Quick wiring question: Luke III (Transitions)

[ruger9]

Can anyone tell me what the "HOT" (series humbucker hot output) is on the Transitions? Everything on the Dimarzio website says RED is the hot output, but that doesn't look like this Luke III is wired like that? I didn't know if maybe Dimarzio changed the color designations since they were proprietary to the Luke III initially?

To me, it looks like the WHITE is the Hot output from the neck pickup? The red is mated with green, which is USUALLY a ground, again according to Dimarzio's wiring diagrams....

I'm looking for the full humbucker (series) hot output from the neck pickup. I can see how it COULD be the red, but I DON'T see how it could be mated with the green ground and still function...? THE NECK WIRES ARE THE ONES I AM NOT HOLDING BACK. You can see the "N" on the white tag.

Maybe I should be a little more clear on what I am doing:
I have done this on another HH guitar, and it worked great, so I want to try it on the Luke:
The NECK pickup, in full humbucker mode, is a little woofy for my tastes. So I install a small cap+resistor network in series with the neck pickup's hot lead (usually this goes to either a 3-way toggle switch or a volume pot), to shave a little low end off the neck pickup. But on the Luke, with it's dual split options, I'm not sure where to put this "de-mud mod". Ideally, I want it in the circuit ONLY when the neck pickup is in full humbucker mode, but I understand that may not be possible. The other guitar I did it to was simpler- it did have a coil-split, using a push-push pull pot, but the 5-way "strat" switch, with HB coil spilts, is throwing me off.

 

[Steve Nukather]

I think you are correct... the black is grounded and the red/green are tied together, so white must be the hot.

 

[Iperfungus]

I will have a look into mine and let you know, but what I'm thinking is that wiring has been done that way for splitting purposes...and, for the neck pickup, white wire (south coil finish) is used as HOT.
Unless someone modified wiring for his purposes (or to solve some out-of-phase issues, it happens...), of course (as I found within my Axis, that I bought used).

 

[Iperfungus]

Ok, I had a look and wiring in my LIII is identical to yours.
The bridge pickup red (hot) wire is soldered to different pins, but it does change nothing, since there's the purple jumper among those pins.

For neck pickup, white wire is the hot.

 

[DrKev]

(edit) ...what I'm thinking is that wiring has been done that way for splitting purposes...and, for the neck pickup, white wire (south coil finish) is used as HOT.

Correct.

DiMarzio did not change the colors just for neck pickups. I've seen neck humbuckers wired like this before.

Re: the de-mud, yeah I can't think of way off the top of my head other than putting it on a push-push or push-pull on the tone pot and send the output from the switch through there. Then you have the option of thinning anything at any time but you won't have it automatically on the full neck humbucker.

 

[ruger9]

Thanks guys. So just to be clear, before I start cutting and soldering:

The signal coming from the white neck wire should be the FULL humbucker, right? Just want to be extra clear because it's tight in there, and I only want to go in once LOL. It just confused me because Dimarzio says to use RED for hot. I knew the coil splits had something to do with what was going on.

I wish I could just lower the bass side of the neck pickup... I can say that is my ONLY complaint with this guitar: the non-adjustability of the pickup heights/tilts.

 

[Iperfungus]

Thanks guys. So just to be clear, before I start cutting and soldering:

The signal coming from the white neck wire should be the FULL humbucker, right?

Yes.

But to put your filter in full neck humbucker switch position only, you've to know how the superswitch works (that's always a headache...).
The full wiring diagram would help more, but you've to ask for that to EBMM Customer Support.
I needed the Axis SS one and, also thanks to DrKev here, they provided me wiht it!

 

[beej]

Correct, the stock wiring for the Luke Neck pickup is White to hot, Red & Green together (where the coils meet), and Black to ground.

The signal coming from the white neck wire should be the FULL humbucker, right? Just want to be extra clear because it's tight in there, and I only want to go in once LOL. It just confused me because Dimarzio says to use RED for hot. I knew the coil splits had something to do with what was going on.

In switch position 1, yes. But also in position 2 (outside coils in parallel), you get one coil from the neck where Green is grounded and White is hot. So your cap/resistor are going to affect this position as well. (The effect will depend on the what values you choose- it might not be all that noticeable here.)

 

[ruger9]

OK, I'll try it on the white, and then see how it also affects the in-between positions. If it's too "detrimental" to the in-between, then I'll contact EBMM and see if they can help.

So this uses a superswitch, huh? It's my first exposure to one. Honestly I'm not a big fan of the in-between positions on a strat, I rarely use them. But on the Luke, they are so rich sounding I like them alot more. Don't want to mess that up.

 

[Iperfungus]

OK, I'll try it on the white, and then see how it also affects the in-between positions. If it's too "detrimental" to the in-between, then I'll contact EBMM and see if they can help.

So this uses a superswitch, huh? It's my first exposure to one.

That's definitely a (damned) superswitch!

 

[Rbg]

2020 LIII HH with custom EBMM pickup wiring

So I never was a fan of a neck custom MM on my 2022 LIII BFR. After the warranty expired I decided to pull the plug and try different pickups. While doing so I decided to perform some TLC maintenance for the MM pickups. They were taped terribly with wires tucked in between coils pretty sloppy so...

forums.ernieball.com

So LIII neck transition is wired like EBMM neck

 

[ruger9]

2020 LIII HH with custom EBMM pickup wiring

So I never was a fan of a neck custom MM on my 2022 LIII BFR. After the warranty expired I decided to pull the plug and try different pickups. While doing so I decided to perform some TLC maintenance for the MM pickups. They were taped terribly with wires tucked in between coils pretty sloppy so...

forums.ernieball.com

So LIII neck transition is wired like EBMM neck

I tried following the discussion in that thread, but it's greek to me. Very confusing.

