A Modest Proposal to all pickup makers selling humbucking pickups to the wide world.

[David King]

POST YOUR STANDARD HUMBUCKER WIRING COLOR CODE PICTORIALLY (along with pole polarity) ON YOUR WEBSITE SO THAT IF GOD FORBID YOU SOULD EVER MAKE A MISTAKE, SOMEONE ELSE, SOMEWHERE IN THE WORLD CAN FIGURE IT OUT AND SAVE A BUNCH OF TIME AND MONEY WHILE ALSO SAVING YOUR REPUTATION.

THESE DETAILS ARE NOT PROPRIETARY STATE SECRETS. IF YOU THINK THEY ARE THEN YOU DESERVE TO FAIL.

You can all sign off below with a link once you get this taken care of.

Sorry for shouting, and thank you for your attention to this small but important detail.

[big_teee]

POST YOUR STANDARD HUMBUCKER WIRING COLOR CODE PICTORIALLY (along with pole polarity) ON YOUR WEBSITE SO THAT IF GOD FORBID YOU SOULD EVER MAKE A MISTAKE, SOMEONE ELSE, SOMEWHERE IN THE WORLD CAN FIGURE IT OUT AND SAVE A BUNCH OF TIME AND MONEY WHILE ALSO SAVING YOUR REPUTATION.

THESE DETAILS ARE NOT PROPRIETARY STATE SECRETS. IF YOU THINK THEY ARE THEN YOU DESERVE TO FAIL.

You can all sign off below with a link once you get this taken care of.

Sorry for shouting, and thank you for your attention to this small but important detail.

I like the Duncan color code.
That way everyone can use their many, many wiring diagrams and the colors match up!
That is what a lot of winders do.
T

[Steve Conner]

I'm working on a super high output bucker, all the wires will be black.

[Mark Hammer]

And since it is super high output, the S/N ratio will be so high you shouldn't have to worry about shielding.

[davos]

I use the same as SD simply for ease of my customers. SD have a great selection of schematics too

[ReWind]

This is the only diagram end users of my pickups will likely need: http://www.re-wind.net/Images/ReWind...agramSmall.jpg

For a tech/winder that may have to repair or flip phase of one of my humbuckers:

bobbin leads:
slug/North start: black
slug/North finish: black
screw/South start: black
screw/South finish: black

hookup lead:
shield: ground
core: hot

If a tech or other winder couldn't figure out the above by simply LOOKING at the pickup and using a compass, other known magnet, other known pickup, etc. to determine polarity, then that tech or winder needs to put down the soldering iron and send my pickup back to me for repair or modification before they screw up my work.

In the rare case that I use 4 conductor wiring, at customer request, it is the standard Gibson color code or I use the same Molex connectors that Gibson uses to plug right into the new PCBs. That information will go live on my website at the time I make mention of 4 conductor wire and Molex plugs and offer them as standard options. As of now, they are custom only for me and as such not mentioned on my website. My website will go through some changes in the next month and will likely include this as part of the update.

[Steve Conner]

Shielding?! This pickup is going to be so hot, it'll need a foot of lead shielding.

[David Schwab]

I use the DiMarzio/EMG HZ color code.

[copperheadroads]

I make mine compatable with Duncan's & same color code only difference is I wind in the opposite direction so my ground & hot wires are the finish ends of the coil

[salvarsan]

It's needless complications like this that make you want to shoot guitar players and make pickups for clarinets instead.

[SonnyW]

Website Updated - I use the same as Seymour Duncan, and include a diagram with all pickups, but I added a color chart to the website too. It's here:
http://sonnywalton.com/uploads/Humbu...ringColors.pdf

[LtKojak]

It's needless complications like this that make you want to shoot guitar players and make pickups for clarinets instead.

Guitar players... can't live with'em , can't kill'em!

[Steve Conner]

Oh but you can, just blow them out of the water with bass fuzz!

[David Schwab]

It's needless complications like this that make you want to shoot guitar players and make pickups for clarinets instead.

All builders had to do was stick to the same colors. Since DiMarzio did it first, why would Duncan change the way they do it? And Gibson too? Then you have Schaller that uses odd colors like brown.

These guitar makers created the problem!

Anyway, that's why I went with DiMarzio's colors. It was established already. No need to confuse the issue any further.

[SonnyW]

All builders had to do was stick to the same colors. Since DiMarzio did it first, why would Duncan change the way they do it? And Gibson too? Then you have Schaller that uses odd colors like brown.

These guitar makers created the problem!

Anyway, that's why I went with DiMarzio's colors. It was established already. No need to confuse the issue any further.

I always wondered about that and kind of guessed maybe it was because of whatever cable they were able to get at the time. I almost went with the Gibson scheme, but finally decided on SD because there seemed to be more of them out there, and like Terry said, they do have lots of nice wiring diagrams that are easy to find. By the way, when I put connectors on I use the EMG pinouts too.