Ok, I do love my Les Paul, but this quick connect board is driving me NUTS.. I'm trying to replace the burst bucker pro's with Seymour Duncan's, and the wiring has me a bit confused. The neck pickup seems fairly simple, this is how I have it wired
Gibson to Duncan
bare bare
black green
red black
green red
white white
I think this is correct, although looking back I may want to reverse the green and black Duncan wires.
As for the bridge pickup, I have it wired like this..
Gibson to Duncan
bare bare
green black
white green
black white
red red
can anyone tell me if this sounds correct.. ??
Not fitted any Seymour Duncan's myself, but there's a handy conversion chart here which might help. http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/wiring-diagrams/schematics.php?schematic=color_codes
Apologies if you've already seen it.
Thank you Mick, that is the exact page I used to wire my pickups, but I think we need a schematic of the board in order to do it right, I wonder if Gibson will give it up??
Quote from: Amptech on May 17, 2015, 10:54:32 PM
Thank you Mick, that is the exact page I used to wire my pickups, but I think we need a schematic of the board in order to do it right, I wonder if Gibson will give it up??
Anything here that might help. http://www.gibson.com/service/tech/schematics/
unfortunately it's only for the old style les pauls, not the circuit board models >:(
Quote from: Amptech on May 17, 2015, 10:54:32 PM
but I think we need a schematic of the board in order to do it right, I wonder if Gibson will give it up??
Whilst looking around for info, it seems a lot of people remove the boards and install a wiring kit and new pots when they do a pickup swap. Keeping the old board and pickups to put back in should they need to at a later date. Doesn't seem like Gibson want you to change their pickups.
I'.ve not found a good schematic so far. If I do I'll post it up. ;)
I'm sure Shaun from guitar sauce can help you with a wiring kit, should you want to go down that route. He might even have the answer to your question above. Twitter @Guitar_Sauce https://guitarsauce.com.au/
I would reach out to the awesome social media team from Seymour Duncan (Facebook or Twitter). They're pretty helpful I've found. Once you've got it working, send them a photo of your finished project. Everybody wins.
Well, I emailed SD to see if they could give me some direction to which wire colors on the SDpickup go to which wire colors on the Gibson pigtail, and all they did was send me the color code chart.. So, I am assuming they're clueless... Damn shame, love the pickups, but I may have to go back to the originals if I can't make these things work.. >:(
Hey! Peter from SD here.
If it's not too late for this option, I've known of a few people who have put quick connectors on the SD pickups and plugged them right in and had everything work just fine with the Gibson board. With the help of the color conversion charts you can get the Molex connections from Mouser to modify the SD pickups to slot right into the quick-connect terminals. Here's what you need:
First crimp the wire ends into these terminals:
http://au.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Molex/50079-8100/?qs=dvxwXVM4mZUcXazwT3Ylc845CyHfHjVogJsvYHV7O7k%3d
Then snap the terminals into these connectors:
http://au.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Molex/51021-0500/?qs=TEDqGy%252b%2f3mHiLA1ZOQIlOzTg%252blB3f%252b1hCUv5G60ZzHc%3d
I'd advise to get a few extra terminals and connectors (they're pretty cheap) just in case, because they're quite fiddly.
There's a pic on the MyLesPaul forums (I'm not sure if posting a link to another forum is allowed here so I'm not gonna risk it just in case) which shows a relatively good close-up of where the Gibson connectors go, so you just need to wire the SD wires in the order that corresponds. If you Google "gibson quick connect" the pic from that thread should show up in the first few results.
So as you've seen from the color conversion chart that someone else at SD sent you, it goes:
SD Black to Gibson Red
SD White to Gibson White
SD Red to Gibson Green
SD Green to Gibson Black
SD Bare to Gibson Bare
So with the connector plugged in, it should go from bottom to top:
GIBSON BRIDGE (with flipped magnet)
Bare
Green
White
Black
Red
SEYMOUR DUNCAN BRIDGE (with flipped magnet)
Bare
Red
White
Green
Black
GIBSON NECK
Bare
Black
Red
Green
White
SEYMOUR DUNCAN NECK
Bare
Green
Black
Red
White
Hope that helps. If anything doesn't work as it should, you should be able to just swap around the terminals inside the connectors. I'm not 100% sure with this circuit but you might be able to get around the need to flip the magnet of the bridge pickup by reversing the order of the SD green and black wires so it would be (bottom to top):
SEYMOUR DUNCAN BRIDGE
Bare
Red
White
Black
Green
Quote from: Shredderpete on May 23, 2015, 09:51:12 AM
There's a pic on the MyLesPaul forums (I'm not sure if posting a link to another forum is allowed here so I'm not gonna risk it just in case) which shows a relatively good close-up of where the Gibson connectors go, so you just need to wire the SD wires in the order that corresponds. If you Google "gibson quick connect" the pic from that thread should show up in the first few results.
