Looked through wiring library, couldn't find it.

[DrBGood]

2 P90S from a 2014 Melody Maker to be installed in a Special 1 Epiphone les Paul. PUs have 4 leads + bare. Guitar has one volume, one tone, three way switch. Wire colors are black, red, green and white.
I want them installed as regular P90s, no coil splitting or anything.

Thanks.

 

[JeffBlue]

I am not acquainted with 4 conductor P90s made by Gibson. If these are stacked/hum-canceling pickups, then perhaps they wiring color code would be the same as a Gibson humbucker.

Red + Hot
White Coil Finish wrap
Black - Ground (with bare wire)
Green Coil Finish wrap

For normal humbucker function, solder the White and Green wires together then tape. I found this info on Stewart-MacDonald's website. Hope this helps.

 

[DrBGood]

OK, I found these two different diagrams from SD P90 stacks.

In one, green+white+bare are soldered to ground and black+red to pot.
In the other, green+bare to ground, red+white together taped and black to pot.

IF they are wired like the Gibsons, I understand that one way would provide a hot output, the other thin. Which is which ?

 

[DPaulCustom]

Here's where a multi meter would come in handy.
twist the green & white together, check the reading from red to black.

After a quick search, the new MM guitars are equipped with the P90S pups, no mention of them being "stacked", only that they use alnico slugs instead of the traditional opposing bar mags. So I'm guessing the "S" stands for slugs, not stacked.
Can you post a pic of the pups you have?

 

[DrBGood]

OK, so this gives me a reading, then what ?

 

[DPaulCustom]

What was the reading? write it down.
twist white, green, & ground together, twist red, & blk together, take a reading between the two twisted ends.
of the 2 numbers you come up with, obviously, the higher is the hotter signal, & you can follow the coinciding diagram above

 

[DrBGood]

No reading for the white+green+ground twist and red+black twist. So I guess they are wired differently than the SDs.

 

[DPaulCustom]

It's probably gibby color codes like JeffBlue posted above, white & green soldered & taped, red hot, black & bare ground.
What number did you come up with when you tested this way?
Do your pups have the alnico slug mags?
I've been looking hard at the new MM guitars, & was wonder what people thought about these pups, the demos sound promising.

 

[DrBGood]

Here is a pic of the neck pickup. It is physically really thin compared to a regular P90.

 

[DPaulCustom]

There's very little info on these on the net, I wonder why the 4 wires? I would think a "stacked" would be thicker, maybe it's a "tap". Take a reading from the twisted white & green, to ground, it should be around half, or better, of the output of the full pup. Let me know how the project turns out, & what you think of the pups.

 

[DrBGood]

All right, Jonesy got the answer on another thread I started earlier.

Those are stacked P-90s so they have two coils just like a humbucker
Red +
Black -
Green/White solder and tape off (series link for coil split if desired)

Took a reading like this and the signal is strong. This should work.

Thanks everybody. I'll let you know how it sounds.

There's very little info on these on the net, I wonder why the 4 wires?

I know, I've been looking forever.

 

[DrBGood]

Connected everything, neck pu works fine, bridge doesn't. Checked and recheked welds, everything seem fine. Unwelded the pu, tested it with meter, only reading I get is between white and green. Everything else is negative.

Dead pickup ?

 

[Mookakian]

You have a Stacked p90, Gibson uses Black for Ground and Red for Pos, twist the green and white together and tape the off as this is your series link.... or you can also use this link to split coils to run a single (not stacked) P90, or run a series/Parallel mod...and other mods


Edit, sorry i should read the whole thread...

sounds like a dead coil, does black/green give a reading?


Black is the start of the bottom coil, green is the end of the bottom Coil, if nothing...dead bottom coil

If you do get a reading there, test Red/White, if nothing here, dead top coil

 

[DrBGood]

Except white/green, all dead.

The seller will contact Gibson for warranty. It is a 2014 after all. Nothing to do but wait.

 

[Mookakian]

White and green should be nothing (end of one coil and start of another, so no connection should be made) to my knowledge, do you have it wired up while testing?

Keep me posted on this, interested

 

[DrBGood]

All right, Jonesy got the answer on another thread I started earlier.

Those are stacked P-90s so they have two coils just like a humbucker
Red +
Black -
Green/White solder and tape off (series link for coil split if desired)

This should be the way it works. It does perfectly for the neck pickup.

Tested both ends of each coil (red+white and green+black) and nothing shows. Tried every other combination imaginable and nothing but green+white. Tested on the workbench, out of the guitar. Go figure ...

Gibson is showing some good will it seems. I might get a new pickup.

 

[DPaulCustom]

This should be the way it works. It does perfectly for the neck pickup.

Tested both ends of each coil (red+white and green+black) and nothing shows. Tried every other combination imaginable and nothing but green+white. Tested on the workbench, out of the guitar. Go figure ...

Gibson is showing some good will it seems. I might get a new pickup.

Even on the production line, new don't mean working, good of gibby to pony up

 

[DrBGood]

Go figure ...

I sent it to the seller, he tested it and it works, but everything is inverted. Green is negative with bare, white positive, red & black joined.

How could I not get a reading from Gibson's way ? It's circuit, a loop one way or another, no ?

Well ... the good news is that it's working.

 

[DPaulCustom]

Go figure ...

I sent it to the seller, he tested it and it works, but everything is inverted. Green is negative with bare, white positive, red & black joined.

How could I not get a reading from Gibson's way ? It's circuit, a loop one way or another, no ?

Well ... the good news is that it's working.

There's a real kick in the seeds, like to hear the explanation for that

 

[freddarl82]

Just a heads up, but they're using the same gray-colored 4-conductor wire on some regular P90's, too. i'll explain:

I pulled the two P90's out of my recently acquired 2013 50's Tribute LP. Because the guitar uses the circuit board, they have this same gray 4-conductor wire and are plugged into the board. All of the internal leads terminated in the plastic plug (i.e. They were all connected to the individual pins of the plug). In my dissection of the pickup (I convertd them to traditional vintage-style braided wire), I found what must have been the "extra" wires were merely snipped off where the bundle went through the baseplate. I didn't write it down, but IIRC, the red and black leads went to the coil and the bare was soldered to the baseplate. The green and white were snipped off.

My guess, in this instance, is they are doing this as a cheaper, streamlined pickup building process. The assembler has a bin full of coils, a bin ful of baseplates, and a bin full of these made-up wires (about 12" long with the plastic plug already installed - they probably buy from an outside supplier). He grabs a coil, baseplate, and wire and only has to snip un-needed wires and attach the remaining leads to the coil.

Of course, they are using the same made-up wires on the 4-conductor humbuckers that will also go into circuit board guitars.