PRS SE Singlecut wiring help G&B pickups help please??!

ckonen

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Mar 12, 2017
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Hello,

New to the forum and need help. I have a PRS SE Frederick Akesson guitar that I'm converting to a standard Singlecut. I.E. Just 2 volumes, 2 tones one 3 way toggle. No coil taps I received the guitar with no pickups and just the Alpha pots that were connected in pairs.

I picked up a set of the Korean made G&B PRS SE 7 pickups to drop into this guitar. Basically I'm wiring it from the ground up so here's the issues. There are ZERO wiring schematics on the web for this and ZERO color code charts for the G&B pickups. As it sits right now, my head is spinning in confusion and I'm frustrated beyond belief. The PRS Singlecut PDF diagram shows the American setup and the capacitor is on a different lug so I can't use that diagram. The color code charts show 5 wires with one being a bare wire, G&B only has 4 wires and NO bare. Lastly the toggle switch has it's own set of wires which run into the control cavity but that appears to be factory wired.

So to help you guys understand what I'm looking at:

From the toggle switch I have 1 red and 1 green wire both of which contain 1 white and 1 bare wire. I'll assume the white is a hot and the bare goes to a ground somewhere?

The tone pots have the capacitors soldered to an outside lug and the ground wires from the back of the tone pots to the center lugs of the tone pots with the last outside lugs both being open.

The volume pots appear to have both outside lugs grounded to the pot backs and the center lugs open.

The pickups each have 4 wires: Black, Red, White and Green. I believe I need to tape off the Red and White wires then solder green to ground and black to the Hot lug (but don't know which lug is hot. Then I don't know where to solder the toggle switch wires to?

I can solder these myself, not sure how to use a multimeter for this stuff and I don't really want to pay a tech to do this because it'll cost me over $100 or more and I'm looking to sell this guitar.

Help please!!!?
 
This one will get you there.
http://prsguitars.com/csc/schematics/schem08/singlecut.pdf

The caps and ground wires can be soldered to another lug as needed. The bare wire is just a common ground and the G&B's have a coated wire for it. The difference between what you will do and what is in the pdf is just the colors of the pup wires. Since you don't want the splits, you will tape off the split wires and leave them loose in the cavity. To determine which wires are the split wires just ohm them out using the multi-meter. Touch each of the wires and write down the resistances. Some will be about half the others. Those will be the splits. Black is ground or white is ground. I don't remember which. The red or the green is the split, again, I don't remember which. You may need to wire the red and green together to make the full humbucker and that will then show up as the black and white in the multi-meter. Maybe someone else has done it recently and can remember the color codes.

Anyway, once you figure out how to convert the pups to 2 wire, it's just like the schematic after that.

Good luck.
 
I've seen that diagram, except it doesn't match well with what's in this guitar? There doesn't seem to be a way I can make that diagram work for me since the tone caps don't connect to the volume pots and aren't long enough to make that change.

Maybe some pics will help?

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You can use the pre-2007 configuration and reuse the short caps. They use a black wire to make the jump to the volume pots. You will have to desolder some stuff to be able to do it. What you have now is not original and not correct for what you are trying to do. They used red and green wires for the connections between volume and tone and the diagram has black, but wire is wire if you can keep them straight in your head. You will need to desolder the connections to the lugs.

The red and green wires coming from the switch are the neck and bridge 3 way cables in the diagram. The black is ground. You will have to ohm out the tips to see which one is hot when the switch is flicked forward for neck and back for bridge and then label them, or remember, so you know which one to hook up in the diagram.

It looks like the pups may have had the green and white soldered together on one of them in the photo. touch those two together and ohm the other two out and see if you have about 7 - 8K on the meter. If so you will know that's how to wire the pup to make it a 2 wire.
 
Thanks for all of your help AP515 but at this point I'm frustrated to the point of wanting to just set this guitar on fire because nothing is working the way you say it should. I used the multimeter and touched each wire. I only get continuity by touching the green and red wires and then I only get readings between 3.88 and 4.2 which sounds like it's only half the output. I know these pickups worked fine when they came out, but touching every other set of wires yields no continuity. I know G&B "7" pickups are low output, but they should still register between 7 and 8k as you said. Time to give up. I know I'll never buy another PRS again, they don't know the wiring codes and they won't release the SE schematics to the public so if a company won't support their product, why should I?

