pickup wiring

[tempus]

Hey all;

Kind of OT - I've got a humbucker (I was told it was a Gibson) that has 2 wires coming out of it. They're the same type of single connector wrapped in a ground screen that most factory installed pickups (especially on earlier and for all I know current Gibson guitars) have, except that there's 2 of them. I'm assuming there's one for each coil, to allow for coil splitting options. So I'm wondering, how do you wire something like this up so that it's wired like a standard humbucker (i.e., coils in series)? Also, if I were to connect both hot connectors to the same spot (like on the volume pot) I'm assuming the coils would then be in parallel. Is this correct? Has anyone else seen this type of pickup?

Thanks

[Electron Tornado]

Photos would help people see what you are describing. In the mean time, will either of these places be helpful?

http://www.guitarelectronics.com/category/wiring_resources_guitar_wiring_diagrams.humbucker_wiring_color_codes/

http://www.stewmac.com/How-To/Online_Resources/Learn_About_Guitar_Pickups_and_Electronics_and_Wiring/Switchcraft_3-way_Toggle_Switch.html

[thermionix]

I've never seen one like that, can you post pictures?  I tend to doubt it's a Gibson, unless someone has modified it (not that I'm an expert on all of their products).  If it is wired like you think, a shielded lead for each coil, and you connect them in standard serial configuration, you would wind up with a "hot shield" which is a bad idea as far as noise is concerned.  What does your ohmmeter tell you?

One possibility is tapped coils.  I mean tapped in the windings, like a transformer, not "tapped" in the usual split-coil humbucker sense.  The two outputs could be "vintage" and "hot" or whatever you might want to call them.  Even then, I wouldn't expect it to be wired like that, but it could be.

[tempus]

Thanks for the replies.

I've seen the wiring diagrams from StewMac, but the pickup isn't set up like those. I haven't actually removed the pickup from the guitar yet, so I can't post a photo, but it's essentially this: http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/IM57PZB but with 2 of those shielded wires coming out.

Same with the ohmmeter - I haven't removed it yet, so I'm not sure. I didn't realize it would be such an oddball, so I posted here first assuming that someone would have come across this before. I'm assuming I should get about the same DC resistance on each lead if it's one lead/coil right? I hadn't considered the idea of the hot/vintage mode thing, but that's an interesting possibility..

Thanks

[thermionix]

I should get about the same DC resistance on each lead if it's one lead/coil right?

Yes, approximately the same.  I would expect maybe 3.5K up to about 8K per coil, depending on the wind.  If it's a tapped situation like I mentioned above, I would expect higher numbers, maybe double those.  Probably not though, that's not a very common offering.  I think I've seen one brand doing that, don't remember which one.

Let us know what you find out, you've got me curious!

[Mark Hammer]

Having spent much of the weekend rewinding pickups, I'm on a pickup roll here.

If a humbucker has two leads and a shield coming "out of it"  Chances are excellent that one of the leads is essentially the "tap point"; that is the junction between the two coils.  Measure the DCR fromone of the leads to ground, and from the other lead to ground.  One of them should measure roughly half the DCR of the other.  That one will be the tap point.

There will be two ways you can cancel one of those coils:  connect the tap point to ground/shield, or connect the tap point to the other hot.  Either way  will render one of the coils effectively inactive.  Which of these is the optimal choice would depend onwhat you intend to combine it with.  Ideally, the effective coil should result in some hum-reduction when used with other pickups, and should not result in wimpy out of phase tones.  That latter outcome can always be "fixed" with a phase-reverse switch, but the idea is to make a good first choice, not a first choice that necessitates its own additional "cure".