Hondo Alien wiring

so, you've got a vol, a tone and a series/parallel switch, right?

what type of pickup did you buy. the colour codes vary from manufacturer to manufacturer.

with some basic knowledge you can work out which wire is which, but as a novice you'd be better off contacting the pickup maker or checkingout their website for a series-parallel switch diagram.

then just follow a p bass diagram for the vol and tone pots.

 

The color codes are not standard, every company has their own color code. Hopefully you either know who manufactured your replacement pickup. Otherwise, get an ohm meter if you don't have one already.

Yes, separate the red and white wires, that's necessary to have the series/parallel switching, which is what your diagram shows. Series setting will be louder and bassier, parallel setting should be lower output but with almost single-coil tone, but both settings are hum-cancelling. Yes the unsheathed wire is ground and yes the white goes to ground too.

It is wired like any other humbucking guitar or bass pickup. Just do a search for "series parallel humbucker diagram" and there's a bunch of links.

If by chance you wire it up but the sound is very weak and trebly, you may have one of the coils out of phase, swap the wires on one coil to fix this.

 

Yes, the series/parallel wiring scheme is the same whether it's for two separate pickups or just a single double-coil (humbucker) pickup. Since the two coils are so close together, they would sound practically identical if you wired them up in a normal 2 pickup scheme like a Jazz bass.

 

Yeah, but I'd reverse the middle and clockwise lugs on the volume pot. Follow a P bass wiring.

Nah, there's a good chance that won't work. For example, Bartolini pickups use black, white, green, red as well, but they have black and white as one coil and green and red as the other. But in your diagram, for that series-parallel switch to work, one coil is white and blue, the other is black and red.

If you don't have access to your new pickup wiring from the manufacturer's site, you'll need to bust out the multimeter I'm afraid...

 

Oh I see. I wondered what that square thing was on the volume pot. Yeah a cap like that across the terminals is a treble bleed. It compensates for the loading effect that the pot has on the pickup when it's wired like that. 22nF is much larger than usual for this job, but understandable in your case. With the pickup connected to the middle lug, it "sees" a diminishing impedence as the volume is turned down and that progressively chokes the treble. Jazz basses have their twin volume pots wired like this so you can blend the two pickups. With a single pickup I'd recommend wiring the volume pot in the standard way, with the pickup output connected to the clockwise lug, and the jack being fed from the middle lug. You still get a small amount of treble reduction this way (due to cable capacitance mostly), but generally most players won't need any treble bypass cap. Those that do, usually opt for a cap that is around 20 times smaller than the one that you have there.

Cool. I have used a few of these over the years. IME, they are cheap, but well designed and made.

As for the wiring, well with a multimeter, first you need to work out which pairs of wires belong to which coils. Then you need to make sure the two coils are in phase. You do this by tapping the top of the coils and noting the polarity of the voltage spike. And thirdly, with a pickup that has exposed pole pieces, you need to work out which overall polarity will give you quietest operation. You do this simply by attaching the coils to an amp then touching the poles. If they buzz, then reverse the phase. If the pickup is RWRP, then they will both be in phase and quiet. Finally you need to orientate the pickup in the bass so that the coil that is on the hot side when switched to series is away from your fingers if possible as it will buzz slightly when touched.

 

I need to rewire mine, too. Was your schematic correct?