STK-S6 installation issues

[Jeff V]

Hello. I and my son are upgrading his Strat with STK-S6 pickups in all three positions, and have run into a wall.

We're using an ObsidianWire integrated wiring harness:

https://obsidianwire.com/products/7-way-wiring-for-strat-gilmour-switchhttps://obsidianwire.com/products/7-way-wiring-for-strat-gilmour-switch

https://obsidianwire.com/blogs/product-support/strat-install

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0583/9434/5648/files/Stratocaster_Install_2024.pdf?v=1729126857

ObsidianWire | Pickup wire color codes | Humbuckers & Single Coils

A guide to pickup wire color codes for humbucker and single coil pickup wiring. Find Seymour Duncan Wiring Colors, Dimarzio Color codes, and general info for working out what wire goes where in your guitar.

obsidianwire.com

After we got everything carefully connected, it was working but whisper-quiet. What we did, based on available information we could find, appears below. What did we do wrong? Thanks!! (ETA: SEE UPDATE BELOW--THIS ARRANGEMENT OBVIOUSLY DID NOT WORK)

• Soldered each pickup's red and white wires together (ETA: This was incorrect--on these pickups white is HOT and red is COIL SPLIT, but coil splitting is also not supported on this wiring harness)
• Put each pickup's black wire into an even-numbered HOT slot (e.g. 10 for the bridge) (ETA: This was incorrect--black is GROUND and white is HOT on these Seymour Duncan pickups, apparently a common SD arrangement)
• Put each pickup's bare wire into the corresponding odd-numbered GND. slot (e.g. 9 for the bridge) (ETA: This is correct, but the black one goes there too)
• Connected the output jack's wires to slot 4 (white, hot) and slot 3 (black, ground) (ETA: This is correct)
• Connected the two ground wires from the body to the screw terminal (ETA: This is correct)

ETA: I'm updating this to help anyone else installing STK-S6 pickups.

There are four wires on each pickup:
white = HOT
black = GROUND
red = COIL SPLIT
bare = GROUND

There are ten slots on the wiring harness, and a screw terminal for ground next to the slots. Each pickup is assigned two slots in this particular wiring--note that this harness is one usually used with single-coil pickups (and has the Gilmour mod, which allows using all three pickups together), so does not support coil splitting.

What worked:

• For each pickup,
  • Taping off the red wire (no coil splitting needed).
  • Inserting the white wire into the HOT slot
  • Soldering the black and bare ground wires together, then inserting them into the GND. slot
• Inserting the white output jack wire into the HOT output slot, and the black output jack wire into the GND. output slot
• Attaching the two ground wires from the body to the ground screw terminal

So on this particular wiring harness, this was the final arrangement:
SLOT 10: bridge pickup white wire (HOT)
SLOT 9: bridge pickup black + bare wires (GROUND/GND.)
SLOT 8: middle pickup white wire (HOT)
SLOT 7: middle pickup black + bare wires (GROUND/GND.)
SLOT 6: neck pickup white wire (HOT)
SLOT 5: neck pickup black + bare wires (GROUND/GND.)
SLOT 4: output jack white wire (HOT)
SLOT 3: output jack black wire (GROUND/GND.)
SLOT 2: empty
SLOT 1: empty
screw terminal: both body ground wires

 

[CK71]

I use obsidian wireless also. The issue may be with the bare wires in #9 as the bare wires are often screwed down near the connector. you can see an example in the blog link you added where it says " all other ground" and then put the bridge ground wire in #9. Hope this helps

 

[Jeff V]

I use obsidian wireless also. The issue may be with the bare wires in #9 as the bare wires are often screwed down near the connector. you can see an example in the blog link you added where it says " all other ground" and then put the bridge ground wire in #9. Hope this helps

Thank you. I'm still waiting to hear back from Obsidian. In the meantime I asked a couple of AI assistants for opinions, and one of them suggested putting the bare wire from all the pickups to the same ground connector (screw terminal at the end of the board). Are you saying that's what I should try, i.e. leave the red and white soldered together, put the black wire from each pickup into the HOT slots, and just gather literally all the ground wires together on that single ground terminal?

 

[CK71]

I screw down all the bare wires into the terminal at the end of the board. the shielded ground wire I put in the slot next to the hot wire.

 

[Jeff V]

Oh, I get you... on these pickups we only have black, bare, red and white (and I see consistently suggestions to solder those together and just tape them off, the red and white). So there's no fifth wire to put in that GND slot next to the hot one. So with that four-wire arrangement (no green) should I just leave the GND slot empty for each pickup?

 

[CK71]

Oh bummer I didnt realize those dont have the green wire. screwing them down may work. I am glad you contacted obsidian wire hopefully the will respond soon.

 

[Jeff V]

Oh bummer I didnt realize those dont have the green wire. screwing them down may work. I am glad you contacted obsidian wire hopefully the will respond soon.

I got it working! White on each pickup is hot, and the red wire is for coil splitting (which I'm not using, so was able to just tape it off). I've updated the original post. Thanks for helping.

 

[jeremy]

glad you got it sorted!

 

[Jeff V]

glad you got it sorted!

Thanks! These pickups are terrific--my son loves the SSL-5 in all three positions in his hardtail Strat, but we were hoping for something noiseless that would still preserve the sonic DNA of the SSL-5 and work better with the flatter radius on this guitar. These STK-S6 pickups I wouldn't hesitate to put in any Strat--they sound slightly more modern, but close enough to get Gilmouresque sounds, and they've got a great, thick tone in general.

 

[IMENATOR]

I did not like the SSL-6 in the neck when I tried it with my STK-S6 in the bridge it was too much bass and lacked treble when I set me I EQ to make the STK-S6 sound good. But I also do remember the STK-S6 in the neck performed well, I think it has a touch less bass than the SSL-5 or SSL-6, in a good way. I am really curious about your result; do you have sound clips or a video showing the sound of that set?

My personal experience was the STS-S6 in the bridge with SSL-1 neck and middle to be a great combo. Also, the STK-S6 in the neck of an HSS with a PAF-ish humbucker was a good sounding combo. When split and combined with an SSL-1 it can give a nice Straty quack.

 

[Jeff V]

I did not like the SSL-6 in the neck when I tried it with my STK-S6 in the bridge it was too much bass and lacked treble when I set me I EQ to make the STK-S6 sound good. But I also do remember the STK-S6 in the neck performed well, I think it has a touch less bass than the SSL-5 or SSL-6, in a good way. I am really curious about your result; do you have sound clips or a video showing the sound of that set?

My personal experience was the STS-S6 in the bridge with SSL-1 neck and middle to be a great combo. Also, the STK-S6 in the neck of an HSS with a PAF-ish humbucker was a good sounding combo. When split and combined with an SSL-1 it can give a nice Straty quack.

Good info. I'll see about recording my son. We've never used SSL-6 pickups, but these seem like a better SSL-5 which was the hope.

I guess the idea of the stacked single-coil is that the bottom coil isn't as much involved with the signal since it's further away from the string, and is just there for hum cancellation? In our current arrangement coil splitting isn't an option, in any event (didn't realize it was supported until after we'd bought the wiring harness and pickups). So if I cajole my son into recording it'll be all in humbucking mode, but I'll keep it flat and clean.