Humbucker Wire Colors by Brand

[frets]

Hi Fellers😸,

I decided we needed a chart regarding “Humbucker Pickup Wires by Brand.”  This list is a culmination of integrating information from the Internet.  I’ve tried to include every brand I could think of.  But most assuredly, there are some that I missed.

Can the Angels take a look at the list and give me recommendations to include?  Then we can have a finalized chart to refer folks to.  I hope it can be read.  I did it in Excel but took a snip off the screen.  Let me know if there is a better way to do it.  Thanks!😸 url=https://postimages.org/][/url]

[col]

Yes, it is probably better to use BBC (bulletin board code) tables.

4 Conductor Humbucker Wire Colors
Pickup Brand	North Start	North Finish	South Finish	South Finish
Anderson	Red	Green	White
Armstrong	Green	White
Artec
Barden

Having said that - and me having mistakenly submitted the table generator before I had finished - it appears that there is no easy way to edit the table after submitting it, since the generated code is a solid block of text and code (no nice formatting). It might be worth checking the Proboards support forum to see if there are easier ways to use their table system (with third-party software, maybe).

[frets]

Hi Col 😸,

I’m not familiar at all with the method you’re speaking of. Is there a way I can learn how to do it? It looks so better. Thanks!
- Cindi

[JohnH]

Looks like a very good range of makes.

One thing that Ive wondered about is whether the main brands are consistent with north and south poles with respect to slug and screw coils? It would be useful to add where known. Also in general, do we think the lesser brands follow a consistent scheme across their models?

[col]

Jul 29, 2021 15:44:40 GMT -5 frets said:

Hi Col 😸,

I’m not familiar at all with the method you’re speaking of. Is there a way I can learn how to do it? It looks so better. Thanks!
- Cindi

Sorry - I meant to explain. When you click reply, look for the button with the image of a table (small grid). This will bring up the table generator. You will use the 'span' function for the top row, and you can use many common color names instead of the hex codes for text and background colors. I'll have a look tomorrow to see if there is better way to generate the table. The inbuilt generator is useful, but really impractical for a table which likely will require editing afterwards.

[newey]

frets:

I assume you saw the reference thread we have on this, here:

guitarnuts2.proboards.com/thread/3190/pickup-wire-colors-polarity

I haven't checked your list against this to see omissions/additions, but I will do so.

Format-wise, frets, yours is a bit hard on the eyes. I like the way the SD chart lays out both the wires, and which coils are screw/slug in a visual way, just as if you'd be installing new pickups. But your chart would quickly get unwieldy with those graphics, so a table of some sort as col started, would be best I think. Personally, I know nothing about the table function here, I've never used it. Yogi B is the one to ask on that, I think he installed that in the first place.

Also, if this thread is anything, it's a reference resource, and belongs in references. I'll move it there, and once we get this all "purtied up", we'll put a link to this thread in the prior one, so we are all referencing a complete, definitive list in one place. The original thread will then just stay for historical purposes.

[col]

Test.

1a	1b
2a	2b
3a	3b

[col]

Test.

1a
1b
2a
2b
3a
3b

[col]

It seems that even when we generate the table code manually, when saved, Proboards converts it to a solid block of code and content. This makes editing a nightmare. I will see if there is third-party alternative (which retains formatting) which will allow for easy editing/updates.

[newey]

I had the Lace sensors in the other thread. We are also missing Bootstrap.

[frets]

Even harder to read!! But at least its some sort of refrence.

[col]

I believe the table generator is the one described here:

support.proboards.com/thread/617327/table-creation-utility

The last post on the first page suggests that editing of tables using the utility is impractical. Though, it probably would be worth asking the author about this.

I've not yet investigated if there are practical third-party utilities we might use to generate (and update) tables.

[Yogi B]

Jul 29, 2021 14:45:19 GMT -5 frets said:

Can the Angels take a look at the list and give me recommendations to include?

The entry for "Duncan Designed" looks suspicious, shouldn't it be the same as regular Seymour Duncan?

I did it in Excel but took a snip off the screen. Let me know if there is a better way to do it.

If you put everything back into the single table layout and then save the excel file as a comma separated values (CSV) file, open it in a text editor, then copy and paste it into a post here, I can then turn it into a BBCode table.

Jul 29, 2021 16:53:27 GMT -5 JohnH said:

One thing that I've wondered about is whether the main brands are consistent with north and south poles with respect to slug and screw coils? It would be useful to add where known.

Also it'd be useful to know: whether there's absolute consensus as to what every manufacturer calls north & south (online, some people use the same definition as the earth's poles: the north end of a compass is attracted there, so that's north.); absolute consensus as to whether the start of a coil is where one begins the winding process (i.e. in the middle of the coil), or whether this varies per coil due to the following; if everyone is winding both coils of their humbuckers in the same direction, and if so which direction.

Jul 29, 2021 17:27:24 GMT -5 newey said:

Personally, I know nothing about the table function here, I've never used it. Yogi B is the one to ask on that, I think he installed that in the first place.

