Twangbanger/Surf for Strat Wiring Issues

N

novoselpro

New member
Hey gang, this is my first thread on this forum. This is also my first time putting Duncan's in my Strat. I just put Surf for Strat pups in the neck and middle with a Twangbanger in the bridge. The issue I'm having is that I don't have any noise cancellation/Strat "twang" in positions 2&4 at all. I've double checked my wiring and it matches the schematics. All three black wires are grounded to the volume pot and the three whites are connected to the switch. I'm really not sure what to do at this point. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
 
Re: Twangbanger/Surf for Strat Wiring Issues

Sometimes, the vintage singles are opposite wind and polarity from other pickups.

In those cases, I believe you swap the middle and neck to get the right phase and possibly have to reverse pos and neg leads on one pickup.....probably the bridge.

Those are the two ways to deal with pickups out of phase and non hum cancelling.
 
Re: Twangbanger/Surf for Strat Wiring Issues

rw/rp middle pup? if so you should be getting humcancelling in neck/middle even if you need to swap things around to get the twangbanger to cancel hum
 
Re: Twangbanger/Surf for Strat Wiring Issues

To elaborate, do you know which models of Surfer you bought? (Was one RW/RP or were they the same model)

An easy way to tell is to put them face to face to each other. If all of them repel, (bridge repels mid and neck and mid repels neck) then they are all the same polarity and will not cancel hum in 2/4. If some attract and some repel, put the two repelling ones in the neck and bridge (one should be the Twangbanger) and the one that attracts to the other two in the middle.

Next, leave them wired as is, with blacks to ground and whites to switch. When going through position 1 through 5 if any of them sound "thin" and out of phase, it's time to swap black/white.

However, no matter what, the surfers in the neck/middle should sound great. They may cancel noise or not, but the sound should be classic Strat. If something sounds off there's a chance that either something in the wiring is either off (bad solder) or a component is damaged.
 
Re: Twangbanger/Surf for Strat Wiring Issues

Thanks to all for the ideas! Jeremy, the pup in the middle was marked RWRP on the box. I will have to take both out of the pick guard to see if they attract/repel. Is there any way to look at them visually to tell if it's a RWRP? By the way, I DO NOT have out of phase between the neck and the middle. The plot thickens...
 
Re: Twangbanger/Surf for Strat Wiring Issues

Also make sure the switch isn't broke. Put it in position 2 then tap on the bridge and middle pickups with your allen wrench to make sure signal from both pickups are getting through. Maybe when you're in position 2, you're only getting signal from the middle pickup. And same thing for position 4.
 
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Re: Twangbanger/Surf for Strat Wiring Issues

If you have any pickup, you can use it to test the polarity of the installed pickups.

You say neck and middle aren't out of phase, that's good. Do they cancel hum? And is bridge/middle out of phase?
 
Re: Twangbanger/Surf for Strat Wiring Issues

The switch does work. There is signal between both pups whether it's in the two or four position, but it doesn't cancel the hum and there isn't any of the fender twang. I do have the Tex-Mex pups that came out of this guitar so I can try checking the polarity with those. Thanks for the idea. It'll save me a lot of time of taking them out if I don't have to.
 
Re: Twangbanger/Surf for Strat Wiring Issues

Another possibility I can think of is that there's nothing "wrong". Humbuckers and rwrp singles don't automatically cancel all the noise. You might just need to shield your guitar. And about the twang: position 2 and 4 have less treble than 1,3,5. You mentioned your guitar is stock. It could be that your 250k pots aren't letting enough highs thru on position 2 and 4 for it to sound twangy. While position 1,3,5 sound fine.
 
Re: Twangbanger/Surf for Strat Wiring Issues

When I say that positions 2&4 don't cancel any hum, I mean none at all. Positions 2&4 were a huge difference before I changed the pups out.
 
Re: Twangbanger/Surf for Strat Wiring Issues

PFDarkside said:
To elaborate, do you know which models of Surfer you bought? (Was one RW/RP or were they the same model)

An easy way to tell is to put them face to face to each other. If all of them repel, (bridge repels mid and neck and mid repels neck) then they are all the same polarity and will not cancel hum in 2/4. If some attract and some repel, put the two repelling ones in the neck and bridge (one should be the Twangbanger) and the one that attracts to the other two in the middle.

Next, leave them wired as is, with blacks to ground and whites to switch. When going through position 1 through 5 if any of them sound "thin" and out of phase, it's time to swap black/white.

However, no matter what, the surfers in the neck/middle should sound great. They may cancel noise or not, but the sound should be classic Strat. If something sounds off there's a chance that either something in the wiring is either off (bad solder) or a component is damaged.
Click to expand...
PFDarkside, here's what I did. I took the original RWRP pup (that I removed) and put it up against the other three. It was repelled by the neck and bridge pups, and attracted by the middle one. Is that correct then? I'm not sure if I am reading your original post the right way. Once again thank you to everyone for your help. Hopefully this will be figured out soon!
 
Re: Twangbanger/Surf for Strat Wiring Issues

Well after many days of work, illness and the Thanksgiving holiday, I finally had a chance to tackle this pup issue again. I came across an old SD blog in which Cathrina Robins mentioned a similar problem with an antiquity surf. The post mentioned switching the hot and the ground on the middle pup to get the hum canceling. Low and behold it worked! I have my Fender "Twang" back in position 2 but, not in position 4. The sound is VERY thin. Does anyone here think if I switched the hot and ground on the neck pup that it would solve the problem? I would rather wait to hear from all of you before I dive under the hood again. Any additional help/advice will be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
 
Re: Twangbanger/Surf for Strat Wiring Issues

yes, that should fix the problem. your neck and middle pups are out of phase at the moment
 
Re: Twangbanger/Surf for Strat Wiring Issues

jeremy said:
yes, that should fix the problem. your neck and middle pups are out of phase at the moment
Click to expand...

Jeremy, it looks like this did the trick! I flipped the hot and ground on the neck pup and now I have hum canceling in positions 2 & 4. I still don't understand why this is, but I'm glad it worked! Once again I would like to thank everyone for their time/expertise in helping me get this right. Now it's time to play!
 
Re: Twangbanger/Surf for Strat Wiring Issues

jeremy said:
rw/rp middle pup? if so you should be getting humcancelling in neck/middle even if you need to swap things around to get the twangbanger to cancel hum
Click to expand...

Jeremy I have Surfer neck /Surfer" RWRP "middle and /Twang Banger Bridge .
Can you show me how to wire them .I am not familiar with polarity and reverse w,conducters ,baseplate,out of phase and such... Is there a diagram for this set ? thanks
 
Re: Twangbanger/Surf for Strat Wiring Issues

PFDarkside said:
If you have any pickup, you can use it to test the polarity of the installed pickups.

You say neck and middle aren't out of phase, that's good. Do they cancel hum? And is bridge/middle out of phase?
Click to expand...

Help me wire Surfer neck /Surfer Rwrp/Twang Banger bridge....
 
Re: Twangbanger/Surf for Strat Wiring Issues

Surfer neck/Surfer RWRP/Twang Banger on the bridge ... I installed them the way everybody told me even Seymour Duncan customer service guy wiring them Standard but the middle + bridge position is out of phase sounds thin,no bass and low in volume . All other 4 positions work just fine . I checked the polarity attract/repel test and it is the way it should be . Where do you guys think is the problem>>?:scratchch


Mincer said:
This should just be a standard Strat wiring.
Click to expand...
 
Re: Twangbanger/Surf for Strat Wiring Issues

Have you tried to reverse the hot and ground on the bridge pickup?
 
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