Warwick pickup change - what to do with black wires?

[kerley]

Hello.

Want to swap out the MECs on my passive Corvette but they only have a white cable (one on each pickup). All J pickups I have seen have two wires, so question is what do I do with the black wire, will the pickup work without it connected to anything?

Thanks,

Chris.

 

[niftydog]

The 'second' wire is the braided cable shielding. Don't know what vintage corvette yours is, but mine has the shield from both pups wired to the blend knob body and the white wires going onto the little circuit board attached to the blend knob.

Pretend the black wires on your new pups are the same as the shield on your old ones and you'll be sweet. The pickups won't work otherwise.

 

[kerley]

Thanks, it is a 2004 model. The pickups only have the white wire so not sure how they are working! There is a thin wire that comes from the bridge area and connects to the jack plug. Even the wiring diagram on the Warwick site dies not show a second wire.

But as long as I ground the black wires to something then I should be okay then. Thanks.

 

[niftydog]

They've gotta be tied to ground somewhere, otherwise the circuit is incomplete. Maybe you'll find out what's going on when you disassemble.

 

[kerley]

Yes, it will be clearer when I take them out. I have removbed them before when waxing/changing strings which is why I know they only have a white wire as they were hanging from it. I may not have spotted a second wire 'hidden' somewhere.

Thanks for reply, I am armed with what to do now.

 

[kerley]

I have now swapped out the pickups and yes there is only one wire on each pickup on a 2004 Warwick Corvette passive (just in case anyone else is searching for same answer)

The wire has an internal wire, then a casing and then another wire around that one to give the ground. So the one wire does both. The outer is stripped back and grounded on the pickup pan pot and then continues on as the inner wire only (around 15mm) to the contact point on the little circuit board looking thing.

Guessing this is definitely not the normal way of doing it, although it was actually a very neat way of doing it!

 

[niftydog]

Exactly like I said, the "second" wire is the braided copper shielding. That's perfectly normal and completely ubiquitous.