troubleshooting help for Gibson Ripper bass pickups wiring (Custom Shop pickups)

[Silver.Surfer]

Hi all,

I've got a pair of these that I put into a Ripper, along with a brand new wiring harness, and I'm now not able to tell where the problem is. I will get sound out of all four switch positions, but they are certainly not quite right. The bridge pickup solo is probably literally half the output of the other three pickup combinations, and then the position that I think should be out of phase sounds LESS out of phase than the other two positions with both pickups on. The position with the pickups parallel **might** sound right, but I'm not even 100% sure about that.

The first things I've got that I'm probably needing to clarify is just wire colors. The diagram for this new harness (not a direct copy of that original harness, because that exact switch is not at all available any longer) doesn't have wire colors listed every time and will just say "hot" and "ground" for two of the three wires on each pickup, with only the orange wires being named "orange." And I've had reason to think now that "hot" wires were black on the Gibson pickups, and so would be likewise for the Seymour Duncan pickups as well? And then that third wire on each pick was originally red, but on these Custom Shop ones: one is red but the other is blue. If black IS how and red [and blue] ARE ground, then I would think I've already got this figured out, but.... here I am asking for help, so.... nope, something's not-right.

If I've said enough for anyone to give me advice, please do! I'm very much not trying to be a bother, but I'm not sure what else I can be doing in this bass.


- Justin -

 

[GuitarDoc]

I'm not familiar with those pups, but typically on Gibson humbuckers the red is hot and the black is ground. That may not be of much help to you though.

From what you describe, it sounds like you've got one of the pups wired out of phase thinking that it is in phase and that's why it sounds like..." the position that I think should be out of phase sounds LESS out of phase than the other two positions with both pickups on".

 

[Silver.Surfer]

I have now managed to find a not-quite-diagram showing that on each pickup two of the wires were typically just soldered on to the same lug/ground when installed, so that might help. The harness I've got has each of the six wires going out to different lugs, instead of just four. That will undoubtedly make a big difference. I'll let you know how this turns out...

 

[Silver.Surfer]

And then I've also entirely possibly broken the neck pickup. How delicate are these hookup wires then? I can now only measure 15 to 10 M on that neck pickup, depending on how I have the wiring laying. Ugh.

 

[jeremy]

measure directly from the pup wires, not in circuit should be like mid 7k range i think? as far as the wiring, not sure i can help much. a buddy of mine has a '76/77 ripper (i cant remember what year off the top of my head) but 1-he is on vacation so i cant check his out and 2-if the switch is different, it might not help anyway.

as far as the color codes, if you have a meter you should be able to tell start and stop (hot and ground) i assume the other wire is a ground for the plate and not part of the coil? i could be totally wrong though. if youre unsure of the color codes, you can call duncan and they can tell ya

 

[Silver.Surfer]

Yeah, I've been emailing with support @ Seymour Duncan as well, and was measuring ohms with the pickup out of circuit, and yeah, still mega-ohms. I'm sending it in for repair, I'm pretty sure...

 

[Silver.Surfer]

So I did end up having messed up the wires to the neck pickup, and so had to get a replacement...
And so now I've got sound out of both pickups, in all four switch positions, BUT the phase is weird. It should be that three positions are regular and one of them has one pickup half out-of-phase, and then three positions are the two pickups combined, and I do have both of those things, but not in the right combinations/positions.

Position-1 does have both pickups in series, and sounds perfectly correct.

Position-2 does have the bridge pickup alone, but it is somehow out of phase with itself (one of the coils is out of phase with the other, I guess?). This is just supposed to be the bridge "solo" and not out-of-phase at all. So I've got something wrong here...

Position-3 should be both pickups wired parallel, and it does sound correct to that.

Position-4 should be both pickups, again wired series, and then one of the coils backwards/whatever so that it's out of phase with the other three (though I don't know which coil on which pickup). BUT then this one is sounding just exactly like position-1, just all normal-phase and sounding like the two pickups in series.

There are a total of six wires on these two pickups, and I'm not sure if I'm 1/4 correct or 1/4 wrong, heh.
Any ideas about where to start on this?

 

[Artie]

The three wires are simply the two coil wires, and chassis ground. This allows one to be wired reverse-phase without making the chassis "hot." With a meter, measure from the pickup frame to each wire. The one that is shorted to the chassis is ground. Mark them. Those wires always get grounded.

On the diagram I've seen, (attached), the bridge negative wire gets grounded also. It and the ground wire are just connected together. It's the neck pickup that gets the coil wires reversed, (OOP), for those sounds. The "trick", of course, is finding an equivalent 4-position rotary switch. The original was 3P4T, but you could always use a 4P4T and not use one section.

Can you post a pic of the switch you're using?

By the way, the Silver Surfer was my favorite childhood comic hero. Even more than Spider Man.

 

[Silver.Surfer]

I hope these pics show well enough what you're hoping to see? I really have no idea how the lugs on the switch connect internally, let alone how/where they're switching. I could probably get that figured out if I really really really had to...

I got this harness from a seller on eBay, if I remember correctly. They make a complete replacement harness w/ pots, cap, and coil.


Yeah, Silver Surfer is clearly one of my favorites ever. I'm pretty fond of Blue Lantern recently though...

 

[Mincer]

That is one wild switch!

 

[beaubrummels]

I hope these pics show well enough what you're hoping to see? I really have no idea how the lugs on the switch connect internally, let alone how/where they're switching. I could probably get that figured out if I really really really had to...

I got this harness from a seller on eBay, if I remember correctly. They make a complete replacement harness w/ pots, cap, and coil.


Yeah, Silver Surfer is clearly one of my favorites ever. I'm pretty fond of Blue Lantern recently though...

Center lugs are common. Outside lugs are switch positions. You can put it in each switch position and measure continuity to figure out what each position is..