I know nothing about guitar electronics. As in zero.

I have put an amp kit and psycho box together, but pickups...especially humbuckers...seem to be something quite different.

Resources, please? I'm much more interested in basic/simple, rather than 25 humbuckers wired for every mathematically possible combination. (remember, perception is reality)

So, how to wire a single humbucker? Are volume/tone required? Should I hand a knowledgeable friend a handful of parts and  ask for his help?

On the other hand, maybe I should just stick with the sound-hole pickups for my planned 2x4/6 lap steels.

P.S. I do want goodheavy  psycho box distortion ...

Views: 223

Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Hi James,

Along with the diagrams in BrianQ's link I have found these from Artec sound to be useful.

http://www.artecsound.com/wiring/wiring_book01.pdf

For a single humbucker pickup you do not need a switch.  If you prefer to use the amplifier volume and tone controls you can wire the pickup directly to the Jack socket lugs.

Soldering is easy once you have tried it and there are lots of tutorials on YouTube showing you how.  If you have a friend who can show you how even better.

You can buy cheap prewired circuits off eBay that you just have to join the pickup(s) to.  It depends on your level of interest in making your own and how many you plan to make.  The term to search is "wiring harness" in the eBay musical instrument category.

A cheap multimeter with a continuity checker is useful to have if you plan to make your own circuits.  Also cheap Chinese pickups are great value but have inconsistant wiring codes and the multimeter lets you work out which wires are to which coil and the phase relationship between coils (easier to work out than it sounds and lots of YouTube videos on it eg https://youtu.be/OcuvBRZPpow).

Regards,

David L.

Seymour Duncan

Click on the link. On the left hand side choose the pickup your looking to use. The right hand side of the page will change. There's a drop down menu. Scroll down till you get to the wiring diagram you need.

To answer your questions. Both volume and tone are a good idea. Volume because you'll get great results with distortion and overdrive. Tone because it gets rid of the harshness of a pickup going straight to an amp. Even with the tone all the way up. 

First thing I would do is learn a little bit about what your doing. Some very good youtube channels.

Dylan Talks Tone

Darrell Braun Guitar

Cruise through both channels to find info on pot's, caps and soldering. 

One important thing to learn is soldering. After a few times practicing you'll have it down. 

And a bit of advice. Never compromise. Build what you will be happy with. 

"First thing I would do is learn a little bit about what your doing."

LOL....I forget about that sometimes.

Not sure why the Duncan link isn't working I'll try again.

https://www.seymourduncan.com/wiring-diagrams?__uuid_ref=5c916f848af0d

Hey James. In a traditional guitar setup you have pickup, volume, tone, jack. There are a few different wiring styles as the folks above point out, but usually you have all those elements. They're are some "hot rod" guitars that may forego the tone pot or even the volume pot. Typically folks use 250K pots for single coils and 500K pots for humbuckers. With dual pickup systems, there's normally a 3-way switch involved. Also, there are a bunch of different tone capacitor values, people typically use .015 uF, .022 uF, or .047 uF, but other values are seen from time to time.

With CBGs, its kinda up to you. Personally, I favor having a pickup, volume pot, and jack on most my builds. I've included tone pots on a couple (and wired a couple straight to the the jack w/no volume or tone pots). I've used 500K pots on single coils. I've used .065 uF caps... I mean, It's your world. If you get a new idea... try it. If doesn't have to be something somebody else has done before.

**I should probably caveat the above by saying I have an engineering background, so I'm familiar with how circuits work. If you have no knowledge of electronics, than you may want to follow the diagrams... at least at first. But that said, the majority of guitar circuits are passive and low voltage, it's hard to "fry" anything.

Thanks, Poorness. I can solder, but it's a bit ironic that I know virtually nothing about electronics, Dad was an electronics engineer, with several patents, a switch design that went to the Moon, and a technical Academy Award (in the late 50's) for a movie camera shutter.

No worries. If you're a newbie to wiring, you're probably best off to follow diagrams like the one below until you get the hang of it. No need to get creative on the first build. ;-)

"No need to get creative on the first build. ;-)"

Bloody hell that's hard for me to do. My brain won't turn off, but I am reigning myself in very hard for #1. It will have slight upgrade, but yeah, I need to follow the plan for the first one...

That diagram shows a 4 string p/u, I assume it's the same for 6?

