Mapping A Humbucker Guitar Pickup

This video will help you to identify the wires coming out of a humbucker pickup as well as the polarity of the pole pieces.
N-audio website: n-audio.net/guitar-pickup-pha...
Purchase on Tindie: www.tindie.com/products/n-aud...
Purchase on Reverb: reverb.com/item/38262238-n-au...
Humbucker Instructions: n-audio.net/wp-content/upload...
Single Coil Instructions: n-audio.net/wp-content/upload...

[@braksandwich]

Great video, this helped me swap some pickups on a set that had absolutely baffling wire colors

[@HighlineGuitars]

Glad it helped!

[@RaymondLandis]

Hey Chris, this was an amazing video. Your patience and thoroughness is greatly appreciated. I learned so much from this one! You're definitely one of the best on KZbin doing this stuff. May you be blessed and able to do many more of these! Thank you so much!

[@varietypa...5606]

Awesome! Thanks for sharing this!

[@swissanthony]

I’ve been tentatively researching this subject and I’m finally getting my head around it all. This video has really helped me confirm what I’ve learned. Thank you Sir 👏👏👏👏👏

The most important instructional video on the net today.

[@Teddy-Cool]

hi, nice video! one thing about polarity: i recommend an analogue meter (is much slower)

[@icsplda1526]

life saver! thank you!

[@rutiger6901]

VERY GOOD DEMONSTRATION! THANKS for going through the tools and explaining how they work, how to use them. A good "tools 101" video.

[@ArcMediaFilms]

Brilliant as ever thanks.👍

[@daleagner8980]

I've purchased the parts I need to add coil spits to a firefly guitar. Can you tell me which of the single coils in the pair should be active once split? The inner coils, outer coils or perhaps one inner and one outer?

[@johnnygreenway3579]

I'm trying to mod a Donner dlp124 guitar with new humbuckers and one volume push pull potentiometer and one tone push pull potentiometer. I want to coil split these separately. I have a three way toggle switch. I've looked at the wiring diagram on Seymour Duncans site, so I would appreciate any help you could give me. Thanks.

[@oooppiikkk]

so thats why my bridge humbuckers just buzz like hell. THANK YOU!!

[@jesusgerada5720]

Very well explained. For hum cancelling you have to repeat the process for the two pickups and the correct wiring is parallel electrically with opposite magnet polarity.

[@NaudioElectronics]

Great Video Chris! I'm happy that you are using it. Best Regards

[@HighlineGuitars]

So much easier than using a multimeter.

[@sgt.grinch3299]

Interesting lesson. Thanks Chris.

[@bobless5517]

Very useful video! Thanks!👍

[@Tzuau78]

Good vid… I wish I had this earlier😅 So clear and easy to follow. 👍🏻

[@zeffneeson5214]

Very valuable Thankyou for your time 👊🏻

[@janrichescabungcal8448]

What color of the wire soldered 2 wires?

[@jokinmyass9446]

Personally, the multi meter seemed much simpler to me. The device just added extra things to worry about and remember at times. And the fact that you have to pay attention to the first light color and ignore the second color given off seems like adding additional room for error

[@HighlineGuitars]

Oh brother. 🤦🏻

[@dreyn_]

nice vids, but how do we know if the winding inside is clockwise or counterclockwise?. my guitar pickups are in phase (all) but the hum canceling thing was not workin like before. i was do some cleaning and forgot the way that the humbucker was mounted, especially the magnet inside and the high E strings sounds tiny than others. thanks!

[@HighlineGuitars]

Easy. The start can’t be unwound whereas the finish can. Knowing which end of the wire is the start and which is the finish will tell you the winding direction when viewing the top of the bobbin. If you can’t determine the winding direction visually, you can use a multimeter to figure out which end should be the signal and which should be the ground. If it doesn’t sound right, try swapping the signal for the ground.

