SE Custom 24 Pickup Issues

[Mitchell Day]

Hi, I just pickup up a second hand se Custom 24 and I am having issues with the pickups.
The bridge pickup when split becomes extremely noisy, this includes when in the middle position as well.
And the neck pickup seems to have no effect at all when I coil split.

I have taken some photos of the wiring cavity. It seems the two pickups have different colour wires going to the push pull pot. It that usual?

https://photos.app.goo.gl/AtDkbRULNsvJw7ke9

 

[shimmilou]

Original pups, or have been changed (wiring looks a bit messy, burn spots on wires)? There are several wiring schemes in the SE Cu 24, here are two of mine, with stock pups. The first shows that the neck pup switch selects humbucker or single coil to send to 3 way, while the bridge pup coil is simply shorted to get single coil. The second shows both pups are shorted to get single coil. Either way will work fine, making sure of the pup wire colors.

 

[Mitchell Day]

So mine is like the second, both pups split with the one tone pot. But my wiring shows a red-black going to one side and green-white going to the other side.
I found a video on youtube of someone upgrading theirs, and their stock pups are different colours like mine.
I assume they are stock, I bought it second hand. Might have to pull the pups out and have a look for markings on them.

 

[shimmilou]

In that case, both pups should have the same color wires going to the push/pull switch (green and white), and the hot and ground wires will be reversed on one pup. If I remember correctly, black is hot, red is ground on one pup, while red will be hot and black ground on the other pup.

 

[Mitchell Day]

SO the wiring is correct. I used a multi-meter and was getting 7.6ish ohms on the neck pickup and 3.5 from hot to the split wires, that says the pickup is functioning correctly I have also measured from coil split pin to ground on the bridge, and it returns zero, which means it is grounding it. But when I do it on the neck pickup, it comes back with 3ish ohms. Which says to me the split isn't working on that pin.
So i would assume this means the pot is broken. Sound fair? Could I bridge that pin to the neck coil split pin.
Link below is the wiring diagram from PRS for the se custom 24

SE Wiring Diagram

 

[Draconomics]

SO the wiring is correct. I used a multi-meter and was getting 7.6ish ohms on the neck pickup and 3.5 from hot to the split wires, that says the pickup is functioning correctly I have also measured from coil split pin to ground on the bridge, and it returns zero, which means it is grounding it. But when I do it on the neck pickup, it comes back with 3ish ohms. Which says to me the split isn't working on that pin.
So i would assume this means the pot is broken. Sound fair? Could I bridge that pin to the neck coil split pin.
Link below is the wiring diagram from PRS for the se custom 24

SE Wiring Diagram

Unless there is maybe a wiring mistake, then its gotta be the pot. I would think you could bridge the pins, at least in my crackpot mind it makes some sense. I havent wired a push/pull pot in a few years.

 

[Mitchell Day]

Well considering I get 3 ohms it means there is some connection from the pull/push pin to ground, so i might try pull it open and see if there is a bad contact in there. I was thinking of getting a push/pull for the volume and move it to there. That way i can split individually. Problem is all the wiring comes out above the volume pot which will make it fun to put a pull push one.
Might solder a connecting strip across and see how it goes.
Cheers

 

[Boogie]

Make your measurements directly from the pickup unsoldered. Manually ground out the slug coil for splits, then move forward. Everything else in the circuit is suspect.

 

[Mitchell Day]

I bridged the split coil wires last night. Something was off so measured it and the output dropped a few ohms. Then i realised that when in humbucker mode, the wires connected means the voltage instead of going through the individual pickup would also go to the next pickup through the connecting split wires. This is why they need to be separate until grounded. Im goin g to put a push/pull volume pot in and have individual split for each pickup.

 

[shimmilou]

If you separate the split wires you should get no output. I’m not convinced that the wires are connected correctly, why the different color wires on the split for each pickup? Sure they are stock pickups?

 

[Draconomics]

If you separate the split wires you should get no output. I’m not convinced that the wires are connected correctly, why the different color wires on the split for each pickup? Sure they are stock pickups?

I actually thought the split wires for each pickup position were different colors on current SE pickups. I think its that way on the tci(s) i have.

 

[Mitchell Day]

If you separate the split wires you should get no output. I’m not convinced that the wires are connected correctly, why the different color wires on the split for each pickup? Sure they are stock pickups?

No so they are the stock pickups and if you see this, it is correct wiring colours. I took it to the shop today and he thought it might of been a cold solder, but it wasn't. He thought the same as me, somehow the pot is not making contact when pulled.
So I am getting the volume pot replaced with a push/push pot and have the split wires for the neck to it.
I didnt want to mess around too much with it. I measured from hot to split and it gave me 3.5ish ohms which is correct for the 8515s that i have. Then i measured from the pin to the ground and it had nothing, which means no contact when split is engaged.

 

[shimmilou]

If you are measuring the pickup hot wire to the pickup split wires, you should measure in the k ohms, maybe 3k ohms or more. Measuring only 3 ohms means the pickup is shorted. BTW, where did that wiring diagram come from?

 

[Mitchell Day]

If you are measuring the pickup hot wire to the pickup split wires, you should measure in the k ohms, maybe 3k ohms or more. Measuring only 3 ohms means the pickup is shorted. BTW, where did that wiring diagram come from?

Sorry meant k. That wiring diagram came from the prs website.
https://prsguitars.com/support/schematics

 

[shimmilou]

OK, thanks for the info, apparently I missed this one on the site. This is officially 4 different wiring schemes for the SE Cu/Std 24 that I have seen.

Just double checked, that is the way my SE Std 24 is wired