SG pickup help?

[Dolando]

Ive starting putting this SG back together;



Like an idiot i took out the pickups out and didn't take note of which pickup was which, one pickup has more wires than the other. I could do with some help identifying which is which by the pic below. They are a set of Dimarzio Super Distortion Pickups, look quite old to me



Also, I assume the 2 black and white wires on each are the normal pickup wires? One has a red and green wire taped together. Not sure what the others are though?

Any help on this would be greatly appreciated...thanks in advance.

[Al Heeley]

according to this handy guide, Dimarzios use red as the hot output (+) and green as the ground, which goes with any bare or unbraised wire. So black and white should be the ones taped together for normal humbucker use.
If one has red and green taped together then either it's not a dimarzio or someones botched it earlier.
If it IS a dimarzio then the black now becomes hot and the white becomes ground, in which case it would be out of phase with the other pickup.
I'd wire the pickup with the longer wire to the neck and the shorter to the bridge position.
If you have a multimeter you could check the resistance of the coils and put the higher resistance pup in the bridge position.

Edited May 10, 2012 by Al Heeley

[Dolando]

Thanks for the reply. That's a great help. I think I'm going to invest in a multimeter and check to see which is which. I think I'll wire it up like you said and see how that goes.

What's confused me I think is that I found this wiring diagram.

http://www.dimarzio.com/sites/default/files/diagrams/2h2v2t_3waytoggleteleordpdt.pdf

Does this look right? Oh, Just realised this answers the which pickup is which question. Also, How can you tape 2 wires together but then Los solder them to a terminal?

Thanks again.

[Al Heeley]

Just thinking - [red and green together on neck pup] + [black and white together on bridge] makes sense as the neck pup is installed at 180 degrees to the bridge one, so adjustable poles normally lie at the inner positions.
XO --- OX
XO --- OX
XO --- OX
XO --- OX
XO --- OX
XO --- OX
If your bridge pup has only black and white wires then its not 4-conductor, ie: not able to coil-tap, the red and green are already soldered together and tucked away out of reach from prying pliers. These just connect the 2 humbucker coils together into a complete circuit so don't want to be connected to anything else.
Normally if you buy a pair of matched humbuckers they will both be of same sort, ie: either both 4-conductor type or both 2-conductor type, so it might suggest the pups were replaced in 2 stages with different models.
The DiMarzio site has super-d's down as 4-conductor:
[url="http://www.dimarzio.com/sites/default/files/diagrams/4Conductor.pdf"]http://www.dimarzio.com/sites/default/files/diagrams/4Conductor.pdf[/url]
The above pdf will give you a lot of info about different ways to wire up the 4-conductor pickup to take advantage of coil splitting or series/parallel if you prefer.

Edited May 11, 2012 by Al Heeley

[Dolando]

Thanks for th link.

So see if I've got this right...

Once I've got the red and green wires, and black and white wires wired together. The wire left on the bridge should be wired to a pot then on the other pickup, one is wired to a pot and the other is wired to earth. Does the bridge not need an earth?

Would just like to say thanks for your patience. I've wired up a jazz bass no problem, but these humbuckers seem to be a bit confusing.

Cheers.

[BOD2]

It's hard to be sure, but looking at your photo it looks as if you have two different pickups there - one with hexagonal "allen-key" pole pieces and the other with conventional pole pieces. DiMarzio did use allen-key adjustable pole pieces on it's "super distortion" range so there's a fair chance that pickup is a DiMarzio, which came with 4-conductor wiring as described previously.

The other pickup might just be a standard humbucker. That would have come with 2-conductor wiring, although the photo seems to show 3 wires ? If one of those 3 wires is the braided shield of the pickup cable then that doesn't count - the braided shield is always connected to ground.

On the "DiMarzio" pickup, bare and twist the black and white wires together then solder them to each other so the can't come apart. Put some tape over this join so that it can't touch anything else. You now effectively have a Dimarzio pickup with 2 free wires - red and green (plus the shield which always goes to ground). Solder the red (hot) wire to the appropriate lug on the volume control and the green (and shield) to the pot shell.

On the other pickup it's hard to tell which wire is which. I would probably solder the white wire to the lug on the other volume control and the black (and shield) to the pot shell. If it sounds "thin" when BOTH pickups are selected, then simply swap the black and white wires on this pickup (black to volume control, white to ground).

