[Razzle1980]

I like to consider myself somewhat technoligocally savvy, but I've been unable to make this installation. I have an american strat with 3 single coil pickups. The middle pickup is RWRP. Trying to install the super distortion s in the bridge while keeping the hum canceling at positions 2 and 4. Can someone direct me to the correct diagram with the wire color codes? Thanks in advance

[BluesJam]

First, I would get a compass or a magnet polarity tester.  I believe iPhone has a compass app that may work.  You need to make sure that the polarity of the middle pickup is opposite of the DiMarzio.  You need a NSN or SNS polarity for your pickups.

NNS or SSN polarity format won’t work the way you want which may cause magnetic phasing issues.  Before you install, check the polarity of the magnets.  Electric noise cancellation is just reversing wires.  Magnetic out of phase is a whole different thing that reverse wiring won’t fix. 

You can try this.  It’s on the DiMarzio site.  https://d2emr0qhzqfj88.cloudfront.net/s3fs-public/diagrams/1h2s_nbtone_splitbridge_0.pdf

[Razzle1980]

I appreciate the response. The diagram you referred me to solved my problem. It's amazing that DiMarzio couldn't point me in the right way, considering my issue was so simple. So now that I have it wired based on that diagram, I assume my super distortion s pickup is being used as a humbucker when in the bridge (i.e. 5th) position?

[BluesJam]

DiMarzio has around 25 wiring diagrams on their site.  Pick the one you like.  Yes, humbucker in bridge is the diagram.  This appears to be the one for your question. When you mix brands of pickups you can have issues.  I don’t mix brands at all.  Every manufacturer has their own thing with winding directions and polarity.  Pickups are relatively inexpensive and DiMarzio’s imho are better than Fender.  I think their 60 cycle hum ratio is better too, but ymmv.  Good luck on your wiring job.  Don’t cut corners and do it right the first time.  If you have issues, customer support can send you an altered diagram.  They have sent things to me in the past.

[Aceman]

Can we get a link to the diagrams?  Never been there on their site.

[Razzle1980]

https://www.dimarzio.com/support/wiring-diagrams

The problem is there's limited instructions. For example there are 4 different diagrams for my setup, which is confusing.

[BluesJam]

https://d2emr0qhzqfj88.cloudfront.net/s3fs-public/diagrams/1h2s_nbtone_splitbridge_0.pdf

That’s should be the one. Split notched position to work with you middle pickup

[Razzle1980]

So that wiring diagram definitely worked. The only issue I'm now having is the 4th position (middle/bridge) is much lower in volume than all other positions. I don’t remember that being the case with my 3 single coil pickups. Any advice?

[darkbluemurder]

Is it lower volume and bright/thin but still hum-cancelling?

If so it sounds like the middle pickup is out of phase with the bridge pickup. If you only swap the hot and ground leads on either the bridge or middle pickup to cure the out-of-phase issue then you will lose the hum-cancelling property of that position (#4). In order to solve both issues you could swap the middle and neck pickups and swap hot and ground on both. That will probably be simpler than trying to swap the leads on the bridge humbucker as you most likely would also have to flip the magnet to get the right coil with the right polarity active in position #4. 

If it is lower volume, bright/thin and humming, simply swap the hot and ground leads on both single coils.

Good luck,
Stephan

[Razzle1980]

Thanks, Stephan. Yes, 4th position is hum canceling but low in volume and bright/thin. I cant really swap the bridge and neck because my neck pickup is an SSL-5 and my middle pickup is a RWRP SSL-1. I do have another non-RWRP SSL-1 pickup. Not sure if i can somehow swap that with the current RWRP SSL-1 middle pickup to solve the issue. I'd imagine I would then have polarity issues between the middle and neck pickups?

[Razzle1980]

Also, just to clear something up. I meant to say 2nd position, not 4th position. The 2nd position (bridge + middle) is bright/thin.

[RayBarbeeMusic]

It's a 4 conductor bridge.  You can get in phase hum cancelling in pos 2 without mucking with pos 4.  I assume you haven't flipped the magnet?  In general, for what most companies call a Rp middle which is north pole up, you'll use the south coil or screw coil of the bucker, which will quack better in pos 2 anyway.  So in position 2, you want the white/green wired coil active.  How you do that depends on how you are accomplishing the split.  More info on that required from your end.

[darkbluemurder]

I cant really swap the bridge and neck because my neck pickup is an SSL-5 and my middle pickup is a RWRP SSL-1. I do have another non-RWRP SSL-1 pickup. Not sure if i can somehow swap that with the current RWRP SSL-1 middle pickup to solve the issue. I'd imagine I would then have polarity issues between the middle and neck pickups?

OK, understood.

If you use the non-RWRP SSL-1 in the middle you will still have the thin sound but with hum. Swap the hot and ground leads and you should be fine with the bridge+middle combination but now the neck+middle combination will either hum or be out of phase. So I agree to Ray that we need to leave the singles alone and adjust at the bridge pickup.

For better advice we would need more information on the polarity of the coils now. If you don't have a magnet to check you can use a multimeter and a pair of needle nose pliers. Put a cable into the guitar output jack and connect hot to the red lead and ground to the black lead of the multimeter. Now set the pickup selector to the bridge pickup. You will get approx. the rated ohms reading. Now put the needle nose pliers on top of the pickup you selected. Then quickly pull it away and watch the meter - did it go up or down in value? Note where it went. Now repeat that with the other pickups and note where the meter went. That will give you an idea of the polarity of the pickups. Do that also with the bridge+middle position for each pickup.

Then we can think about a solution further.

Cheers Stephan

[Razzle1980]

Based on a magnetic test with a compass, it looks like my neck is north, and mid and bridge are south. I'm currently using Dimarzio's (bridge) black wire as hot and white wire (along with bare wire) as ground. I have the green and red wires wired together and connected to the selector switch based on the diagram I'm attaching. Im also attaching a pic which shows how each wire is color coded for DiMarzio. That might be helpful to you.

[darkbluemurder]

Try swapping the black and white wires on the humbucker.

Good luck,
Stephan