Four Wire Humbucker

[jamesoshea]

Hi everyone, I'm new to both guitar building and forums.

I have a dimarzio humbucker that i have taken out of a guitar. I think it's a Q100 but I am not sure.

I've read that single wire humbuckers have a braided cable, where the braid is ground and the centre wire is the output. I also read that four wire humbuckers have the ground as one of the wires. However, this pickup has four wires plus a braid aswell.

Is the braid in this case just for shielding? If not, then what does it do?

Many thanks in advance.

[mammoth guitars]

Typically with Dimarzio the shield and green go to ground.

[GregP]

You got it right. One of the 4 actual wires ends up being the signal return (ground), while the braid is for shielding (and to properly shield, it needs to go to ground).

Some pickups have 4 insulated wires plus a bare, with the bare and one of the insulated wires both going to ground. I dunno what's up with that, but the same rule would apply... the bare and the insulated wire in question would both go to ground.

--extra unasked-for info alert:--

If you ever get around to shielding your cavities with conductive tape, it's better practice (and you might even "need" to) to solder or otherwise "add" the braid to the conductive shielding material rather than to your main "ground". Ultimately this shielding DOES go to ground, too, but you don't want the braid shield and the cavity shield to go to ground separately.

[jamesoshea]

Excellent! Thanks for the responses guys- I know next to nothing about pickups so it gets confusing.

Many thanks again, I'll definitely stick around these forums.