What to do with the red wire?

[dramaticaudio]

Greetings all.
A gracious thank you in advance to anyone who can give me a little guidance here.

I've got these new Quarter-Pound pickups for the neck and middle positions of my strat. The pickups have 3 wires. The diagram that I am using for the wiring only requires two. I see from the diagram that came with the pickups that this 3rd (red) wire should be connected to SPDT mini-switches, which I don't have.

My question is, what should I do with these red wires? Solder them off to a pot? Cut and seal?

-Jamey Scott

 

[ItsaBass]

Re: What to do with the red wire?

All you need to do is insulate the bare end of the red wire. Don't trim it; then it will need to be extended again if you ever decide you want to use it. That would also hurt resale value should you ever decide to change to a different pickup. If having the wire loose in there bothers you, you can tape it down to the side of the control cavity.

 

[ratherdashing]

Re: What to do with the red wire?

The red wire is the tapped lead. You use this if you want a lower output version of the pickup. It's actually a very useful thing to have, so I would look into wiring it up to a push-pull if I were you so you could switch between full and tapped output.

Check out my article on tapped pickups: http://www.seymourduncan.com/blog/t...g-into-versatility-with-a-tapped-single-coil/

However, if you really don't want to bother with it, just put a bit of electrical tape over the end and tape it up out of the way. Don't ground (solder to a pot) or clip this lead.

 

[dramaticaudio]

Re: What to do with the red wire?

Thank you so much for the helpful replies!