Tele Wiring questions.

[Malius]

Hi guys, my first post here but I'm looking for some help.

I bought some new pickups for my Fender Blacktop Baritone tele (blackdog bridge and 2 piledrivers for middle and neck)

I've wired them up and for the most part it's okay. But when the 5-way switch is in the middle position the sound is coming from the neck and bridge pickups.

(I used this diagram https://bareknucklepickups.co.uk/main/downloads/schematics/general/hsh_hss/hss__1_vol__1_tone__5_way_with_auto_coilsplit.pdf ) except I have an import switch with the pins inline rather than two banks of 4.
I believe the switch is (top to bottom): 1. bridge, 2. middle, 3. neck, 4. common, 5. common, 6. bridge, 7. middle, 8. neck
So I have the pickups in order soldered to the first three, pin 4 connected to the volume pot. Then I soldered the green and white wires from the blackdog to pin 6 and ground pin 7.

I unattached pin 6 and 7 (as some diagrams show them unnconnected) but nothing changed.

Also, the middle pickup is RWRP.

Is there anything really obvious that I've missed? Does anyone have any suggestions? If you need more info let me know.

Thanks

[darkbluemurder]

If the switch terminals are as you described I think you should solder the green/white of the Black Dog to pin 7 and pin 5 to ground. Pins 6 and 8 should not be wired to anything.

Cheers Stephan

[Malius]

If the switch terminals are as you described I think you should solder the green/white of the Black Dog to pin 7 and pin 5 to ground. Pins 6 and 8 should not be wired to anything.

Cheers Stephan

Thanks Stephan,

So the green/white (finish of slug and screw coils) should be soldered to the secondary middle pin? And the secondary bridge and neck pins should be unsoldered?

[darkbluemurder]

If the switch terminals are as you described I think you should solder the green/white of the Black Dog to pin 7 and pin 5 to ground. Pins 6 and 8 should not be wired to anything.

Cheers Stephan

Thanks Stephan,

So the green/white (finish of slug and screw coils) should be soldered to the secondary middle pin? And the secondary bridge and neck pins should be unsoldered?

Yes. What you want is to split the humbucker in all positions except position 1 - hence the green/white to pin 7. Since you can only split the humbucker if the green/white is connected to ground, you need to run a wire from pin 5 (the common pin on the secondary switch level)  to ground. Do you have a multimeter? If so, you can measure the resistance from green/white to ground. In position #1 of the switch you should get a reading of about 4.5k to 4.7k. In #2 and 3 you should get zero ohms. In # 4 and 5 you should again get 4.5k to 4.7k - no worries, the humbucker is not connected to hot in these positions.
Then put a guitar cord into the guitar and measure on the other side of the cord from tip to ring. You should get the following results:
#1 (full humbucker) = about 9k
#2 split humbucker and middle = about 3.5k
#3 middle = about 5.5k
#4 middle and neck = about 2.75k
#5 neck = about 5.5k

If you have these you should be set. If not, post your readings and we'll troubleshoot.

Good luck,
Stephan

[Malius]

Okay so I've attached the green/white to pin 7 and ground pin 5.

Grabbed my multimeter and got the following results:

Green/white to ground

#1: 4.7k
#2: 3.4k
#3: 3.4k
#4: 4.7k
#5: 4.7k


From tone o/p to ring of jack

#1: 9k
#2: 4.12k
#3: 4.12k
#4: 3.75k
#5: 7.42k

Just to give you all the available information. Some things are grounded to the back of the tone put as it was more accessible than the volume pot, but everything that is ground is connected together.

[darkbluemurder]

Positions 1, 4 and 5 seem good - your single coil in the neck is probably stronger than I thought. Positions 2 and 3 are not OK to me. It seems that either the middle pickup is not connected or that the humbucker does not get split.

Are you sure that pin 5 is the common pin on the second pole? It could be pin 8 as well. Try moving the ground wire from pin 5 to pin 8 and the split line from pin 7 to pin 6 and measure again.

Cheers Stephan

[Malius]

Okay, resoldered it and:

#1: 4.76
#2: 0
#3: 3.42
#4: 0
#5: 4.8

#1: 9.15
#2: 2.82
#3: 4.15
#4: 3.78
#5: 7.49

[darkbluemurder]

That looks better now. I would try it that way and see.

Cheers Stephan

[Malius]

I still get the problem I had before. If I plug it in to an amp, put it in position #3 and tap the pickups lightly with a screw driver the sound comes from the neck and bridge, not middle. Or is that what's supposed to happen?

Thanks for you help.

[darkbluemurder]

I think I made a mistake. In the diagram you linked in your first post the ground connection for the split is not made from the common node. Try moving it from pin 8 to pin 7 and see if it works.

Cheers Stephan

[Malius]

Hi Stephan,

That's how I had it wired up before the coil split on pin 6 and the ground on pin 7. But I still got had the sound coming through the neck and bridge.

Are we assuming that the middle pickup must not be correctly wired? Why then would the sound come through the other pickups in that position? Surely there would be no sound? Also it seems to pickup in position 2 and 4. Maybe I have the pinout of the switch wrong? What I posted is all I can find on the internet, and it seemed to correspond with how the guitar was wired from the factory.

Should I post a picture of how the switch was originally wired?

Thanks

[darkbluemurder]

Yes, I think a picture would be helpful. We need to make sure which pins are what, especially which are the common ones. You could measure that, too. 

Cheers Stephan

[Malius]

Here's a picture of how it was originally wired. Not a great picture, but hopefully you can see something.


How can I measure which are the common pins?

[Malius]

Here's a picture of how I've wired it with the new pickups, if it helps.

[darkbluemurder]

Hi,

From the pictures I cannot really see much, unfortunately.

How can I measure which are the common pins?

The common pin is the one which has always contact with at least one of the others belonging to that pole. I would do the following:

Set the pickup selector to "Bridge" and put one probe to one pole's assumed common, e.g. #4 per your first post. Put the other probe to pin #1. You should get zero resistance. Then move the selector to the next position and measure between #4 and pin #1 and then between #4 and #2. You should get zero resistance each time. Move the selector to the next position - this should get you zero ohms between #4 and #2. The next selector position should get zero between #4 and #3 and between #4 and #2. The final selector position ("neck") should get you zero ohms between #4 and #3.

If you don't get these results, #4 is not common. Try it with #1.

Then do the same thing with #5 as assumed common. If it does not work, try #8.

I know this can be tedious work but we need to approach this systematically.

Cheers Stephan