Yep, same wiring scheme regardless of the pickup type.

There’s a wealth of those Seymour Duncan diagrams, color codes, as well as many others at Guitar Electronics site? It’s under the “Guitar wiring resources” tab? For some reason the Seymour Duncan link is like that often Cause? 

https://guitarelectronics.com/guitar-wiring-resources/

Thanks...

RSS

The Essential Pages

New to Cigar Box Nation? How to Play Cigar Box GuitarsFree Plans & How to Build Cigar Box GuitarsCigar Box Guitar Building Basics

Site Sponsor

Recommended Links & Resources


Forum

crossover guitar.

Started by Timothy Hunter in Other stuff - off topic, fun stuff, whatever. Last reply by Timothy Hunter Mar 21. 11 Replies

Tune up songs

Started by Ghostbuttons in Building Secrets, Tips, Advice, Discussion. Last reply by Timothy Hunter Mar 9. 5 Replies

Duel output jacks

Started by Justin Stanchfield in Building Secrets, Tips, Advice, Discussion. Last reply by Taffy Evans Mar 8. 6 Replies

How to Get Your Own Music on Spotify

Started by Cigar Box Nation in Feature Articles. Last reply by Southern Ray Feb 21. 2 Replies

CB Bass Guitar

Started by Mi Rankin in Building Secrets, Tips, Advice, Discussion. Last reply by Justin Stanchfield Jan 27. 5 Replies

Latest Activity

A.D.EKER commented on A.D.EKER's video
Thumbnail

Im Troubled (Tribute) Mc K Morganfield by BCB - A.D .Eker 2024.

"Thank you Poorness ! for loving it ! appreciated!"
14 hours ago
Southern Ray replied to Timothy Hunter's discussion just came accross this pickup idea on youtube.
" Very interesting. Thank you Timothy!"
14 hours ago
Kent Thurston updated their profile
15 hours ago
Southern Ray posted a photo

Punch Project!

She now sports gold metal CBGitty knobs, speaker and an Artec 2.5 watt speaker. Finished this in…
15 hours ago
Southern Ray posted a photo

Project Punch!

Gonna finally get back on this long-delayed project that is more than half complete. (The matching…
16 hours ago
Poorness Studios liked A.D.EKER's video
18 hours ago
BrianQ. left a comment for Rob (Uker) Porras
"Hope this helps?"
18 hours ago
Doug Thorsvik commented on Doug Thorsvik's photo
Thumbnail

Dueling Flatheads

"I appreciate the kind words Papa D! I have always loved the look of these cigar boxes. Glad to have…"
20 hours ago
A.D.EKER commented on A.D.EKER's video
yesterday
A.D.EKER posted a video

Im Troubled (Tribute) Mc K Morganfield by BCB - A.D .Eker 2024.

The recorded History By Alan Lomax for the library of Congres of the Blues, from Mc Kinley Morganfield (Aka Muddy Waters) the in this take recorded Tribute ...
yesterday
Papa D commented on Doug Thorsvik's photo
Thumbnail

Dueling Flatheads

"Beautiful..Nice work Doug.."
yesterday
Papa D commented on Papa D's photo
Thumbnail

american1 Sun Glo

"Thanx AGP & Doug..  4 more coming soon"
yesterday

Music

© 2024   Created by Ben "C. B. Gitty" Baker.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service

\uastyle>\ud/** Scrollup **/\ud.scrollup {\ud background: url("https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/963882636?profile=original") no-repeat scroll 0 0 transparent;\ud bottom: 25px;\ud display: inline !important;\ud height: 40px;\ud opacity: 0.3 !important;\ud position: fixed;\ud right: 30px;\ud text-indent: -9999px;\ud width: 40px;\ud z-index: 999;\ud}\ud.scrollup:hover {\ud opacity:0.99!important;\ud}\ud \uascript type="text/javascript">\ud x$(document).ready(function(){\ud x$(window).scroll(function(){\ud if (x$(this).scrollTop() > 100) {\ud x$('.scrollup').fadeIn();\ud } else {\ud x$('.scrollup').fadeOut();\ud }\ud });\ud x$('.scrollup').click(function(){\ud x$("html, body").animate({ scrollTop: 0 }, 600);\ud return false;\ud });\ud });\ud \ua!-- End Scroll Up -->