Pickup Question...

Undercat99

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Jun 6, 2017
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Hello and thank you for taking the time to read my post. I recently purchased a new CU24 and love it. I did want to swap out the pickups to put in 2 Duncan pickups. I understand that with the old rotary 5 way switch you needed to flip the magnet in one of the pickups in order for the splits to work properly.

My question is do I need to still flip the magnet in one of the pickups with the 5 way blade switch as well?

Thank you in Advance...
 
I can answer half the question. Yes, if you use the rotary you need to flip the bridge magnet. I can't answer for the blade switch.
 
That's an excellent question. We (ok, really just me) might not all be the sharpest tool in the shed, hence the lack of answers, but we're happy you're here! :D I'm sure one of the smart ones will be here shortly. :p
 
Thanks all... I know you have to do it with that rotary one, but I am thinking there must be a way of wiring it on the blade so you don't have to do magnet flip. There are close to 20 lugs on that switch. I could be wrong...

Thank you....
 
The reason for the magnet flip is that you need to use one south coil and one north coil if you only use one coil from each pickup, like the 3 middle positions with the rotary (inner series, outer series, inner parallel from memory). With a flipped magnet you can use either both inner coils or both outer coils but if you don't flip the magnet you would need to use the outer bridge and inner neck or vice versa which wouldn't be that much different from each other, or you can flip the entire pickup around but that looks a bit funny.

If you don't use individual coils from each pickup you don't have to worry about magnets, for instance with a 5 way (super switch):

1. Bridge series
2. Bridge parallel
3. Both pickups parallel
4. Neck parallel
5. Neck series

If you want to do individual coils, get yourself a magnet tester so you know exactly what you're dealing with.

You could also mimic modern PRS Custom22/24 5 way wiring:

1. Bridge series
2. Bridge series with one neck coil in parallel
3. Bridge series and Neck series, in parallel with each other (like a Les Paul middle position).
4. Outer neck with Inner bridge in parallel
5. Neck series

I don't use the Les Paul middle position a lot so I would probably go for a combination that is not possible with PRS pickups since you need 4 wires to do parallel:

1. Bridge series
2. Bridge parallel (single coil:ish)
3. Bridge series with one neck coil in parallel
4. Outer neck with inner bridge in parallel (close to position 2 or 4 on a strat), or series which is more single coil:ish but still unique.
5. Neck series

That would definitely give you 5 distinct and useful sounds and all hum cancelling.

Always fun to think about wiring and what would give useful sounds :)
 
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The reason for the magnet flip is that you need to use one south coil and one north coil if you only use one coil from each pickup, like the 3 middle positions with the rotary (inner series, outer series, inner parallel from memory). With a flipped magnet you can use either both inner coils or both outer coils but if you don't flip the magnet you would need to use the outer bridge and inner neck or vice versa which wouldn't be that much different from each other, or you can flip the entire pickup around but that looks a bit funny.

If you don't use individual coils from each pickup you don't have to worry about magnets, for instance with a 5 way (super switch):

1. Bridge series
2. Bridge parallel
3. Both pickups parallel
4. Neck parallel
5. Neck series

If you want to do individual coils, get yourself a magnet tester so you know exactly what you're dealing with.

You could also mimic modern PRS Custom22/24 5 way wiring:

1. Bridge series
2. Bridge series with one neck coil in parallel
3. Bridge series and Neck series, in parallel with each other (like a Les Paul middle position).
4. Outer neck with Inner bridge in parallel
5. Neck series

I don't use the Les Paul middle position a lot so I would probably go for a combination that is not possible with PRS pickups since you need 4 wires to do parallel:

1. Bridge series
2. Bridge parallel (single coil:ish)
3. Bridge series with one neck coil in parallel
4. Outer neck with inner bridge in parallel (close to position 2 or 4 on a strat), or series which is more single coil:ish but still unique.
5. Neck series

That would definitely give you 5 distinct and useful sounds and all hum cancelling.

Always fun to think about wiring and what would give useful sounds :)


Thank you for such a great detailed answer... Big help...
 
Wiring 2 Duncan Humbuckers in a 2017 PRS CU24 with the 5-way blade switch

I wanted to come back and update this post in case anyone else has this question and wants to know how to do it.

After spending some time experimenting with every combination I could think of, I have the answer on how to do it.

First off as stated in many posts…

You need to select one of the DUNCAN pickups and reverse the magnet.

NOTE: IT CAN BE EITHER PICKUP IT DOES NOT HAVE TO BE THE BRIDGE PICKUP.

I flipped the magnet in the Neck Pickup.

This is the PRS Diagram for the 2017 CU24:

http://prsguitars.com/csc/schematics/2017/customs_2017.pdf

PRS>DUNCAN wire color conversions

White > Black
Red > RED and White Soldered together
Black > Green
Bare > Bare

***Both bare wires go to the Tone Pot Just as they were with the original PRS Pickups. I put some heat shrink around them so they don’t hit up anything else.

So basically, the PRS schematic tells you which wires go to switch lugs A-F. You leave the rest as is.

A - Bridge White B - Bridge Red C - Bridge Black D - Neck Red E - Neck Black F - Neck White.

Just in theory here are the wiring schematic conversions (DON’T WIRE YET):

A: The PRS bridge white wire to the Duncan bridge black wire.
B: The PRS bridge red wire to the Duncan bridge red and white wires.
C: The PRS bridge black wire to the Duncan bridge green wire.
D: The PRS neck red wire to the Duncan neck red and white wires.
E: The PRS neck black wire to the Duncan green neck wire.
F: The PRS neck white wire to the Duncan neck black wire.

NOW HERE IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING….

For whichever pickup you chose to flip the magnet in you will switch the hot wire and the ground wire in the configuration.

In my case I flipped the magnet in the neck pickup so the conversions are:

A: The PRS bridge white wire to the Duncan bridge black wire.
B: The PRS bridge red wire to the Duncan bridge red and white wires.
C: The PRS bridge black wire to the Duncan bridge green wire.
D: The PRS neck red wire to the Duncan neck red and white wires.
E Then becomes: The PRS neck black wire to the Duncan black neck wire.
F Then becomes: The PRS neck white wire to the Duncan green black wire.


If you were to flip the magnet in the bridge pickup the conversions would be:

A: The PRS bridge white wire to the Duncan bridge green wire.
B: The PRS bridge red wire to the Duncan bridge red and white wires.
C: The PRS bridge black wire to the Duncan bridge black wire.
D: The PRS neck red wire to the Duncan neck red and white wires.
E: The PRS neck black wire to the Duncan green neck wire.
F: The PRS neck white wire to the Duncan neck black wire.

It will work perfectly if you wire like above.
 
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