Wiring check – Gibson quick connect content

[ItsaBass]

Wiring check – Gibson quick connect content

Hello,

Long time–no post. I hops all is well around here.

I've got myself into a bit of a situation, and would like to ask for your help.

My wife's co-worker Dan asked me to do a pickup swap for him. I put a set of Invaders in his brand new Les Paul Faded. I haven't worked on a guitar in a while; this is my first encounter with the "new" [to me] Gibson quick connect system, so I was wondering if any of you in the know regarding the Gibson quick connect system can give me a quick wiring check.

Looking at the internals that Gibson uses now, I saw that I had a few options: 1) Gut everything in the control cavity and set it up it like they used to be. 2) Track down suitable quick connectors from an electronics store, and connect them to the Duncan leads (I assume the connector are not proprietary). 3) Snip the stock quick connectors from the 490 pickups, and connect them to the Duncan leads.

After looking over the control cavity together, and my explaining all this to Dan, he chose option 3, since it is the only option that would allow over-the-weeked turnaround (no new parts need to be ordered).

I also noticed that Gibson now uses different color codes for R and T pickups, which makes the Duncan to Gibson color conversion a bit more confusing. After spending some amount of time doing some cipherin', and assuming that the R pickup color code was the same as Gibson used to use, I settled on the following order for connecting the Duncan leads to the stock quick connectors (left to right, starting from the bare wire on the connector): bare, green, black, red, white. I assumed that since Duncan uses the same color codes on N and B pickups, that this pattern could be followed on both connectors, regardless of what Gibson colors went where.

I have them both wired this way, and they seem basically fine, but perhaps a little notch filtered sometimes. This may just be because Invaders have a bit of that tone (as I notice many high output pickups do), but I just wanted to double check with the experts.

Thanks in advance.

P.S. A few thoughts regarding the new Gibson internals:

1) I kind of like them...theoretically. Makes a lot of sense in a lot of ways. A bit tough for ruthless modders, but for basic pickup swaps, in terms of speed and cleanliness of installation, it's great.

2) Has Duncan, or any other company, adapted to the new Gibson wiring by offering Gibson-style quick connectors as an option?

 

[Franknfilms]

Re: Wiring check – Gibson quick connect content

Re: Wiring check – Gibson quick connect content

Sounds like you matched everything up correctly. It is annoying that the Gibson bridge pickup is color coded differently than the neck. I found out when I removed my PCB, wired the quick connect pickups to a normal harness and middle position was out of phase. For anyone else that attempts this: the gibson bridge quick connect pickup is white to hot, green to ground. Neck is normal: red to hot, black to ground.

 

[allstarrme]

Wiring check – Gibson quick connect content

Wiring check – Gibson quick connect content

You can buy new ends, wires or even quick terminals on eBay all day to splice in.

I think the bridge has the magnet flipped so when you split you get outside coils or something.

Wire them both like the neck for best results.

 

[Mincer]

Re: Wiring check – Gibson quick connect content

Re: Wiring check – Gibson quick connect content

Yes, Ebay and Reverb have the connectors to splice in. This seems to be the best solution rather than gutting the whole thing (unless you are one of those that 'don't trust' connectors). I think these days, it would be a great idea for all pickups companies to offer some kind of connector that you can use if you wanted to. I have never seen another company other than Gibson offer the Gibson quick connect system, though.

 

[ItsaBass]

Re: Wiring check – Gibson quick connect content

Re: Wiring check – Gibson quick connect content

Re: the last two comments, if you read my post fully, you'll see that the job is already done, using the method that Dan wanted to use in order to get over-the-weekend turnaround.

In the future, I will order new connectors, if time allows.

You can buy new ends, wires or even quick terminals on eBay all day to splice in.

I think the neck has the magnet flipped so when you split you get outside coils or something.

Wire them both like the bridge or you will get an out of phase sound in the middle unless you flip the magnet.

Regarding this comment, what is your source for this information? The middle position did not sound out of phase to me; that's an unmistakable sound, and I would not have missed it.

