whalehazard Posted June 5, 2010 Report Share Posted June 5, 2010 (edited) My first build is mostly complete, and I'm keeping it simple. Two humbuckers, 3-way switch, 1 volume, 1 tone. I just wired it up and put strings on. Everything works great, and the Duncan '59 in the bridge sounds amazing. The neck humbucker is another issue. I picked it up cheap at a local store a while ago. It's got a Duncan Custom Shop label on it, and "SH5 w/AL V" is written on the box. It is supposedly brand new. The DC resistance is 6.97k. So, my thought was that this was an underwound version of the SH-5, and because it appears to not be as hot as the '59, I thought it would fit nicely in the neck spot. However, I'm getting way less volume out of it than the '59, even after triple checking my wiring. It also sounds really tinny and thin, especially on a clean channel, and with the tone knob all the way down, drops even more significantly in volume. Is there any chance the color coding of the wires is weird because it's custom wound, and if so, how do I figure that out? Am I doing something wrong? Any help or ideas would be appreciated. I'm new to pickups, but I know how to solder, I've built amps and pedals before. Should I just buy another '59 for the neck and use this for something else? Help! Edited June 5, 2010 by whalehazard Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim37 Posted June 5, 2010 Report Share Posted June 5, 2010 yeah you could have it out of phase a easy way to check is ground out the wires that are connected together. if you get a split hum sound then they are out of phase, if so switch one of the coils around because its wired backwards. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whalehazard Posted June 5, 2010 Author Report Share Posted June 5, 2010 What do I need to do to switch the coil around? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim37 Posted June 5, 2010 Report Share Posted June 5, 2010 just reverse the wires for that coil one coil if your middle possision on the pickups selecter sounds out of phase then put that one back and reverse the other. im not 100 percent sure but i believce on a semoure duncan the red and green are one coil and the black and white are the other coil. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Marossy Posted June 6, 2010 Report Share Posted June 6, 2010 See here for Seymour Duncan color codes: http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/schem...tic=color_codes Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whalehazard Posted June 6, 2010 Author Report Share Posted June 6, 2010 I'm still slightly confused. It only sounds out of phase in the neck only position...should I just switch the green and black wires? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Samba Pa Ti Posted June 6, 2010 Report Share Posted June 6, 2010 maybe the coils in that pickup are wired up backwards, i cant remember how to find out which wire is the start and which one is the finish of each coil but you can always mix them around untill you find the best sound (a lot of messing about though). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SwedishLuthier Posted June 6, 2010 Report Share Posted June 6, 2010 If you have a four lead wire coming from the pickup this is what you do: See what colors goes together before you start (probably white and red as per SD standard). De-solder that joint and measure each coil individual (red to green and white to black, once again assuming it follows the SD standard). If each coil is roughly 3.7 kohms you know that each coil is OK. If not: theres you problem, a damaged coil. OK if the coils are reasonable balanced (plus minus 10-15% is still reasonably balanced) switch the leads from one coil (for instance use the green wire from one coil and the white from the other, once again assumin.... OK you get it). now listen what have happened. Did it fix you problem? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whalehazard Posted June 6, 2010 Author Report Share Posted June 6, 2010 Ok, did what SwedishLuthier suggested. It looks like I have a bad coil. Black to white I get approximately 6.9k, and nothing red to green. I tried various combinations of wires black to white is the only one that gets a reading. Does that mean this pickup is f'ed or is there any way to repair this? I think I got ripped off... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Samba Pa Ti Posted June 7, 2010 Report Share Posted June 7, 2010 Ok, did what SwedishLuthier suggested. It looks like I have a bad coil. Black to white I get approximately 6.9k, and nothing red to green. I tried various combinations of wires black to white is the only one that gets a reading. Does that mean this pickup is f'ed or is there any way to repair this? I think I got ripped off... its possible the coil is bad, id be inclined to check if the red/green wires attach to the coil ends properly if they have been pulled too hard somtimes they can snap the fine wires the coil is wound with, ive repaired a few pickups like this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SwedishLuthier Posted June 7, 2010 Report Share Posted June 7, 2010 OK, the result might not be definitive. Do you measure 0 Ohms between red and grean or infinite resistance? If you have 0 ohms, you have some type of short in the coil or the wires commin from the coils. If you have infinite the color codings are wrong, because if thats the case you should have got inifinite also when the two coils were in series Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psw Posted June 7, 2010 Report Share Posted June 7, 2010 I did some work with a sustainer for someone that was using a SD custom shop for the "host" of a wafer coil...turned out they forgot to magnetize the poles...hahhaa...took for ever to identify the "problem" If you got it cheap, and "brand new"...well, you got to wonder why. However, it may not beyond "saving" if you have steady hands and eyes... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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