If we're talking about the Format Tables plugin, that was reTrEaD:

Sept 3, 2018 10:05:33 GMT -5 reTrEaD said:

I brought a plugin for tables onboard for a live audition.

However AFAIK only col (at least, out of our regular posters) has the Format Tables plugin enabled instead of the default (due to being a member of the "format tables" group which any member can freely join & leave at any time).

Jul 29, 2021 17:33:41 GMT -5 col said:

It seems that even when we generate the table code manually, when saved, Proboards converts it to a solid block of code and content. This makes editing a nightmare. I will see if there is third-party alternative (which retains formatting) which will allow for easy editing/updates.

Proboards has it's own built in table generator which is less 'advanced' than the Format Tables plugin, which doesn't immediately munge the BBCode formatting, at least if you insert it directly into the BBCode editor. Nonetheless swapping between editors still causes the line breaks to be lost, and thus results in an equivalent block of text.

I think I remember seeing a plugin which is specifically designed to stop the line breaks from being deleted (or more likely manually reinserts them), but I haven't looked into it to see if I'd trust it not to identify false positives.

I was slightly misremembering: it was a specific addition for Chris's BBCode Factory Plugin. And from a 10,000ft overview it appears to work on the HTML node structure (rather than parsing BBCode) meaning that there couldn't be any false positives.

---

After using the default Proboards function to insert a table of (roughly) the correct layout, I then usually edit the BBCode directly (like most of BBCode, the syntax is a somewhat stripped-down version of the HTML equivalent, but with BBcode's usual square brackets rather than HTML's angle brackets) in an external text editor such that I don't have to worry about the stripped line breaks and can take advantage of the extra features a text editor has over a browser in order to more easily manipulate the data.

[frets]

Thanks Yogi et. al.

I promise to do this when I get the time.

But I do know Duncan Designed North Start is Green.  Every other resource on the Internet about DD’s are wrong.  I’ve pulled so many DD’s out of guitars that I can guarantee it’s green.  They’re good pickups too, they kinda get a bad rap.

Anyway,  I will work on this in my leisure time.

Just let me know if I need to add to the list.

BTW - Newey, Yesterday I went on Bootstrap’s website to buy a set of Oatmeal Stout’s.  I was shocked to find that Bootstrap has increased their prices on SSS from $49 a set to $299.94 !!!!  Holy Moly !!!  So the idea of winding my own pickups has now become a priority.

[Yogi B]

Jul 30, 2021 14:39:49 GMT -5 frets said:

But I do know Duncan Designed North Start is Green.  Every other resource on the Internet about DD’s are wrong.  I’ve pulled so many DD’s out of guitars that I can guarantee it’s green.

I don't want to say that you're wrong, but maybe they're just wired upside-down with south start to hot, rather than north start. As the series link is still red & white, in most cases the only difference would be which coil is selected when split (i.e. not enough of a difference to be obvious, unless you're actively checking it). Or, maybe the magnetic polarity of the coils is reversed?

BTW - Newey, Yesterday I went on Bootstrap’s website to buy a set of Oatmeal Stout’s.  I was shocked to find that Bootstrap has increased their prices on SSS from $49 a set to $299.94 !!!!  Holy Moly !!!

Looks like they need to update their about us page:

Made to be Played

We want everyone to be able to put a great set of pickups in their guitar. Our pickups can stand up to any boutique brand out there, but those big prices just aren't what Bootstrap is all about. We're not all about that ultra-rare new-old-stock unobtanium materials either, we just want to build awesome pickups for everyone to enjoy.

Edit: Rule of the internet number 1: People don't read — on this occasion that's me, I missed this:

We are currently not accepting new orders while we work to fulfill our backlog of orders (Our prices are very high right now to prevent new orders until we re-open)

[col]

Jul 30, 2021 7:03:25 GMT -5 Yogi B said:

However AFAIK only col (at least, out of our regular posters) has the Format Tables plugin enabled instead of the default (due to being a member of the "format tables" group which any member can freely join & leave at any time).

Urgh. I did not know this - or, at least, I have forgotten about this. I'm might disable the pluggin/group and try again.

I think I remember seeing a plugin which is specifically designed to stop the line breaks from being deleted (or more likely manually reinserts them), but I haven't looked into it to see if I'd trust it not to identify false positives.

I was slightly misremembering: it was a specific addition for Chris's BBCode Factory Plugin. And from a 10,000ft overview it appears to work on the HTML node structure (rather than parsing BBCode) meaning that there couldn't be any false positives.

I am not sure that I entirely follow. But that's OK, I don't need to.

After using the default Proboards function to insert a table of (roughly) the correct layout, I then usually edit the BBCode directly (like most of BBCode, the syntax is a somewhat stripped-down version of the HTML equivalent, but with BBcode's usual square brackets rather than HTML's angle brackets) in an external text editor such that I don't have to worry about the stripped line breaks and can take advantage of the extra features a text editor has over a browser in order to more easily manipulate the data.

I believe there are third-party BBCode editors out there. I've not yet looked.

[col]

PS Yes, only reTrEaD and me in the Format Tables group.