Tag: codes

Posted on by

Working out humbucker wire colours.

Ah – the dark art of what colour wire goes where !

Well not really, its actually pretty easy to work this out without being given the exact wire colours on a pickup, provided its come straight out of the packet or still wired up as standard. Not rocket science, just a bit of common sense. Heres a photo of our standard end of the wire.

As you can see there are 5 separate wires sticking out the end of the main cable insulation.

Lets take that black one first that is connected to the bare wire. The bare wire is always the overall chassis earth of the pickup and is the one that is soldered to the baseplate of the pickup so its going to have to connect to the earth circuit on your guitar. The black wire is pre-soldered onto it so, here’s the clue, thats the negative wire of the humbucker as we have already connected it to the other earth wire and it needs to connect to the earth circuit of the guitar – that’s kind of why we solder them together before they get shipped out.

You know its a 2 coil pickup, as you bought a humbucker, so theres got to be a connection between those 2 separate coils else the whole thing wont work right ? As you can see there are 2 wires connected up together that aren’t part of the earth connection of the guitar – Bingo – the red and white wires link the 2 coils of the humbucker together.

The leaves us with just one wire unaccounted for and that’s the green. By a simple process of elimination that has to be the output / hot wire of the pickup. Thats the one that’s going to have to go to either your selector switch or the input lug on your volume pot.

Told you it was quite easy to work out.

Gets a little more complex working out which are the hot and negative wires of each coil but its still not rocket science. You already know which is the negative of the first coil – the black wire. You also know which is the positive / hot wire of the second coil – the green wire. Now you’ll need to get some sort of continuity tester or multi meter to help with this bit and you’ll need to separate the white wire from the red. You can usually just pull them apart.

Start by connecting one lead from your multimeter to the black wire ( the negative of the first coil ) and then connect the other lead to either the red or the white wire to see which one gives you a continuity signal. That identifies the hot wire from the first coil – if you don’t want to know the answer without testing then look away now and don’t read this bit – its going to be the white wire on our pickups. You’ve got a continuity signal then between the back wire and the white, so you now know the negative and positive leads of the first coil.

You don’t even need to test for the positive and negative leads of the second coil as you already know that the green wire is the positive lead of coil 2 so therefore the red wire just has to be the negative lead of the 2nd coil.

Also if you want a quick and dirty method of working out which pickup is the bridge and neck, and you can’t be bothered to turn them over to look for the B or N stamp on the back, then matched humbucker pairs have red heat shrink on the end of the cable and neck ones have black heat shrink.

Posted on by

Basic guide to Warman wire colours on 4 wire humbuckers.

The Warman twin coil humbuckers all pretty much follow the same wire colour codes as follows.

Bare wire. This is the overall group wire for the pickup and needs to be connected to a common earth point on the guitar. Typically this is the back of a pot.

Black. This is the negative ( – ) wire of the first coil, sometimes called the start wire.

White. This is the positive ( + ) wire of the first coil, sometimes called the finish wire

Red. This is the negative ( – ) wire of the second coil. ( start )

Green. This is the positive ( + ) wire of the second coil ( finish )

To wire this up as standard humbucker with both coils i series. Connect black and bare to the back of one of the pots ( common earth circuit )

Leave red and white joined together , they come pre-soldered to each other . Wrap some insulation tape around this solder joint to avoid accidental shorting our of the coils when you stuff all the wires back into the guitar cavities.

Connect the green wire either to the input lug on you volume pot or the pickup selector switch, this will depend on how your guitar is wired and its control layout .

Single coils

Single coil pickups have just 2 wire coming out of them. This will either be a single twin core cable or two individual leads, depending on model. single cable versions have an inner and outer core to the wire, the inner is the hot wire and the outer is the ground / negative wire. If the pickup has two individual leads then one of these will be black, which is the ground wire, and the other coloured lead will be the hot wire.

Posted on by

Tele wiring with Twin rail bridge with series / parallel / coil cut switching

A quick sketch of how to wire up one of our twin rail Tele bridge pickups ( same wiring for Peacemakers of Twin Loco / T-rail Blazers ) with a 3 position mini toggle switch for both rails in series, single coil cut or both rails in parallel. Please note the toggle switch has to be a 3 position DPDT on-on-on switch for this to work correctly. Don’t use the commonly found on-off-on switches.

