I'm building a Tele kit and using GFS Lil Puncher pickups. I found a wiring diagram in a thread posted by WeirdBits showing how to use a 5 way super switch and two push pull pots to do all kinds of neat pickup configurations. I've tried twice to follow this diagram and both times the ground has been bad, loud humming as soon as I plug the guitar in and it gets much louder if I touch any metal part of the guitar.
The post is fairly old and I'm beginning to wonder if something was different about the pickups he was using. Mine have the Kwik Plug wiring and even though I have the five wire connectors for them I'm thinking the wires are different somehow.
I'm also unsure about how to wire the wire labeled N-, I've tried to different ways and the humming is still there but it may be caused by something else.
Ok, looking at the pictures again answered my main question, the diagram was drawn before GFS went to the Kwik Plug arrangement. This is what I was worried about when I got the five wire connections, they don't equal an actual five wire setup.
The Kwik Plug leads can have 2, 3, 4, or 5 wires, depending on what’s supplied with the pickup. The images on GFS still show Lil’ Punchers with 5 conductor Kwik Plugs so it should be a valid option, and that’s what you’ve got, yes?
Often a loud ‘ground’ hum that gets louder when you touch metal is caused by the jack connections being reversed, so check that just in case. If it’s not that then it could be a number of things, especially when there is series/parallel switching involved.
The N+ and N- designate the Neck pickup’s signal connections after the push/pull series/parallel switch, as the positive(+) and negative(-) signals may be either green(+) with black(-) for series, or green&red(+) with black&white(-) for parallel. Same for the B+ and B- for the Bridge pup.
Post some pics of your wiring and pickup leads and we’ll see what we can see.
When I got the pickups originally they came with the four wire connectors, I went back and bought the five wire ones after I found your diagram. I've read other places that the way GFS wires their pickups now isn't truly coil split-able because they wire the end of one coil to the start of the next coil. With the Kwik Plug setup you've only got four places to send a signal.
My question about the N- wire was how to split it. Originally I ran a wire from C4 to B5 then a wire from B5 to the left center pole of the upper part of the column pot. Now I have a wire with two conductors with one attached C4 to the left center upper pole and the other attached B5 to the left center upper pole. I'm not sure if either way is right because the humming makes it nearly impossible to hear the pickups.
I'll try to post some pics after work, it's a bit of a mess in there.
Ah gotcha. The N- is drawn splitting in the diagram just to make it clear which switch lugs it needed to connect to, otherwise it was too messy to see clearly with just a pencil drawing. The N- just needs to make a connection from the push/pull lug to B5<->B3<->C4<->C2. When I actually wired it, because of the size and depth of the switch in the cavity, I ran the N- connection from the push/pull to C2 then C4 then B5 then B3 (black wire in the two photos below the diagram).
I can’t access either of your image links, invalid or no permission.
The pictures don't matter now, I took it all apart last night to get ready for the new pickups. Thank you for explaining the N- wire, that means what I had done the first time would have worked if I wasn't having other issues. I will report back once all my other parts get here and I go at this again.
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