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Rewiring series pickup to be 4-conductor?

#21
Matthijs said:
So what we know is:
C is a hot lead
A is a shielding ground and E the ground for the other coil (or the other way around, but it does not matter)
B and D are a hot lead for the E coil or the ground for the C coil. If you disconnect only the red wire you’ll find out which is which. And that is the only thing left you need to know.

Series wiring will only be possible if both coils cover the whole width. I doubt if that’s the case.
Click to expand...
To disconnect the red wire should I cut in the middle or unsolder at one end? What are the wires soldered to anyway - pins? I usually like to leave things soldered, cut and then solder more wire to add length.
 
#22
fourstringbliss said:
To disconnect the red wire should I cut in the middle or unsolder at one end? What are the wires soldered to anyway - pins? I usually like to leave things soldered, cut and then solder more wire to add length.
Click to expand...

The better your soldering skills, the more I want you to solder to the pins themselves. If you aren't nicely handy with an iron, I might be worried about you sticking the iron on there for too long and sending too much heat into the pickup. In that case, just cut the wire in the middle.
 
#23
4StringTheorist said:
The better your soldering skills, the more I want you to solder to the pins themselves. If you aren't nicely handy with an iron, I might be worried about you sticking the iron on there for too long and sending too much heat into the pickup. In that case, just cut the wire in the middle.
Click to expand...
I have a soldering iron setup that has adjustable heat so I can melt solder quickly. I've never soldered to pickup pins so I was concerned about how quickly I'd need to work.
 
#24
fourstringbliss said:
I have a soldering iron setup that has adjustable heat so I can melt solder quickly. I've never soldered to pickup pins so I was concerned about how quickly I'd need to work.
Click to expand...

All that's inside that pickup are coil forms, the wire coils themselves, and magnets. It's all sealed up solid in a wad of epoxy, so it should be pretty tough. It's honestly probably more tanky than I'd give it instinctive credit for... I'm just a careful, methodical sort. ;)

If you've got that setup, then yeah. Just take those wires away and (once we nail down the identity of every terminal) you can attach your own wire set to them. It'd be awesome if there was a 4-conductor + shield cable with those exact 4 Bart colors.. you'd end up with a modded pickup that would look like and wire up just like a stock model.
 
#26
Bartolini comes through!

Screenshot_2019-07-08-12-02-56.png
 
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#29
fourstringbliss said:
I'm super surprised how quickly the info came!

Would I wire each pickup the same way?
Click to expand...

The back of each pickup will be wired up identically.

In the control cavity, they won't be wired to their switches identically. One of them will be wired up to choose the neck coil in single coil mode. The other one will be wired up to choose the bridge coil in single mode.

But if you wire the back of both pickups up as that diagram from Bartolini, you can then just follow the Bart four conductor wiring diagram for the control cavity connections and you're home free. :)
 
#30
4StringTheorist said:
The back of each pickup will be wired up identically.

In the control cavity, they won't be wired to their switches identically. One of them will be wired up to choose the neck coil in single coil mode. The other one will be wired up to choose the bridge coil in single mode.

But if you wire the back of both pickups up as that diagram from Bartolini, you can then just follow the Bart four conductor wiring diagram for the control cavity connections and you're home free. :)
Click to expand...
Thank you so much!
 
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#32
fourstringbliss said:
I need white, black, green, gray and red wire for this project. Do you think dollar store earbud wire would work? $5 and I'd have the wire colors I would need.
Click to expand...

Here.

Also, note that the grey wire in that email from Bartolini is the shield, so can be bare metal.
 
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#34
So here's how the pickup wiring looks now:

View attachment 3470769 View attachment 3470772

Honestly freaky to unsolder the original wires to find these tiny pins that I needed to solder to, but it worked out. I used some white jacketed wire I already had and labeled the colors on the ends in the appropriate color of Sharpie. The wires are way too long but I'd rather have too much...
 
#38
fourstringbliss said:
From the diagram I am assuming that red/green is north coil and white/black is south coil. I tested the resistance on both pickups and:

Neck RG 4.1k BW 4.1k

Bridge RG 5.9k. BW 5.9k

Do those numbers sound about right?
Click to expand...

Sounds like you're off to the races!! :)

Am I right in thinking these are the pickups I (almost) bought from you? I'm kinda jazzed to see the continuing story of these pups after their brief detour through Texas! :)
 
#39
4StringTheorist said:
Sounds like you're off to the races!! :)

Am I right in thinking these are the pickups I (almost) bought from you? I'm kinda jazzed to see the continuing story of these pups after their brief detour through Texas! :)
Click to expand...
Yup, these are those pickups, which is why it's wild that you've been giving me so much help in this!

They're a unique size so I'd need to get the routes enlarged to install something different. I like the series sound, but it's going to be nice to have some other tones. I have a feeling that I'll probably use them in single-coil mode most of the time.
 
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