Replacing pickup in hss strat with a new jb humbucker. Help

[ZigZilla]

Hey everyone,

I need some help with this. Im replacing my humbucker in my hss strat with a JB. Im just real confused with the wires. Different colors are messing me up. Can someone give me advice. I dont want to change the 5 way switch. Here are some pics.

Thanks in advance.
Zig

 

[shadowfire90]

Re: Replacing pickup in hss strat with a new jb humbucker. Help

Welcome to the forum, this is a really easy installation. I'd honestly suggest putting in a push pull pot or something because of the hum you'll get in position 2 on the blade switch when you have the bridge in series (full power/both coils). The other way around this is how Ibanez usually deals with it called the "autosplit" mod but it's a little more complicated.

However to see if the pickup is right for you this is the most basic of installations. To do the autosplit mod I'd have to draw the entire wiring out

green/bare - ground to the back of any potentiometer
red/white - solder the ends of the wires together and cover with tape or heat shrink
black - to the switch

View attachment 101899

and the pickups color code - note that the red/white wires are soldered together and put tape or heat shrink over them
View attachment 101900

 

[DavidRavenMoon]

Replacing pickup in hss strat with a new jb humbucker. Help

Just to point out; the hum you get from mixing a humbucker with a single coil has nothing to do with it being in series, it’s because it’s a humbucker. It doesn’t hum. The single coil does.

The two coils in the humbucker pick up hum. When combined they cancel it out. So both pickups need to hum.

So if you combine the correct opposite polarity coil from the humbucker with the single coil, you have produced a parallel wired humbucker.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Mincer]

Re: Replacing pickup in hss strat with a new jb humbucker. Help

Thing is, if you are combining SD and Fender pickups, the JB will be out of phase. To solve that, reverse the black & green wires of the JB: green is now hot, and black goes to the pot. I don't know what the other pickups in the guitar are, though.

 

[shadowfire90]

Re: Replacing pickup in hss strat with a new jb humbucker. Help

good call about the out of phase suggestion Mincer.

so same basic approach, nothing fancy
Green - to the switch
red/white - coilsplit
black / bare - solder to the back of a control pot

if you can I'd put the autosplit mod or push pull mod in the switch so you'd get that familiar 2nd position on your strat you're most likely getting. Luckily it's an easy one to do. This is the approach. Don't forget the black wire almost hidden under the white wire coming from the volume control. This wiring you have the same tone controls and all as well. But again, switch the green and black wires. Bare is always to the back of the pot. Easy right.

This is a screen shot off of google I found.

 

[ZigZilla]

Re: Replacing pickup in hss strat with a new jb humbucker. Help

Thanks very much guys for the replies.
Just checking.
So to get this right im going to connect:
1)green wire (jb)to where the blue wire is currently (fender)
2)white and red (jb) to where green wire is (fender)
3) black and bare wire (jb) to back of volune pot

Thanks again for all your help
Zig

 

[ZigZilla]

Re: Replacing pickup in hss strat with a new jb humbucker. Help

Thanks very much guys for the replies.
Just checking.
So to get this right im going to connect:
1)green wire (jb)to where the blue wire is currently (fender)
2)white and red (jb) to where green wire is (fender)
3) black and bare wire (jb) to back of volune pot

Thanks again for all your help
Zig

Here is some more pics

 

[shadowfire90]

Re: Replacing pickup in hss strat with a new jb humbucker. Help

Based on what Mincer's suggestion about the black and green wires being swapped this is what I suggest to get the best results.

From your photos. I'm not 100% sure about the switch as I can't see the second pole (set of contacts). Use my diagram for reference. I drew it up quite quickly but compare it to the wiring you've got so you shouldn't have to de-solder everything. This keeps the middle and neck tone controls as well. There are a few ways to get the tone control to/from the pickups you want but this is the easiest way I've found when swapping pickups.

Hope this helps , no wires are soldered together unless you see black squares is the rule I do in my diagrams by the way. You can solder the pickup grounds to the back of any pots (controls) I just put certain pickups on the backs of other pots to make neater diagrams
View attachment 101916