuse you. They seem clear as day to me. (yikes!)

What you need to do is email puretone and ask for the color codes for the coils as well as the magnetic polarity.

Ask for:

Start and finish colors for the stud bobbin.
Start and finish colors for the screw bobbin.
Is the stud bobbin north or south.

That info will not only help in wiring but it will be useful if you want to mix that pickup with other makers down the road.

Most humbucker pickups are stud bobbin north, but not all.

Once you have the color code the rest is easy. Connect the finish wires together and tape them off, or use them as your split wire. The start wires will be your hot and ground. Which one you use as ground will depend on the polarity of any other pickups used.

 

[larry_emder]

Re: Horribly confusing wiring instructions

Thanks alot mate! didnt even think to email them.

Dunno what they were smoking when they started on about the 'phase switch'....

 

[larry_emder]

Re: Horribly confusing wiring instructions

Ok....got the info off em, here it is:

"Apologies for the colour confusion, there have been a few mix ups with the factory.

STUD= white (active) green (ground)
SCREW= red (active) black (ground)
BARE= ground

generally the stud is south."

Can i get some help of some kind person, because i still dont understand everything.
Just want to know What wires i use for the hot, ground and for coil splitting. Cheers!!

 

[MikeS]

Re: Horribly confusing wiring instructions

How are you splitting the humbucker… by using the pickup switch or with a toggle or push pull?

If I’m reading it right, you can use whatever means of switching you like, just move the colors around like this:

SD color = Puretone color

Black = white
White = green
Red = black
Green = red

 

[larry_emder]

Re: Horribly confusing wiring instructions

Sorry to drag up a very old thread, but i am STILL having trouble wiring this thing up.

Had another go today in the neck of my les paul. I used the white as hot, green and black to split the coil, and red and bare as the ground wires. (By the way, this all checks out fine on a multimeter, when i put white on one end of the probe and red + bare on the other end, it reads about 8k. Then when i add the green and black wires to the red + bare, it goes down to about 4k.) Perfect.....right?


SO i use the 'spin a split' mod as the method of splitting the coils, wire it all up nicely, and check it out with the multimeter again......yep, when both coils are on its reading 8k and when fully split reading 4k.

I plug it in, and put it on full humbucker mode. Imagine i've turned the bass off on my amp, and turned the treble and presence up waaaay high (plus its noisy). Then when i goto fully split mode, it sounds alot nicer, the bass is back, and its actually louder than full humbucker mode.

What is the problem here? is it out of phase? I just dont get it.....its reading 8k's, yet sounding quieter and treblier than when in single coil mode....also i've wired up the bridge humbucker exactly the same and it works fine....help me out here folks.

If it IS out of phase, what should i do to remedy it?

Cheers, Larry

 

[Artie]

Re: Horribly confusing wiring instructions

Its definitely out-of-phase. DC resistance will still measure properly because there is no phase on DC. I'll have to look over your color codes to see what to change, but basically, you just need to reverse the wires of one coil.

Also, it sounds like you're wiring the pup in parallel. Is that what you want?

 

[larry_emder]

Re: Horribly confusing wiring instructions

No i'm pretty sure its in series, it measures up right. I'm also using the spin a split mod. Works well on bridge pickup so i cant see how it wouldnt work on this one.
I'm going to try swapping around the ground and hot wires now, is that the right procedure?. Cheers artie.

 

[larry_emder]

Re: Horribly confusing wiring instructions

Just tried swapping around the hot and ground wires (so i've got red as hot, white and bare to ground, and the green and black wires as the 'variable ground' on the spin a split volume control).

It ended up sounding exactly the same (weak and noisy in full humbucking mode, and pretty good in single coil mode). Only difference this time was that the spin a split grounded out the screw coil instead of the stud.

HELLLLLLLPPPP!:yell: :yell: :yell:

And yes, i'm about this (puts fingers together) far away from getting a seymour duncan pickup......but i wanna give this one a chance first.

 

[ratherdashing]

Re: Horribly confusing wiring instructions

According to the guy's e-mail, this is what you should be doing:

Green to ground
White and Black to the lugs on the spin-a-split pot
Red to the switch

If I were you, I would try bypassing the spin-a-split for now and just soldering the white and black wires together. See if you can get a good fat humbucker sound that way. If you do, it means you've wired the pot wrong, if not, it means two of the wires need to be swapped. Artie will probably figure out which ones.

 

[larry_emder]

Re: Horribly confusing wiring instructions

Thanks HEAPS ratherdashing.......it works fine the way youve described :bigok:

And its plenty fat in full humbucker mode...so im happy

At least this project has gotten me pretty good at soldering...