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Hi, I just bought a kit of 3 single coil fender pickups, taken from a standard 1995 fender stratocaster. turns out that they're not marked, and I dont know what are their positions. one has a yellow wire, but the other two have white wires. any way to figure them out? thanks

here's a pic

interesting. I read somewhere that common wiring colors are like Neck - white/black, Middle - red/black and Bridge - yellow/black, so I thought the yellow was the bridge pickup, but since I have no red wires, that probably has nothing to do with my pickups...

I assume you are sure that yellow is the middle one? I wanted to finish wiring everything today, but I don't have anything to measure the dc resistance at home.

the only clue I have is that the previous owner (i believe) wrote a "B" on one of the two with white wires. could mean bridge... I ignored that since I thought the yellow was bridge, but if yellow is middle, that B could make sense. can't know for sure though, since it's written on the cover, and it could have been switched over with another cover.

what you think? any other ways to figure out, or I really should get a meter?

+1.
I would also bet money that "B" means bridge.
Another thing to note is that with pickups taken out of a guitar, in general the wires get progressively longer as they move from bridge to neck. IOW, the neck pup will usually have a longer set of wires than the middle, the middle will be longer than the bridge, and the bridge will be shortest of all.
This is not always the case, but more often than not IME.
And yes, if you're going to be wiring guitars you need a meter. Radio Shack sells them cheap. Worth every penny.

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Mike

The only thing nescessary for evil to thrive is for good men to do nothing.

Sorry dudes...
white is neck
yellow is middle
and red is bridge.

So it looks like you got 2 neck pickups.

Don't believe me...take it up with Leo.

http://support.fender.com/diagrams/stratocaster/0101200_02A/SD0101200_02APg2.pdf

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2 neck pickups? I'd think so, but nah, the guy guaranteed they were taken from the same guitar. they are really aged, and the 3 of them look the same. also I've seen some diagrams with 2 white wires.



that's a good point. "B" pickup has a shorter wire, while the other white wire is the longest, being the yellow between those two.

I think that sums it up, but I'll get a meter to make sure. thanks guys

ok, so I borrowed a meter from a friend, and it was right, pickup order was that exactly.

so I wired and soldered everything according to that scheme, except a couple wires wich I wasnt sure if I should conect like the scheme or according to how it was before in my guitar, so I left them how they were, but now my tone 2 pot is doing nothing, I turn it, but it doesn't affect the tone of any pickups. tone 1 works fine though. guess I should have connected everything according to the scheme. problem is that the contacts on the switch I bought are aligned on the same row, and not alternated like the one on the sceme.

some pics: (sorry for the blur)



in case it's not very clear, let me try to explain what I did different from the scheme.

-on the scheme, that left yellow wire from tone 2 connects to 2 contacts on the switch. on my guitar I connected to only one (the way it was before)
-on the scheme the red wire from the jack connects to volume pot's middle contact, and then to the switch. I didn't connect it on the switch because it wasnt connected before, and I wouldn't know where to connect since my switch is different.
-on the scheme, the left red wire from the volume pot connects to one contact on the switch. I connected to two, since it was like this before.
-on the scheme there's a purple wire coming out from the tone 1 pot and going to the switch. I didn't connect anything, because there was nothing before, and I don't know what contact is that one on my switch.

I should have taken a picture before, but I'm pretty sure it's just like it was before... I mean, well it's not, or it would be working, but I don't know what I did wrong, I tried to be really careful. it's not my first time doing this, but anyways, guess I screwed up.

what should I change? should I do exactly like the scheme? if so I could use a translation from the scheme switch to my switch.

I know that this is getting kinda long, and I don't know how to make myself more clear on explaining this, but any help would be very appreciated again.

thanks

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Best advice I can give.

well, thanks

Wire them according to this diagram and you'll be golden.
http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/wiring-diagrams/schematics.php?schematic=3s_1v_2t_5w
If you have one of the enclosed electrical switches, do yourself a favor and throw it away and get a decent mechanical 5 way switch. Then you can follow the diagrams with no problems.
And here's a link every one needs.
http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/wiring-diagrams/

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Mike

The only thing nescessary for evil to thrive is for good men to do nothing.

yeah, I thought so, probably the best I can do is get a better switch.

so thanks mike, that diagram will do it

Vintage fender start pickups are all wound to pretty much the same Independence. There is no difference between the neck and bridge pickup so that's why they are both black and white leads. The yellow indicates a reverse polarity winding. 80's on strats have pickups with different values. So the neck and bridge are not interchangeable and the bridge usually has a red lead on these instruments. On the newer vintage reissues I think they use the old color scheme....Mike

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