Music Man Silhouette pickup re-wire

[mhoke63]

Hello,

I searched and did not see a topic of this previously.

I have a 2008 Silhouette HSH without Piezo. I am looking to re-wire the pickups to a new selector switch settings. I haven't done this, so I want to make sure I do it right. I (think) have just about everything I need. In case I need to add more wire, what gauge of wires do I need? What gauge of wires is used by default? Also, is there anything special I need such as glues or anything like that. I have wire strippers, electrical tape, a soldering iron and solder. I just want to do this correctly.

Thanks for any help in advance.

 

[beej]

Any gauge wire will work- there's almost no current involved. Smaller gauges are easier to work with.

Sounds like you have the right tools. You might also want a desoldering tool, in case you want to remove solder from the switch lugs. Pliers or alligator clips are handy to hold things in place while soldering. Pair of nail trimmers is handy to clip off little sections of wire. You won't need glue.

Should be pretty straight forward. Just be sure not to overheat the leads or the pots.

 

[mhoke63]

Thanks for the quick reply. I'm sorry for being a bit neurotic, obsessive, and for being a noob when it comes to this, but I've read people have really messed up their guitars re-doing the pickups and I haven't done it before. Granted, I've learned a lot by failing when I do stuff like this, but this isn't a cheap instrument. (as we all know, Music Man doesn't make cheap instruments) The guitar is by far the best guitar I've ever played. My only complaint is the pickup configuration. I have listed below in this post what the default configuration is and what I want the configuration to be.

As mentioned above, I have a 2008 Silhouette with a HSH pickup config with no Piezo pickups. The default 5 way Selector switch has the bridge position is like this: (switch position closest to the bridge)

1. (switch position closes to bridge) -- Bridge humbucker
2. Single coil of the humbucker closest to bridge + middle single coil
3. Middle single coil only
4. Single coil of the humbucker closest to the neck + middle single coil
5. (switch position closes to neck) -- Neck humbucker

I was told what I want is not that hard to do. What I want it to do (again, starting with position closest to the bridge and moving forward from there)

1. (switch position closes to bridge) -- Bridge humbucker
2. Middle single coil only
3. Both humbuckers together
4. Bridge humbucker + middle single coil
5. (switch position closes to neck) -- Neck humbucker


Now, I called music man customer service and I got the wiring schematics for my instrument. Does anyone have any suggestions on where to start? Should I watch YouTube videos about guitar re-wiring in general? Any websites, magazine articles, or books I should read before I start this?

 

[V_S]

Depends on your soldering skills. If you never've done it before I'd recommend to watch some YT-videos how clean soldering is done. Otherwise go ahead.. it's not rocket science. What's the power of your soldering iron. I'd recommend something like 40 Watts for soldering the ground to the back of the pots.

 

[beej]

mhoke63- to do what you want, you'll need a different 5-way switch than what's in the Silhouette (at least, from the diagram I have).

It needs to have different terminals for each switch position, not the kind that has 3 terminals (one for each pickup) but makes use of two of them for the in-between switch positions. EB has a 5-way 4-pole switch you can buy, or you can source something locally.

 

[V_S]

Yes, a 5-way-super switch sould do it. Ok, I thougth CS sent him the wiring diagramm he needs....

@ mhoke63: Di Marzio has something that comes close to what you want:

http://www.dimarzio.com/sites/default/files/diagrams/hshep1112_1v1t_c.pdf

I you you understand that you know what to do. On the right side you can connect the pickups to the 5 selector positions. on the left side you can connect the middle-tap of the humbuckers to shorten one of the coils and split the humbucker.