Quick pickup wiring question

[clay sails]

Hey all,

 

I'm in the midst of wiring a humbucker in place of a single coil at the bridge of my strat. (I'm not a noob at this, but I don't really understand the "theory" behind wiring -- I just solder stuff until the sound works.)

 

Here are my (quick) questions:

 

The original SC pickup had a ground on the corner of the 5 way switch, and the hot wire leading to the leftmost pin of the switch. The Seymour Duncan schematic for the humbucker shows both the uninsulated ground and green wire leading to the volume pot, and the black wire leading to the pin.

 

Question 1:

Does it matter whether I ground on the switch or the pot?

 

Question 2:

What is the green wire for and why did the original pickup not have a wire leading to the volume pot?

 

Question 3:

I assume that I have to strip the tiny tiny humbucker wires to expose the metal for soldering. Any tips on how to do this without snipping the wire?

 

Thanks in advance (I'll post an update if/when the job is successful.)

[alphamarquis]

1) No

2) There must be a connection somewhere else

3) Get a piece of something that wont burn (glass/metal) and hold the iron over the wire and drag it back a bit, this should melt a good portion of it off.

[Brewski]

you need to strip the fires using wire strippers or sie cutters using the thumb pressure technique.

 

the green wire is the end of the SD pup wiring and needs to be connected to the ground of the guitar along with the wire mesh of the pup.

 

the black wire is the first of the SD HB and it needs to go to the end of the selector switch.

 

You could coil tap the pup by adding a push-pull pot for the last tone knob and put the red/white wires to the pot and you can get the quack as well.

 

You also need to wire the white/red wires together.

[clay sails]

Thanks for the tips and advice: the pickup is in and it sounds kickass.

 

I've finally joined the ranks of JB fanboys. More gushing later, I'm off to play.

[Belva]

I always use my teeth to strip pup wires.