This is "standard" 2-pickup "Gibson-style" wiring

[url="http://www.guitarelectronics.com/product/WD2HH3T22_00/Guitar-Wiring-Diagam-w-2-Humbuckers3-Way-Toggle-Switch2-Volumes2-Tones.html"]http://www.guitarelectronics.com/product/WD2HH3T22_00/Guitar-Wiring-Diagam-w-2-Humbuckers3-Way-Toggle-Switch2-Volumes2-Tones.html[/url]

This diagram actually shows both pickups as 4-conductor pickups.

Yes, you do need a ground wire to the bridge somewhere.

[Dolando]

Thanks for the reply. The other pickup does have 3 wires. There is a white and black one that look the same thickness etc and the other black looks slightly different which I'm assuming is the braided one.

This has helped me loads and has given me what I need to be confident enough to wire it up. Thank you. will let you know how it goes.

Also, as they look different, and sre a bit tired looking, I was thinking of covering them with pickup covers. What does this do to the sound?

[BOD2]

Pickup covers make only a slight difference to the sound. It became fashionable in the 70s and 80s to remove the pickup covers to show the bobbins and most people reckoned there was a very slight increase in brightness when this was done.

It can be tricky to obtain and fit pickup covers of the correct size. Traditionally they were soldered on to the metal base of the pickup with two or more big blobs of solder - but you'd need a seriously big and hot iron to able to do that as the metal base conducts all the heat away. Also, pickup covers often only have one set of pole piece holes in them (because humbucker pickups originally only had one set of adjustable poles). That might be a problem with the DiMarzio pickup since it has two sets of adjustable poles.

[Al Heeley]

people pay a lot of money for that distressed look, they look cool, used, artisan, don't cover them! They add mojo. And its the best mojo, its free mojo.

[Dolando]

I'm still undecided if I should cover the pickups. Ive ordered a set so will see how they look. They weren't too expensive so don't mind if I don't like them.

Right, I have wired it all up and all seems fine. I have found out one if my pots is intimitent and will be silent in some positions but ok in others, tried some switch cleaner but i think its bust. The only thing is that I'm not sure if what is happening to mine is normal or I have something wrong with my wiring. Basically, Using the selector switch all seems fine, both work etc, but if I have the switch in the middle, both pickups work, but when I turn down either of the pots they both turn down. Is that normal, not sure if I've got my passive jazz bass system in my head.

Thanks again.

[Al Heeley]

More complications for you!
[url="http://www.dominocs.com/AshBassGuitar/WireLibrary-Gibson.html"]http://www.dominocs.com/AshBassGuitar/WireLibrary-Gibson.html[/url]
This shows some of the different ways you can wire up a 2-humbucker 2 vol + 2 tone config, either independant vols for each pickup or the older stock where turning one down would influence both, which it sounds like you have. It would be more useful to have independance then in the centre togle position you can blend in different amounts of signal from each to vary your tonal quality.

[Dolando]

Great, if I understand it correctly I just need to swap over the switch and pickup wires i trust the volume lugs. Thanks for the link, skip will try it when I get home.

[Dolando]

It's all wired up and working, just need to figure out why I get an earth hum when I turn the volume pots down. The earth isn't soldered to the bridge but it's snug in the hole so is definitely connected. Not sure what else I can do....

[BOD2]

Did you solder the braided shield on each pickup cable to the pot shells ? And are the pot shells themselves soldered back to the ground pin on the output jack ?

Sometimes all the ground wires are not shown in the circuit diagrams, but basically there is usually a ground wire between each pot shell and the last pot shell is connected to the ground of the jack.

The bridge ground goes from either a pot shell or the jack ground (whichever is more convenient) and should make a good contact with the bridge. It's not normally soldered to the bridge but make sure it has a good contact by cleaning up the metal on the bridge where the wire connects with a little sandpaper.

[Dolando]

Yea, i've soldered the braided shield on each pickup. Think i need to wire the ground wire between each pot then connect to the output jack ground. The bridge is new, so, if the extra ground wires don't work will also try and sand off some of the paint for a better connection.

Oh i put a cover on the pickup and think it looks nice, its just a plain one that goes over the top, and ive not soldered it on, it fits pretty snug and doesnt seem to be going anywhere.

Thanks a lot, this has been bugging me for ages, ill post some pics of the completed guitar when its all put together.