Splitting humbuckers

[bonnerik]

ok will do! is there a fast way to check if you put in a 250 k pot too ? by the sound of the bridge pickup i think thats the case..i just took one random out of my pot box and thought it was a 500 k

[newey]

You can test the value of a pot by checking the resistance across the 2 outside lugs, but the pot has to be disconnected from the rest of the circuitry to check it.

Using the meter technique I outlined, you can use some algebra to get the pot value, here's the skinny on doing so, courtesy of the late ChrisK:

Discerning LP-type resistances (a/k/a "brain scanning through a nostril")

[bonnerik]

ok thanks gonna have to read that through a couple of times!

[bonnerik]

now i got hold of a multimeter. but not really sure how to use it, ive selected 20k ohms, but i dont get any reading when i do as u told me. i put one end on the cable end, and the other in the jack, nothing.

[newey]

i put one end on the cable end, and the other in the jack, nothing.

Not sure exactly what you mean there. One end of the cable is plugged into the guitar. On the other end, where you have the male plug unconnected to anything, put one probe of the meter to the tip and the other to the sleeve/barrel of the plug.

Of course, the cable you use has to be a known good one, so if it's a dodgy cable, use another one.

I use an old cable which had one bad plug. I cut the plug off at the bad end (and tested the other end to be sure it was good). Stripped back the wires where I cut the plug off, so that I can test by clipping onto the bare wires instead of having to hold the meter to the plug.

[bonnerik]

ok thanks. i have a quite new cable, not a rich mans cable but its not a bad one. ill give it a try in a moment.

[bonnerik]

ok it worked now. position 1 and 2 (bridge) measures about 15,2, position 3 around 6,5 and position 4 and 5 9,3. it appears as if i've done something wrong. what i had a hard time figuring out was compared to the diagram which way do i wire it up(so i dont get it mirrored or something). so i just took a guess, atleast the switch positions select the correct pickups.

[newey]

if 1 and 2, and 4-5 both measure the same, it means you're not cutting the coils on either pickup, you just have the full HB at 2 and 4 (as you suspected).

This means that the wiring to pole 4 must be the problem. Since both pickups work, the ground wires are clearly connected to ground, so that would direct suspicion to the series connections for each pickup.

The physical position of the switch shouldn't matter, it's symmetric. But you do have to wire the correct lugs. If you're unsure, this may be a good time for a well-focused photo (use a macro setting) of the superswitch and the wiring to it.

[bonnerik]

ok i'll try to get a photo by tomorrow. gotta warn you tho, its not the prettiest of soldering jobs:p

[bonnerik]

just wanted to tell you that ill be away for two weeks on vacation, but when i get back ill get the photo.