Can you explain this wiring?

[redir]

http://www.guitarelectronics.com/pro...Coil-Taps.html

Have a look and let me know what you think.

[H165]

It's a pretty standard wiring diagram. A user would have to understand the accepted terms naming each winding end, etc. It shows far more options than interest me, just because I don't really want a whole pedal board on my guitar. Too much tinkering around and room for error.

I would say a cover band lead player might want all those options to duplicate the wide range of sounds on top-40 or other charted hits, but the few I know use pedal boards for that.

[ronbo]

Pretty standard 2 tone 1 volume with push-pull switches on the tone controls for single coil / humbucker mode. I've personally never played a guitar with 2 tone controls, I prefer 1 tone and 2 volumes with a single push-pull on the tone for both pickups...

[redir]

Focus on the coil tap wiring for the bridge pickup. Does that make sense?

To me it makes sense on the neck picup but not the bridge. I don't see how that will tap one coil.

[jonfields45]

The neck switch shorts out the south coil and the bridge switch shorts out the north coil. Presumably this leaves you with the outer coils in single coil mode (assuming north and south are the coils you think they are...).

[redir]

I can see the neck switch sending one coil to ground but the bridge switch is not grounded that's where I am confused.

The bridge switch essentially joins the North start and finish to the South finish and sends it to the tone pot.

So I am confused as to how that would cut a coil.

Why isn't the bridge switch wired like the neck where it sends one of the coils to ground?

[LouieAtienza]

Originally Posted by redir

I can see the neck switch sending one coil to ground but the bridge switch is not grounded that's where I am confused.

The bridge switch essentially joins the North start and finish to the South finish and sends it to the tone pot.

So I am confused as to how that would cut a coil.

Why isn't the bridge switch wired like the neck where it sends one of the coils to ground?

I think it's done this way so if you have both coil taps on, it's hum cancelling.

[redir]

IT's my understanding that hum cancelling will only occure if the poarity of the pickups is reversed so that you would have to flip the magnets upside down to get that to work.

My first thought was that it was trying to make the two coils of the humbucker into one sort of giant single coil but that makes no sense either.

I guess I'll jsut have to try it, parts came in today. But I'm still scratching my head at how this one works.

Take a Duncan pickup for example in place of this diagrams bridge pickup. From top to bottom the colors would be

Black
White
Red
Green

A normal coil split would join the red and white wires together and then ground those out such that now you have the starting ground at white which then goes through the north coil and out the black, hence only one coil.

In this diagram when you pull up the switch now essentially what you have is a pickup wired such the start being the green ground and then you join the Black, White AND Red wires together and on out to the jack.

I guess maybe what happens at that point is it comes from ground out red to the jack and since white and black are together it skips it. IDK?



I just don't see how this cuts a coil out?

[moon]

Maybe this will help to explain what's going on in a humbucker.

Red square - coil wire finish
Blue dot - coil wire start
Arrows - magnetic field orientation

Note the magnetic field only influences the voltage generated by the strings. It has no effect on the hum-inducing EM picked up by a coil. This is why a humbucker can cancel hum but keep the string signal.



Two coils in a humbucker can be thought of as equivalent to a single coil (although without the hum).



You can wire any number of coils into one big pickup so long as the voltages generated by each coil are all pointing in the same way (in phase).

Whether it will be humbucking or not depends on the other details.

[redir]

That made me dizzy but didn't help me understand

I think I do understand though. I just am not seeing what I think I understand in that image so I'll explain what I think it is.

A humbucker is two single coil pickups with reverse polarity wired in series out of phase.

What that means to me is that one coil has the north end of the magnets pointing up and the wire wraps around it clockwise while the other magnet has the north end of the magnets pointing down and the wire wraps around it counterclockwise. There is one wire that is called the start and one that is called the finish. The start enters the first coil wraps around in one direction till it exits that coil and continues into the second one and wraps around in the opposite direction till it comes out.

In a simple set up the start would be ground and the finish would be wired to the jack.

[myersbw]

Please delete? (is there an option for us to do so ourselves?)

[myersbw]

Basically, in regard to single-coil mode. Both unused coils (switches engages) are being shorted. (Never has to be "to ground"...just shorted to be ineffective.)

So, the neck pu has the SOUTH coil being shorted to ground as...it's one lead is shorted to ground AND the switch is shorting the coil's other end (the middle) to ground.

With the bridge pu, the north coil is shorted directly to itself by the switch alone. Leaving that coil ineffective. "Ground" is not important here...it's just the connecting point to the rest of the circuit in regard to the incoming signal (your guitar). The shorting factor is the primary focus and both of those pu's will have a coil shorted "to itself" once the pot switches are engaged.

[redir]

Yeah that makes sense thank you.

I had a hell of a time with this guitar. Turns out Duncan screwed up the color coding of the 4 wire humbucker. So instead of tying of red/white I tied off blac/white and all is good.

[myersbw]

Sweet! That equates to jam time! Glad it worked out for you!