Looking for help with Pearly Gates

[telecode101]

Hi, new guy here. I am wondering if someone can help me with wiring a new pickup into a vintage Falcon circa early to mid 80s.

The original HB pickups have only 2 wires. Red, White, plus the ground.

The one I got is a Seymour Duncan Pearly Gates and it has 4 wires.
Red, White, Black and Green plus the ground.

Whats is messing me up is that there is a circuit board in the wiring cab. In the pictures, the old pickup is the grey cable and the new PG is the black cable.

The old pickup was wired as per pic. The white wire going into the pot and the red wire going into the circuit board.

Any advice of how to hook this up?

What I did was I soddered the white and the red together and soddered to pot. And I soddered the black to circuit board. and then the green and ground together and soddered to ground.
I am including the schematics for the new pickup that I was following but I thing I buggered it up. I am just trying to sodder it the way the old one was. I don't need any sort of split humbucker or anything.

Full pic set is below.

https://imgur.com/a/bCrRf

Any advice appreciated.

 

[gregory]

Re: Looking for help with Pearly Gates

Red and white soldered together and taped off.
Green and bare connected to ground.
Black is the hot wire.

If you have a phase problem when both pickups are active then reverse the green and black wires.

 

[telecode101]

Re: Looking for help with Pearly Gates

Red and white soldered together and taped off.
Green and bare connected to ground.
Black is the hot wire.

If you have a phase problem when both pickups are active then reverse the green and black wires.

thank you. i will try that.

I am just confused about what you mean by green and bare to ground?

I currently have the green and bare soddered together and soddered to the orange circle. thats the same place where the bare wires from the old pickup are soddered to.

So I am a little confused about what goes in the yellow circle. Where do I sodder the black wire -- to the pot (where the white wire was of the old pickup) or the circuit board (where the red wire was soddered to of the old pickup)?

I guess I should add. I believe they are push pull pots. They came standard in those guitars. What I dont get is how did they achive push pull with 2 conductor humbuckers of the original pickups. there is only a red and white white wire and a ground.

 

[gregory]

Re: Looking for help with Pearly Gates

The bare wire of the old pickup could have already been connected to one of the pickup coils with one wire connected to the other coil and the other wire connected to the junction where the two coils are connected.

So if you wanted to split the new pickup, solder the red/white pair to the push/pull switch (which I think you are mistakenly calling the pot). The black wire goes to the board, I guess. Your picture isn't showing anything very definitive. If the board wasn't there theb the black wire would be soldered to the outer lug of the pot.

In other words, the red/white pair go to the point on the push/pull switch where you disconnected the previous pickup. It's the same point where the white wire is on the other push/pull switch. The black wire connects to the board, just like where the red wire is connected for the other pickup. If there are phasing issues then splitting will become a bit more complicated. Hum when both pickups are split and combined can really complicate matters, provided you would want to correct it.

 

[telecode101]

Re: Looking for help with Pearly Gates

The bare wire of the old pickup could have already been connected to one of the pickup coils with one wire connected to the other coil and the other wire connected to the junction where the two coils are connected.

So if you wanted to split the new pickup, solder the red/white pair to the push/pull switch (which I think you are mistakenly calling the pot). The black wire goes to the board, I guess. Your picture isn't showing anything very definitive. If the board wasn't there theb the black wire would be soldered to the outer lug of the pot.

In other words, the red/white pair go to the point on the push/pull switch where you disconnected the previous pickup. It's the same point where the white wire is on the other push/pull switch. The black wire connects to the board, just like where the red wire is connected for the other pickup. If there are phasing issues then splitting will become a bit more complicated. Hum when both pickups are split and combined can really complicate matters, provided you would want to correct it.

Thanks. Then I think I have to double check my connections because I think thats exactly how I have it currently soddered. But the guitar is squealing like crazy when I plug it into an amp.

 

[Mincer]

Re: Looking for help with Pearly Gates

Squealing? Like microphonic feedback, or something else? Pearly Gates are potted, and aren't generally squeal-prone, so unless there is some really strange wiring in there, I am not sure what could cause that in a normal guitar circuit at less-than-earsplitting volumes.

 

[telecode101]

Re: Looking for help with Pearly Gates

Well thanks for all the posts and advice. After this thread and the advice on here, I decided to leave it as i had soddered it and plug it in and see if it squeals again .. it was fine. So I double checked everything to make sure i didnt miss anything. the only thing I can think of is this.

so this guitar has a metal cover that fit in and screws in and goes over the tone knobs and the circuit board.. and then on top of that you screw it the back plate. if you look at the yellow circle, what I had was i had the hot wire extending a little past the curcuit board. i wonder whether its possible that when i put the metal cover on, it was touching the hot wire and that was causing the weird sound.

anyways, i cut that little bit of extra wire and put the plate on and all is well. the pickup is working fine.

who knows..