4c Seymour Duncan Humbuckers - Which wires to use for coil splits?

[itsGiusto]

I have a set of Seymour Duncan humbucker pickups. They seem to have 4 wires, a black one, a red one, a white one, and a green one. I'm not certain if these colors or their meanings vary among manufacturers. I want to wire my pickups so each is splittable, and I can put them out of phase with each other, using 3 DPDTs.

Presumably, when splitting the coils, you'd usually want to have it so that the coils furthest from each other are active during the split, right? That way, you'd get the bassiest neck tone, and the brightest bridge tone. So for the neck pickup, you'd want to be using the coil right next to the neck, and the bridge, you'd want to be using the coil right next to the bridge, not the ones closer to the middle.

So how do I know which wire is for which? Do the meanings vary in different manufacturers, or even from the neck pickup to the bridge pickup?

 

[Ringo]

Go to the source ...

https://www.seymourduncan.com/resources/pickup/wiring-diagrams

All kinds of wiring info available there, with Duncan humbuckers the red and white leads are tied together for std humbucking mode, not sure how to select which coil when you split to single coil mode, but again check their site

And you posted in the wrong place, this should be in the pickup section I'd think?

 

[itsGiusto]

Well, I checked there, but those diagrams don't tell you which coil is used, so it's hard to know what's going on. You'll look up a wiring diagram and it'll just say "split coil", but they don't say which coil is the one which is grounded and which one is the one that's being heard. I'd like to know for sure - what if they have it wired to use the inner coil instead of the outer?

 

[Audiowonderland]

I have a set of Seymour Duncan humbucker pickups. They seem to have 4 wires, a black one, a red one, a white one, and a green one. I'm not certain if these colors or their meanings vary among manufacturers. I want to wire my pickups so each is splittable, and I can put them out of phase with each other, using 3 DPDTs.

Presumably, when splitting the coils, you'd usually want to have it so that the coils furthest from each other are active during the split, right? That way, you'd get the bassiest neck tone, and the brightest bridge tone. So for the neck pickup, you'd want to be using the coil right next to the neck, and the bridge, you'd want to be using the coil right next to the bridge, not the ones closer to the middle.

So how do I know which wire is for which? Do the meanings vary in different manufacturers, or even from the neck pickup to the bridge pickup?

Black is hot, Red/white soldered together and taped off, and green/bare to ground is the basic wiring. I would need switch specifics etc and desired outcome to get into more detail. Duncan has a library of schematics to do just about anything that can be done

 

[Audiowonderland]

Well, I checked there, but those diagrams don't tell you which coil is used, so it's hard to know what's going on. You'll look up a wiring diagram and it'll just say "split coil", but they don't say which coil is the one which is grounded and which one is the one that's being heard. I'd like to know for sure - what if they have it wired to use the inner coil instead of the outer?

Unless you alter the wiring, its usually the slug coil on when you split the coils on their humbucker.

 

[itsGiusto]

Unless you alter the wiring, its usually the slug coil on when you split the coils on their humbucker.

That's good to know. I think what I described above with saying I "want to have it so that the coils furthest from each other are active during the split", is the opposite of this - I think I want screw-coil on during the split. Is there a downside to doing it this way?

 

[Audiowonderland]

That's good to know. I think what I described above with saying I "want to have it so that the coils furthest from each other are active during the split", is the opposite of this - I think I want screw-coil on during the split. Is there a downside to doing it this way?

Not really. You need to consider what middle singe you select in terms wind direction and polarity if you are doing HSH for example. Otherwise you just need to completely reverse the flow to get the screw coil to be active. Its not hard but I don't recall that setup from memory

 

[itsGiusto]

Black is hot, Red/white soldered together and taped off, and green/bare to ground is the basic wiring. I would need switch specifics etc and desired outcome to get into more detail. Duncan has a library of schematics to do just about anything that can be done

One thing I want to check - black wire is hot, so does that mean that black is the slug coil for bridge and the screw coil for the neck? Since the screws are on opposite coils for each neck and bridge?

 

[Collin D Plonker]

Black is slug. Green is screw.

 

[Collin D Plonker]

You can do it with 2 dpdt switches.

 

[EsquireOK]

Standard splitting is to the slug coil.

You can split to the screw coil if you'd like, by following the alternate split wiring.

Once you know these basics, you can figure out the phase issues as needed.

 

[itsGiusto]

Standard splitting is to the slug coil.

You can split to the screw coil if you'd like, by following the alternate split wiring.

Once you knew these basics, you can figure out the phase issues as needed.

View attachment 756792

The first wiring, the one that uses the slug coil makes sense, but I do not understand how that alternate wiring works at all.

1. Why are green and black together, and why are they switched to ground? Shouldn't green and black never be together, as they are the very ends of the pickups?
2. Why are red and white never together? Isn't putting those two together the standard way of having it be in humbucking mode?
3. Why is white always grounded?
4. Why is red the main signal wire?

 

[EsquireOK]

When you wire the pickup to split to the adjustable coil A.K.A. the screw coil, your coil starts and finishes get swapped.

This diagram shows the standard color codes for the coil starts and finishes of various pickup makers. Your coil starting leads are the beginning and end of the humbucker, and your coil finishing leads are joined to link the two coils in series.

(Note that the diagram is outdated, as Gibson now uses these color codes for neck pickups only; their bridge pickups use a different code.)

The other way, your coil finishing leads are the beginning and end of the humbucker. Your coil starting leads are joined to link the two coils in series.

 

[EsquireOK]

P.S. While I hate to refer to Premier Guitar, because I have many times found them publishing false information or wive's tales, this article is technically sound, and explains the whole thing in a succinct fashion: https://www.premierguitar.com/artic...our-ways-to-configure-a-4-conductor-humbucker.

 

[itsGiusto]

P.S. While I hate to refer to Premier Guitar, because I have many times found them publishing false information or wive's tales, this article is technically sound, and explains the whole thing in a succinct fashion: https://www.premierguitar.com/artic...our-ways-to-configure-a-4-conductor-humbucker.

Haha, same! I've multiple times tried Dirk's suggestions, only to find they don't really work, and then wised up and multiple more times, looked into whether it'd work ahead of time and found out that they will not. I kinda look at those columns now as anti-advice. Like if they suggest something, I assume that it will not work.

 

[itsGiusto]

When you wire the pickup to split to the adjustable coil A.K.A. the screw coil, your coil starts and finishes get swapped.

The other way, your coil finishing leads are the beginning and end of the humbucker. Your coil starting leads are joined to link the two coils in series.

This is what I don't understand. Why is that the case that they'd get swapped?

 

[EsquireOK]

This is what I don't understand. Why is that the case that they'd get swapped?

Because it works! It allows you to split to the adjustable coil.

 

[itsGiusto]

Because it works! It allows you to split to the adjustable coil.

But wouldn't it also work if I put red and white together, grounded them with black, and just took the green wire as the signal wire?

 

[Jlwctn]

Do you have a meter?

 

[itsGiusto]

Do you have a meter?

A multimeter? Yeah.