The 3 position lever switch used to select the different pickups ( bridge, bridge and neck in parallel, or neck on its won ) is shown as the import version of the 3 way lever switch which has 7 contacts on the bottom edge. The middle contacts used for the hot out signal to the volume control ( that’s the A500k pot in the diagram ) Good wiring practice also say that you should run a wire from the casing of this switch to one of the common ground points, usually the back of one of the pots, just to make sure the earth circuit is complete, along with the ground wire ( not shown ) that runs from the metal bridge of the guitar to common earth.

The tone cap value is not shown as its up to you to play around and experiment with what sounds right to you. Standard would be a 0.47 or 0.33 tone cap but there is no right or wrong here, try a few different values and discover what makes you happy.

Posted on by — 4 Comments

Warman Single coil pickup wiring

Custom single coil pickups. Texas Triple Air. Chrome plated metal covers.
Warman Big Texan 11.62k bridge single coil pickup
Warman Big Texan 11.62k bridge single coil pickup

Wiring Up Warman Single Coil Pickups

Most Warman single coil pickups keep things nice and simple. Just two wires to deal with – a negative (start/ground) and a positive (finish/hot). Compared to humbuckers with multiple wires, single coils are the wiring equivalent of making toast – quick, easy, and very little can go wrong.

  • Negative (ground) lead → connects to the guitar’s common ground circuit (usually the back of a pot).
  • Positive (hot) lead → connects either to your selector switch or directly to the input lug of your volume pot,. This depends on how your guitar’s control circuit is set up.

Wire Colours

  • If your pickup has two separate wires:
    • Black = negative (ground)
    • The other wire (various colours depending on position) = positive (hot)
  • If your pickup looks like it has only one wire, don’t panic! That’s actually a twin-cored cable:
    • Outer braid/shield = negative
    • Inner core = positive

That’s really all there is to it. Warman single coil pickups are among the easiest to wire up. You can check out our full range of upgrade models [here].

A Note on Phase Reversal Switches

If you’re fitting a phase reversal switch, there’s one extra step to consider:

Before you do, check that the coil’s negative isn’t already soldered to the baseplate. If it is, simply snip that link so the coil and baseplate are independently grounded.

If your pickup has a metal baseplate (like many P90s do), you’ll need to solder an extra ground wire from the baseplate to your guitar’s ground.

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Warman Humbucker wire colours

Warman pickups wire colours explained

Warman Humbucker Wire Colours Explained

Warman pickups wire colours explained
Warman pickups wire colours explained

If you’ve just unwrapped your shiny new Warman humbucker and you’re staring at a handful of coloured wires thinking “what on earth do I do now?” — don’t panic. Grab your soldering iron, make yourself a brew, and let’s walk through it.

The Warman Humbucker Colour Code

  • Bare wire – This is the shield/earth. It always goes to ground. The usual spot is the back of a potentiometer (pot for short). Think of it as the pickup’s safety belt.

  • Black wire – Negative / start of the South coil.

  • White wire – Positive / finish / hot output of the South coil.

  • Red wire – Negative / finish of the North coil.

  • Green wire – Positive / start / hot output of the North coil.

Standard Humbucker Wiring (Series)

To wire the pickup in standard Warman humbucker mode (both coils in series):

  1. Solder black + bare wires to ground (back of a pot is perfect).

  2. The red and white wires are already soldered together. Leave them joined — they’re the “bridge” between coil 1 and coil 2. Tuck them safely away with insulation tape.  or heat-shrink so they don’t short out.

  3. The green wire is your hot output. Connect to either your pickup selector switch or straight to the input lug of the volume pot.  This depends on your guitar’s wiring style.

That’s It!

And there you have it — the Warman wiring colour code in all its glory. Nothing scary, no rocket science, just a bit of solder, some common sense, and the smug satisfaction of upgrading your guitar.

Now plug in, turn up, and give those coils the workout they deserve.