I need some wiring help

[SwagAttack]

I have two humbuckers (mm style), which are going to their own north coil/parallel/south coil switch. I want to put both pickups to a series/parallel switch, but I am not sure how to wire that. It is passive with v/v/t, and so I also need to know when the outputs/grounds go to the volume pots.

Basically, when the outputs come out of the 3 way switch, what comes next (goes to series/parallel switch or volume knob), and how do you wire the series/parallel switch for those? The pickups have 4 wires coming out of it, but it shouldn't matter since coming out of the 3 way switch, each only has one output and 2 grounds. The layout I used for the 3 way switch comes from the diagrams from Series/Parallel switch and Mute switch

[line6man]

Start by picking your switching here:


Then use the "ground" connections as the black wires from the pickups in this diagram, and the "output" connections as the white wires.

Wiring Diagram

[SwagAttack]

Originally Posted by line6man

Start by picking your switching here:


Then use the "ground" connections as the black wires from the pickups in this diagram, and the "output" connections as the white wires.

Wiring Diagram

Ok, so it is like a S-1 switch then. I had actually pm'd you since you were so helpful before.

So, it would go humbucker -> 3 way -> series/parallel -> then to volume, etc? And then on the 3 way switch, the blue output has two connections in the middle of the switch. So I would just connect the top to the bottom, then the bottom to the 2 way switch? And the 2 grounds from the 3 way go to the same one on the 2 way?

[line6man]

Originally Posted by SwagAttack

Ok, so it is like a S-1 switch then. I had actually pm'd you since you were so helpful before.

So, it would go humbucker -> 3 way -> series/parallel -> then to volume, etc? And then on the 3 way switch, the blue output has two connections in the middle of the switch. So I would just connect the top to the bottom, then the bottom to the 2 way switch? And the 2 grounds from the 3 way go to the same one on the 2 way?

Just checked my inbox, sorry, I'm getting slow at responding to PMs lately.

There's only one ground on the series/parallel switch. The pink connection from the neck pickup's switch will go to the pole of the series/parallel switch that connects the common to ground in parallel mode, however.

[SwagAttack]

Originally Posted by line6man

Just checked my inbox, sorry, I'm getting slow at responding to PMs lately.

There's only one ground on the series/parallel switch. The pink connection from the neck pickup's switch will go to the pole of the series/parallel switch that connects the common to ground in parallel mode, however.

Ok, so I think I have drafted a full wiring diagram for the system. If you don't mind, would you take a look at it to make sure it is accurate? I will have to scan it tomorrow since I am away from one at the moment.

[line6man]

Originally Posted by SwagAttack

Ok, so I think I have drafted a full wiring diagram for the system. If you don't mind, would you take a look at it to make sure it is accurate? I will have to scan it tomorrow since I am away from one at the moment.

Sure.

[SwagAttack]

Ok, I was actually able to upload it. If you need any clarification on anything I drew, just ask.

[line6man]

Originally Posted by SwagAttack

Ok, I was actually able to upload it. If you need any clarification on anything I drew, just ask.

I'm not sure what you're doing with the volume pots.
The bridge pickup's pot is backwards, and the wiper terminal should be it's input, and the neck pickup's pot sweeps the ground potential between the output and the pickup.

Otherwise, the switching looks good, assuming the color code is correct for the pickups.

[SwagAttack]

Originally Posted by line6man

I'm not sure what you're doing with the volume pots.
The bridge pickup's pot is backwards, and the wiper terminal should be it's input, and the neck pickup's pot sweeps the ground potential between the output and the pickup.

Otherwise, the switching looks good, assuming the color code is correct for the pickups.

Ya I just put upside down for the ease of drawing it so it would look a little bit cleaner. I will change the terminals, I honestly didn't really think about that when I drew it.

[SwagAttack]

Ok, well I finally received my guitar fetish mm pro pickups. But they are a little bit different than expected. It has 5 wires: black=ground, green=+, silver shield= ground, and then it has red and the white wires connected. It says, connect red to white, no contact for humbucker connect to ground for single coil. Does this mean I can not pick each coil individually? I might just have to do series/coil/par instead of nc/par/sc.

[SGD Lutherie]

If you connect red+white to hot you will switch out the other coil. So switch to ground for one, and hot for the other.

[SwagAttack]

Originally Posted by SGD Lutherie

If you connect red+white to hot you will switch out the other coil. So switch to ground for one, and hot for the other.

But is there no way to do it so I can make the toggle north coil/parallel/south coil? And if not, which solo coils would be best to have in the neck/bridge position?

[SGD Lutherie]

Originally Posted by SwagAttack

But is there no way to do it so I can make the toggle north coil/parallel/south coil? And if not, which solo coils would be best to have in the neck/bridge position?

It's already wired in series, that's why the red and white are connected together.

For parallel you would disconnect the red and white. From what I have read, GFS follows the Duncan color codes.

Normally green is ground and black is hot. But you can do it either way. So, green and white would be hot, and red and black ground.

Red and green is one coil, and black and white is the other.

So you would need an on-on-on switch.

Wire it like this:

[SwagAttack]

Originally Posted by SGD Lutherie

It's already wired in series, that's why the red and white are connected together.

For parallel you would disconnect the red and white. From what I have read, GFS follows the Duncan color codes.

Normally green is ground and black is hot. But you can do it either way. So, green and white would be hot, and red and black ground.

Red and green is one coil, and black and white is the other.

So you would need an on-on-on switch.

Wire it like this:

The part that is tripping me up is the extra ground (silver shield). I expected just the 4 wires, and made my diagram based on that. But ya, GFS does use the same colors as SD.

[SGD Lutherie]

Originally Posted by SwagAttack

The part that is tripping me up is the extra ground (silver shield). I expected just the 4 wires, and made my diagram based on that. But ya, GFS does use the same colors as SD.

That's the "drain wire." Just connect that to ground. It's for the shield in the pickup, and is not part of the signal wires.

All pickups with 4 conductor wiring have that drain wire.

[SwagAttack]

Originally Posted by SGD Lutherie

That's the "drain wire." Just connect that to ground. It's for the shield in the pickup, and is not part of the signal wires.

All pickups with 4 conductor wiring have that drain wire.

O, ok that makes sense. Thanks for the help. Hopefully I can finish this tonight. Will post picks of the finished product if I can.

Edit: Oops one more question. So the green wire goes to the left terminal, and then the blue goes from the left terminal to the right terminal. And then another wire from the right terminal goes to the output, so a total of three wires in those 2 terminals?

[SGD Lutherie]

Originally Posted by SwagAttack

O, ok that makes sense. Thanks for the help. Hopefully I can finish this tonight. Will post picks of the finished product if I can.

Edit: Oops one more question. So the green wire goes to the left terminal, and then the blue goes from the left terminal to the right terminal. And then another wire from the right terminal goes to the output, so a total of three wires in those 2 terminals?

Yes. I put a blue wire just to differentiate it from the pickup wires. It goes across the two center terminals and then to the hot. This works like a pickup selector switch, and treats the two coils in the pickup like two separate pickups. So you have one, both, or the other.

[SwagAttack]

Also, on that on/on/on switch, the diagram line6 gave me showed the green one not going to the middle for the nc/par/sc. It only had two hots going to the switch instead of the green, red, and white.

[SGD Lutherie]

That was a brain fart. I fixed it:

[SwagAttack]

Ok, and then for the blue that connects the two terminals, is it cool to use single strand wire, or is the current too high?