 

[AniML]

Re: Wiring check – Gibson quick connect content

Re: Wiring check – Gibson quick connect content

Resurrecting an old thread with a couple questions..

My quick connects on a 2018 LP Standard seem to be wired differently from each other and from the OPs. The bridge connector is wired in order red, black, white, green, bare. The neck connector is wired white, green, red, black, bare. This is on a PCB with 4 push pulls: bridge/neck split, out of phase and blow by.

If I want to use the quick connects and retain all of the correct switching for a Duncan how can I be sure how to map the wires? I thought going from Gibson to Duncan it was:

Black=Green
Green=Red
Red=Black
White=White


But I am confused by the comment that Gibson uses different color codes in their bridge vs neck pickups and even more so with the connectors wired differently from one another.

 

[ItsaBass]

Re: Wiring check – Gibson quick connect content

Re: Wiring check – Gibson quick connect content

FWIW, I installed them the way I described, and it seemed to work fine.

Here's the procedure I settled on:

Note: Ignore the Gibson colors throughout this procedure. All you need to do is pay attention to which side of the connector the bare wire is on.

Snip the Gibson quick connects with about two inches of lead on them.

Slip about a 1/2" to 3/4" piece of heat shrink tubing over each wire on the Gibson connector, and slide them down to the connector for now.

Slip a wider piece of heat shrink tubing, about 4-5" long, over the Duncan wiring bundle and slide it down to the end for now (by the pickup). Before shrinking, this wider heat shrink tube should be wide enough to accommodate the five tubing wrapped leads.

Open up an inch or two of the Duncan wiring bundle, and separate the bare lead, so you have five separate wires.

Make sure you have stripped enough insulation off of both the Gibson wires and the Duncan wires to let you splice them.

Orient one of the Gibson connectors with the bare lead to the left, and solder the Duncan wires to the Gibson wires in the following order, left to right (Duncan colors named – ignore the Gibson colors): bare, green, black, red, white.

Move the five pieces of heat shrink up over the solder joints and shrink them.

Move the bigger piece of heat shrink over all five smaller pieces, and down far enough to cover the Gibson colors (i.e. all the way to the connector). You want to cover the Gibson colors to avoid possible confusion in the future. Then shrink it.

Now the whole thing is connected properly and wrapped in black, so you never have to even see or think about the colors again.

Do the same with the other pickup and connector.

If you ever want to put the Duncans in a different guitar, all you do is cut the entire Duncan wire bundle above the splices.

Remember, you ignore the Gibson colors! Don't get hung up on what the Gibson colors are. Regardless of what the Gibson colors are, each position of the connector serves the same function. Just orient the bare wire of each Gibson connector to the left, and attach the Duncan wires left to right as noted above. (Alternately, you can orient the bare wires on the connectors to the right, and attach the Duncan wires in the reverse order that I listed.)

As for how I figured this out: I tracked down the fact that the NECK pickups on Gibson pickups are coded the same as they have been for years. I did the Gibson to Duncan conversion, which is exactly as you listed. Then I tracked down what the new BRIDGE color codes are for Gibson, and realized that each terminal of the quick connectors did the same thing ("thing" meaning north start, south start, etc.) on the bridge pickup; the wire colors were just different. So for the bridge pickup, I just followed the same left-to-right sequence, ignoring any color conversion recipes.

If you MUST know the color conversion pattern for the bridge pickup, I can figure it out for you and post it. But really, you don't need to know it to get the job done. The only reason you really need to know it is to install a Gibson bridge pickup in another guitar.

 

[AniML]

Re: Wiring check – Gibson quick connect content

Re: Wiring check – Gibson quick connect content

The layout of the wires to connect in order is golden and exactly what I needed. And thank you for all the other step by step detail.

 

[Mincer]

Re: Wiring check – Gibson quick connect content

Re: Wiring check – Gibson quick connect content

FWIW, I installed them the way I described, and it seemed to work fine.

