The Steel Guitar Forum

I put one of these in my S10 p/p and followed this :

"Red goes to the tip ("hot") terminal of the jack.
Black and shield go to the sleeve (ground) terminal of the jack.
Green and white get tied together and insulated."

This is for the standard humbucking hookup with coils in series.
worked well .Then I thought I'd like to try wiring it to get the single coil as well so I followed this :

"If you want the option of single coil operation, put the green and white wires on one side of a SPST switch,, and the other side going to ground (one guy just used a wire with alligator clips).
When the switch is open (or the alligator clip hanging free), it's a humbucker: when you close the switch (or clip the wire to the endplate), the upper coil is shorted to ground and you're only using one."

Now I can't tell which side of the switch is humbucker and which is single coil . One side is a lot louder and both sides have some hum where before in just humbucker mode it was quite as a mouse . have I done something wrong ? Maybe out of phase ?

Hey Brendan,

The wiring schematic I use now is based on an old SGF post that I updated with a junction block and switch for dual coils. Works very well and easier to change out the pickup if you want.

I used a DPDT switch (a SPDT would work), and have coil A, HB, and coil B. Here’s the diagram from an old forum post, and the item you want is the ‘coil cut’ part.. red wire to one end, green and white to the center, and black to the other end of the switch. I hope this helps..

Thanks for the replies . I’m not too good with wiring diagrams . I tried with a different lead and different amp and it seems a lot quieter . One position is still louder than the other .

You might try running an extra ground from the negative jack connection to one of the screws on the changer.. that solved a hum problem I had on one of my steels.

Hey Rick , I like the idea of the junction box . Are you using a screw in type joiner or are they soldered in ?