shields and grounds in a 4-way Tele?

[Gravity]

so I wired my tele with a 4-way switch so that I could hear what pickups in series sound like

 

here's the diagram that I used ...

 

The neck pickup that I used was a GFS Dream 90

 

it has a white (hot) a red (ground) and a noninsulated shield wire. The red and shield originally came soldered together.

 

The way that I interpreted the wiring diagram was to separate the shield and ground so that they could be wired independently.

 

I soldered the white-hot where the pink wire (in the diagram) went, the red-ground where the balck wire (in the diagram) went and soldered the shield to ground.

 

When in either the parallel or series, especially the series, position, the sound is kind of nasally like a half-cocked wah.

 

Did I wire it correctly according to the diagram? The bridge pickup does not seem to be wired out of phase ... but it sounds like the pickups may just be out of phase.

 

More imprtantly though, was I correct to separate the shield wire from the ground of the Dream 90?

 

Thanks

[Gravity]

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[Gravity]

[Gravity]

[thredlok]

pm jay from guitar fetish he is very helpful:thu:

[Gravity]

 

Originally posted by platpyus59 pm jay from guitar fetish he is very helpful:thu:

 

 

I did. He just said that the uninsulated wire was a shield connected to the case.

 

Does that mean that it is connected to the pickup cover? or does case mean something different ?

 

 

Does the wiring diagram that I used look correct ?

[robt57]

 

Originally posted by Gravity I did. He just said that the uninsulated wire was a shield connected to the case. Does that mean that it is connected to the pickup cover? or does case mean something different ? Does the wiring diagram that I used look correct ?

 

 

It means you have to un-connect the cover from the negitive lead gound and ground it by itself. So the cover is not connected to a PU lead, but is grounded by itself.

 

Ciao

[Gravity]

 

Originally posted by robt57 It means you have to un-connect the cover from the negitive lead gound and ground it by itself. So the cover is not connected to a PU lead, but is grounded by itself. Ciao

 

 

thanks,

 

 

So how should I go about disconnecting the cover from the negative lead ground ?

[Gravity]

I've got it all figured out now.

 

Either the pickup was not wired according to spec or the diagram is off.

 

Anyway, luckily, the non-insulated wire from the pickup was connected to the cover. I checked continuity from the cover to each lead and the non-insulated wire was the only one that conducted.

 

It really did sound like a phase problem so I just flipped the hot and ground wires from the connection points indicated by the diagram.

 

Now everything seems to work the way it should.

[nitrotwang]

This might be helpful. Peace - n t

 

 

 

http://www.deaf-eddie.net/drawings/unground.doc

 

http://www.singlecoil.com/docs/4way.pdf

[guitarcapo]

I never liked the sound of "in series" on my telecaster. Sort of sterile and bassy...It doesn't seem to crunch like a humbucker either...probably becasue the coils are too far apart.

[Deaf Eddie]

Sorry I didn't see this post and respond earlier.

 

 

YES, your pickup was out of phase. On their four-conductor pickups, GFS uses the same color code as Seymour Duncan (in most cases), and S-D pups are in the opposite phase of Fender pickups - you have to wire them phase-reversed to get them to play IN phase.

 

So the drawing's right, your pickup was wrong

 

The three GFS leads were coil hot (white), coil ground (red), cover ground (bare wire). The cover ground ALWAYS goes to ground, but the coil hot and ground leads can be swapped to match phase with another pickup. So, you wound up with red as the hot and white as the ground, and it all works.

[Tweedledee]

So how do you like the series option now that you got it fixed? I just did the 4-way mod to my Tele and I'm quite happy with it. It is a bit "boomy", but it sounds fantastic pushing an overdriven tube amp. Punchy and aggressive.

[Gravity]

WOW ... way to resurrect a dead post !

 

But yeah, it was the neck pup wired reverse.

 

However, I never really got along with that DReam-90 in the neck, so it's now in the bridge of a fat-strat and I'm liking it alot better there than the dimarzio Super-3 that was in the strat.

 

Also, the dimarzio, which was originally in the tele, IS NOW BACK IN THE TELE, wired for the 4-way operation.

 

I like the humbucker better than the dream-90. The series position is good for a saturated lead sound, and can work for rhythm, but not quite as well as the neck or bridge alone.

 

So I do use that position for leads sometimes.