Understanding my guitar

[Vortex]

Hello
I'm trying to understand my 30 years old Korean Vantage guitar.
I want to change the humbucker pickup so I have a new Screamin' Demon waiting for installation It's my first time.

After watching some youtube videos, I thought it would be funny to know, which coils the different switch positions use.
I have been playing guitar without knowing what is what, I could just hear, that one switch position is more clear and bright, than the other.
The pickups looks like HSS, but after closer look inside, the single coil pickups are with 3 wires, so it must be tapped coil, so I have measured the resistance.

The red wire is always ground.
In one position of the switch, the yellow wire is hot, so it must be "half coil".
But in the second position, both yellow and blue are hot.

What kind of coil connection is that? I don't think it's series and it doesn't look parallel either.

What is the usual way of using tapped pickups? Half coil and whole coil?

 

[beaubrummels]

Looks humbucking to me in the up position, and split in the down position. The yellow is actually the hot lead and blue is the series link. I take it there's no pickup selector, so the off position is how you contol which pickups are in use. I'm not able to find a Vantage with that kind of wiring, however, so I'm not sure what model we're talking about.

 

[Vortex]

Thanks for your answer.
I know nothing about the guitar. Back then I just needed an electric guitar that worked. There is a sticker Made in Korea and a serial number on the neck plate, E702021
I bought it from an authorized guitar dealer 30 years ago, just the guitar and a little plastic bag with allen key an the tremolo arm, without manual or anything else.
There are 3pcs 3-position switch, one for each pickup. In the middle position all pickups are off. Volume and tone pots.
I broke the humbucker switch arm once, so it has been replaced.
I like the thin neck.

 

[Artie]

There's something wrong with that diagram, or, someone else rewired it wrong. In both positions, yellow goes out. In one position, blue is shorted to yellow, and in the other, it's left hanging to make noise. So it's always split, with one noisy position. That can't be right.

If you reversed blue and yellow on the "commons" of the switch, it would make sense. But even then, the "off" position doesn't. Now, you're "floating" the output of the guitar. If the amp was cranked, it would probably make a terrible hum or buzz.

 

[Vortex]

Thanks ArtieToo
And it doesn't look right to me, that's why I asked.
There is hum and buzz, so my first idea was to shield the pickup and pots cavity.
I will replace them with some SD single coils in the future.

But how would you use the pickup?
Red and yellow ( half coil) in one position and red and blue ( entire coil) in second position of the switch?

 

[Artie]

Here's how I'd do it. In one position, you have the full single coil. In the middle, you keep the "off" function. In the down position, you short yellow to ground. Not only does that give you the "hotter" side of the single coil, but it also shorts both red and yellow to ground so that it remains quiet. Or, at least as quiet as is possible. It is, after all, a single coil in both positions.

 

[Vortex]

Thank you very much.
Very nice made corrections
It looks right. Full coil in upper position and the half coil with more resistance in the lower position.
I will try that, once I'm finished with leveling frets and shielding cavities.