hi everbody! i have recently became the owner of a very nice silhouette special 1996 model. after playing it for awhile, i changed strings, and looked under the pickguard. to my surprise, the silent circuit is gone, but all the battery wires etc, are still intact. well, i ordered a new silent circuit from musicman, along with the wiring diagram to help me rewire it back in. the wiring diagram is not the correct one for my guitar, and ebmm say they dont have the one i need. i have the hss with the strat style pickup selector. can anyone please help me with a picture of a wired pickguard, or even a hand drawn diagram? thanks in advance
please help with silo special wiring
- Thread starter kingbwb
- Start date
beej
Moderator
Hi there-
How is the diagram they sent you the wrong one? They still sell the HSS Silhouette Special so they definitely have the schematic for it.
How is the diagram they sent you the wrong one? They still sell the HSS Silhouette Special so they definitely have the schematic for it.
DrKev
Moderator
The silent circuit changed, as did the pickups at some point. (edit - it did change, right? I'm not sure how sure I am now)
What pickups do you have?
Welcome to the forum, by the way!
What pickups do you have?
Welcome to the forum, by the way!
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Thanks for the welcome! The pups are the regular single coil blk / red wire, and the humbucker is the dimarzio usa. The problem is that the diagram they sent has a selector switch with 22 lugs on it. The other diagram they sent has the regular strat style 5 way like is on my guitar, but it doesnt show a silent circuit. I just need to know which wires go to the silent circuit. My guitar must be a transistion model . I wanted to just send the whole pickguard back with the silent circuit part, and get it wired, but they didnt want to do that. Maybe i need to talk to someone else?
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beej
Moderator
I'd ask for the more recent diagram and wire it up the new way. Perhaps they misunderstood what you were after?
DrKev
Moderator
22 or 24 lugs? It should be 24.
Anyway, you need the super switch with 24 lugs to wire up the Silhouette Special and the silent circuit to the current factory wiring. It is not possible with a standard 5-way switch. There is of course a ton of wiring options with a standard 5-way switch and no shortage of websites to find them. Just do be careful that each manufacturer has a different wiring colour codes; i.e. red, green, black, and white for DiMarzio is not the same as red, green, black, and white for Seymour Duncan, which is different to Barden, or Gibson, etc. It's a pain but there ya go.
It should be clear from the diagram how to hook up the silent circuit. The silent circuit is in series with the single coils (which are not themselves connected to ground but grounded through the silent circuit). Violet to the ground side of the middle (RWRP) pickup, blue to the ground side of the neck pickup. Black from the silent circuit to ground, Red is the 9V power and when yellow is connected to ground the silent circuit is inactive. If you can't read the diagram and figure it out, it's perhaps not a job you should handle yourself (and yes, it gives me headaches too).
Of course the silent circuit changed in 1997 and I don't know how different that version was to the current one, or how to tell the difference, or if they only changed the wiring.
Where do you live? Maybe someone can recommend a good luthier or technician who can handle the job for you.
Anyway, you need the super switch with 24 lugs to wire up the Silhouette Special and the silent circuit to the current factory wiring. It is not possible with a standard 5-way switch. There is of course a ton of wiring options with a standard 5-way switch and no shortage of websites to find them. Just do be careful that each manufacturer has a different wiring colour codes; i.e. red, green, black, and white for DiMarzio is not the same as red, green, black, and white for Seymour Duncan, which is different to Barden, or Gibson, etc. It's a pain but there ya go.
It should be clear from the diagram how to hook up the silent circuit. The silent circuit is in series with the single coils (which are not themselves connected to ground but grounded through the silent circuit). Violet to the ground side of the middle (RWRP) pickup, blue to the ground side of the neck pickup. Black from the silent circuit to ground, Red is the 9V power and when yellow is connected to ground the silent circuit is inactive. If you can't read the diagram and figure it out, it's perhaps not a job you should handle yourself (and yes, it gives me headaches too).
Of course the silent circuit changed in 1997 and I don't know how different that version was to the current one, or how to tell the difference, or if they only changed the wiring.
Where do you live? Maybe someone can recommend a good luthier or technician who can handle the job for you.
The problem is that the new way has the selector switch with 20 lugs and my switch is just the simple strat style. Ill try and post a pic.
beej
Moderator
Ah, sorry, I misunderstood what you were saying earlier.
The problem with a standard strat-style lever is that you won't be able to split the humbucker. Whereas the newer wiring gives you two combinations of split-humbucker plus a single coil in parallel.
If you want, you could wire the Silent Circuit up with the lever, permanently wired to the neck & middle pickups. It'd work fine. But better would be to get a new lever (4-pole, 5-way) and use the new wiring diagram. EB will sell them to you (not too expensive) or you can find them elsewhere.
Is there a reason you want to stick with the old lever? Personally I'd get a new one.
The problem with a standard strat-style lever is that you won't be able to split the humbucker. Whereas the newer wiring gives you two combinations of split-humbucker plus a single coil in parallel.
If you want, you could wire the Silent Circuit up with the lever, permanently wired to the neck & middle pickups. It'd work fine. But better would be to get a new lever (4-pole, 5-way) and use the new wiring diagram. EB will sell them to you (not too expensive) or you can find them elsewhere.
Is there a reason you want to stick with the old lever? Personally I'd get a new one.
