Need some expert help...

[larryguitar]

I've had the same problem with three consecutive humbuckers; one I've 'rebuilt' and two made from scratch.

The coils individually meter correctly (this last one, screw coil at 4.75K, slug coil at 4.39K) and together (around 9.37K with the leads attached), but output is extremely weak; too weak for my floor tuner to pick up the wound strings. Magnet is A5, S to screw coil.

I'm attaching some pix and a diagram showing how I wired this thing up, and I'm hoping someone can point out what I'm doing wrong. I would sincerely appreciate it, since this has me just about up the wall... :arg:

Thanks,

Larry

 

[Dave Locher]

Re: Need some expert help...

Not sure why the guys who wind pickups havn't responded, but maybe adding this reply will help?
If you don't get an answer try again with a more descriptive title like "why doesn't the humbucker I wound make any sound?"

Assuming your connections are all good, maybe it is a magnet problem?

 

[freefrog]

Re: Need some expert help...

The coils individually meter correctly (this last one, screw coil at 4.75K, slug coil at 4.39K) and together (around 9.37K with the leads attached), but output is extremely weak; too weak for my floor tuner to pick up the wound strings. Magnet is A5, S to screw coil.

Sounds to me like coils out of phase with each other. Try to connect together the black wires of your coils, or the red wires. Swap the 4 wires cable connections accordingly. Listen...

NOTE: an inductance meter would tell you if the problem is what I say (2 coils OOP exhibit normal resistance but a lowered overall inductance).

Hope this helps.

 

[larryguitar]

Re: Need some expert help...

Sounds to me like coils out of phase with each other. Try to connect together the black wires of your coils, or the red wires. Swap the 4 wires cable connections accordingly. Listen...

NOTE: an inductance meter would tell you if the problem is what I say (2 coils OOP exhibit normal resistance but a lowered overall inductance).

Hope this helps.

Thanks. I think I've got an idea; I was wiring it:
Screw coil start-hot lead
Screw coil end-to slug coil start
Slug coil start-from screw coil end
Slug coil end-ground

I believe it should be:
Screw coil start-hot
Screw coil end-slug coil end
Slug coil start-ground
Slug coil end-from screw coil end

Is that right?

Thanks,

Larry

 

[shadowfire90]

Re: Need some expert help...

I've converted my share of pickups to 3-4 wire and it's never fun and I do agree with what freefrog suggests.

If there is hum like a coilsplit and it's similar to the tone of a tele bridge pickup it's series out of phase. Start off by swapping the red and green wires. See if you've got the same DC resistance as before and solder the pickup in. The output should increase and you've got your hum cancellation back as series out of phase is notorious for hum like a coilsplit. I knew one guy who liked the tone so much I had to figure out a way to make a push pull option for it. I'm not even joking. He would be like "hey man can you give me that Jimmy Page tone out of this guitar too".

I remember when I was figuring out how to charge magnets this guy put a pickup together with whatever unicorn elixir alnico he went with and forgot to charge his magnets but I'm sure this isn't the case but still something worth bringing up for total reassurance as there is the rare case of companies shipping magnets that aren't charged.

Before soldering the pickup in be sure to measure the DC resistance across each coil.
yellow / red - should give you one reading - lets say a 9.1k
green / black - should give you another - lets say 9.5k
if your DC resistance is approximately 18.6k - start off with the suggestion of swapping out the red / green wire

now the problem with just DC resistance alone is whether or not the pickups coils are correct. Standard series in our case. Or series out of phase both will give the same reading. Inductance is how I spot this but it's changing two wires around and if we know what we're doing this is no big deal... like our bass players sock color when we play live. After a long day you can even test a pickup from the jack which I hate doing but this is one of the two or three actually useful times to do it and if you know the inductance of the pickup is say 8H and wired into the guitar it reads 5H sort of area you mixed two wires up.

One real world example of series out of phase is if you swapped a black and white wire on a seymour duncan for whatever reason. Where the north start and finish mix up.
This means
white - to the pickups volume pot (les paul)
black is soldered with white - coilsplit - whether we're using it or not
and the rest of the pickup wired normally

You'll notice on guitarelectronics.com the pickup color codes have two names
starts (outer wires)
finishes (inside wires)
like below
View attachment 102693

and I'll end off with this quick and insightful video

 

[freefrog]

Re: Need some expert help...

Thanks. I think I've got an idea; I was wiring it:
Screw coil start-hot lead
Screw coil end-to slug coil start
Slug coil start-from screw coil end
Slug coil end-ground

I believe it should be:
Screw coil start-hot
Screw coil end-slug coil end
Slug coil start-ground
Slug coil end-from screw coil end

Is that right?

Thanks,

Larry

Sorry for the delayed answer, I was busy.

Yep, at first glance, your second idea translates what I'd do - and transposes in other words the schematic posted by shadowfire90 (you say "end" when it says "finish" - LOL). Thx to him for the pic and vid.

Let us know if it works once the wires swapped, thx!

 

[larryguitar]

Re: Need some expert help...

Thanks for the assist, Gents!

The second try worked, and (surprisingly? ) the pickup sounds glorious, if I do say so myself!

Thanks again!

Larry

 

[freefrog]

Re: Need some expert help...

Cool! Glad to have contributed...