ASK-HBS – Start and Finish Wires of a 4-Wire Humbucker

Question

Hi,

Can you help clarify an issue for me regarding the start and finish wires of a 4-wire humbucker and what wire should be connected to which for a normal series output?

Using the multimeter and iron bar method I can identify the start and finish wires for each coil of the humbucker I have (from Kent Armstrong). I can see for the north coil that Black is positive, and Red is negative. For the south coil, Green is positive, and White is negative.

When reading about how two coils of a humbucker are connected and looking at numerous different colour codes online, they all say that the negative ends of the two coils (the finish wires) should be connected. Seymour Duncan has a good chart showing many humbucker wiring colours and what should be connected where.

Only one article says that the negative (end) of one should be connected to the positive (start) of the other.

Thus in the case I have above this means that White (negative) and Red (negative) should be connected. I could then choose which of the remaining wires are positive or negative for hooking up the pickup to the volume pot and earth, taking care about phase if I am wiring up two humbuckers to the guitar. However, the wiring diagram from Kent Armstrong shows that the Red (negative) and Green (positive) wires should be connected. Black is positive and hot leaving White as earth (ground).

I have looked at some other humbucker pickups with different wiring colours (far east made – and well underrated by the way) and I get the same.

So, do you know what it should be? Once identified are the two negative ends of two coils of a humbucker connected or is the positive end of one and the negative end of the other?

John

Answer

Hello John, thank you for the great question. This wiring was confusing to me, too, for a long time. It all comes down to the coils needing to have reverse polarity (magnetism) and windings to achieve a strong, noise-cancelling tone. Here is a good chart for reference:

Many Strat-style guitars in the past used Option-1 and put the same type of single-coil pickups in all three positions. However, nowadays, it is much more common for the manufacturers to reverse the middle pickup, so you have humbucker qualities in the second and fourth positions, making them more like Option-2. The standard humbucker also uses Option-2 when you wire it using the standard method. It’s Option-2 because most humbuckers use one magnet and place the coils on either side, so the polarity is opposite. Then we run the first coil from start to finish and the second from finish to start, giving us reverse coils.

If you were to connect the finish to the start, you would wind up with Option-4. Opposite magnetism but same coil windings, leading to an out-of-phase weak sound that does not have humbucking abilities. Many people like to use this sound with distortion for guitar solos, and there are mods to make it happen, but most don’t run the guitar this way full-time.

I want to congratulate you on using the multi-meter to determine the wiring, showing you will be great at it and aren’t afraid to put the work in, and yes, to answer your question, connect the two grounds and tape them off unless you are doing a mod. The north coil start will be your hot, and the south coil start, along with the bare wire, will be your ground.

I hope this helps answer your question and you get your guitar running. Let us know how it turns out and if you have any other questions.

Thanks for reading Humbucker Soup!