G-bo Posted November 11, 2023 Report Share Posted November 11, 2023 Hi folks, I am having an issue wiring these single coil (active) pickups to my strat. I should mention that these are the older models before everything was plug-in connections. I got the diagram to wire this from emg. I have been over and over this checking connections and cannot see where I went wrong. It is a 5 position switch and all I get is the bridge and neck pickup (both on at the same time) when switch is in the neck position and the position between neck and middle. All of the other switch positions have no sound from any of the pickups. Feel like I must be missing something simple here but I can't figure what it could be. I have attached the diagram I used to wire it and a pic of the guitar cavity. If there is anything else I can provide please let me know. Thanks guys, appreciate any help you could give me. Cheers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
curtisa Posted November 12, 2023 Report Share Posted November 12, 2023 You sure the switch is the same type shown in the EMG diagram? Can you post a clear side-on shot of your switch for us to look at? I assume this is some kind of transplant job using some older EMG pickups. Were they known to be good before they were installed? Edit: you can get the incorrect pickup selection you describe if you accidentally exchange the bridge and common connections on the switch and swap the middle and neck positions. My money is on the switch being wired up transposed by one terminal all the way around, but a clear photo of the two sides of the switch so we can see the layout of the terminals and mechanism would confirm this. Note also that there are some questionable-looking solder joints which may not be helping things either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G-bo Posted November 12, 2023 Author Report Share Posted November 12, 2023 Hi and thanks for the reply. I have owned these pickups for years and as you said I am swapping everything into a different body and pick guard. The switch is the same also. I did get a different color stereo jack. So I can verify that all the parts worked fine. I have no soldering skills whatsoever so I did give all connections a gentle tug to see if they were secure. here are the best shots I could get of the switch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
curtisa Posted November 12, 2023 Report Share Posted November 12, 2023 OK, as I thought - you have each terminal on the switch transposed around by one. The switch you are using is not a like-for-like replacement for the one shown in your diagram without some additional work. Here's what you want. Note that you can simplify the wiring of the tone pot significantly by not wasting an entire half of the switch and connecting it directly to the volume pot instead. I've tried to match the existing wiring colours you've used, but I'm only guessing the bridge pickup is white and the neck is green - it's hard to tell from your photo which one is which. If you wire it up and find that bridge and neck are back-to-front you can either turn the switch around 180 degrees on the scratchplate, or exchange the bridge and neck wires on the switch:: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G-bo Posted November 12, 2023 Author Report Share Posted November 12, 2023 Well thank you very much this is great. You are a lifesaver my friend. Getting late but will try this tomorrow if time allows and will post my results back here , Thanks again, hugely appreciated. Cheers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.