Gibson Pickup Quick Connect Plug Information, Color Codes

[Charlie Honkmeister]

Here's some reference information on the quick connect plugs and wiring that Gibson uses on their guitars with a circuit board in the control cavity.  Thanks to the original contributors for this information.  

Connectors: 

Original Post:   music-electronics-forum.com/t39998/


I think the brand is Molex.
oops Tyco.. www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/...8IEbI6SHc3Q%3d

After taking a second look, those look like PC motherboard connectors. Maybe find an adapter for USB and splice to it.

Here they are... www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/...VMHMAK5Q%3d%3d
Terminals.. www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/...U0wF54cENGw%3d
Those are 4 pin connectors, Gibsons are 5 pins, just change the suffix to 0500 from 0400.

Last edited by guitician; 07-25-2015 at 07:28 PM.

Wiring Color Code:

Original Post:    guitaristguild.com/index.php?topic=437.0


Hey Gang. I recently found an issue when trying to install a new set of Gibson 490R/498T pickups into a 2013 Gibson Les Paul LPJ. The LPJ has the new quick connect board and connectors.

The problem was the new standard pickups did not come with quick connect connectors so I assumed you can just splice them to the existing pigtail and all would be fine. NOT SO.

You can connect them in this manner and both pickups work but the middle switch position has "noticeable" power loss.

Here's what I found...

Gibson changed the color coding on the connector for the Bridge pickup and that caused the pickups to be out of phase when installed properly (color to color).

Here's the details...

Standard Gibson pickups with 4 conductor capabilities have 5 conductors (including screen or shield). They are manufactured with this coding...

Red - Hot or +ve
White - upper coil finish ( connects to green in 2 conductor installs)
Green - lower coil finish (connects to white in 2 conductor installs)
Black - Ground or -ve
Shield - Connect to black or ground

I was installing standard Gibson 490R/498T's which do not have quick connect connectors.

Now here's where it gets good.

The quick connect board and connector have these color codings...

Neck - Pin 1 - Shield / Pin 2 - Black / Pin 3 - Red / Pin 4 - Green / Pin 5 - White
Bridge - Pin 1 - Shield / Pin 2 - Green / Pin 3 - White / Pin 4 - Black / Pin 5 - Red
(I'll to add some pics in this post)

So the neck circuit is looking for Red/Black as the positive and negative and the bridge is looking for White/Green.
(Note: This is the circuit for both of my 2013 LPJ's and a friends 2013 Studio with the same pups and QC board)

So when I hooked up the pickups to the quick connect pigtails and observed proper color coding it actually put the pickups out of phase.

To rectify you have to forget about connecting proper colors to proper color and just give the board what it is looking for...
Again note... this is only for the Bridge... the Neck is color coded properly.

For the bridge pigtail...

Connect Red from pickup to White on pigtail
Black from pickup to Green
White from pickup to Red
Green from pickup to Black
Shield to shield

If you do not connect it like this, it will still work but there will be a noticeable power loss in the mid because of out of phase.
This can be verified with clip leads if you are skeptical.

(NOTE: If you have a different color coded pickup then just hook it up following your coding to the pigtail inputs above.)

Hope this helps someone and saves them time and troubleshooting.

Mike@Ferro-Kings

[sumgai]

Thanks Charlie!  This kind of detail is what separates the Nutz from the wannabes.

[Charlie Honkmeister]

Oops,  looks like the links aren't working. 

Here's the link for the connector body:  www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Molex/51004-0400/

Here's the link for the Molex connector pins:  www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Molex/50011-8100/

I think there was some session-specific info in the URL's but they do work in the original post.

[force235]

Excellent information, helped me attach 57 Classics to my 2018 LP Standard.  THE COLOR CODING YOU PROVIDE ABOVE, STILL WORKS...

[newey]

force235-

Hello and Welcome to G-Nutz2!

It seems like you may have just popped in to get this specific info, but we hope you'll stick around so we can get to know you. And, this is a perfect example of why this place exists. Charlie Honkmeister, a long-time contributor, posts some information which is not necessarily valuable to all, but important to those with a specific need. 5+ years later, someone comes along who is helped by the info here. To quote the late Chief Dan George: "My heart soars like an eagle".

Or, maybe he said "hawk", I disremember but whatev.

[stecova]

Oct 23, 2023 14:32:20 GMT -5 force235 said:

Excellent information, helped me attach 57 Classics to my 2018 LP Standard.  THE COLOR CODING YOU PROVIDE ABOVE, STILL WORKS...

Hello force235,

So you wired 57 classics pickups to a LP Standard with a PC board
Those pickups have only 2 wires (shield and hot). Right ?

I want to do the same on a 2022 LP Classic with LPSTAND REV.2 board (see photo)

Can you tell me how you proceed with only 2 wires ?
Do you have any buzz when touching the pickup cover ?

Thank you
Photo of the board : photos.app.goo.gl/Dpv5pBaGqv8bABNF9

[newey]

stecova-

Hello and Welcome to G-Nutz2!

I don't know whether we'll hear back from force235 or not, but this should be fairly easy to figure out based on the above information. The circuit board is assuming a "modern" HB with 4-conductor wiring. Your vintage-style ones have only two (a "hot" connection and a ground, which also does double duty as a shield ground). As per the above, a 4-wire gibson HB uses the following color coding:

Standard Gibson pickups with 4 conductor capabilities have 5 conductors (including screen or shield). They are manufactured with this coding...

Red - Hot or +ve
White - upper coil finish ( connects to green in 2 conductor installs)
Green - lower coil finish (connects to white in 2 conductor installs)
Black - Ground or -ve
Shield - Connect to black or ground

So, in your vintage pickups, the inner wire is the "hot" and corresponds to the red wire in a 4-conductor Gibson HB. The Black wire in the 4-conductor is the ground, which is the braided shield on your vintage '57s.

The green/white pair of wires on a 4-conductor HB are the ends of the 2 coils. On a 4-conductor HB, they are separated so as to allow for indiviual wiring of the 2 coils (e.g., for coil splitting or series/parallel options). On a 2-conductor HB, you don't have those wires as the 2 coils are internally connected in series. So, you can just ignore all that was said about the green and white wires.

So, the issue with the PCB was this:

So the neck circuit is looking for Red/Black as the positive and negative and the bridge is looking for White/Green.

For your pickups, the "hot" connection goes to Pin 3 for both pickups, and the ground/shield goes to pin 2. It will be the same for both pickups.

The link by Charlie to the original post seemed to indicate the poster was surprised by the different pinout for the bridge versus the neck, but Gibson had good reasons to do this. Some LP models presumably offer coil-cutting of the HBs, and to maintain hum-cancellation when each pickup is in single-coil mode, one has to cut to opposite coils from each HB- screw/slug, not slug/slug or screw/screw coils. By reversing the wiring to the cicuit board for the bridge, the same circuit board can be used for several different LP models whether they split the HBs or not. But you don't need to be concerned about the differences because your coils are wired togehter internally (and you can't split them anyway, without modifying them to 4-conductor wiring).

There should be no problem with buzz when touching the cover (assuming it doesn't buzz now). That can be an issue with 2-conductor pickups if wiring out-of-phase or with some other wiring schemes, but you're just wiring the regular LP 2-HB wiring.

Report back if there's any problem, but that should do it.

[stecova]

Hello Newey,

Your answer helps me to better understand the connection system of vintage pickups.
I will buy an adapter like this and plug in my pickups


Thank you again very much, you are faster than Gibson customer service
You rock !

All my best wishes from France