[sv89hmstrat]

Hello:

I own a Fender HM Strate with a Dimarzio HSS pickup configuration with a split bridge. I need help in determining the wiring color associations on the Dimarzio humbucker (i.e. Bare - White - Black - Red - Green). The music store that replaced coil mini switch did not correctly solder the replacement switch. However, I did not test it before putting the guitar in storage and then pulling it out today 4 years later. Currently the soldered connections for the humbucker is:

Bare   - Grounded
White - Grounded
Black - 5 way
Red & Green - connected to a single connector on a Salecom T80-T on/on switch.

I can no longer switch the humbucker between single coil and humbucker. But I don't know the wire associations to correctly solder these correctly to the replacement mini toggle.

Before replacement of the mini coil tap there were two types of 5 way sequences.

1) Bridge (as humbucker) -- Bridge (as humbucker) & Middle -- Middle -- Middle & Neck -- Neck

2) Bridge (as Single Coil) -- Bridge (as Single Coil) & Middle -- Middle -- Middle & Neck -- Neck


After replacement of the mini coil tap I only have option #1 above no matter the coil tap switch position. It is a Salecom T80-T on/on (T8011).

 The switch on/on diagram is located here: https://www.salecom.com/en/product/Toggle-Switches/t8011.html

[darkbluemurder]

The pickup wiring should be ok - obviously one wanted a different coil to be active than normal - otherwise red would have gone to the hot, green to ground and black+white to the switch.

But that is not the reason why it is not working at all. I would check whether there is a wire going from the switch to ground - if this is missing the switch will do nothing.

Good luck
Stephan

[sv89hmstrat]

Thanks for the reply Stephan.

Thanks for looking at this. I didn't think the picture attached.

The switch has a bare wire solder to a metal tab in the picture. This tab is actually like a washer with a tab that slips over the toggle switch and contacts the metal casing on the switch. A bare wire is solder to the switch middle left connector and a black wire is soldered from there to the ground on the low tone tab.

I believe and trust you know what you are talking about, but it isn't working properly and it sounds absolutely horrible. It's nothing but mud. When I flip the switch up or down, both coils are active. I can tell in two ways. 1) When I flip the coil tap, I do not receive the single coil hum while in the bridge position only, and 2) I can tap each coil to test whether they are active or not, and both are active despite the up or down position. So something is not correct. I may need to find the correct schematic somewhere.

I've looked at what is called the "Official" HM Strat diagram on the Internet and it is incomplete, and looking nothing like an what I know an official Fender wiring diagram looks like.

I actually came back to edit this because I read within the "Wiring Diagrams and Stuff" that Dimarzio was good about making requested wiring diagrams. I did not see in the existing Dimarzio diagrams that there was one that I could correlate back to my configuration. Is it possible for one to be created in I provide the following:

The HM Strat configuration is:

1 Volume, 2 Tone (High/Low); Neck, Neck/Middle, Middle, Bridge/Middle, Bridge.  The Bridge has a coil split switch for Single/Humbucker option.

Wires:
Neck: Blue, White (Black)
Middle: Red, White, (Black)
Bridge: Bare, Green, Red, Black, White

[darkbluemurder]

No there was no picture attached. And indeed sometimes the pictures are not complete - occasionally they are missing the ground connections.

What you wrote confirms my initial thought that the switch is not working properly. It seems that there is a ground wire from the switch but the real question is - does it actually go to ground?

Do you have a multimeter? If not I highly recommend to get one. They are not expensive and are indispensible for working on guitar electronics because they allow you to tackle a problem systematically. Plug a guitar cord into the output jack of the guitar. Measure from the switch tab where the ground wire is connected to the sleeve of the guitar plug. You should get zero ohms. If you get anything else, there is your problem - the ground wire does not go to ground! Solder it to a ground connection and it should work.
If you get zero ohms when measuring this way, do the following next: set the pickup selector to bridge and measure between the tip of the guitar cord and the sleeve. Then flip the switch. You should get a different reading now - if not, the switch is not wired correctly or broken.

Good luck,
Stephan

[darkbluemurder]

Forgot to mention:

You can also check if the coil tap works by measuring the DC resistance across the pickup's wires directly.

Between Black and White you should get the full humbucker reading.

Between Black and Red/Greeen you should get about half of the humbucker reading; same for the measurement between White and Red/Green.

If you get anything else, the fault is with the pickup (but this is rather unlikely).

Cheers Stephan

[sv89hmstrat]

This is great stuff Stephen. I appreciate your patience with helping me sort this out. My goal is to get back to original wiring configuration Fender/Dimarzio intended and the sound I remember and love. Assuming you a musician, I'm sure you understand how important that is -- You don't mess with a guitar player's sound anymore than you do his woman. 

The issue I have with the hand-drawn "Official HM Strat Wiring Diagram" from 1988 is that with the exception of the White wire for each pickup going to the 5-way, 1) they don't indicate where the remaining wires are soldered in relation to color and 2) I have more wires one each pickup than indicated on the drawing (maybe a difference between 1988 and 1989 - mine). My single coils have 3 wires each, and my humbucker 5, whereas the Fender diagram does not. Lastly, 3) if the "Official" diagram provided to me by Fender is correct, my single coils are not correct to specification either and I can tell from the soldering connections that they were changed by the Tech... which ****** me off, but that is another subject all together.

I did find a number of images of HSS Dimarzio configurations, but nothing as of yet (still looking) that match my wiring colors and quantity per pickup plus configuration that includes a Coil tap -- not that it doesn't exist.

So, if you don't mind me humbling asking, unless you might know the official and complete Dimarzio/Seymour Duncan HSS 5-way setup with Coil tap image I need, what configuration would you believe should I be attempting? You stated that I could have Black/White to the coil tap, or Green/Red to the coil tap. But if we wipe the slate clean, I might be able to guess based upon assumption what it should be. However, with someone who is professionally experienced with this everyday, what should I really do? So here is the wiring for each pickup I was thinking:

5w = 5-Way connector; G = Ground; CT = Coil Tap

Neck:

• Blue -- 5w (5)
  White -- G
  Black -- G

Middle:

• Red -- 5w (3)
  White -- G
  Black -- G

If I'm correct, I believe the B/W is the North pickup and R/G is the South (closest to bridge)?
Bridge (Humbucker):

• Black -- 5w (1)
  White -- G
  Red -- CT w/ Green to single connection
  Green -- CT/ Red to single connection
  Bare -- G

I'm uncertain where to solder the Red/Green on the Coil tap, I saw variations on this. All I can say is what I stated at the start of the fourm, which the link has a schematic (Salecom T80-T on/on).


Coil Tap:


From there, I will wire it and let everyone and you know the results.

Thanks again. I appreciate the help so much.

[darkbluemurder]

I found the diagram for the HM strat here: http://s649.photobucket.com/user/heavymetalstrat/media/HMWiringDiagram.jpg.html

Is that the one you meant?

The wiring you suggested looks like it should work but without actually having the chance to measure I cannot give a guarantee.

You should wire the red/green to one of the top or bottom terminals of the T-80 switch (does not matter which one). From the center terminal below (or above) it, run an isolated wire to a suitable ground connection (can be the back of the volume or tone pot).

After that, test and if anything is not working right, try to describe as detailed as possible what works and what does not. Example:

- bridge pickup: OK
- bridge + middle pickup: very thin sounding and much lower volume
- middle: OK
- middle + neck: only the middle sounds
- neck: dead

Good luck
Stephan