Hi Peter, and welcome to GG. Thanks for coming over and supplying that info, I'm sure Bill aka Amptech will find it useful, as will others who see your post. :tup:
Links to other sites are not a problem, post away. I'm a member over at the MyLesPaul forums myself actually. ;)
HI Pete, wonderful to see you here.. I thank you so much for all that into, I have saved it on my computer for future reference. The only think I am having a problem with is, I am using Gibson pigtails, not making the connectors from scratch.. SO I have the standard color coding as follows..
neck pickup
Duncan to Gibson
bare bare
green black
black red
red green
white white
bridge pickup is now wired like this
Duncan to Gibson
black white
green green
red red
white black
bare bare
please tell me if this sounds correct, and how will I know if I have to surgically flip the magnet?
Again THANK YOU for all your knowledge and help, it's so very much appreciated..
Ok, I think I have something here.. I misread my own writing on the way I had it wired, I think I'm on to something now.. I'll keep everyone posted..
Very awesome. I'm looking forward to hearing how you go. I'm sure you'll get there and that the guitar will sound amazing. I say that because I love all my Seymour Duncan pickups.
You're a braver person than me though. I come from the Rob Scallon school of pickup installation ;)
Ok here goes.. First let me start by saying I am still frustrated. The guitar sounds like ass, and it is making me crazy.. I have the neck pickup wired as in my first post, all good.. the bridge pickup I wired up like ShredderPete had setup, which is the way I originally had it. I did reverse the black and green wires, going black to black and green to red. The guitar sounded equally bad either way, and I was tired of frustrating myself. Now the situation is as follows; front pickup is seemingly ok, and splits the coils with the volume knob switch, bridge pickup is the same. Loss of power when in the middle position, and it's automatically out of phase UNTIL you pull out the neck tone control switch, then is stops being out of phase.. It's kinda like it's backwards.. I think I have to take out the pickup, de-solder the cover, lift the bobbin, and flip the magnet... any comments, concerns, or emotional outbursts?
OK, now I took the bridge pickup out, flipped the magnet, and put the SD wires back to black red, and green black.. Everything on the guitar now works, but still sounds like ass... Splitting is working, blow switch is working, out of phase is working, but there is still a decent drop in volume when the pickups are put in the middle position... In somewhat of a defense of the guitar, it's being tested thru a Peavey Decade amplifier.. I can almost feel the next bout of anxiety coming over me.. >:(
Is the volume drop happening in regular 'in phase' mode as well as out-of-phase? There will always be a very noticeable drop when out-of-phase because what's essentially happening is that the two coils are cancelling out their 'sames' and you're only hearing the sum of their 'differences.' Depending on the pickups there might not be a lot left after putting them out of phase. The Whole Lotta Humbucker set is particularly out-of-phase-phriendly.
OK, I went over the guitar and detailed every function.. It's going to sound crazy, but everything works,. but the out of phase switch operates backwards.. I have no volume drop when it's in phase, but I have to pull the switch UP to get everything IN phase, not out of phase.. I could probably live with it like this, but it will irritate me no end. I'd like find out why it's happening and FIX it.. Any suggestions?
Quote from: Amptech on May 25, 2015, 10:36:53 PM
OK, I went over the guitar and detailed every function.. It's going to sound crazy, but everything works,. but the out of phase switch operates backwards.. I have no volume drop when it's in phase, but I have to pull the switch UP to get everything IN phase, not out of phase.. I could probably live with it like this, but it will irritate me no end. I'd like find out why it's happening and FIX it.. Any suggestions?
Swap the hot and ground connections and you should be good, otherwise it's probably the magnet orientation. Is the magnet flipped or regular at the moment?
http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/faq/frequently-asked/installation-an/how_can_i_corre/
Both pickups are wired as you had laid out in the prior post, but I did flip the bridge pickup magnet to match what would have been in there with the burstbucker pro.. Which pos and neg to I swap? Both pickups?
Quote from: Amptech on May 25, 2015, 11:52:50 PM
Both pickups are wired as you had laid out in the prior post, but I did flip the bridge pickup magnet to match what would have been in there with the burstbucker pro.. Which pos and neg to I swap? Both pickups?
Ok, in that case just swap the hot and ground of the bridge pickup and hopefully you should be good.
ok, so switch the SD green and black wires?
Quote from: Amptech on May 26, 2015, 12:37:16 AM
ok, so switch the SD green and black wires?
The black and bare.
I just changed the clack and green, and I think it worked
I wonder If the bare and ground on the pickup are connected somewhere on the Gibson board??
Well, all of that was an epic failure.. I changed the wires back, then swapped the bare and black, and the phase switch worked properly, but on the IN phase mode the middle position the volume dropped dramatically.. I the took the pickup out, took off the cover, lifted the bobbins, flipped the magnet AGAIN, and then returned the wiring to bare bare/ black red, which is kinda where I started from. The only thing I DID see weird, is that the red wire on the Gibson connector was pulled out of the molex connector enough for me to notice. I pushed it back in, and I think I may be ok, but on the out of phase mode, it does lose wuite a bit of volume.. Once I have a real amp to try it out with, I will report more..Thank you again to all of you for your help...
An extreme volume drop is natural with out-of-phase pickups, as explained above. Some pickup model combinations are louder than others when out of phase.
Well, I bought a pair of Whole Lotta Humbucker for my first 2012 desert burst LP. They should sound amazing..