Sorry if I wasted anyone else's time besides mine :(
 
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Don't give up so easy. The red and green working means you have half the bucker or each single coil. That is good. The other two are open because you don't have the connection across each single coil. Hold the red and green together on one hand and try to touch the black and white with the meter tips and tell us what you get.
 
Actually that is exactly why I gave up. Red and green yields a reading of 4.08. Black and white yields an exact same reading. But, red and green twisted together and then tested white or black yields 1.

I Google searched PRS SE cavities and found someone posted pics and their pots are wired same as mine which means my pots apparently are wired correctly but I just oriented them differently ( mine are oriented like a Les Paul.

I tried every combination of wire colors and all I get is either 4.08 or 1.

I bought these pickups from someone who posted the output readings so I know they work. I have a brand new battery in the meter. I even checked the readings on a Duncan JB I have and was able to pull a 16k reading once I combined the split wires and tested the hot and ground without touching the split coil wires.

Unfortunately after touching every combination including combing the red and greens then check white to black, red/green to white, red/green to black and red/green to white and black plus all variations thereof, I can't produce any reading besides 4.08 or 1 on bridge and 3.88 and 1 on the neck.

I'm a middle aged, college educated intelligent man but in this particular situation I cannot solve this problem. I'll either have to sell the thing as is and lose money since it's not working or pay a tech $120 or more to wire it. Either way I'm losing money on a guitar that might only fetch $400.
 
Sorry it's such a problem.

Couple more ideas to consider. You can buy G&B pups that are 2 wire. They are the slightly older versions without splits. $30 - $50 used. You will have to search for them.

You can put aftermarket pups in that may fetch more when you sell. SD59's work well in SE's and are not super expensive.

You can keep it and play it after you get it wired.

What ever you do, I with you well.
 
I'll test every combination and post the results here as requested:

Red and Green yields 4.08k which seems to be one coil
Green and white or green and black yields 1.
Red and white or red and black also yields 1
White and Black yields 4.24k which would tend to make me believe that red and green makes one coil, then black and white yields the second.
Red/Green braided together on one terminal and black or white on the other terminal both yield 1.

I would think (and I may be way wrong) that black/white combined and red and green combined should create the full humbucker and when testing both "sets" with the multimeter terminals I should get the 8k-ish reading? Instead I get the 1

with slightly weaker numbers (3.88 etc), I get the same results on the neck pickup with the above combinations.

All numbers are on the multimeter set to 20k on the Ohms setting.
 
I had aftermarket SD's in the guitar (as of yesterday actually). A set of Saturday Night Specials to be exact, but I've removed them because I'm fairly certain the SD's will sell for $150 or so on their own where the guitar with G&B's might sell for $375 to $400 and I may only get an extra $25 to $50 if I leave the Duncans in unless someone is actually seeking that exact combo. This PRS has been a long standing project for me, but alas I already have one LTD LP style guitar and now 2 Gibson LP's, one Traditional, one Standard. This one just won't get played unfortunately. I'm very leary to invest more money and used pickups that may well not be recouped upon the sale of the finished guitar if that makes sense. I do appreciate all of your replies, and perhaps there will be an AHA! moment with the readings posted above, but I've about scratched my head bloody trying to figure this one out.

It's (almost) as if I can't get a reading because there's no ground wire like my 5 wire Duncan since the grounds for this circuit all seem to stem from the toggle switch?
 
I don't see where you try black to red and black to green type tests. One of those wires is the ground and if you don't get the others wired correctly apart from it, you will get the open (1). You need to try each wire against the ground and then find the combination that links the two single coils in series. I don't have SE 4 wires or I'd look for you. Somebody will come alone and be able to look in their gits and give you the answer.

Where's the 4 wire SE guys?
 
I don't see where you try black to red and black to green type tests. One of those wires is the ground and if you don't get the others wired correctly apart from it, you will get the open (1). You need to try each wire against the ground and then find the combination that links the two single coils in series. I don't have SE 4 wires or I'd look for you. Somebody will come alone and be able to look in their gits and give you the answer.

