Problems with pickup

[SpareRibs]

Hello,
I have a pickup from a Washburn Wing series Falcon. It looks just like a Dimarzio, as it has pole pieces with the allen head adjustments. It also looks similar to a Strat humbucker. I will not be able to photograph it as, my camera will not upload at the present time.
The problem is that the pickup has only three wires in a shielded cable, shielding is wired to ground. The color of the wires is as follows Red, Blue, White, and the cable shielding.
The pickup is also controlled by a push pull pot, one click makes it single coil, next click humbucker.
When I use my meter it reads 3.7 on the blue and white, but nothing else on any of them. Could the red wire be a coil tap ?

[Richard]

If the 3.7 is in kilo ohms (which I suspect), that's probably one side ofvthe of the pickup, humbuckers often measure around 7-10K ohms. If you have the mete hooked up you should see it move when you touch steel to the poles. The unconnected coil will likely not move the meter much when you touch it. What is the pickup doing that is a problem? Is your meter reading no connection on the other wires or is it reading 0K? (That's zero k). Sometimes it can be hard to get good contact to the meter probe if the wire is small.

[rjb]

Have you measured between shield and other wires?
I'm guessing shield to red is one coil, blue to white is the other.
(Unless I'm misinterpreting what you wrote, which is quite possible.)

[copperheadroads]

Get some pics when you can & you might have remove the tape as well
but you should try to measure all wires with the ground like rjb suggest .
.

[big_teee]

A three wire pickup is similar to a 4 wire pickup.
The difference on a 4 wire pickup there is a lead for each start lead and each finish lead for both coils.
On a 3 wire pickup, you still have one wire for each start lead, but the two finish leads are tied together internally, with one wire coming off of the finish leads, so you can split the pickup if needed.
It sounds like one coil may be dead or open.
There would also be a shield lead for both 3 and 4 wire type pickups, and it would be tied to the baseplate ground.
T

[SpareRibs]

Hello,
Thanks T, I didn't think about it being connected internally. The guitar has given me fits since it was given to me, by a relative who was exasperated with it. It was repaired by a clown who thought it was a good idea to replace one of the stock pickups with a Seymour Duncan JB, (black) on a guitar that is maple with cream binding and pickup rings. In his infinite wisdom the original was disposed of.
It is a Washburn Wing Series Falcon. There is no information about the Power Sustain pickups that came standard with it. I used a Dimarzio as it was closest in configuration to the original.

[rjb]

Although 3 wire pickups are normally wired as big_tee stated, it is still possible that the start lead of one coil goes to both the cable shield and the baseplate, and the finish lead goes to the red wire. If the white and blue wires go to the start and finish leads of the other coil, then you won't get a reading from white to shield or red, or from blue to shield or red.

You can use the mentioned screwdriver trick to find which pairs of wires go with which coil, and observe +/- swing to determine polarities; this is explained more clearly in other threads. But, guessing by semi-standard color conventions, I would wager the white wire goes to "signal" and the blue & red to the coil cut switch.

[big_teee]

If you check it 9 ways from sunday with the ohm meter, and you only have one coil?
Then start taking tape off.
If worse comes to worse you could rewind it.

On the Seymour Duncan?
You could get a couple of cream bobbins and rebuild it.
SD uses good parts, so bobbins is all you need.

Or another option, that I would probably go with, is to scrap the neck pickup.
Build a new neck pickup, and put nickel covers on both, and it would really look sharp!
I never was big on the allen screw pole pieces anyway!

As custom pickup builders, we always have Options!
T

[SpareRibs]

Hello T,
The guitar is wired first class with wire shielded on the outside of all the cables in the control cavity, a three way toggle switch and the two strat style humbuckers. It is actually set up as good a Les Paul.
With the high output of the pickups, and the maple neck through body the guitar is just very shrill.
I think I am going to dump the push pull pots, and set it up with two humbuckers. I can use Les Paul style pickups. That should get the results I am looking for.
At this point I have given up on an accurate restoration. It just needs to play well and sound good.
I can put in covered pickups but I will try for the nickel silver covers as I know chrome plated brass covers may dull the sound a bit.
Thank you for your input.

[rjb]

With the high output of the pickups, and the maple neck through body the guitar is just very shrill....

I can use Les Paul style pickups. That should get the results I am looking for....

I can put in covered pickups but I will try for the nickel silver covers as I know chrome plated brass covers may dull the sound a bit.

What if you tried taming your current pickups with brass covers?
Or would that give you shrill and muddy?

- Dr. Cheapskate

PS- Did you solve your wiring puzzle?

[big_teee]

A 49.2 mm cover will fit on the Seymour JB.
Doubt a cover would fit the neck pickup with Allen screws.
As far as brass, I never liked them, IME they sound muffled.
To change the shrillness, you can try 250k volume pots, and adjust the tone caps.
Also making the coils a bit fatter (more wire), will make them less bright.
T

[SpareRibs]

Hello,
No, The pickup works in the humbucker mode, but when put in the single coil mode it sounds very weak.
I am just going to dump the push pulls for standard pots, and standard humbucker wiring.
The pots are not exactly push pull. They stay at the same height. There is a round piece inside with contacts. When you push down on the knob it ratchets 180 degrees to break contact, thereby disconnecting the coil tap.
I think it is an overly elaborate setup, full of unnecessary things that could go wrong

- Dr. Cheapskate
PS- Did you solve your wiring puzzle?[/QUOTE]

[SpareRibs]

Hello,
I took out the neck pickup and sure enough someone had apparently removed the tape and broke the wire losing the end. Then attempted a shoddy repair. It is a mess. It will have to be rewound. At least I can replace the ceramic magnet with alnico, and try to wind it a little less hot.