PU Wiring Novice Questions

[shreddermon]

OK, I'm not a total newbie to wiring PUs. I've done it before, but only a couple of times. (My soldering skills pretty much suck. But I do get the job done.) Anyways, a "just in case" question...

So I just swapped out the PUs on one of my Charvels. H-S layout, 1 volume, 3-way toggle. Pretty simple. Dimarzio PUs, so black and white are soldered together, red goes to hot (3-way), green and bare go to ground (a screw which, itself, is wired to the trem claw). Tune her up, plug her in, and everything seems to be working fine. A successful swap job.

However, as I was wiring the SC PU, I realized there was no bare (ground) wire for that pickup. I did solder the green wire to ground for it. But there just wasn't a bare wire on the PU at all. Black, white, red and green only. Should I be concerned about this? I special ordered the PU without the standard triangular flange, to fit the existing body route - so maybe that has something to do with it?

Probably a dumb question, but better safe than sorry. Thanks in advance.

[UFORocks]

I have no experience with dimarzio singles myself, but so long as there are no hums or other unwanted noise I wouldn't worry about it. That might be normal for Dimarzio singles. You could just peal back the shielding a little bit further to see if there's any bare wire further down and then just close it back up with a small piece of electrical tape.

You could also email Dimarzio as well and ask them.

[straycat]

http://guitarelectronics.com They list DiMarzio wiring colors

[shreddermon]

Uhmmm, hello? I already knew the Dimarzio wiring colors, and where they should go.

The question is whether I should be concerned that one of the wires (bare -> ground) wasn't there at all. You know, there was a small screw head on the bottom of the PU. I wonder if the bare wire was already pre-soldered to that as a ground, from the factory? The black & white wires came pre-soldered to each other, so maybe the bare line was taken care of at the factory, too? :think:

[mustaine-who?]

I

I just poured all over the Dimarzio diagrams...seems to indicate there should be a bare wire to ground. I think your best bet is to first just fire it up and see if you have hum. If you do...contact them tomorow. It may be as simple as running a wire from that screw to ground.

What single did you go with?

[dg]

Pat, I've never wired any Dimarzio stacked hums, but occasionally I've read that they don't have a bare (shield) wire on them. It's not an ideal design, because the shield wire is there to help reduce interference, but it seems to work OK for them. This thread at the Duncan forum talks about it a little:

http://www.seymourduncan.com/forum/showthread.php?t=154316

If nothing else, I guess it helps you know it's not abnormal for those pickups.

[shreddermon]

It's a Virtual Vintage Heavy Blues 2 (DP409). I did this with a Mo'Joe humbucker in the bridge (DP216). Both very cool pickups, BTW - I'm digging their tone a lot.

I cranked it up with the full rig this AM, and all seems fine. No hum nor interference at all.

I'll e-mail Dimarzio later. I suspect this is perfectly normal, but just want to make sure.

[shreddermon]

Heh, got an e-mail back from Dimarzio already. On a Sunday! :O

They say this particular PU model doesn't have a bare wire to connect. All is cool, as expected.