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Help with wiring dual musicman pickups.

William Shafer

William Shafer

Apr 25, 2017
141
112
Denver
#1
Hello forum,

I'm currently working on a headless bass that I want to have dual Musicman pickups in. I'm not new to making instruments but new to making electric ones. Previously I wired up a single soap bar to a master volume and master tone. Pretty easy. But I'm going more complex this time. I'm think a master volume and tone with an added 3-way selector (neck, both, bridge)
I believe I found the right diagram (for guitars but should translate) What I need is some explanation on which wire is which since this diagram is black and white.
wd2hh3l11_00__57730.1470694225.1280.1280.jpg


So, when they say start they mean positive? And finish means negative? Is the diagram below pretty accurate for 4 conductor Musicman pickups?

upload_2017-6-29_15-7-49.png


Thanks for any and all help!
 
#4
I don't think which brand of tuning machines you'll be using is relevant :roflmao:

Forget about colors, and just figure out which wire is which the old-fashioned way, with an analog multimeter & a screwdriver.
The screwdriver is for tapping on the pole pieces & watching the meter to see which way the needle deflects.

Just match up the wires based on the way the needle deflects. Say for instance, left deflecting wires to ground & right deflecting wires to the switch/hot.
It gets more complicated if you want to coil tap or split your humbucker.
 
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#5
Killed_by_Death said:
I don't think which brand of tuning machines you'll be using is relevant :roflmao:

Forget about colors, and just figure out which wire is which the old-fashioned way, with an analog multimeter & a screwdriver.
The screwdriver is for tapping on the pole pieces & watching the meter to see which way the needle deflects.

Just match up the wires based on the way the needle deflects. Say for instance, left deflecting wires to ground & right deflecting wires to the switch/hot.
It gets more complicated if you want to coil tap or split your humbucker.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I'm trying to work out the switching for maximum single coil / humbucker and parallel / series (both within and across pickups) options. Ought to be easier than it is. :)
 
#7
I'd love too but have little in way of knowledge and experience. I've been more on the side of the woodworking, but I can read a wiring diagram. Problem is finding and understand said diagrams. ...I guess with some helps from the forum I might have some success. Any suggestions? How would you wire dual Musicman pickups?
 
#8
Something that bugs me about the Jackson Dinky (guitar) is that they use a lever switch, but it's only got three positions. A 3-way toggle would be perfect, but then again Dinkys are a preferred mod platform, so a lot of people replace it with a 5-way.
You could probably take some basic electricity courses at your local community college.
 
#9
Killed_by_Death said:
in a lever switch spot, you could put in a 5-way & do some more stuff with it
Click to expand...
I'm planning on using one of these: [Invalid or Expired Link Removed] but figuring out the wiring is rather complicated, what I want to do doesn't fit any of their use examples, can still work it out, it's just a slow pain. Even having the part and spending hours studying the manual, still don't have it figured out enough to solder. Complicated little beastie.
 
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#10
Any dual coil 4-wire pickup has a specific color coordination.
Black and white are one coil, red and green are the other coil.
Black and Red are positive, or Hot, for each coil, white and green are the negatives of the coils.
Typically, these are wired in Series, starting with the Black wire. But you can also start with the red wire...your choice, but it is easier to remember to start with black.
Wiring both coils in Series would go: Start with Black (hot). That coil's negative is white, so that gets soldered to the Red (Hot of 2nd coil). You finally end by soldering the green to ground.
Wiring coils in parallel, both hot's (black and red) are soldered together to a common hot, and both negative's (white and green) are soldered to ground.

These are the basics...but there is much, much more you can do. I did a bass with 2 MM pickups with a Les Paul style pickup selector switch, as well as 3-way mini-toggle coil splitters for each pickup, where I can choose among Series, North Coil, or South coil for each. Later on I added a passive tone control.
This thing is an absolute beast!

DC019319-79BD-4195-ABF1-18A568B85FEB.jpg
 
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#11
eastcoasteddie said:
Any dual coil 4-wire pickup has a specific color coordination.
Black and white are one coil, red and green are the other coil.
Black and Red are positive, or Hot, for each coil, white and green are the negatives of the coils.
Typically, these are wired in Series, starting with the Black wire. But you can also start with the red wire...your choice, but it is easier to remember to start with black.
Wiring both coils in Series would go: Start with Black (hot). That coil's negative is white, so that gets soldered to the Red (Hot of 2nd coil). You finally end by soldering the green to ground.
Wiring coils in parallel, both hot's (black and red) are soldered together to a common hot, and both negative's (white and green) are soldered to ground.

These are the basics...but there is much, much more you can do. I did a bass with 2 MM pickups with a Les Paul style pickup selector switch, as well as 3-way mini-toggle coil splitters for each pickup, where I can choose among Series, North Coil, or South coil for each. Later on I added a passive tone control.
This thing is an absolute beast!

View attachment 2610814
Click to expand...
Beautful bass. Can you share info on this model? It looks like the Dean logo but I can't find anything similar through we searches. Thanks
 
#13
Samoht said:
Beautful bass. Can you share info on this model? It looks like the Dean logo but I can't find anything similar through we searches. Thanks
Click to expand...
Dean Sledgehammer. They came in Ash/Maple (this one) or all Mahogany. They came with only the bridge pickup, I added the neck pickup to this one.
I once had a 2nd identical bass where I added a Jazz neck pickup.
They were good basses, but not extremely comfortable. Discontinued in 2010, I believe.
 
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