Here's the procedure I settled on:

Note: Ignore the Gibson colors throughout this procedure. All you need to do is pay attention to which side of the connector the bare wire is on.

Snip the Gibson quick connects with about two inches of lead on them.

Slip about a 1/2" to 3/4" piece of heat shrink tubing over each wire on the Gibson connector, and slide them down to the connector for now.

Slip a wider piece of heat shrink tubing, about 4-5" long, over the Duncan wiring bundle and slide it down to the end for now (by the pickup). Before shrinking, this wider heat shrink tube should be wide enough to accommodate the five tubing wrapped leads.

Open up an inch or two of the Duncan wiring bundle, and separate the bare lead, so you have five separate wires.

Make sure you have stripped enough insulation off of both the Gibson wires and the Duncan wires to let you splice them.

Orient one of the Gibson connectors with the bare lead to the left, and solder the Duncan wires to the Gibson wires in the following order, left to right (Duncan colors named – ignore the Gibson colors): bare, green, black, red, white.

Move the five pieces of heat shrink up over the solder joints and shrink them.

Move the bigger piece of heat shrink over all five smaller pieces, and down far enough to cover the Gibson colors (i.e. all the way to the connector). You want to cover the Gibson colors to avoid possible confusion in the future. Then shrink it.

Now the whole thing is connected properly and wrapped in black, so you never have to even see or think about the colors again.

Do the same with the other pickup and connector.

If you ever want to put the Duncans in a different guitar, all you do is cut the entire Duncan wire bundle above the splices.

Remember, you ignore the Gibson colors! Don't get hung up on what the Gibson colors are. Regardless of what the Gibson colors are, each position of the connector serves the same function. Just orient the bare wire of each Gibson connector to the left, and attach the Duncan wires left to right as noted above. (Alternately, you can orient the bare wires on the connectors to the right, and attach the Duncan wires in the reverse order that I listed.)

As for how I figured this out: I tracked down the fact that the NECK pickups on Gibson pickups are coded the same as they have been for years. I did the Gibson to Duncan conversion, which is exactly as you listed. Then I tracked down what the new BRIDGE color codes are for Gibson, and realized that each terminal of the quick connectors did the same thing ("thing" meaning north start, south start, etc.) on the bridge pickup; the wire colors were just different. So for the bridge pickup, I just followed the same left-to-right sequence, ignoring any color conversion recipes.

If you MUST know the color conversion pattern for the bridge pickup, I can figure it out for you and post it. But really, you don't need to know it to get the job done. The only reason you really need to know it is to install a Gibson bridge pickup in another guitar.

This will probably help a lot of people that are going to do the same thing. I like this idea better (or buying separate pigtails) than ripping the whole system out- there is generally nothing wrong with those parts.

 

[AniML]

Re: Wiring check – Gibson quick connect content

Re: Wiring check – Gibson quick connect content

I just found an overseas (HK) source to get these for $.95 each, plus $4.00 slow boat shipping. So if you're in no hurry and can deal with the random colors, these might be 20x cheaper than getting them on Ebay

 

[AniML]

Re: Wiring check – Gibson quick connect content

Re: Wiring check – Gibson quick connect content

I just pulled my WLH set from my Studio, popped on a pair of connectors and dropped them into my new Standard. Very easy and I found prewired connectors for < $.50 each. The cool thing with the harnesses, is once they are soldered to each set of pickups, you add to a collection of plug and play ready tones. Bonus having locking tuners for an even quicker swap.

 

[lp1987x]

Re: Wiring check – Gibson quick connect content

Re: Wiring check – Gibson quick connect content

My '17 Traditional HP came with an extra set of quick connectors in the case. It was as if Gibson knew the pickups would get swapped out.

The extra set have screws to tighten the wires. No soldering needed. I just used the wiring diagram on the Duncan website showing the different wiring color schemes based on the most common pickup manufacturers.

https://www.seymourduncan.com/wiring-diagrams?meta_params=other-misc,wiring-misc