I need help rewiring my Stingray

[MiltyG565]

Ok, so that is a picture of the pickup that came out of it. I'm thinking it's red-power in, White-power out, bare-earth and green and blue for the coil switch. This was in a double humbucker model, and i want to make it a single humbucker version, so i removed the coil switch. The preamp had 1 wire that went to the coil switch which I assume was live, then all the wires of the pickups went to the coil switch, but how do i now wire the pickup straight into the preamp with the coil switch? Cheers guys.

[MiltyG565]

The wire coming from the volume pot (not actually the preamp) also has another bare wire, which is earth. I tried remembering how it went with the switch in, but i just keep getting stuck at trying to think where the signal rejoined the control panel. I'll take a picture of it.

[MiltyG565]

I've been thinking about this, and looking at this schematic from SD- http://www.seymourduncan.com/images/products/basslines/501040-110.pdf

I would really appreciate some input from somebody here, but this is what i'm thinking atm.

Solder the red wire from the pickup to the red wire from the volume pot. Solder the white wire onto the positive of the battery terminal. This then goes into the preamp and through all the preampery.

hmm... would that work?

[brensabre79]

Hi Milty, I'm not well up on MM wiring but i didn't think the MM pickups were active. From the looks of it you have white red black and green wires plus the braided screen. I would say that you have two wires from each coil of the pickup (+ and -)

Looking at the SD diagram, the green, white and braided earth go to the casing of the volume pot (i.e. not a tab) and the black and red go to the pre-amp AUDIO input. No power involved.

But if you want to coil tap then you'll need the second diagram (and a switch) too.

[MiltyG565]

[quote name='brensabre79' timestamp='1360063685' post='1964138']
Hi Milty, I'm not well up on MM wiring but i didn't think the MM pickups were active. From the looks of it you have white red black and green wires plus the braided screen. I would say that you have two wires from each coil of the pickup (+ and -)

Looking at the SD diagram, the green, white and braided earth go to the casing of the volume pot (i.e. not a tab) and the black and red go to the pre-amp AUDIO input. No power involved.

But if you want to coil tap then you'll need the second diagram (and a switch) too.
[/quote]

Cheers, but i think i should clarify, this is actually an OLP pickup, and it is passive, but the bass came with an active preamp, which is housed in a little plastic box with all the inputs and outputs already being used for other things. I think the wires on this are different from the SD pickup ones. I think the green and black might be the ones for coil taps, the red and white the + and - and the thick unsheathed one the earth. Naturally, since i don't want a coil tap, i would solder them all to earth, like the diagram suggests for parallel wiring. But that still leaves the issue of getting the signal from the pickup back into the preamp, which i think i have solved, and i am going to test soon.

[MiltyG565]

Although it would make more sense if the black was negative. It would fit the colour coding of the rest of the wiring.

[MiltyG565]

Ok, so i did what i thought would work actually didn't work.

So what i did was take the red and black wires from the pickup, and wire them to the red wire on the volume pot...

Any ideas what to do now?

[MiltyG565]

New info- The way i had it wired, when i plugged it in, the top coil of the pickup had far less magnetism that it did before i turned it on.

Isn't the top coil wound in reverse to buck the hum? hmmm.

[brensabre79]

Sorry Milty
I didn't realise it was an OLP - and that you have a different preamp.
Some pictures might help, but I'm afraid if the pre is a little sealed black box with all the wires coming out of it already then you'll need to find out what the wires are. Getting it wrong could screw the preamp so it never works. Guessing the wiring for the pickup itself is not so disasterous, you might just get a bad sound, or no sound. To start with I would wire the pickup directly to the jack socket to test the wiring configuration for that. Once you have that sorted you'll be halfway there at least.

[MiltyG565]

[quote name='brensabre79' timestamp='1360071048' post='1964307']
Sorry Milty
I didn't realise it was an OLP - and that you have a different preamp.
Some pictures might help, but I'm afraid if the pre is a little sealed black box with all the wires coming out of it already then you'll need to find out what the wires are. Getting it wrong could screw the preamp so it never works. Guessing the wiring for the pickup itself is not so disasterous, you might just get a bad sound, or no sound. To start with I would wire the pickup directly to the jack socket to test the wiring configuration for that. Once you have that sorted you'll be halfway there at least.
[/quote]

One of the inputs in the preamp is the live from the battery, one the green wire that goes on to the centre prong of the volume the pot, and one the earth that goes with the green wire. Similarly with the red wire of the volume pot and the earth for it.