[@williamerlewein3983]

I hope I'm not doing this the wrong way but I'm an old guy this is as close as I can find. I'm just a guy who plays around with guitars and I have a general question. I have a Kramer 450g aluminum neck that I've had since the early 80s. Foolishly I installed a set of DiMarzio super Distortion in it back then and lost the original pickups. Since getting sick and retiring I have been playing around with some guitars I've modified some cheap ones purely for my own entertainment. With some success. I successfully transformed a glary into a pretty nice guitar having replaced everything but the body and the neck. I have some parts ordered a Les Paul bolt-on neck and body and I'm thinking about putting the DiMarzio in it. I ordered a set of Gretsch pickups with the very nice Chrome surrounds and I think they would match up nice on the Kramer as kind of matching in class. I suffer from neuropathy so I can barely play anymore not that I was Eddie Van Halen to begin with but my playing is very limited this is just a hobby for me now. I know the DiMarzio are probably a bit of the Holy Grail twosome because of their vintage. Just looking for an opinion thanks and God bless

[@zAvAvAz]

Important pickup readings are = Resistance Kohms. Millivolts. Inductance. top three to name a few.

[@TheVigiIante]

Ok, but for hum cancellation, how should I connect the wires? Position from coil 1 with positive from coil 2? And which should be connected to the ground, the positive or the negative?

[@HighlineGuitars]

www.1728.org/guitar.htm

[@TheVigiIante]

@@HighlineGuitars Thank you very much!

[@paulroyle1601]

Thanks.

[@fat-hand]

At 7:45 you state the polarity tester shows the slug bobbin is north up. Then seconds later you state the wires are connected to the south up slug bobbin. Which is it please and thank you for the great intel.

[@HighlineGuitars]

North up.

[@waynegram8907]

HIGHLINE GUITAR, When mapping using the milliamp meter this is for matching the pole piece bobbins gauss measurements. When you purchase Unmagnetized pole pieces and then magnetize them they won't all have the same gauss values they will all be unmatched. The Higher the gauss strength value, the higher the output current. When using a screwdriver when tapping on each of the pole pieces should have the same output current? if not the pole pieces aren't matched and have different gauss strengths which is not good.

[@BeesWaxMinder]

a Magnet and an analog (needle) multimeter is great for finding the phase of a coil

[@jimcadorette1140]

Chris, would a positive reading be the start of the coil and the negative be the finish? if you are wiring in series, does it matter which ends you connect?

[@HighlineGuitars]

There is no positive or negative in a pickup coil. How you connect the ends will affect the sound. This link is a great explanation of the concept: www.1728.org/guitar1b.htm

[@jimcadorette1140]

@@HighlineGuitars this was the missing piece for me. I couldn't understand why the finishing points of the north and south coils were tied together. Perfect. Thanks.

[@AlexCornejo]

​@@HighlineGuitars in your video you use the word positive and negative, you also label on your paper with plus and minus. Most wiring diagrams talk about start/finish. I have the same question here, if I followed your video and identified +/- how can I map that to start/finish used in wiring diagrams? I am interpreting your response here as; it does not really matter, but if that is the case then I guess i don't get the point of labeling with + and - in the first place (and maybe it doesn't?)

[@HighlineGuitars]

@@AlexCornejo It matters if you are installing more than one pickup and you want them to be either in phase or out of phase.

[@AlexCornejo]

@@HighlineGuitars that makes a lot of sense, I had seen a few videos talking about that but only now I connected what that means. Thank you so much for this wonderful video and for taking the time to replying to these comments!

[@OldBiker]

You should do a video on getting the target DC resistance for a Humbucker as trying to replicate a Humbucker is not that simple when you take into account the change in DC resistance after wax potting, for example I wound 5000 turns on two bobbins getting 3.75k on each using 42awg, both combined should have given me 7.5k but got 7.54k and after wax potting (15 minutes) ended up with 7.24k, my target was 7.4k, so looks like I needed about 5050 turns on each to get closer to the 7.4k?

[@HighlineGuitars]

I learned a long time ago that it's a fool's errand to try and reliably match turn count with DC resistance. Even if you nail the same turn count exactly on two bobbins, you DCR will likely vary from one to the other, especially if you traverse and/or apply tension by hand.

