Pick up positions

[ThatCluelessGerman]

Guys, I need to ask for your help again.

So I decided to get a pair of vintage Humbuckers for this build (Les Paul style single cut kit). I don't know much about them, but they have more cables than the wiring diagram...

I'm trying to stick to this diagram:
https://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-co...m4Pot%20v5.pdf

And so far, it looks like this:



But what am I supposed to do here? I guess red is hot and I can follow the diagram. But is the white cable ground or the drilled copper cables? What should I do with the one that is neither hot nor ground?



Sorry for my dumb questions but I rather ask instead of accidentally build a bomb or something ;-)

[Simon Barden]

I wish you'd ask here first before buying stuff like this!

Link to the website you got them from?

Are you sure they aren't active pickups?

Have you got a multimeter? Measure the resistance between the braid wire and the red and the braid wire and the white and the red and the white wires. That will help us otherwise it's all guessing.

[ThatCluelessGerman]

I didn't get them from a website. I got them from the local classifieds. I actually bought them because they look nice, no further infos about them (Shame on me!)

I'm not sure they are not active pickups... No idea that even exists. HOw to find out? I have a multimeter. Will measure and posts pics, one second please!

[ThatCluelessGerman]

OK, here is what the multimeter says:

Neck pickup:

Red - White: 0.621 kΩ
Red - Copper: 1.001 MΩ
White - Copper: 1.131 MΩ

Bridge Pickup:

Red - White: 0.627 kΩ
Red - Copper: 1.141 MΩ
White - Copper: 1.5 MΩ

What would I have to do if these were active pickups?

[Simon Barden]

They certainly aren't passive pickups with those readings, so I'll say thet they are active. Are there any makers markings on the underside at all?

You'd need to add a 9v battery, a TRS jack socket to switch the battery, and swap the pots out for 25k ohm ones. But without knowing whose pickups they were, I'd have to guess at how they are wired.

[ThatCluelessGerman]

No maker unfortunately. Oh man, that sucks. Glad I have more pickups laying around. I may ask about them later

[JimC]

I rather strongly suggest that you don't want to get into active pickups at this stage in your guitar building career. It provides an extra degree of electrical complication that you could well do without. So in your place I would put those pickups back on the shelf, or even back into classifieds, and give us a full and complete list of all the other pickups you have lying about (photos too), and we can make suggestions of what would be a reasonable combination. While you are at it please can you also measure the length, width and depth of the pickup cavities (a photo of that would be good too).

Jim C

[ThatCluelessGerman]

You are absolutely right, I'm not going to use active pickups sometime soon. Not fan of batteries, either.

I have a new and unused set of Wilkinson Humbuckers:
https://de.aliexpress.com/item/32819...64ba4c4dB2szAg

They seem to be a worthy replacement, right? Also, they have the neck and bridge position marked on the back, so I won't switch them accidentally.

I also have:
- Some no name stock humbuckers from a kit
- The stock Humbuckers from the GR-SF-1 kit
- Some Gretsch Broadtrons which I actually want to put in the kit above
- A bunch of P90s which are not going to fit in the cavities

So the Wilkinsons are the best choice I think...

[Simon Barden]

They could be fine, they could be nasty. Their pickups Wilkinson sell via JHS (their distributor) for after-market use are good. The pickups they make for OEM use in low-priced guitars are variable in quality. Some are OK, some are just over-powerful. The pickups in a Vintage V100AFD LP style guitar I bought for a friend were so powerful that I simply couldn't get a clean sound from them, so they got replaced.

There is no model name for the pickups that I could find apart from saying they are M-series. And the pictures of M-series pickups that I can find have 'M-series' as part of the Wilkinson logo. The only M-series humbuckers I've found are high-output units, ceramic magnets with 13.8k coils. And they have M-series as part of the logo.

I'd guess they would be the MWHB pickups listed here on the Ming web site. Powerful, so likely to be similar to the V100AFD pickups I didn't like. http://www.mings.cn/products_list/pm...032180=16.html

But it's not hard to change pickups, so give them a go. But they may lack subtlety and just be heavy rock and metal units. You won't know until you try

I'd always use Tonerider or IronGear pickups as a minimum for my guitar builds as I know what I'm getting (and I also don't have to advertise for Trev Wilkinson for free).

[ThatCluelessGerman]

I have so far hooked them up, but the tap test with the screwdriver only works when I have the multimeter on the hot metal of the output jack... need to figure out why now... I don't have an amp yet so I can only test with a pocket effect thingie and headphones... So I don't even know how my pickups really sound