ThreeChordWonder
New member
So I finally got the wiring to work, once I figured out the SD wiring diagram has the labels for the bridge and neck transposed.
In humbucking modes, good humbucker growls.
In rail mode, sweet, almost Strat-like single coil tones.
In P-90 mode, yup P-90 sound, and a bit louder than the rail coils.
The EQ graphs from SD suggest more mids than a regular "scooped mids" humbucker, so they sound a little brighter than the Classic 57s. Not going down the rabbit hole of suggesting the metal pickup covers on the 57s are to blame, oh no, not me.
Impedances are, according to the SD website, 18.9 kOhms at the bridge, 13.0 kOhms in the neck, and my own measurements indicate maybe a 50/50 split between coils, maybe a little hotter towards the P-90s. So yes, maybe hotter than a regular vintage single coil or a P-90, but not massively so.
As for wiring, you can either buy the pickups with the Triple Shot mounting rings (see below) or do as I did and wire them the old fashioned way, with, um, wires and a soldering iron.
The Triple Shot mounting rings come with a little PCB all of their own, and all you have to do is solder the pickup wires to the pads provided. Those are color-labeled, I believe: R for red, W for white, etc. Then there are two pickup wires (hot and ground) that you simply connect in place of your old, not coil split, humbuckers. There may be a third, shield, wire, I don't know. Microswitches on the edges of the mounting rings are used to select your pickup mode.
I elected NOT to spend the extra $40-ish per pickup on the Triple Shot mounting rings. Pemersonally, other than in a studio or bedroom, I think those might prove troublesome, e.g. on stage, with the strobes going, halfway through Brainstorm. So they were wired up using 500k volume pots and 500k push-pull tone pots. You need proper DPDT push-pulls, not the Gibson SPST ones, by the way. The Gibson ones are simple "on/off", and fine for a basic coil split, but you need "on A/on B" ones, and two sets of contacts per switch.
I used the SD "option 2" wiring diagram as my basis, but remember I think they've got the bridge and neck labels, labels not the wiring, transposed.
I also modified the wiring so that the black P-90 "hots" ran direct to the volume pots, and the reds via the switching, not the blacks to the push-pull then to the volume pot with no switch in between anyway.
I also wired the volume "ins" to the volume pot middle lugs, the outs to the left lugs, and omitted the volume pot to volume pot ground, giving me independent volume controls.
Finally I wired the tone controls for "vintage" operation, with the tone pot wires run from the "out" lug rather than the "in". I also used 0.047 uF caps as suggested in the SD wiring diagram. No big deal if you choose 0.022 uF caps instead. I used 10 cent apiece modern caps, not $500 "vintage unobtainium" ones though. Your money, your choice.
So far very pleased.
I have to finish setting up the intonation again, then play time
In humbucking modes, good humbucker growls.
In rail mode, sweet, almost Strat-like single coil tones.
In P-90 mode, yup P-90 sound, and a bit louder than the rail coils.
The EQ graphs from SD suggest more mids than a regular "scooped mids" humbucker, so they sound a little brighter than the Classic 57s. Not going down the rabbit hole of suggesting the metal pickup covers on the 57s are to blame, oh no, not me.
Impedances are, according to the SD website, 18.9 kOhms at the bridge, 13.0 kOhms in the neck, and my own measurements indicate maybe a 50/50 split between coils, maybe a little hotter towards the P-90s. So yes, maybe hotter than a regular vintage single coil or a P-90, but not massively so.
As for wiring, you can either buy the pickups with the Triple Shot mounting rings (see below) or do as I did and wire them the old fashioned way, with, um, wires and a soldering iron.
The Triple Shot mounting rings come with a little PCB all of their own, and all you have to do is solder the pickup wires to the pads provided. Those are color-labeled, I believe: R for red, W for white, etc. Then there are two pickup wires (hot and ground) that you simply connect in place of your old, not coil split, humbuckers. There may be a third, shield, wire, I don't know. Microswitches on the edges of the mounting rings are used to select your pickup mode.
I elected NOT to spend the extra $40-ish per pickup on the Triple Shot mounting rings. Pemersonally, other than in a studio or bedroom, I think those might prove troublesome, e.g. on stage, with the strobes going, halfway through Brainstorm. So they were wired up using 500k volume pots and 500k push-pull tone pots. You need proper DPDT push-pulls, not the Gibson SPST ones, by the way. The Gibson ones are simple "on/off", and fine for a basic coil split, but you need "on A/on B" ones, and two sets of contacts per switch.
I used the SD "option 2" wiring diagram as my basis, but remember I think they've got the bridge and neck labels, labels not the wiring, transposed.
I also modified the wiring so that the black P-90 "hots" ran direct to the volume pots, and the reds via the switching, not the blacks to the push-pull then to the volume pot with no switch in between anyway.
I also wired the volume "ins" to the volume pot middle lugs, the outs to the left lugs, and omitted the volume pot to volume pot ground, giving me independent volume controls.
Finally I wired the tone controls for "vintage" operation, with the tone pot wires run from the "out" lug rather than the "in". I also used 0.047 uF caps as suggested in the SD wiring diagram. No big deal if you choose 0.022 uF caps instead. I used 10 cent apiece modern caps, not $500 "vintage unobtainium" ones though. Your money, your choice.
So far very pleased.
I have to finish setting up the intonation again, then play time
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