Noob gibson 490 question

[Robmosis]

Hey guys I just found this site about a week ago, I have spent hours upon hours on here. I have to tell you guys right off the bat that this is the best forum I have found. Everyone seems to want to help as much as they can. Not like most other forums where they just argue and piss and moan about who said what to who. Especially to noob's.

Anyway I have a Gibson SG with 490 pickups in it. I was told that they have 4 wires so you could put a coil splitter(like a pushpull) on them to switch between HB and SC? Does this really give a decent single coil sound or is it a completely different sound than both? I am new to electronic mods but I understand somewhat. I am a quick learner and I want to be able to do mods on my own, Just as I have learned everything else about repairing and setting up guitars. The only thing I haven't got into yet is the electronics.
I don't want to do the mod if the sound of the single coil is not worth the work on my guitar.
Any help would be greatly appreciated
Thanks Rob

[j. pierce]

From this page:

NOTE: Factory-installed 490R and 490T pickups have two conductor wiring.

If those are the pickups that came in that guitar new, they aren't four-wire, and preclude doing the mod you suggest unless you want to open them up and make wire them up to a four-conductor lead ( I've done this on some pickups, it's certainly doable if you're handy with a soldering iron and can get the covers off without destroying them; but I've never tried it on a Gibson pickup)

In my experience, I've found the "single coil" sound of cutting one coil out of circuit to be of limited use and not really worth the effort with most pickups. Some pickups are designed with this in mind, and some just work better with this than others. And you may find a use for it. I do know some folks like this sound when combining one coil each from the neck and bridge pickups, and while I find this certainly a more useful sound than a single coil from one humbucker, it's still not something I care for much.

However, I really like being able to switch between series and parallel wiring on humbuckers, and find this useful enough that I almost always put a switch in for this feature. I know others find this useless.

If you've got the four conductor wiring, it's not difficult to experiment using a few mini switches or flea clips while the back plate is off your guitar, play around, decide which tones you like, and then choose a method of implementation (extra switch, push/pull pot, etc.) afterwards.

I've limited experience in this field, I'm sure someone else will add more to the conversation, but I thought I'd share what I know.

[bbsailor]

Hey guys I just found this site about a week ago, I have spent hours upon hours on here. I have to tell you guys right off the bat that this is the best forum I have found. Everyone seems to want to help as much as they can. Not like most other forums where they just argue and piss and moan about who said what to who. Especially to noob's.

Anyway I have a Gibson SG with 490 pickups in it. I was told that they have 4 wires so you could put a coil splitter(like a pushpull) on them to switch between HB and SC? Does this really give a decent single coil sound or is it a completely different sound than both? I am new to electronic mods but I understand somewhat. I am a quick learner and I want to be able to do mods on my own, Just as I have learned everything else about repairing and setting up guitars. The only thing I haven't got into yet is the electronics.
I don't want to do the mod if the sound of the single coil is not worth the work on my guitar.
Any help would be greatly appreciated
Thanks Rob

Rob,

Check out this web site for a variety of wiring mods for two humbucking pickups. http://www.geocities.jp/dgb_studio/2hvari_e.htm#146

A very useful mod is to use a 6 position 4 pole rotary switch to obtain the normal selections of:
Neck alone
Neck Plus Bridge in parallel, in phase
Bridge alone
Plus three additional combinations below
Neck and bridge in series
Neck and bridge in parallel, out of phase
Neck and bridge in series, out of phase

In order to use this 6-position rotary switching arrangement the pickups need to have a minimum of 2 conductor shielded cable. The two inner conductors are the start and ending wire of the humbucking coils normally in series plus a separate shield connected to the pickup case and ground. These floating coil inner wires allows you to put two pickups in series and reverse the phase without the case becoming hot and causing hum. The pickup ground gets attached after the output of the rotary switch. This is a good mod for the SG as it does not require cutting any holes. Just replace the 3-position toggle with the 6-position rotary available from Stewart-Mcdonald (www.stewmac.com). I believe you need a cavity depth under the cover plate of 1.25" (minimum) for this switch to fit. You might even want to use copper shielding for the control cavity to keep the noise down.

Joseph Rogowski

[Robmosis]

Thanks for the replies. I found the info very helpful. I have not looked at the wiring on my guitar but I did find some wiring diagrams for common gibson pickups and it does show that the 490's have 4 wires. Is this diagram wrong (I have attached the diagram to this post) or am I just calling it by the wrong name.
Again thanks for all the help
Rob

[bbsailor]

Thanks for the replies. I found the info very helpful. I have not looked at the wiring on my guitar but I did find some wiring diagrams for common gibson pickups and it does show that the 490's have 4 wires. Is this diagram wrong (I have attached the diagram to this post) or am I just calling it by the wrong name.
Again thanks for all the help
Rob

Rob,

This is fine. This pickup uses 2-conductor shielded (white and black) and Green to ground. The two coil humbuckers as well as single coil pickups have one pair of signal wires. It all depends on how easy it is to isolate the pickup metal from the coil wires. By using 2 conductor shielded the choice is at the user end and not made by the pickup designer who might have chosen a one-conductor coax cable; thus making pickup minor sugury necessary.

Joseph Rogowski