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Noob to pickups.

Posted by James Pobog on August 26, 2019 at 10:42pm in Building Secrets, Tips, Advice, Discussion

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 ...

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Replies

  • BrianQ. August 28, 2019 at 2:05pm

    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/

  • Poorness Studios August 28, 2019 at 6:34am

    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.

    • James Pobog > Poorness Studios August 28, 2019 at 9:17am

      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.

      • Poorness Studios > James Pobog August 28, 2019 at 1:45pm

        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. ;-)

        Pbass_1S_1V_1T.jpg?profile=RESIZE_710x

        • James Pobog > Poorness Studios August 28, 2019 at 2:04pm

          "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?

          • Poorness Studios > James Pobog August 28, 2019 at 4:09pm

            Yep, same wiring scheme regardless of the pickup type.

  • Cause the Blue rat August 28, 2019 at 1:27am

    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. 

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