Where's the 4 wire SE guys?
2nd and 3rd lines of testing. Sorry, I combined two tests into those lines to shorten the paragraph.

Again, thanks for all of your help. At least I know I'm not crazy. But as I said before, this is a great reason for me to never buy another PRS product due to their lack of support. They were great at one point, but they have absolutely become the corporate monster I thought they were trying to be an alternative to during their inception.
 
I don't know, I've found them helpful. I agree, you could use an SE schematic, but I can't fault them for support. They have been exemplary for me. Sorry your experience has not been the same.
 
Hello and welcome.

Looking at your photo it looks red will be hot and black (with the heavier material around it) is your ground. From my experience green and white are series, and will need to be twisted and soldered together. If you do not want to split the coils then fold back the green and white and tape to the cable sleeve and forget about them. But they need to be twisted together.

As I understand it, when you test the red and black you will need to ensure the green and white are twisted together or you will not get the reading you are hoping for.

A schematic. Nice and simple.
http://www.irongear.co.uk/2_x_active_humbuckers_-_2vol__2tone__3way_toggle_v02.jpg

Kudos to @AP515
 
Hello and welcome.

Looking at your photo it looks red will be hot and black (with the heavier material around it) is your ground. From my experience green and white are series, and will need to be twisted and soldered together. If you do not want to split the coils then fold back the green and white and tape to the cable sleeve and forget about them. But they need to be twisted together.

As I understand it, when you test the red and black you will need to ensure the green and white are twisted together or you will not get the reading you are hoping for.

A schematic. Nice and simple.
http://www.irongear.co.uk/2_x_active_humbuckers_-_2vol__2tone__3way_toggle_v02.jpg

Kudos to @AP515

#charliefrench I could kiss you right now! Ok, maybe that's a bit extreme. Your observation has revealed a true AHA! breakthrough moment. When you said the thicker black wire I had to double check because I had thought I had 4 same-sized wires. Not so. I was able to peel back the sleeve to reveal a bare silver ground wire as well as a thin black wire so there are indeed 5 wires here. When twisting the green and white wires together and testing just red and black VOILA! 8.23k !!!!!

I'll do the same with the neck pickup and check out the schematic you sent (haven't looked yet) but gentlemen....we have progress. Thank you both so much for he help so far!
 
#charliefrench, that schematic is for an active humbucker set like EMGs so that won't work but I'm certainly getting closer to the point of being able to at least do trial and error connections I suppose
 
Ok, I've wired up the bridge pickup, about to wire the neck.

Definitely getting close to having it work right. Right now the volume and tone pots aren't working quite right. The volume pot isn't reducing output any more than maybe 25% and then it just cuts out around 2 on the pot. From 3 to 10 it's 80% to full bore.

The tone pot (while kind of cool) is getting more of a cocked wah than a nasal tone knob sound?

From pickup I have white and green soldered together and taped back. The black and bare are to the volume pot back along with the bare from the switch. The hot wire from the switch and the hot wire from the pickup to the center lug.

Anything obvious sound wrong ?
 
I am not surprised to learn there are actually five wires but I could only comment on what you described and what I could see. I chose not to mention the possibility and add to the confusion. You sounded pretty wound up :)

So. You have wired the bridge pickup incorrectly. The hot goes to the first lug (input) every time.
The center second lug is the output which will go to one of the inputs on the 3-way. Sounds like you have this okay.

We do not know whether these pickups have been tampered with or not by the previous owner. When you have completed the wiring, if it sounds out of phase consider my notes referring to my SE Standard 24 below. The color codes for the ground and hot wires are not the same for each pickup. Remember, we can determine the ground lead by establishing continuity between the baseplate and it with a meter.

Neck G&B Vintage Bass

Red = Hot

Green/White = Series

Black/Bare Shield = Ground

--------------------------------------

Bridge G&B HFS

Black = Hot

Green/White = Series

Red/Bare Shield = Ground
 
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#charliefrench, that schematic is for an active humbucker set like EMGs so that won't work but I'm certainly getting closer to the point of being able to at least do trial and error connections I suppose

Oops. Sorry about that. But if we ignore the red power lead we have a good schematic.
 
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