Off He Goes

I have a no name humbucker from ebay, and I need to figure out the wiring code for it. It has 4 wires, for split coil, but I don't want to wire it like that. Theres a red, green, black, and white. They were wrapped in a bare silver wire under the rubber, it loks like a kind of sheilding. How to I figure out which wires are for splitting, which ones hot, and which ones ground? Also, do I ground the silver wire?

Can anyone direct me a good schematic of a single humbucker, with one volume and one tone pot?

I was just wondering how you know which lug on a volume or tone pot does what. Theres three, but I'm not sure which one does what.

I changed schematics for my pickups after having some trouble following one properly, only to discover that the wires from the pickups are both about 1/2" to short. Can I add wire? How can I do a short lengthen?

I wired up my pickups, pots, switch and jack. Now I want to wire to put the pickguard and electronics back in the guitar. I don't think it works though. I read somewhere that if it was wired correctly I could tap on the coils and the pickups would make a "thump". That never happened. At the same time, it didn't make any bad sounds, it just didn't make sound at all. I know all the individual pieces work so its not anything broken. Besides looking at the schematic again, is there anything I can do to check the wiring?

I used this tutorial http://www.projectguitar.com/tut/pickupwiring.htm to find out the wiring code for my 4 conductor humbucker of unknown origin. Anyway, following the tutorial I found out that the black and white wires go together, with the black being the positive. The green and red also go together, with the green being the positive. Now, I do not want to wire for coil-tapping or anything like that. So how I do I know which one is the series link, which one is the hot lead, and which one is the ground?

Thanks, I think I'm going to try Southpa's way first, and if that don't work, I'll try cutting it. That leads me to my next question. How much should a decent nut run me? The guitar is only a project really. It doesn't have the greatest pickups or anything, so I'm that concerned with which one will give me the best tone, I just need it too work.

A guitar I am fixing up had a very poor nut replacement which didn't work. Basically, it was glued in with one of those intense wood glues that supposedly makes a bond that was tighter then original if you reconnect a piece of wood. Anyway, I need to get the nut off and find a better way of setting it up. How do I get it to come off if the glue is so strong?

What type of wires, and solder should I be using for installing new pickups and pots?

Thanks Al. I was just worried that it wouldn't work at all if I got the lugs wrong. I don't know if there is a common system or not, but with regards to the pots, is there a schematic to show you how to wire them up before the pickups are installed? Because I see the pots, caps, and switch connected it alot of different ways, whereas I know where the actual pickup wires are going. Paul

Cool. Turns out I got another question. With regards to the lugs on the the pots, how can you tell them apart. How do you know the first from the third?

Thanks. Also, two more questions if you don't mind. 1) Should I have two caps if I have two volume pots and two tone pots? & 2) Do I solder the cap to both the tone and volume pots? I've seen a diagram where it was connected only to the middle lug of the tone, then grounded, as well as a diagram where it is connected to the middle lug on both pots? Off topic, is your last name really spelt Heeley? I ask because mine is Healey, and I've come across other spellings but never that one.

I'm starting the rewiring on my project guitar. It's got a humbucker in the bridge, and a hb sized P-90 in the the neck. It's a drop in pickguard, like a strat, so all the electronics are on based of the pickguard. I've got two volume and two tone pots, and a three way switch, essentially a Les Paul setup, except for the P-90 in the neck. I've bought new pots, new input jack, new switch, and a capacitor. I thought I would need two caps but the tech suggested one, I'm not sure about that. Anyway I need help in the wiring. I'm not so concerned about the actual schematic, in that once I determine the wire code, I can base it off an LP diagram, but I just want to get the little things right. My first question is should I wrap the wires around the lugs on the pots, swtiches, and jacks, before I solder them? Or just solder them without wrapping? Also, how nessacary is it to solder all the grounds to the same location? I'm afraid I won't have enough space on the back of a volume pot, and I wasn't sure if I could use a coin instead, as someone suggeted? Lastly, I don't know how I can ground my TOM bridge. I had to fit the new one, my filling the pre-existing holes with a wooden dowel, and drilling new holes for the posts. I heard about putting a small long screw through the pickup cavity, so that it touches one of the posts, and solder a lead to that? If someone could help me out it would be great. This project has taken so long already, because of money, and school, that I really don't want to screw this part up. Thanks, Paul

Thanks!

I tried stringing up my fixer guitar even though the pickups aren't setup yet, just to see how the neck plays. I noticed a lot of dead notes and high action. Problem is though, the action is higher closer to the nut, then down towards the pickups. What's going on? I had the neck professionally repaired for several splits, by a very talented and well known tech so I don't think he screwed it up? Is it a truss rod thing?

Do I need to get new diodes to go with the new pots? Where do I get them, and what do I look for?

Okay, I figured out how to wire my pickups. But I have to wire the 3 ways toggle switch and the output jack. There are 4 lugs on the switch, and two on the jack(strat style). On the jack, one lug is connected to a circular ring that is connected to the prong that the cable jack touches off. The the squared shaped one is not connected to the prong. How do I wire this up properly? The Neck pickup volume pot should go from the middle lug to one of the side lugs on the switch? Same with the bridge one, just to the other side? The lone bottom lug grounds to the back of the pot? And the center lug goes to one of the lugs of the jack?

Cool, that's what I thought seeings they have a higher output. Thanks alot!

I'm looking at putting new pots in my hagstrom, I don't like the idea of leaving 30 year old ones in there when just about everything is replaced. I have a humbucker in the bridge, and a P-90 (hb size though) in the neck. For the bridge pup, I figured a 500K, but what about for the P-90, would a 250k be good, because it is a single coil?

Exactly what I was wondering. Shouldn't be a problem to drill another hole, may be able to use the original hole as a guide?

Sometime over the next few weeks, I am going to rewire my Hagstrom restoration project. A humbucker in the bridge, and a P-90 in the neck, nothing fancy, just two volume and two tone pots. The problem is that the bridge I installed had different sized posts then the previous one, so I had to glue in dowels and drill holes for the new posts. Now I don't have a way to ground the bridge. Theres a wire in the pickguard cavity, but it's not touching the posts anymore because of the dowels. What can I do to get around this? I don't really want a noisy guitar.

Is it possible to check the connections on your pickups beforing putting the pickguard back on the guitar, and stringing it up. I'm ready to set the pickguard in the body, but I don't want to screw it down, and string it only to find out it won't work. Besides following the wires, which I pretty sure am right, can I check. Or should I just plug it into a tuner and see if anything comes out.

So I need a wire from the jack to the bridge? I'm not sure how thats going to work at all. My bridge is pegged, and redrill, so I can't imagine how to get a wire near it. I have a strat style output jack, with two lugs. One has a rounded edge, while the other is more flat. Does it matter which one is connected to hot, and which to ground? If it does, how do I find out?

Okay Pete, I'm sort of using this diagram http://www.guitarelectronics.com/product/WDUHH3T2202 Trying to use it anyway. It's a Les Paul diagram but mine is very similar setup. There are two pickups, but I'm trying to take it slow, and not mess up anything. There are some wires from the original pickups, which were taken out before I got the guitar (a freebie.) So is it okay, to connect the hot pickup wires, to the original ones, or should I just get rid of those? I'm still a little lost on the output jack. According to the diagram one of the wires from the switch goes to the jack, but where does the other wire on the jack come from?