[@OldBiker]

@@HighlineGuitars Thanks for the quick reply, I made a traverse feeder so all my pups are now machine wound, took some fine tuning but got there in the end, it cost less than $20 here - kzbin.info/www/bejne/sKaolJx6gb9sr5I

[@winstonoboogie2424]

Question I should probably already know the answer to: If you flipped the magnet, how would that affect your mapping ?

[@HighlineGuitars]

All you would be doing is flipping the polarity.

[@bobless5517]

Hi! I watch this video several times. Very useful! But, since I'm looking with a translation, I have a question: What does the magnetic field indicator show with its red side? The red side of the indicator shows the south pole of the magnet? Or the north pole of a magnet? Thanks!

[@HighlineGuitars]

blue = north and red = south

[@bobless5517]

@@HighlineGuitars Thanks! I understand this, but I did not understand which pole of the humbucker magnet shows the red end of the indicator?

[@HighlineGuitars]

@@bobless5517 If the red end sticks to the magnet, that's the south pole.

[@bobless5517]

@@HighlineGuitars Yes! Thanks! 👍

[@raw-brobbin1598]

I can't seem to find anyone with blue, black, white and red, and bare wires, for humbuckers with 3 positions, can you help. I'm about to smash this damn thing.

[@HighlineGuitars]

Who made the pickups?

[@raw-brobbin1598]

@@HighlineGuitars they are in an Ibanez RG series 2 dual coil 3 positions switch,1 volume and 1 tone. Blue, black, white,red, and bare. I already have the jack and V-T pods wired, I need to wire my pick-ups and 3- pos. Switch, which has 8 post's and a spring which has already been branched. Apparently I'm the only one in the world with this application.

[@HighlineGuitars]

@@raw-brobbin1598 Have you tried contacting Ibanez support for a wiring diagram? I can’t help you as I only know the wiring scenarios for the guitars I make.

[@raw-brobbin1598]

@@HighlineGuitars it's ok, nobody seems to know how to wire my guitar. Maybe you can understand my annoyance. Don't feel bad, everyone has failed with my problem, not just you. Thank you kindly anyway, even though you are absolutely no help at all just like everyone else before you. I have no idea what to do but I'll figure it out since nobody else can. Everyone of us has failed,yes including myself. Somehow someway I will figure this out. It worked before and come hell or high water I will make it work again. Understand though, it's not what so ever as easy as you all want to try and make it sound because you can't even wire my guitar. I will rise above all of you who think you know what your doing. I've challenged everyone and everyone has failed,so don't feel bad your on a long list of people who have failed. Have a great night and thank you kindly for your time. I do appreciate it even though I don't sound like it, I truly appreciate your efforts. Now it's back to the drawing board for me. Good evening to you.

[@raw-brobbin1598]

@@HighlineGuitars and by the way if you know how to contact anyone from Ibanez guitars please let me know how, because I can't find any way to actually talk to someone.

[@isolendidro5591]

hello, I can't figure out why my guitar body and guitar neck resonate so much ,that it hurts to my body.

[@HighlineGuitars]

When and if you ever figure it out, please let us know.

[@isolendidro5591]

@@HighlineGuitars it will be better if I forget about guitar, then)

[@drumcrazy5866]

May I suggest a centre zero, milliamp meter. 20-50mA. Otherwise known as a galvanometer. They're cheap and give completely passive, unambiguous results. 👍

[@isolendidro5591]

@@drumcrazy5866 thanks, but I did not understand how a galvanometer will help me solve the problem with guitar body vibration)

[@jonathanpaulmoore4583]

Could be microphonics which is small vibrations in the pickup windings, they will also equal why playing w a band at high gain, this is why people "wax pot" the pickups,

[@rl8973]

Title doesn’t say Tools 101 mate. Stick to the script

[@HighlineGuitars]

What are you talking about dude?

[@captbuscemi]

What a crybaby. Don’t like something? Move on or say something constructive, nobody forcing you to be here.