Old school J/C PU's color codes

[nor]

I can't for the life of me remember how to wire these up!

J-95 and J-50 from the late eighties.

[Sharkfin]

Here's a link for Jackson wiring diagrams.

http://zeus.lunarpages.com/~jimshi2/jacksonpage/Jackson%20diagrams/jacksonwiring_1.htm

[straycat]

Like Duncans

[Sunbane]

Yep, same colors as Duncans, but with reverse polarity.

[bratfink]

Yep, same colors as Duncans, but with reverse polarity.

Does that mean you should wire them up the opposite way to the Duncans?

I realize that sounds like a dumb question, but I am looking to clarify for the non-wiring literate people here.

Someone knowledgeable should write a sticky on 'how to wire a Jackson guitar - the beginners guide'. That would be a really valuable tool for the forum.

[Sunbane]

Does that mean you should wire them up the opposite way to the Duncans?

Only when you mix them with Duncans. It was a while since I did it, but if I remember correctly, it was like this:

When wiring a Duncan together with a Jackson pup, swap the hot and the ground leads of one of them.

If you're using Jackson pickups only, you wire them exactly like Duncans.

[dg]

Yep, every factory-wired C/J I've been into had the Jackson pickups wired just like Duncans, so that means they would have reversed polarity to a Duncan wired the same way. It gets trickier if you replace one or both Jackson pickups with Duncan(s) in a guitar with coil split options, like a 750XL with the special 5-way switch. Then it's important to know exactly which wire corresponds to which (using the color code chart) or everything gets messed up.

[nor]

So...
North start = green
North finish = white
South start = black
South finish = red

Sound right?

[dg]

That's right. There a few really good charts around, but I usually refer to this page:

http://www.guitarelectronics.com/category/wiringresources.wiring_faqs.pickup_color_codes/