re tokai pickups......Heeeeeelp!

[thermionic]

Here's a good diagram that shows 4-conductor humbucker wiring, with the unused wires tied together and taped off. The colours are different to yours but it should help (the "bare wire" is your outer braid).

[TheGuitarWeasel]

Hummmm you don't by any chance have a multimeter or access to one do you? You really need to identify the separate coils if you have nothing coming out the way you wired it (each one will measure around 4k). If you have no joy, you are welcome to post it to me (include a stamped addressed padded envelope) and I will suss it out for you ... no charge. I hate puzzles without answers!

[ICBM]

I soldered the green wire to the top of the pot along with the braided wire that encloses the 4 thin wires in the cable. Nothing at all! Very strange.....this pickup was and should be working perfectly. Is it possible that I have the wires mixed up? From what has been said so far I get the impression that if I had got the red and the green wires the wrong way round it should still work? I'm assuming that the yellow and blue wires in the heatshrink tubing are for a coil tap option as Thermionic explained?

I have to say I'm not sure where to go from here.....help!!!!!!

There are a couple of possibilities, if the pickup was working - you may have damaged the pot while soldering to it, or you could have melted the cable insulation and shorted it - both these are common problems, the cable especially. (Even pros very occasionally melt the cable, it's quite easy to do, particularly with some types of shielded wire.)

How to check:

With the control cavity open and the guitar plugged into the amp, touch the circuit with a screwdriver or similar with your finger touching the shaft, so you get a buzz through the amp. Select the suspect pickup and turn its volume control to halfway. If you get a buzz from the middle terminal of the pot but not from the pickup connection, chances are you've shorted the cable. You'll need to cut about an inch off it and try again.

If you get a buzz from both pot connections, you've got an open circuit in the pickup, but that's not likely if it was working before, unless you've pulled the cable at the pickup end.

[thermionic]

Hummmm you don't by any chance have a multimeter or access to one do you? You really need to identify the separate coils if you have nothing coming out the way you wired it (each one will measure around 4k).

I don't think the OP made the series link, it was already done. Assuming this was done correctly, check the dc resistance between red and green first, should be around 8kohm as you say. If not, then we have a puzzle!

Is the bridge pickup wired in ok and working?

[TheGuitarWeasel]

Like the man said! Cool explanation! I reach all to readily for my multimeter lol ... but then sometimes I think I'm married to it ... that and my newly made gaussmeter! If you still have issues I'm happy to help though.

[TheGuitarWeasel]

I don't think the OP made the series link, it was already done. Assuming this was done correctly, check the dc resistance between red and green first, should be around 8kohm as you say. If not, then we have a puzzle!

Is the bridge pickup wired in ok and working?

There's always the possibility of a numpty at work before the OP got his hands on it lol

[surfguy13]

No! Bugger!!! I stuck another post up asking for recommendations and you kindly suggested what I need so I will try and get a multimeter tomorrow. I quickly realised I wasn't going to get far without one!! As you say, I need to work out which wires are which before going any further.

I REALLY appreciate your offer to check it over for me, brilliant. I will get the meter and if that draws a blank then I may take you up on that.

Hummmm you don't by any chance have a multimeter or access to one do you? You really need to identify the separate coils if you have nothing coming out the way you wired it (each one will measure around 4k). If you have no joy, you are welcome to post it to me (include a stamped addressed padded envelope) and I will suss it out for you ... no charge. I hate puzzles without answers!

[surfguy13]

Yes, that's correct - the wiring is a la when I removed the loom from the guitar originally. As I had no intention of re-installing the Tokai pickups I didn't take note of the way it was wired....duh! When both pickups were removed from the guitar everything was working perfectly.

I don't think the OP made the series link, it was already done. Assuming this was done correctly, check the dc resistance between red and green first, should be around 8kohm as you say. If not, then we have a puzzle!

Is the bridge pickup wired in ok and working?

