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Permalink Reply by the anonymous pick on November 15, 2015 at 3:30pm

some  humbuckers  labeled  neck    / bridge   have  different  sound  / wraps    and reading  ,  some  in a set are  just  marked  for  its  opposite  look  or  how  its  mounted  , or according to  its diagram . 

if you  just  want to  use  one ,  you  can  use  either  ,in either  spot   closer to  the neck  will  give  you  a warmer  fuller  sound  ,  closer to  the bridge will  give you a  brighter  sound  .  as will  one  marked as such.(just  not as  drastic)

depending on the quality  of the  pickup  .   you should be able to  just wire it  right to  the  jack  ,   most  likely   wont even have to  ground it  . (hence the name  (HUMbucker )   the opposite coils  "buck"  humm and buzz.

you can easily  test one   just wiring it  up    by itself  , holding it  over an unplugged  guitar  .. or a guitar  over  it .    etc . 

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Permalink Reply by Jon Leslie/Runaway Veal Music on November 15, 2015 at 4:00pm

Thank you. This really helps. Can't wait to try!

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Permalink Reply by Jon Leslie/Runaway Veal Music on November 15, 2015 at 7:08pm

Thank you Wayfinder,
This explains quite abit. I'm not using these pickups in pairs .. just one at a time. Just slightly intimidated as there's two wires within one wire on these pickups as opposed to piezos.
I can see that they need careful separation and to try and determine what goes to what. Most of the ones I got have 2 wires in 1 wire...1 pair even has 3 wires coming out of one wire (a little intimidating). Most look like regular humbuckers though with 2 wires. I have wired a volume pot with a piezo and it was ok but a little loss of signal (I'm sure it was my soldering). I totally see the purpose of a volume pot.
I think I'm just over thinking this but the humbucker wire is definitely thicker and trickier looking than any piezo wire (and I've used thicker gauge wire than what piezos originally came with).
It's my first regular magnetic pickup so I guess I'm just nervous

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Permalink Reply by ChickenboneJohn on November 15, 2015 at 8:41pm

The bridge / neck defininition is often just the string (ie polepiece) spacing - wider at the bridge, narrower at the neck on a regular 6 stirng.  I have pickups made for me and this is the polepiece spacing is the info  they need from me - the windings and impedence are just the same on both types.

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Permalink Reply by Jon Leslie/Runaway Veal Music on November 15, 2015 at 9:11pm

good news that it's fine details like pole spacing etc that determines front back right left etc. But of course I'd be way more specific about pole spacing if in knew more. Later... At least I know the humbucker pickup idea slightly better. I'm sure there's even more to it but for now a start.

I like the 3,4 magnetic pickups I've seen on the forum. I see why that's specialized. I just got these random humbuckers and wonder how they will translate to the non 6 (string)spaced 3 and 4 stringers. Only one way to know eh..

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Permalink Reply by Paul Craig on November 16, 2015 at 9:48pm

Lot of good info here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humbucker.

If you using just one pickup, it doesn't matter. If you don't know the manufacturer of them, you could have a problem with the wiring. Some companies use different color wires. Do a goggle or yahoo search for pickup wiring color codes.

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Permalink Reply by Jon Leslie/Runaway Veal Music on November 16, 2015 at 11:27pm

Don't know the manufacturer. Most have just two wires a red or blue wire..then a silver looking wire. 2 of the pups have 4 wires each. All are chrome looking. I don't have those 4 wire ones in front of me at the moment but I'll take a pic next chance I get. The red and blue ones I imagine are the hot..the silver ground? I'll look as you say for pickup wiring color coded

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Permalink Reply by Jon Leslie/Runaway Veal Music on November 16, 2015 at 11:36pm

Here's a pic of the red and blue ones

Attachments:

• image.jpg, 2.7 MB

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Permalink Reply by Jon Leslie/Runaway Veal Music on November 16, 2015 at 11:38pm

Another pic

Attachments:

• image.jpg, 2.9 MB

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Permalink Reply by Jon Leslie/Runaway Veal Music on November 17, 2015 at 6:17am

Alligator clip time or waste some wire length and solder (which brings me to another question. Can you ad wire length to mag pups if needed without damaging or reducing quality? If you can do I need same wire thickness?
Looks to me like the red just houses a white (hot)and mesh (ground)..same with blue
I can't seem to find out who makes these pickups (brand) but I don't think they are real expensive gems. I'll try to make them sound that way in the end though.

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Permalink Reply by Paul Craig on November 17, 2015 at 7:57am

Adding wire isn't a problem, just solder the connections and insulate them from each other with shrink tape or electrical tape.

I found a chart with many companies color codes.

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Permalink Reply by Paul Craig on November 17, 2015 at 8:09am

2 and 3 wire pups are pretty easy to identify, but the 4 wire pups can be a challenge. LOL

Jon,

Hopefully your 4 wire pups already have 2 of the wires tied together, that's for the coil link to each other and can be separated to a toggle switch for coil tapping. That will make it easy to identify the other 2.

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