Wiring question...and a bit more

Angryman1522

New member
Hi all. New here...although I may have had an account ten years ago...

I was curious if anyone could explain this to me: I bought a Nazgul/Sentient set to replace the stock SH-14/SH-2 set in my ESP E2 (which may not have been a good choice, but more on that in a bit). When I opened the control cavity, I saw wiring that seemed a bit odd to me. I bought the guitar new, so it's not some aftermarket job done by someone with a soldering iron and too much Jameson in his system.

The guitar in question is a one vol/one tone, with a three way toggle. The volume is a push/pull coil split...or so I thought. What I found strange was the wiring of the neck pickup, which had the green and black wires going to the terminal on the volume pot (as opposed to red and white from the bridge, which is what I'd expect), the white and bare to the ground, and the red to the toggle. The bridge pickup was wired as one normally would.

Am I missing something? It has been YEARS since I did pickup swaps both for myself and other people (as evidenced by the fact that the process took an hour and a half instead of 20 minutes), but I don't remember ever wiring pickups like this. I admit, this question is a bit moot, since I've ordered a regular pot to replace the push/pull (I never use it), but it definitely left me scratching my head. I wired the new pickups exactly as the old set was, and it works fine...I think.

On a somewhat related note: I'm not super thrilled with the Nazgul/Sentient combo. Not that it sounds bad by any means, but it wasn't exactly what I heard from Ola and Keith lol (joking...I know YouTube isn't a great gauge of guitar tone). Any suggestions on a pickup combo for Death Punch style metal? I guess that's what we are, anyway. I've got guitars with EMGs, Blackouts, Suhr's...the rest are all SD, but I'm looking for a combo I haven't tried before, not that anyone here knows what combos I HAVE tried, but I'm willing to bet someone's got an idea I hadn't considered. The Nazgul is a bit too fizzy for me, and I'm looking for something a bit more "fluid" than the Sentient, since I play most of the wanky parts of my solos in the neck position.

Anyhow, I like talking gear like most guitar players, so I'm open to hear anything anyone's got to say.
 
Re: Wiring question...and a bit more

Are you sure that's definitely a duncan in the neck?
 
Re: Wiring question...and a bit more

It may be that the split is to the opposite coil to standard, and then you need to run the whole thing as RW/RP to get it back in phase in the middle posi.
 
Re: Wiring question...and a bit more

For it to work that way, either the wires are mixed up, or the mag is flipped. The most punchy and death bridge pickup would probably be the Invader. For neck, explain more about the eq that you don't like in the Sentient and what you're looking for.
 
Re: Wiring question...and a bit more

It may be that the split is to the opposite coil to standard, and then you need to run the whole thing as RW/RP to get it back in phase in the middle posi.

You'll have to excuse my ignorance on the subject, but doesn't this apply to guitars with a middle pickup and a 5 way switch? Or is the wiring ESP did intended to do something other than give you both coils from both pickups in the center position?
 
Re: Wiring question...and a bit more

You can split any humbucking pickup to the other coil, on any guitar of any configuration you like. The problem is you have to reverse the green and black to do this - putting them OOP in the middle if the other pickup isn't split to the same coil.

The alternative is that the pickup simply came with the wire colours hooked up incorrectly.
 
Re: Wiring question...and a bit more

For it to work that way, either the wires are mixed up, or the mag is flipped. The most punchy and death bridge pickup would probably be the Invader. For neck, explain more about the eq that you don't like in the Sentient and what you're looking for.

Punchy and death...I see what you did there lol. You know I was referring to the band (5FDP), and not a pickup with more punch and more "death", right? I never know how to classify music anymore...are they metal? Modern metal? Metalcore? Post-modern-progressive-nuclear-asscore? Anyway, the Sentient seems to be lacking a little...bollocks. I would rather not invoke the name of the competition, but I find DiM's Pro Track to be a fantastic neck position pickup for wank solos. Of course, that's a single-coil sized 'bucker, which does me no good in this particular guitar. You know, I'd actually completely forgotten about the Invader...had one of those in a guitar 15 years ago, with a Full Shred in the ne...holy crap, I think I just answered my own question LOL
 
Re: Wiring question...and a bit more

You can split any humbucking pickup to the other coil, on any guitar of any configuration you like. The problem is you have to reverse the green and black to do this - putting them OOP in the middle if the other pickup isn't split to the same coil.

The alternative is that the pickup simply came with the wire colours hooked up incorrectly.

I'd considered that last possibility, too. I just assume that the Japanese never make mistakes. Well, not post WWII anyway.:18:
 
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