2 humbucker 4 pot pickup wiring help

[Abe]

Hi, greetings from U.S. First build, 5 string bass. Per the 2 humbucker, 4 pot wiring diagram, Looks like the only wire from each pickup that's used is the white and ground. Doesn't seem right. The white & red are twisted together and the green and bare are as well. Black is by itself. Do I separate these And just use the white wire as the only wire or use the red and white together and the grounds from the pickups, rest are all jumpers. Just cut off the black wire?
Thanks

[Fretworn]

Welcome Abe. It would be best if you let us know what pickups you are using. Photos will also help. And no, don't cut off any wires, they will all be there for a reason.

[wokkaboy]

Hi Abe, welcome to the forum. Assume you are building a IB-5 kit with coil splitable pickups ?

As Fretty has suggested please let us know the pickup brand so we can check the wire colours.

If you aren't coil splitting then it sounds like red and white are the coil ends, so tape them up, sounds like green and bare are earth wires and black is probably your hot wire.

Do you have a multimeter handy to do some tests ?

[Abe]

Hi Abe, welcome to the forum. Assume you are building a IB-5 kit with coil splitable pickups ?

As Fretty has suggested please let us know the pickup brand so we can check the wire colours.

If you aren't coil splitting then it sounds like red and white are the coil ends, so tape them up, sounds like green and bare are earth wires and black is probably your hot wire.

Do you have a multimeter handy to do some tests ?

Thanks, yes the kit is the EB5, will snap a few pictures and send later. Yes, I do gave a multimeter.

[Abe]

Thanks, yes it is the IB5 kit, assumed the pickups are humbucker. I do have a multimeter. If I can figure out how to resize my photos, will send you pictures. I printed a wiring diagram from the site titled "2 Humbucker pickups, 4 pots wiring diagram.

[wokkaboy]

Hi Abe, that's where the confusion may have come from (you talked about the pickups having 4 wire colours ?), you may have a guitar wiring diagram with coil splittable pickups. Also your diagram may have a 3 way switch which the IB-5 doesn't have a switch. Or do you mean you got the diagram from the Pitbull site ?
If you are using the supplied pickups they have a hot and earth wire only. Use this diagram
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-content/uploads/pdf/IB-5.pdf

[Abe]

That helps, I did download the schematic from pit bull site. I am using the schematic you referenced. My confusion is that the red and white were twisted together (same for the shield and green. So, per the schematic, the only wires used from the pickups are the white and shield? All the rest of the wires (black, red, green) are not used. Cant comprehend how a circuit could be complete with one hot wire and a shield.

[WeirdBits]

That diagram is from when the stock pickups had just a 'hot' white inner core and an outer shield/ground. If your pickups are 4-wire then it sounds like the black is your hot and the green and bare connect to ground. The red and white are the series link connecting the coils, so if they're soldered together just insulate them so they can't short on anything. Need pics of the pickup and wires to be sure.

[Abe]

That may be the issue, having a lot of problems attaching a picture ( pic to large) or PDFs (file size to large). Is there an email address I can send these to?

[Abe]

OK, hopefully this pic is attached and will shed some light on my question. None of the video guides show the 4 wire humbucker.

[Brendan]

Abe if you reduce the size of the images to max 1000 pixels on a side, they'll upload easily enough - if you're not sure how to do that, check out Irfanview (freeware) and pretty easy to use. Weirdbits is right though - sounds like you've got a coil splittable humbucker and if so (photos will confirm) - you should be able to use some electrical tape to isolate and insulate the end of the red and white wire (so the bare wire doesn't touch any other metal) and use the diagram as is with the black as the hot and green and bare being grounds.

[Abe]

OK, will try to send. All your input is appreciated

[Abe]

Did the pictures attach to this thread?

[Abe]

May be hard to see; red & white together green and shield together, black separate. Thanks for all you input on this.

[Abe]

OK, so any help out there for wiring these 2 humbuckers to 4 pots for a IB5 bass? Only schematic I can find is for a single wire pickup. Thanks

[Fretworn]

I am guessing, and someone else with better knowledge may contradict me, but the green/shield pair should be ground, red & white are for if you want to split the coils and the black is hot. If you are not adding a coil split switch or a series/parallel switch then make sure the red and white are soldered together and the exposed end covered with either heatshrink tube or electrical tape.

[wokkaboy]

Hi Abe, yes I think Fretworn is on the money, the pickups must have changed to coil splittable pickups.
Grab your multimeter and switch to 20K ohms resistance setting and see what the resistance between black and green/ground and then green/ground and the red/white wires should be the same, I guess around 6-10k ohms.
Now split the red and white wires and try green/ground and red (alone), and green/ground and white (alone) and they should be about half the value you got from the first test.
Do this test for both neck and bridge pickup, the bridge pickups generally have a slightly higher resistance reading but they may be the same.

If this is the case you can do what Fretworn suggested and use the wiring diagram you have if you don't want to add a coil split pot or switch.

If I was building this kit I'd be really interested to hear the difference in the sound between single coil and humbucker, so I'd add a push pull pot to the 2 volume pots.

[Abe]

Great support guys, appreciate that. Few additional questions; do I bend back the 2 volume pot tabs and solder them to the pot? Schematic looks like they are bent back but doesn't show a solder point. Great idea on the push/pull pots. Will let you all know how it turns out and sounds or if I run into any problems. Once again, thanks.

[wokkaboy]

Hi Abe, yes you can bend the 3rd lug of the volume pot but be careful the lug is very thin metal and snaps very easily. I generally solder a short piece of wire on the cheaper supplied pots. You will find with better quality pots the lugs are often longer and a thicker metal and allows you to bend the lug to the pot casing much easier

[Fretworn]

It is also often advisable to sand the back of the pots where you are soldering the earths so that the solder will stick to the pot case.

[Abe]

Thanks, will do that. Is there any benefit to using a better quality 500 ohm pot?

[Abe]

Have it wired using the white as hot and following the Pibull 2 Humbucker 4 pot wire diagram. The schematic shows the output jack wired as ground to the long pin, hot to the short pin. There are 2 short pins, both the same height. Just use one or are the 2 short pins connected? Thanks

[Abe]

Here is a picture of the jack with 2 small pins, not sure which short pin to use. Both same size. Thanks

[WeirdBits]

There can be some variation with that type of jack as to which lugs connect to what. Recently it seems on the stock jack the two shorter lugs are the ones needed for a mono connection like on your IB-5 (often the shortest lug is hot and the next shortest is ground, if there's any height difference). If you have a multimeter use that to test which lug connects to the lead's tip and sleeve.

If you don't have a multimeter connect a lead to your amp and plug it into the jack at a low'ish volume. Touch one lug at a time with your finger tip, if you hear a hum from the amp then that should be the 'hot' lug. Then, while still touching the hot lug touch the other lugs and if the hum stops then that should be your ground lug. It's a crude test, but should work.

[Abe]

Thanks Scott, will give that a go with a multimeter. The long lug appears to be connected to the sleeve (this should be ground) the other 2 (must be tip and ring) are exactly the same size. So, it's just the tip and sleeve for the IB5. Will let you know how this turns out.

[Abe]

Wellllll, all wired up. On the new jack, you have to test with an ohm meter. Both short lugs are the same size, one is hot, other ground, long lug not in use. Only problem is that if you wire your pots per the schematic, align them as shown, and wire them as shown, all volume and tones are backwards. Clockwise to decrease volume. Guess I should have checked them with a meter prior. When I get done, I will try to draw a new schematic with correct orientation (as your looking at the back of the bass) for a 4 wire Humbucker. Hope to finish up this week.