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Topic: Pickup polarity |
Jude Reinhardt
From:
Weaverville, NC
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Posted 25 Apr 2007 5:45 pm |
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I've seen in wiring diagrams pickup leads marked + and -. How do you tell which is which? Yeah I know, they're marked plus or minus on the wiring diagram.  Both pickup leads came loose on one of my Melobars and I guessed that the black was - and the white was +, and the pickup works fine so I guessed right I suppose. I would think there would be a way to tell before you start soldering. Any help will be appreciated.
Jude
_________________
"If we live in fear of banjos, then the banjos have won".
"Man cannot live by bread alone, he must have Peanut Butter". - Kruger Bear |
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Jude Reinhardt
From:
Weaverville, NC
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Posted 28 Apr 2007 6:14 am
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So far 120 people have read this post and are as dumb as I am. Or it could be that the answer's so obvious no one's bothered to respond. There must be a reason that the wiring diagrams show the leads coming from the pickup as + and -.
Jude
_________________
"If we live in fear of banjos, then the banjos have won".
"Man cannot live by bread alone, he must have Peanut Butter". - Kruger Bear |
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Mike Wheeler
From:
Delaware, Ohio, USA
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Posted 28 Apr 2007 6:44 am
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Hi Jude,
For a standard individual PU (single coil, or humbucker)with 2 wires it doesn't really make any difference which lead you use for + or -. The conventional color code would be that black is ground, and white (or another color) is the hot lead.
With one that has more than 2 wires it would matter.
_________________
Best regards,
Mike |
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T. C. Furlong
From:
Lake County, Illinois, USA
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Posted 28 Apr 2007 7:06 am
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Hey Jude,
Mike is right, polarity should not really matter unless there are two pick-ups on at the same time. Although I would suggest contacting the manufacturer about which is positive. I am not sure if Mellobar is still operating.
There are those who say that absolute polarity is important especially on anything percussive in nature. I myself am not in either camp. I think it might be a good idea to have the speaker start moving toward you when you pick, rather than away from you, which would happen if something in your chain were polatity reversed. Although I would challenge anyone to tell me which was which in a blind test.
A word about wire insulation color and polarity. There is no standard in our world of musical instrument wiring (pickups or speakers). I personally think that it should follow the electrical color scheme which in the USA is Green = Ground, White + Neutral, Black, Red, or Blue = Line. In Europe it is different. Green/Yellow = Ground, Blue and Brown = Line.
TC |
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Jude Reinhardt
From:
Weaverville, NC
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Posted 28 Apr 2007 7:48 am Thank you
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Thanks much guys. I've just got the one pickup in the old Melobar, the Paul Barth design, and it's working fine with the black lead going to ground.
Jude
_________________
"If we live in fear of banjos, then the banjos have won".
"Man cannot live by bread alone, he must have Peanut Butter". - Kruger Bear |
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David Mason
From:
Cambridge, MD, USA
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Posted 28 Apr 2007 7:58 am
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Every pickup manufacturer seems to use a different color scheme, to the point where it seems obviously intentional. If you start getting into wiring up 4 and 5-lead pickups, with coil splitting, reverse phase, parallel and series wiring in multiple-pickup guitars with varitones and Superswitches, you'll pretty much have to go all obsessive/compulsive (twitch, twitch...)
Stewart-McDonald has a fairly large list of the wiring schemes for a number of major brands:
http://www.stewmac.com/freeinfo/
Scroll down to "Electronics, pickups wiring"
If the pickup you've got isn't listed, you have to find some instructions (maybe from the manufacturer, maybe elsewhere) and compare them to the Stew-Mac diagrams till you get an idea of which wires are hot and ground, and which is the north and south coils. There's info all over the web, like at Rothstein:
http://www.guitar-mod.com/rg_diagrams.html
And TDPRI:
http://www.tdpri.com/wiring5wayStrat.htm
I have no idea how any of this works, but if I can get the right diagram I can get the right noises to come out. |
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Jack Stoner
From:
Kansas City, MO
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Posted 28 Apr 2007 9:32 am
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| A pickup is an "AC" device, not a "DC" device. Thus the polarity does not really matter, if there is only one pickup (and one neck). |
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Bill Creller
From:
Saginaw, Michigan, USA (deceased)
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Posted 28 Apr 2007 8:48 pm
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| I would think that the wire running to the outside of the winding should be the ground-- black. It may help shield the inner coils on the bobbin.(?) |
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