Pickup wiring newbie

[Mozzy]

Hi everyone,I’ve finished my guitar project 99% but I’ve got stuck.I have two humbuckers ,one volume one tone and three way toggle switch and all I’m getting is both pickups on nothing else.It’s a far east type wiring harness.I’ve wired one pickup to volume pot and the left hand lug and other to tone pot and I think left hand lug.Should I have wired to tye selector switch instead? I somehow manage to wing it but I can’t seem to get my head around this spaghetti junction of wires I just need a plain English approach.Any suggestions? Thanks in advance

[Dad3353]

With only one volume control, the pick-ups have to go firstly to the switch, to be selected to have one or the other, or both (depends on type of switch...). The 'common' of the switch then takes the selected signal to the volume pot, then on to the tone pot and away to the jack. One side of the each of the p/u's goes to the common earth point. Hope this helps. 

[Mozzy]

That’s great thanks I’ll give that a shot tomorrow and let you know how it goes !

[randythoades]

If the link below works, that will give you a visual representation of what @Dad3353 explained...

 

https://guitarelectronics.com/2-humbuckers-3-way-toggle-switch-1-volume-1-tone/

[Mozzy]

Brilliant thanks ,what does “north start north finish “etc mean exactly? 

[Dad3353]

4 hours ago, Mozzy said:

Brilliant thanks ,what does “north start north finish “etc mean exactly? 

 

That's for the case where the humbucking p/u's have four wires, so as to 'split' them into two single-coil p/u's. Each p/u winding has a start and a finish (the two ends of the coil of wire around the magnet...). The 'North' p/u is the one at the top in the drawing, the 'South' is the other one. It's possible to swap the start for the finish, to change the 'phase' of the p/u, or one may choose to have the two coils in parallel or in series, for different sounds and output levels.
If your p/u's don't have this 'split' facility, ignore it, and just wire one end to earth, the other to the switch. Post here the result, please..?  

[Woodinblack]

On 05/04/2023 at 13:46, Dad3353 said:

The 'North' p/u is the one at the top in the drawing, the 'South' is the other one. It's possible to swap the start for the finish, to change the 'phase' of the p/u, or one may choose to have the two coils in parallel or in series, for different sounds and output levels.

 

For interest, and not to muddy the waters too much, this is what is generally meant by the north and south of coils on a drawing.

However, the reason they are called 'North' and 'South' rather than the easier to understand, 'Top' and 'Bottom' is because (by general convention, but very occasionally not), the top pickup has the North side of the magnetic field to the strings, and the bottom of the pickup has the south side to the strings.

To definitvely find out which is which, hold a compass above the poles - if the N points to the pickup that is south to the strings, if the S points to the pickup, it is north to the strings.