3 wire P Bass wiring

Bulltrout · #1 09-21-2007, 11:59 PM

I did a search on Google and here and couldn't find what I'm looking for, so I'm hoping someone might be able to help me.

First off, I bought a set of older 62 RI pickups on the internet from what I believe to be a reputable dealer, and when I got them, the pickups had three wires (black, red, white) I'm a little confused as I thought that 62 RI pickups had only two cloth covered wires. That said I wired them into my bass (incorrectly) and while they sounds great (whatever they my be) my volume and tone pot are not working. I'm wondering if anyone has an older set of three-wire 62 RI pickups, and perhaps a wiring diagram?

GlennW · #2 09-22-2007, 07:32 AM

Are two of these wires from the separate coils and the third from the baseplate? If so, it might work if the white goes to the leg on the volume pot and the other two go to ground.

There should be three wires from the coils, two long ones and a short one connecting the two. Is it like that?

Bulltrout · #3 09-22-2007, 08:50 AM

Almost. There's three wires and one connecting the two. What I did was wire it as per a two-wire pick up and grounded the third wire, but that entirely seems to bypass the controls. I think I'll try soldering the red wire the leg of the volume pot.

Bulltrout · #4 09-22-2007, 01:54 PM

Ok, figured out what I did wrong -I didn't ground the lug on the volume pot. Grounding the red wire worked. Sounds great now.