I can solder, and I can wire simple circuits... but the whole north/south pickup thing always confused me... add a superswitch to that, and I just need to know "which wire to cut" LOL

If it is possible to have the "de-mud mod" (high pass filter) function on ONLY the full neck humbucker, but not on the other positions, THAT'S the wire I want to put it on. But IDK if such a thing is possible, even with the superswtich?

 

[ruger9]

I've emailed EBMM... let's see if they can be of any help... or at least send me a wiring diagram, maybe I can find someone savvy enough with pickup wiring to figure out my dilemma. Otherwise, I'll just try putting it on the white wire and see what happens. Just trying to keep everything as neat as possible, so I don't want to go in there multiple times, moving things around.

 

[beej]

If it is possible to have the "de-mud mod" (high pass filter) function on ONLY the full neck humbucker, but not on the other positions, THAT'S the wire I want to put it on. But IDK if such a thing is possible, even with the superswtich?

Yes it's doable.

On the set of poles that the neck pickup is wired to, the White neck pickup wire connects to the lug in position 2. There's then a jumper wire from 2 to 3, and one from 3 to 5 (the purple one in your pic).

Replace the jumper wire from 3 to 5 with the cap (or cap/resistor). That way it'll only be in the circuit in position 5, neck pickup full humbucker.

 

[Iperfungus]

Yes it's doable.

On the set of poles that the neck pickup is wired to, the White neck pickup wire connects to the lug in position 2. There's then a jumper wire from 2 to 3, and one from 3 to 5 (the purple one in your pic).

Replace the jumper wire from 3 to 5 with the cap (or cap/resistor). That way it'll only be in the circuit in position 5, neck pickup full humbucker.

Great!!!

Just a note: it is possible that jumper from 2 to 3 is made by using the same purple piece of wire, passing through lugs.
It this case, it would be suggested to cut the jumper on lug 3 (and not desolder it) and then desolder it from lug 5, to avoid soldering issues on lugs 2 and 3.
Or the filter could be placed in parallel to jumper, without removing the purple wire.

 

[ruger9]

Yes it's doable.

On the set of poles that the neck pickup is wired to, the White neck pickup wire connects to the lug in position 2. There's then a jumper wire from 2 to 3, and one from 3 to 5 (the purple one in your pic).

Replace the jumper wire from 3 to 5 with the cap (or cap/resistor). That way it'll only be in the circuit in position 5, neck pickup full humbucker.

OMG FANTASTIC!!! THANK YOU!!!

Great!!!

Just a note: it is possible that jumper from 2 to 3 is made by using the same purple piece of wire, passing through lugs.
It this case, it would be suggested to cut the jumper on lug 3 (and not desolder it) and then desolder it from lug 5, to avoid soldering issues on lugs 2 and 3.
Or the filter could be placed in parallel to jumper, without removing the purple wire.

Yes, I wasn't going to desolder anything, I like cutting and inserting to make it "neater" to remove or to try different cap values if needed. I don't want to touch the original solder. Inserting into one of the little purple jumper wires doesn't leave much room for error tho...

 

[Iperfungus]

Yes, I wasn't going to desolder anything, I like cutting and inserting to make it "neater" to remove or to try different cap values if needed. I don't want to touch the original solder. Inserting into one of the little purple jumper wires doesn't leave much room for error tho...

It will be interesting to know about the results you'll achieve!

 

[ruger9]

It will be interesting to know about the results you'll achieve!There are some neck

I'll report back. Like I said, I've done this on my PRS DGT, with great results. It's mostly for playing the neck pickup with gain... I generally find when I EQ the amp to maximize the bridge pickup, the neck pickup is woofy for me. And if I maximize the amp EQ for the neck pickup, the bridge is too thin. That's why the "de-mud mod" was invented by someone: it just leans the neck pickup out a bit so it doesn't get woofy when gain is added.

There are neck pickups out there designed to do this, but I'd rather insert the mod than change the pickup, especially on signature guitars where the pickups are a set designed specifically for the guitar, like the DGT and Luke III.

 

[ruger9]

It works! It's subtle. But I did discover something interesting doing this experiment...

After installing the mod (on the jumper as described above, so it affects only the full-HB mode of the neck pickup), I noticed a green ringer (octave thing) when playing in 5th position, on the B&E strings. Pretty pronounced, as if I stepped on a green ringer pedal. So I removed the mod, and it was still there, altho more subtle. It's actually the neck Transition pickup doing it. or perhaps the pairing of THAT neck pickup with my Hot Cat's dirty channel. It doesn't happen when clean, only when dirty, and the more dirt is added the more pronounced it becomes.

But it does already exist in stock wiring- in ALL the positions that use the neck pickup, with the neck pickup alone being the strongest. The de-mud mod just makes it more pronounced. I'm going to move the mod over to the white wire, just to see what difference it makes.

Truth be told, I don't use neck pickup with alot of gain anyway... I like neck pickups for clean and semi-clean tones. So it's not a big deal. But if I want to get my Hendrix on, it's like having a built-in Octavia when playing in 5th position LOL.

 

[ruger9]

Interesting development... EBMM sent me the wiring diagram for my Luke III (I gave them the serial number), but it is NOT how my guitar is wired... the diagram they sent has both pickups going to their own small parts of the PCB, which I then assume has internal connections to the superswitch. MY Luke III = the pickups are wired directly to the tabs on the superswitch, as seen earlier in this thread. ???