Help! Silhouette Special Humbucker Wiring

[cpguitars]

Hi guys,

I could really use some advice. I'm a guitar tech based in London. One of my clients has a 2009 Silhouette Special (HSS) with the stock DiMarzio humbucker in the bridge and he's looking to swap it out for a Seymour Duncan Pearly Gates humbucker.

The problem I have is that the stock pickup has 4 connections plus ground, whereas the new pickup only has one connection, plus grounded shielding. This is a problem because the superswitch/pot allows for coil splitting in positions 2 and 3, which makes the wiring pretty complex. Obviously the single connection pickup can't be split in the same way.

So I am looking for ideas. I figure it's either:

a) try to make it fit somehow with some nifty wiring. Does anyone know how I can wire it in, so that the humbucker just acts as a single pickup?

or b) use a different pickup which has 4 connections.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks a lot!

Andy
CP Guitars, London

 

[beej]

Hi Andy,

I was under the impression that the PG humbucker had 4-wires, but clearly that one doesn't.

I guess it really depends what your client wants. You can certainly wire up positions 2 & 3 using the full humbucker + 1 single coil and it will likely sound great. Less like a Strat, but still a really useable sound. (The Cutlass and Luke models, for example, have position 2 as the full humbucker plus the middle single coil and sound really good.)

If you go this route, you'll want to make some wiring changes so that the Silent Circuit isn't bypassed in those positions, for noise reduction. Easiest way to do that is to remove the yellow wire from the 5-way switch, so it's engaged all of the time.

Other option, as you say, is to get a pickup with 4 wires. You can fake the single coil thing a bit with a capacitor and resistor (reduce the bass and output), but it's not that convincing.

If you need a hand with the wiring, drop me a message and I can shoot you a wiring diagram.

 

[cpguitars]

Hi Andy,

I was under the impression that the PG humbucker had 4-wires, but clearly that one doesn't.

I guess it really depends what your client wants. You can certainly wire up positions 2 & 3 using the full humbucker + 1 single coil and it will likely sound great. Less like a Strat, but still a really useable sound. (The Cutlass and Luke models, for example, have position 2 as the full humbucker plus the middle single coil and sound really good.)

If you go this route, you'll want to make some wiring changes so that the Silent Circuit isn't bypassed in those positions, for noise reduction. Easiest way to do that is to remove the yellow wire from the 5-way switch, so it's engaged all of the time.

Other option, as you say, is to get a pickup with 4 wires. You can fake the single coil thing a bit with a capacitor and resistor (reduce the bass and output), but it's not that convincing.

If you need a hand with the wiring, drop me a message and I can shoot you a wiring diagram.

Thank Beej, that's really helpful. I'll ask the client, but I reckon your suggestion is the way to go.

Yes, any help I can get is much appreciated. If you do have a wiring diagram, I'd be extremely grateful!

Cheers,

Andy

 

[beej]

No prob. Here's one.

 

[cpguitars]

Amazing. Thank you.

One last thing: how do the black/white/red/green wires on the current pickup correspond with the red/bare on the PG? It might be a stupid question, but I'm not sure where to tape off and where to solder.

Thanks again!

 

[beej]

The current pickup has the Dimarzio colours. Red is hot, Green is ground (but wired to the Silent Circuit), and Black & White are where the two coils meet.

If you're going the full humbucker route in positions 2 & 3, then wire the ground/shield to ground (not to where the Green was wired before), and wire the Red to lugs 1, 2, and 3 on the switch- where the Red and/or Black & Wires were before. So the full humbucker is engaged in positions 1, 2, and 3.

Also- remove the Green jumper wire from lug 2 (where it meets the B&W wires) - it's there to ground one of the humbucker coils via the Silent Circuit which, in this case, would ground all of the output. And, remove the Yellow wire from the Silent Circuit that was wired to the switch, and tape up the end so it doesn't make contact with anything.

Hope that helps.