All other outputs are for the bass, mids and treble.

[MiltyG565]

Any help greatly appreciated! If anybody was able to find a schematic for an OLP HH or stingray HH, i would be a very happy lad! I've been looking, but can't find any, but then i don't have much experience searching for these things.

New idea- Black wire from pickup to red of volume pot, and red of the pickup to positive terminal of the battery case, providing a positive voltage going through the pickup, out to the volume pot and in to the preamp... no? Maybe that would blow the preamp?

[MiltyG565]

Here's a picture. Sorry about the quality, i've just taken it using my mac. You can see 3 of the pots are just connected with the preamp, and the volume pot has 2 connections into the preamp. 1 input into the preamp comes from the 9v battery. 2 others are either inputs or outputs (i suspect outputs) to the output jack. The red wire on the volume pot goes into the cavity for the coil selector switch (which is defunct).



The volume pot is the top one with the green wire.

[MiltyG565]

Another one, bit more detailed.

[brensabre79]

Hi Milty

I'm a bit confused as to what you're asking...
There also seem to be a lot of red wires - which doesn't help you at all!

The red wire that connects to the volume pot seems to lead to the switch, the green wire on the vol pot goes to the preamp. So I would say that if you're bypassing the switch, the red vol pot wire should be replaced with the HOT from the pickup. The COLD and EARTH from the pickup can just go to the vol pot casing.

Also, if i'm not mistaken, the red wire we are talking about actually contains a white wire and a braided screen. In this case, the two HOT wires from the pickup should be connected to that white wire, and the two other wires from the pickup and the screen wire can all connect to the screen of the red wire going to the volume pot.

I would leave all of the preamp gubbins alone as it seems to be all wired up already. I think this is the same G&B preamp they use in Traben basses. So you might find out more info there....

I hope that helps!

[MiltyG565]

[quote name='brensabre79' timestamp='1360151216' post='1965570']
Hi Milty

I'm a bit confused as to what you're asking...
There also seem to be a lot of red wires - which doesn't help you at all!

The red wire that connects to the volume pot seems to lead to the switch, the green wire on the vol pot goes to the preamp. So I would say that if you're bypassing the switch, the red vol pot wire should be replaced with the HOT from the pickup. The COLD and EARTH from the pickup can just go to the vol pot casing.

Also, if i'm not mistaken, the red wire we are talking about actually contains a white wire and a braided screen. In this case, the two HOT wires from the pickup should be connected to that white wire, and the two other wires from the pickup and the screen wire can all connect to the screen of the red wire going to the volume pot.

I would leave all of the preamp gubbins alone as it seems to be all wired up already. I think this is the same G&B preamp they use in Traben basses. So you might find out more info there....

I hope that helps!
[/quote]

You are absolutely right!

Unfortunately, on my last go, i wired the hot AND cold from the pickup onto the red wire... DOH!

I will remove the cold and solder it to earth then. The coil seletcor switch is now acting as the earth for the pickup.

[MiltyG565]

[quote name='brensabre79' timestamp='1360151216' post='1965570']

The red wire that connects to the volume pot seems to lead to the switch, the green wire on the vol pot goes to the preamp. So I would say that if you're bypassing the switch, the red vol pot wire should be replaced with the HOT from the pickup. The COLD and EARTH from the pickup can just go to the vol pot casing.

[/quote]

That would mean it was wired in series?

[brensabre79]

[quote name='MiltyG565' timestamp='1360155385' post='1965686']
The coil seletcor switch is now acting as the earth for the pickup.
[/quote]
I thought the switch was being bypassed completely.
[quote name='MiltyG565' timestamp='1360158092' post='1965763']
That would mean it was wired in series?
[/quote]
It depends on which wires you use from the pickup. The SD diagram you had should be a good reference. For a humbucker you need to wire the two in series, but out of phase. But you don't need to worry about this.

Just connect: Red & Black wire to the white part of the red wire that goes to the volume pot.
Then connect: Green & White (+screen) to the braided part of the red wire that goes to the volume pot.

Forget the switch if you're not using it.

[MiltyG565]

[quote name='brensabre79' timestamp='1360158403' post='1965774']
I thought the switch was being bypassed completely.

