Attached is the diagram I've been using to help me solder in my pickups....all of which have had just 2 wires attached. Also attached is the latest pickup I bought....which has 4 (3.5?) wires.
Can someone help me with this please?
Thanks guys
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You can indeed just leave them soldered together, wrap that join in tape so it doesn't accidentally short anywhere, and this will work just as the original humbuckers...
Alternatively you can put a dpdt switch in there to flip HOW the two connect (in series or in parallel )
This is a great mod to consider especially if this is to be the only pickup in the guitar.
Another common mod (and one that you could do with the same switch if you went for a triple throw one..) is to short one the coils right out at the join there, which makes the bucker into a (relatively weak) single coil..
About your wiring diagram...
Just some friendly advice, not an attack at all ok?... By joining your ground connections on the back of the pot there you are making this solder join absolutely crucial to your circuit. Now soldering to the back of a potentiometer is tricky. Have you ever noticed how it's this join that so often fails? It's because the little lugs are actually designed to solder to, they're nice and thin and heat up super fast. The pot chassis on the other hand is not designed for this, it's difficult to get a small spot of concentrated heat, especially when being mindful that there is a small and cheaply manufactured mechanism of moving parts including a wafer thin conductive... well wafer lol.. Right there.. Something most guys probably haven't stopped to consider is that this connection (to the pot chassis) is entirely optional, it just shields the pot itself.. Optional that is until you make up a diagram that makes it absolutely critical. So many guys pass these around without careful thought.. Why not join the ground wires at the lug on the pot and just add a small jumper to the chassis? If it fails at least your circuit will still work eh ;) (Same thing goes for grounding tone circuits there. Everyone does it. But I bet none of em can explain why heh. )
Thanks Phrygian - as always a really thorough answer!
Much appreciated mate
Yes, I would also guess red for hot (lead) and silver for ground. You can always get some of those alligator clip test wires and hook it up temporarily to the jack and then plug it into the amp and see if it works properly.
You can either tap on the pickup to see if it makes a noise, or hold the pickup right above your guitar's strings and strum to see if it makes a sound.
Sorry double post.
I can't tell but looking at the pick I'm guessing the green and white wires are soldered together? if so wrap tape around them. Use the red as your hot and ground the silver outside shield wire to ground.
The five wires are there for pickup mods. Not knowing what brand pickup you have it's hard to say what wire should go where.
Here's a couple of links that might help.
This one is for using a meeter to find out what wire does what,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nntdej_Qj6k
This one lists a lot of pickup makers and their wire colors
http://www.1728.org/guitar8.htm
For just a normal pickup the two grounds are soldered together and sent to ground. ( in this case it's the black and outside shielding ) Two wires that are used for pickup mods are then soldered together and wrapped up. The single 'hot' wire is used for the overall output of the pickup.