Seth Lover Wiring Difficulties (4 Conductor)

[Crozap]

Hi gang, I'm installing a brand new 4 conductor Seth Lover pickup in the neck of a Telecaster and I'm having some difficulty getting it to sound right - it appears I'm only getting the output from one coil but the pickup springs to life if I connect the red/white joined wires to ground as well.

I followed the SD wiring schematics to be sure, with the difference being that I'm using the green as hot with the black cable going to ground. I'm pairing it with a Fender OV bridge pickup and wanted to keep them in phase with each other in the middle position but I also tried swapping the green and black wires to 'standard' SD wiring for the hell of it with no joy. All the while the Tele pickup's fine whether wired to bridge or neck.

So to summarise, standard wiring doesn't work and only seems to give me the ouput from one coil, but this does:

Green to the pickup switch
Black, red and white (twisted and soldered cable) to ground
Bare wire to ground

I have tested this configuration with crocodile leads to rule out any wiring issues switch side and the issue persists. I've also had a pal go over with a meter to saanity check and they agreee I'm all good wiring-wise.

Are there any wizards out there with more experience than me who might have an idea of what's causing this and how I can resolve it? SD's support suggest sending the pickup back, but it sounds gorgeous when it works so I'd like to keep it and figure this problem out if possible.

Many thanks!

 

[Mincer]

Re: Seth Lover Wiring Difficulties (4 Conductor)

Welcome to the forum!

Can you tell if only 1 coil is working when red + white is connected? Can you let us know the reading on a meter? Have you tried connecting it directly to a jack to see if both coils are working (tap on poles with a screwdriver).

 

[rami93]

Re: Seth Lover Wiring Difficulties (4 Conductor)

You should have the red and white together while the black goes to ground(if you want to use black as hot connect green to ground).

 

[beaubrummels]

Re: Seth Lover Wiring Difficulties (4 Conductor)

Sure you don't have a broken coil on the Seth? Did you try to run it with parallel coils also to see if it would work?

 

[Crozap]

Re: Seth Lover Wiring Difficulties (4 Conductor)

Hi all and thanks very much for the warm welcome and all your help!

The pickup reads 7.34 on my meter, which is just under the advertised DCR of 7.40, so all looks good there. It seems to me as though I've only got one coil working (the south/screw side) until I ground the red/white leads (I've tested this directly to the output jack as well). I've never had to go this far into troubleshooting before so I haven't tried running the coils in parallel. I've been rewiring my guitars for years but I'm a bit of a novice when it comes to 4 conductor wiring, so I'll admit I'm totally unsure on that - I'll look that up.

I'm using green as my hot because I'm pairing it with a Fender Original Vintage Tele pickup and I had a choice of reversing the leads on the bridge pickup or the newly installed humbucker. In this instance I chose to reverse the neck pickup's wires (green and black) rather than pulling the bridge plate off, snipping that pickup's baseplate ground lead and then reversing its ground and hot wires. In the past I've found the pickups to be out of phase in the middle position when mixing Fender and Duncan pickups unless I reverse one of the pickup hot/ground leads.

That leaves me with red and white joined and taped off, green to the switch, black and bare wire to ground. I could have lived with the middle position out of phase if it meant I could get the Seth working but unfortunately, the issue persists whether I'm using black or green as my hot lead.

I think I might have to head down the road of learning to identify the pickup coil leads with my meter to know once and for sure. It's a brand new pickup so I could send it back if a coil is broken but I'd quite like to see if I can get it working and hopefully learn a few things in the process.

Thanks again!

 

[Nostalgic Distortion]

Re: Seth Lover Wiring Difficulties (4 Conductor)

Yeah, wow, that's just odd....


I've done almost exactly the same thing to one of my Tele's, likely with the same pickup's (Fender USA bridge & Seth neck) & aside from swapping the black & green leads to avoid phase issues in pos. 3 it should go in like any other 4 wire Duncan humbucker? Mine went together perfectly right off the bat & didn't give me any issues......

Perhaps we'd have better luck helping you if you were to post a picture of the Tele's harness? Apart from that I'd take Mincer's advice and see about wiring it straight to the jack as a 2 wire pickup removing as many variables from the circuit as possible...

If the problem persists then it is likely that it's that pup, in which case I'm sure they'd be happy to swap out for you. That said, the fact that its reading 7.4 or whatever is a encouraging sign.....