It depends on which wires you use from the pickup. The SD diagram you had should be a good reference. For a humbucker you need to wire the two in series, but out of phase. But you don't need to worry about this.

Just connect: Red & Black wire to the white part of the red wire that goes to the volume pot.
Then connect: Green & White (+screen) to the braided part of the red wire that goes to the volume pot.

Forget the switch if you're not using it.
[/quote]

That is EXATCLY what i did (except using the switch to earth)... it doesn't work.

[Dr M]

[quote name='brensabre79' timestamp='1360158403' post='1965774']
It depends on which wires you use from the pickup. The SD diagram you had should be a good reference. For a humbucker you need to wire the two in series, but out of phase. But you don't need to worry about this.
[/quote]

Not wanting to confuse matters, but I was always under the impression part of the MM sound was due to the fact the two coils in the humbucker are wired in parallel? You still get the humbucking effect, but a cooler output that is then boosted by the active pre-amp?

[brensabre79]

Doesn't work as in no output from the bass?

Just check the switch is actually earthed - i.e. connected in some way to the volume pot screening.

If it still doesn;t work we need to work out which part of the signal path is at fault.

Try connecting the Red&Black to the tip of the output socket and the Green&White to the sleeve of the output socket (i.e. bypass the preamp). you don't need to solder, just make contact and hold in place for now.
Do you get any sound from the jack?
If you do, then its probably the preamp that needs looking at
If not, its the pickup (or the jack lead - rule out the jack lead first)

Edited February 6, 2013 by brensabre79

[brensabre79]

[quote name='Dr M' timestamp='1360159710' post='1965828']
Not wanting to confuse matters, but I was always under the impression part of the MM sound was due to the fact the two coils in the humbucker are wired in parallel? You still get the humbucking effect, but a cooler output that is then boosted by the active pre-amp?
[/quote]
We're just going off the wiring colours from SD at this stage - which we're assuming are correct for MM wiring, we can worry about configuring the pickup once we know its at least working!

[MiltyG565]

[quote name='brensabre79' timestamp='1360159834' post='1965833']
Doesn't work as in no output from the bass?

Just check the switch is actually earthed - i.e. connected in some way to the volume pot screening.

If it still doesn;t work we need to work out which part of the signal path is at fault.

Try connecting the Red&Black to the tip of the output socket and the Green&White to the sleeve of the output socket (i.e. bypass the preamp).
Do you get any sound form the jack?
If you do, then its probably the preamp that needs looking at
If not, its the pickup (or the jack lead - rule out the jack lead first)
[/quote]

The jack lead is fine. The preamp is also fine. I turned the bass pot up, and it hummed more, and went away when i turned it down. Seems normal to me.

What happened, which i found odd, was when it was on, the pickup didn't make any noise when tapped with a screwdriver, but the magnetism of the top coil was significantly reduced when on. I thought it was just something i hadn't noticed before, but it went back to normal when i turned it off.

Could be the battery though... i doubt that though, if the bass EQ worked.

[brensabre79]

Well, some hum does not pass a QC test in my view. But if you're happy that the preamp is fine then the issue is the pickup.

If there's no sound with the current wiring configuration, try swapping one from each pair over, e.g. the black and white just to make sure we're not just shorting the pickup out...

So White&Red + / Green&Black -

[MiltyG565]

[quote name='brensabre79' timestamp='1360160568' post='1965857']
Well, some hum does not pass a QC test in my view. But if you're happy that the preamp is fine then the issue is the pickup.

If there's no sound with the current wiring configuration, try swapping one from each pair over, e.g. the black and white just to make sure we're not just shorting the pickup out...

So White&Red + / Green&Black -
[/quote]

Alright, cheers!

[lettsguitars]

You have 2 wires coming from each coil. A hot wire (+) and the earth (-). To wire a pickup in series to make it humcancelling You attach the + from one coil to the - of the other. Usually Red and white are hot, green and black are earth. red/black is one coil, green and white is t'other. Red and green go together, white is your output and black is the earth. Attach the earth (black) to the braid and screening. White to the vol and earth to the back of the vol. The back of the vol pot also should be attached to your screening. The earth of the output jack goes to the screening also to create the circuit. and obviously the output from the vol pot goes to your preamp and the output from the preamp goes to the centre of your jack. If at this point your bass is picking up interference and humming you just switch one set of wires round. A multimeter helps to identify each set of coil wires.

Edited February 6, 2013 by lettsguitars