pickup problem

[whynot]

my friend gave a guitar simple to fix just connect a few wires back on and repair refinish and re attach the neck make a few parts no problem but its not going to be that easy
1 of the hum-bucker pickups is a dimazio thats all it says on the back dimazio says the don't make pickups with that color color wiring how do i know what wire does what there is blue red bair green yellow dimizio says it could be a very very very very old super distortion hum-bucker well older than 25 years but thats all they telling me it don't help with finding out what the wires do

[Mini-Strat_Maine]

whynot said:

my fiend gave a guitar simple to fix just connect a few wires back on and repair refinish and re attach the neck make a few parts no problem but its not going to be that easy

Heh. Nothing's ever that easy. When it is, I get suspicious and start expecting another shoe to drop. (Sometimes it's like a flippin' centipede. And did your friend do a Pete Townshend routine with that guitar, or what?)

Your first stop might oughtta be DiMarzio's site www.dimarzio.com. I can't give you a direct link to the Super Distortion page, maybe because it's set up with Macromedia Flash Player, but you can get there eventually. (You may end up clicking on "Pickups" above and below the Steve Vai picture to get to the pulldown list.)

In the SD description, they say, "The Super Distortion® (and its original 3-conductor version, the Dual Sound®) was the first pickup specifically designed to kick a tube amp into total overdrive, and is still the standard by which all other high-output pickups are measured." They also refer to it as "a one-conductor pickup" when it was first built.

I think your best bet would be to download their 4-conductor instruction sheet, www.dimarzio.com/media/diagrams/4Conductor.pdf, and just substitute the colors you have for what's mentioned in the instructions. There are also instruction sheets for different humbucker/switch combinations.

Best guess: blue and yellow are/were black and white; start there. If that doesn't work, well . . .

--
Doug C.
"I wasn't here. Somebody else musta wrote that."

[whynot]

its got the standard 3 way rythem treble switch 2 tone 2 volume but it has 1 2way switch and 2 3way switches whats a coool wireing setup using all thease things
sorry but my blond hair is kicking in whos Pete Townshend the name rings a bell but dont know what he does to guitars

[pollyshero]

Oh my... You don't know about Pete!? Well... No crime, I guess. He is famous not only for being an innovative guitar player and super songwriter, but for performing the "Windmill" attack. Also trashing equipment. Google "The Who" to learn more.

Now for your problem: The Dimarzio site has wiring diagrams for their 4 conductor pups.

The first one is easy: The bare wire goes to ground.

Making a few assumptions based on experience - colored wires are sometimes grouped by primary color set - Dimarzio's current four conductor pairs are set at black/red, green/white. The primary color scheme that makes most sense in your case is blue/red, green/yellow.

Compare to Dimarzio's current scheme and you could assume that blue = black, red = red, green = green, yellow = white.

Try hooking them up that way (DON'T SOLDER) and see what happens. If it doesn't work, then welcome to the wonderful world of "easter egging" - keep swapping wire pairs until it does work.

Good luck!

[whynot]

o yeah the who i know who u mean now so any idrears for wireing up 2 humbuckers with extra wires with those extra switchs want some cool sounds to play guns n roses kiss acdc the who pink floyd ect

[Mini-Strat_Maine]

whynot said:

its got the standard 3 way rythem treble switch 2 tone 2 volume but it has 1 2way switch and 2 3way switches whats a coool wireing setup using all thease things

I can't help you much there. My best guess is that by "3way" switches you mean three-position, but then you need to know other things about them, including whether they're on/on/on or on/off/on. If they're on/on/on, then the individual pups might have had series/coil cut/parallel selection. What the "2way" did/could do would also depend more on how many poles and throws it has, more so than number of ways you can flip the toggle.
If you're going to keep those switches in it, you may want to pull them out long enough to test them and clean any old solder off the lugs (looks like there could be any number of parts broke or just "tired" on that axe) as well as find out what they are.
Another thing is, what you or I think is a cool setup might have too many moving parts for your friend. Maybe he can give you a list of what he'd like the setup to do, then somebody here who knows more than I do (pretty much everybody) can tell you if it'll work. (And you can charge your friend big buck$ for the mods. Hee, hee. ;D )

sorry but my blond hair is kicking in whos Pete Townshend the name rings a bell but dont know what he does to guitars

Hmm, the Generation Gap kicks in. Well, besides play the hell out of guitars, he's been known to beat the hell out of them. Here's a pic of him playing one: www.jonas.io/pictures/artists/Pete_Townshend.jpg, and some of his history in text: www.petetownshend.co.uk/history/biography.
Apparently he started the smashing routine, at first an accident, in 1965. (How long before you were born was that?)

"The Who performed at the Hollywood Bowl last night," Jay Leno once reported. "I won't say they're old, but instead of smashing his guitar, Pete Townshend just misplaced it."

[whynot]

its mine now he dont want it he cant fix the neck i have been doing hand made furniture so i can fixe it no problem its my restoration project how do i tell what a switch is easther a on / on / on etc

[Mini-Strat_Maine]

We musta been typing replies at the same time. Glad to see I'm not the only one who remembers The Who. I also heard something about Paul McCartney being in a band before Wings. ;D

pollyshero said:

The first one is easy: The bare wire goes to ground.

That was about the one thing I left out of my reply. (And something I just learned earlier today, after printing out the DiMarzio PDFs for my X2N.)

If it doesn't work, then welcome to the wonderful world of "easter egging" - keep swapping wire pairs until it does work.

Oh, what fun.

So there's another great expression I picked up via this Forum: "Easter egging." Now if only I can remember all this stuff . . .

[whynot]

what sounds can i get out of a dimazio super distortion and a kent armstrong hro-1 with those switches and bits how do i tell what switches they r

[Mini-Strat_Maine]

whynot said:

its mine now he dont want it he cant fix the neck i have been doing hand made furniture so i can fixe it no problem its my restoration project

Cooool.
Are ya gonna put a Bigsby on it, to replace the missing bridge?

how do i tell what a switch is easther a on / on / on etc

Until someone with more complete/correct answers can type up something, I'll just ask: Do you have a VOM? (Volt-Ohm Meter, usually called a multimeter these days.)

[whynot]

na not got any flash gadgits yet i got the orignal brige but its starting to fade from its orginal gold will gold spray piaint or gold leaf restore it

[whynot]

and whats a bigsby is that the guy from rising dam or is that rigsby

[Mini-Strat_Maine]

whynot said:

and whats a bigsby is that the guy from rising dam or is that rigsby

Eleanor Rigsby? That was before your time. (Never mind! {/Emily Litella mode})

All levity aside, it's a vibrato (tremolo, whammy, etc.) tailpiece. Very distinctive in appearance. See www.bigsbyguitars.com, and you'll say. "Ohh, yeah; those."

[whynot]

eleanor rigsby thats the beatles isnt it asnd as u said i said ooooooooo yeahhhhh i know those lol u think gold leaf or spraypaint will work for re goilding the mettal work like machean heads bridge ect? u got yahoo or msn

[whynot]

Eleanor Rigby picks up the rice in the church where a wedding has been
Lives in a dream
Waits at the window, wearing the face that she keeps in a jar by the door
Who is it for?

All the lonely people
Where do they all come from?
All the lonely people
Where do they all belong?