 

[rami93]

Re: Seth Lover Wiring Difficulties (4 Conductor)

Can you check if you have continuity between your grounds? Specifically where the black and bare are grounded , and the rest of the ground points.

 

[Crozap]

Re: Seth Lover Wiring Difficulties (4 Conductor)

I've removed the humbucker from the circuit in order to do some testing, so here are my findings:

I tried measuring the DCR of the individual coils and both are looking to be as I might have expected (with my limited knowledge):

North coil (testing black and white leads): 3.65
South coil (green and red leads): 3.59

In the excitement I didn't do another test of the overall pickup, but it was around 7.3ish, so looks to be within range.

I then rigged up a little test rig with an output socket and flying leads with crocodile clips on the end to allow me to connect the pickup directly to the amp via a guitar cable connected to the socket. I plugged into an amp and noted the following:

South coil on its own (green to hot and red, black and white to ground) fairly low output, but probably as I'd have expected
North coil on its own (black to hot and red, green and white to ground): similar output level to the south coil test
Both coils in parallel (red and black to hot and green and white to ground): similar output levels to either coil on their own
Both coils in series (black to hot, green to ground and red and white joined): weak output, but if I touch the red and white leads to ground the humbucker springs to life and is louder than all of the above - sounding 'normal'.

I was hoping to get this pickup working but I'm beginning to think there's more to this than a simple rewire fix as the green, black and red and white cables all look to be correct. I'm not overly comfortable with dismantling it (as it's brand new and only arrived last week) so am I best off admitting defeat and sending it back to the shop for a refund/replacement?

 

[jeremy]

Re: Seth Lover Wiring Difficulties (4 Conductor)

id just send it back for a replacement, something weird is going on and if you dont want to open it up then just get one that is correct

 

[Mincer]

Re: Seth Lover Wiring Difficulties (4 Conductor)

Yes, this sounds like something is up. Contact the factory to request an RA#.

 

[Crozap]

Re: Seth Lover Wiring Difficulties (4 Conductor)

Thanks ever so much for all your help everyone, it's a shame this one didn't work out so I'll get it sent back for a replacement.

The pickup sounded glorious for the brief moments I managed to get it to play ball, but hopefully I'll have another one here soon to play with. I've installed quite a few SD pickups (I'm a big fan of the Antiquity pickups) and haven't had any problems in the past so it's an unusual one, but hopefully better luck next time!

Thanks again for all your help along the way, it's been greatly appreciated!

Phil

 

[Mincer]

Re: Seth Lover Wiring Difficulties (4 Conductor)

If you have any other issues, feel free to PM me, and I will try to get them sorted out.

 

[Crozap]

Re: Seth Lover Wiring Difficulties (4 Conductor)

Hi all, I thought I'd update this thread with a happy ending.

The replacement pickup turned up today, so clipped it into my test box and there it was - a beautiful, full sounding pickup, so I got to wiring it up and putting the guitar back together and it's roars beautifully. It's a shame I didn't get to figuring out what was wrong with the previous pickup, but right now I'm not that bothered!

Anyway, the Seth sounds great in the neck position of the Tele I popped it into. I have it paired with a Fender Original Vintage Tele bridge pickup at the moment, but I'm tempted to raid another of my Teles for its Jerry Donahue bridge pickup to get a more balanced tone between the neck and bridge. I'm really fond of the OV but I think the JD might pair up a little better for me as it's a little darker sounding. I know the contrast is quite appealing for a lot of players but in my case I'd rather not have such a night and day difference when switching. We'll see though, I'm not afraid of the guitar's tone control and I'd rather get on with playing at the moment, so I might come back to that thought the next time I come to restring it.

Thanks once again to all for the (in)sanity checks, kind offers of help and knowledge!

 

[Mincer]

Re: Seth Lover Wiring Difficulties (4 Conductor)

A Seth + JD in a Tele is my favorite combo in a Tele. You are right, they blend beautifully, and you still get some twang in there. I don't think I could go back to using stock Tele pickups.

 

[Davii]

Re: Seth Lover Wiring Difficulties (4 Conductor)

I'd guess the original Seth somehow ended up with it's green and red wires fitted the wrong way round. Moot point now, but hey

 

[Mincer]

Re: Seth Lover Wiring Difficulties (4 Conductor)

Yeah, did you ever find out what exactly was wrong with the old one?