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Installing Standard Pickups into Gibson Quick Connect Guitars

Started by Ferro-Kings, March 23, 2014, 04:29:20 PM

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Ferro-Kings

Hey Gang.  I recently found an issue when trying to install a new set of Gibson 490R/498T pickups into a 2013 Gibson Les Paul LPJ.  The LPJ has the new quick connect board and connectors.

The problem was the new standard pickups did not come with quick connect connectors so I assumed you can just splice them to the existing pigtail and all would be fine.  NOT SO.

You can connect them in this manner and both pickups work but the middle switch position has "noticeable" power loss.

Here's what I found...

Gibson changed the color coding on the connector for the Bridge pickup and that caused the pickups to be out of phase when installed properly (color to color).

Here's the details...

Standard Gibson pickups with 4 conductor capabilities have 5 conductors (including screen or shield).  They are manufactured with this coding...

Red - Hot or +ve
White - upper coil finish ( connects to green in 2 conductor installs)
Green - lower coil finish (connects to white in 2 conductor installs)
Black - Ground or -ve
Shield - Connect to black or ground

I was installing standard Gibson 490R/498T's which do not have quick connect connectors.

Now here's where it gets good.

The quick connect board and connector have these color codings...

Neck - Pin 1 - Shield / Pin 2 - Black / Pin 3 - Red / Pin 4 - Green / Pin 5 - White
Bridge - Pin 1 - Shield / Pin 2 - Green / Pin 3 - White / Pin 4 - Black / Pin 5 - Red
(I'll to add some pics in this post)

So the neck circuit is looking for Red/Black as the positive and negative and the bridge is looking for White/Green.
(Note: This is the circuit for both of my 2013 LPJ's and a friends 2013 Studio with the same pups and QC board)

So when I hooked up the pickups to the quick connect pigtails and observed proper color coding it actually put the pickups out of phase.

To rectify you have to forget about connecting proper colors to proper color and just give the board what it is looking for...
Again note... this is only for the Bridge... the Neck is color coded properly.

For the bridge pigtail...

Connect Red from pickup to White on pigtail
        Black from pickup to Green
        White from pickup to Red
        Green from pickup to Black
        Shield to shield

If you do not connect it like this, it will still work but there will be a noticeable power loss in the mid because of out of phase.
This can be verified with clip leads if you are skeptical.

(NOTE:  If you have a different color coded pickup then just hook it up following your coding to the pigtail inputs above.)

Hope this helps someone and saves them time and troubleshooting.

Mike@Ferro-Kings

Mick

Mike, thanks for posting this info, I'm sure it will save a lot of head scratching for someone.  Always a pain when manufacturers change coding's like this, especially if it's been the same for years.

Very useful info.  :tup:
Thank You, "[you]" For Reading This Post.

Guitarist Guild
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TGMF

Ferro-Kings

Thanks Mick!

You know the funny thing is... All Gibson and Epi pickups are Red/Black for positive and negative so when they changed the Bridge connector input on the quick connect board it really confuses things.  That means you have to order a special Gibson pickup with quick connect connector to work for plug and play.  The Bridge pickup that comes in these models are color coded and connected to the connector with the changed coding.  The pickups are still made the same, they just changed the color coding on the wires.

I'm not really sure why they did that... except maybe to discourage folks when putting in standard pickups.
Doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

If anyone has a 2014 Gibson with the quick connect system maybe they can verify if the color coding is still like this.

fretbuzz

hello,how would you connect a Fralin P90 with 2 conductor to the gibson quick connect?for neck and bridge.
Thanks

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