Hey Gang... just wanted to let everyone know we are still here.  We just started a Booster Campaign to raise money for a new 3D printer that we need for prototyping. 
We are selling "Official Ferro-Kings T-Shirts" to raise the funds.
(We'll also be giving discounts to everyone who participates when we launch.)

Our new Booster campaign can be found here...

https://www.booster.com/ferrokings3dprinterfundraiser?beta=true

Please consider supporting and sharing this!
Thanks!

~Mike 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

Hey gang... this is Mike, one of the developers at Ferro-Kings Liquid Pickups.
Thought I'd put the link to some of my original songs that I have posted on MySpace.
I go by the stagename of Mick Radar.  Please check them out when you get a chance.
(Best listened to with headphones or ear buds since they aren't professionally mastered.)

http://www.myspace.com/mickradar

Feel free to let me know what you think.

~Mike

---

In the 60's, NASA developed ferrofluid to use in anti-gravity fueling experiments. Now nanotechnology has come to guitar pickup design.
Liquid Pickupsâ,,¢ have several new and unique processes at work that allow our pickups to capture sound waves and resonance vibrations that are normally missed by today's magnetic pickup designs.

- An extra magnetic field...
Ferrofluid is a viscous fluid with nanoparticles of iron. When placed near a magnetic field, the nanoparticles of iron respond by standing up in peaks. These peaks, when placed near ferrous guitar strings, try to follow the vibrating string. So in addition to having a string breaking the magnetic field to create the signal coming from a pickup, we add a secondary magnetic field that follows the string.

- Vibration travels through liquid...
The same principles that are at play in the human ear are working inside our pickups. It takes several fluids inside the inner ear to allow us to receive and interpret the vibrations from the outside world to what we know as sound.
Vibrations from the instruments travel through the fluid and are captured and affect the transference of signal through the pickup.

- The fluid becomes a liquid diaphragm...
Sound waves from the vibration of strings, the vibrations from the woods that the instruments are made of, and even vibrations from the points of attack like picks or fingers hitting a string can be detected better when transferring through the fluid as opposed to just going through the air.

- And it's customizable...
The ferrofluid comes in different gauss levels (strength or amount of iron particles) and thickness (viscosity). By changing either of these, you slightly alter the sound.
On top of that the different selection of top material adds different resonance factors to the sound.  We use plastic, acrylic, woods, metals, stone, bone, antler, and even stained glass to tweak the variations in sound and tone.

We have been researching and developing our Fluid Sound Technologyâ,,¢ since December 2009. Final prototypes are being tested as of this writing and we will make these available to the general public very soon.

Find out more on our Facebook and Youtube pages.  Please check out our videos and pics.

Twitter is @ferrokings
www.facebook.com/FerroKings  (Ferro-Kings Liquid Pickups)
www.youtube.com/ferrokings
http://ferrokings.wordpress.com/

Thanks for connecting with us on Twitter and asking us to come over and post!  Please help us spread the word.