[surfguy13]

The pickup was working perfectly prior to being re-installed so it does look as if I have cocked something up...and not having a meter doesn't help either.

I can cut an inch off the end of the cable, just, so if that was the problem it's rectifiable. I don't think I have damaged the cable at the pickup end but it's always possible, as I don't really know what the hell I'm doing I tend to do everything REALLY carefully.

I should explain that I had a pair of burstbuckers to install into the guitar instead of the tokai pickups and as someone kindly gave me a wiring loom I installed that and both pickups. That went well but.....the neck pickup wasn't working and I am 99% sure it was OK before. Well, I say not working, it was but with a VERY low output. A fraction of the bridge pickup. So....I wonder if there's a connection here!!!!!!

I then decided to stick the original tokai neck pickup in and ditch the burstbucker as I assumed the pickup was knackered. The bridge burstbucker is in and working perfectly when the switch is down or in the middle position. The tokai neck pickup is dead unlike the burstbucker neck which was there but only just.

I'm afraid that the fact I'm such a dick with electronics isn't helping here....I will get a multimeter and report back, that should provide a few answers.

Thanks again to everybody........!!!!

There are a couple of possibilities, if the pickup was working - you may have damaged the pot while soldering to it, or you could have melted the cable insulation and shorted it - both these are common problems, the cable especially. (Even pros very occasionally melt the cable, it's quite easy to do, particularly with some types of shielded wire.)

How to check:

With the control cavity open and the guitar plugged into the amp, touch the circuit with a screwdriver or similar with your finger touching the shaft, so you get a buzz through the amp. Select the suspect pickup and turn its volume control to halfway. If you get a buzz from the middle terminal of the pot but not from the pickup connection, chances are you've shorted the cable. You'll need to cut about an inch off it and try again.

If you get a buzz from both pot connections, you've got an open circuit in the pickup, but that's not likely if it was working before, unless you've pulled the cable at the pickup end.

[surfguy13]

OK, sorry to ressurect this thread but after much valuable advice I have now got a meter and so feel slightly more confident!

The first thing I did when the meter arrived was to test the burstbucker and the tokai Mk2 pickup. I was pretty convinced that I'd somehow knackered them both as a result of poor soldering technique (too much heat!). Anyway, I set the meter to resistance and then to 20 ohms as this was the lowest reading on the dial and tested the burstbucker. One prong on the 'hot' centre wire and one on the braid - came back with 7.57 so that looks as if it's working fine, they are normally between 7 and 8 I was told. Then tested the tokai pickup with the 4 conductor lead; there's a photo of this one the first page of this thread. As it seemed likely the green and red leads were the 'hot' and 'earth' (blue and yellow are tied off) I did the same thing with the meter and it came back with 8.15. So that pickup also would appear to be OK.

Based on that I decided to re-wire the switch 'just in case' and then re-install the burstbucker into the neck position. Re-did the switch and am 100% sure that's fine and then soldered the centre lead of the bb to the right hand tab (looking down on it) and the braided outer to the top of the pot. Exactly the same thing happened again. The bridge pickup, another burstbucker, has loads of output but when the cover of the neck is tapped lightly the output is dramatically less - also, the volume control for the neck doesn't actually kick in until it's turned about halfway up. Very odd.

So, given that the bridge pickup works fine and I know that the neck pickup is OK and gives a decent reading on the meter, I'm thinking the only thing it could be is the neck volume pot? If this wasn't 100% might it give me a reduced output?

I'm happy to test anything now that I have a meter but have never used one before today so may need a bit of direction?! I really would be grateful for any further advice as this is getting to be a bit of a mind f***.

I haven't tried to reinstall the tokai pickup again but I'm guessing that nothing will have changed. This was a new wiring loom I should add with alpha pots; someone kindly gave it to me as they'd bought it for a 335 and never installed it. It's been well put together and all I had to do was attach the switch and the pickup leads to the two volume pots.