Wiring Question - Replacing Middle and Neck Single Coils with Hot Rails on Strat

[dkerpsd]

I'm new so please be kind if I missed something.

I have a Stratocaster with a bridge humbucker (looks like a SD Distortion or similar) and regular single coil middle and neck pickups. There is one volume pot, two tone pots and a 5-way switch.

I replaced the two single coil pickups with hot rails and wired it up so that the green and bare wires of each pickup are soldered to the volume pot, the black wires are soldered to their respective position on the 5-way switch, and the red and white wires are soldered together and insulated off (separately for each pickup).

There's some hum and it seems there are two choices...

1. Invert the black and green wires from the middle pickup (per most research).
2. Add the red to the black wire and the white to the green wire from the middle pickup (per the Seymour Duncan three humbucker wiring diagram).

The Seymour Duncan wiring diagram wizard doesn't actually offer this combination of 1 regular humbucker and 2 coil-sized humbuckers so the one I'm referring two is for three regular humbuckers.

Any suggestions which option to try, or something else altogether? Thanks.

 

[jeremy]

Re: Wiring Question - Replacing Middle and Neck Single Coils with Hot Rails on Strat

welcome to the forum!

your choice 1 is to reverse phase, dont need to do that. choice 2 is to put the pup in parallel, dont need to do that either.

the way you describe the wiring is the correct way to wire the pups in series which is the typical humbucker wiring. when do you get hum? in all switch positions?

 

[dkerpsd]

Re: Wiring Question - Replacing Middle and Neck Single Coils with Hot Rails on Strat

Thanks for your welcome and quick reply. The issue arises when I'm using the middle and / or neck pickups. And to clarify, hum may not quite describe it. It's more that the sound is too soft and fuzzy.

 

[jeremy]

Re: Wiring Question - Replacing Middle and Neck Single Coils with Hot Rails on Strat

do you know what value the pots are for the controls? if the controls are 250k that would make the neck and middle hot rails sound pretty dark. im assuming you got the neck version of the hot rails not the bridge, correct?

 

[dkerpsd]

Re: Wiring Question - Replacing Middle and Neck Single Coils with Hot Rails on Strat

The pots are 250K.

Regarding your second question, I wasn't smart enough to know there were differences between neck and bridge hot rails. That said, I brought the guitar in and showed it to the shop when buying the hot rails so I hope they wouldn't have sold me the wrong ones. Do you know how to check? I still have the boxes.

 

[jeremy]

Re: Wiring Question - Replacing Middle and Neck Single Coils with Hot Rails on Strat

it should say shr-1n for the neck model. if its says shr-1b then its the bridge model. there is a pretty significant difference in output and tone.

250k controls are going to make things pretty dark. are the tone pots connected to the neck and middle pups?

 

[dkerpsd]

Re: Wiring Question - Replacing Middle and Neck Single Coils with Hot Rails on Strat

I'll have to check both things when I open up the guitar tomorrow. I'll post back then. Thanks for your help so far.

 

[jeremy]

Re: Wiring Question - Replacing Middle and Neck Single Coils with Hot Rails on Strat

np. if they are the bridge version and you purchased them from an authorized seymour duncan dealer less than 21 days ago you can exchange them. if the tone pots are connected to the middle and neck pups (typical stock strat wiring) there are a few options. my first suggestion would be replace the controls with 500k pots and put the first tone control on the neck and middle pups and the 2nd on the bridge but there are plenty of other options too

 

[dkerpsd]

Re: Wiring Question - Replacing Middle and Neck Single Coils with Hot Rails on Strat

Hi Jeremy, Well you're on to something. I didn't open the guitar yet, but the receipt clearly calls out bridge pups, not neck pups! I guess it's back to Guitar Center. Have a good day. Dan (from the other side of upstate New York).

 

[Mincer]

Re: Wiring Question - Replacing Middle and Neck Single Coils with Hot Rails on Strat

I replaced the two single coil pickups with hot rails and wired it up so that the green and bare wires of each pickup are soldered to the volume pot, the black wires are soldered to their respective position on the 5-way switch, and the red and white wires are soldered together and insulated off (separately for each pickup).

.

Make sure bare goes to ground, no matter what.

 

[jeremy]

Re: Wiring Question - Replacing Middle and Neck Single Coils with Hot Rails on Strat

youll notice a difference for sure, swapping the bridge pups for neck pups. best of luck!

 

[dkerpsd]

Re: Wiring Question - Replacing Middle and Neck Single Coils with Hot Rails on Strat

I replaced the bridge pups for neck pups, wired them as suggested and all is good! Thanks for all the useful help. This is a great forum.

 

[jeremy]

Re: Wiring Question - Replacing Middle and Neck Single Coils with Hot Rails on Strat

glad it worked out for you! i have a strat loaded with hot rails and it sounds great