ASK-HBS: TV Jones Wiring Options

Question

Good morning, I took a look at your TV Jones page. TV Jones four wire pickups are wired by TV Jones so that the North wires – Red and Green – are wired together, white is hot and black and bare go to ground. Your diagram has them going the humbucker route, where the South wires are together. Black and White. My question is this – does it affect the sound of the pickup at all if the North wires are connected (TV Jones style) or the South wires are connected (Humbucker style)?

Wolf

Answer

Hello Wolf, and thank you for the extremely interesting question. To be honest, I didn’t realize TV Jones recommended this wiring as I usually look at the coils and choose the Humbucker-Style since it is pretty much the standard, and many websites don’t provide wiring diagrams etc. for their pickups. Using only the humbucker style also means different brands of pickups will match when you put them in the same guitar. However, I may add to the article to show the two options since TV Jones specifically recommends it.

Anyway, either wiring option will work fine and sound the same. You can also reverse the HOT and GROUND wire in either style (minus the shield) for two additional options that will also sound about the same, at least as similar as turning the pickup upside down, and all will provide humbucking qualities. You can use ANY option you want if you have just one pickup. If you have two humbuckers, you will need to choose a theme and stick with it. A neck pickup with the Humbucker-style and a bridge pickup with a TV Jones-style might not match up properly, and some phase cancellation can occur when using both pickups simultaneously.

Thanks again for the great question and the heads up, and I’m sorry about the confusion. Let us know if you have any other questions, and thanks for reading Humbucker Soup!