Humbuckers are comprised of two coils wired in series. This means the beginning of the adjustable coil goes to ground, the finish of the adjustable coil is connected to the finish of the stud coil and the start of the stud coil is the hot output which goes to the volume pot.
For our convenience 
different manufacturers use different color wires for the various leads.
6 Comments
I’ve recently purchased an SG Standard. The pots all date to late ’63 and virtually all the other aspects of the guitar are consistent with that dating. The Pickups covers are nickeland don’t appear to have been open. They have the Pat. No. sticker on them, but they have dual braided wire leads from each pickup. I’ve seen these pickups in ads before, but not in person. Can anyone tell me if they are period correct for a ”63 model? Thanks.
If they are pre-t top pickups then you have yourself a monster of a guitar. I believe that in 63 these pickups had black and white lead wires but both were wrapped braided shielding.
I have installed an OBL 450 germany twin blade pickup in my telecaster. the pickup has red, black, and a white ground wire. How do I connect these? I can’t find any diagrams.
One of the hot wires is probably a coil splitter so you will either need to just not use the splitter wire or instal a switch.
I’ve just started to replace the wiring in my cheap Les Paul copy and while I’ve bought good quality pots and caps I can’t afford to replace the pickups.
My question is why do my pickups only have a single wire coming out?
One?? Are you sure it’s not 2 wires encased in a single wrap of shielding?