SE Zach Myers pickups info, for coil splitting (magnetic polarity)

[STEVE SS]

Hi everybody!
I 'm new in this forum and I ended up here searching information for the G&B pickups that my SE Zach Myers is equipped .

Basicaly I wanted to modify the pickups so as to have a coil splitting with 2 tone push/pull pots.
I found some videos for how to and some wirring diagrams (especially from Seymour Duncan's site) and I proceed to the "operation" of Zach Myers.
There I found out that the G&B pickups are wired with a 2 conductor wire !! (Hot and a bare one)!!! As it is known you can't do coil splitting with such a wire.

So I tried to modify them in 4 conductor wire conductors.
And there came the problems :
What' s the magnetic polarity of each single pickup of humbuckers?
Is it (in order from bridge to neck) N-S for Bridge and
S-N for Neck ?? or otherwise??
I think that it should be N-S, N-S but a test with compass showed that the polarity is N-S, S-N !!!
Doing something wrong here??

Any help is welcomed

 

[WayneW]

I have a similar question. I'm replacing the Alpha pots in my Zach Myers with CTS pots and replacing the selector switch with a Free-Way Ultra 6 position switch to get out of phase sounds. In looking at the wiring, I have two wiring harnesses, one from each pickup. Each wiring harness has 4 wires: red (hot), black (ground), and a green wire and white wire which are taped together. The diagram for my Free-Way Ultra switch requires that I know which are the North/South Start and Finish wires for each pickup, but without a polarity tester, have no way of knowing. If anyone could tell me which of the green and white wires are North or South and Start or Finish, I'd appreciate it.

 

[WayneW]

I found some videos on YouTube that demonstrate how to determine which wires are which in a pickup. Using a multimeter and the techniques I saw on YouTube, here's the breakdown of color codes to wires on a PRS SE Zach Myers (and probably for all other PRS pickups as well):

Neck and Bridge: North Start Black, North Finish White; South Start Red, South Finish Green.

Polarity (determined by magnetic polarity tester): Both Pickups Screw Coil is South, Slug Coil is North.

Hope this helps!

 

[STEVE SS]

WayneW,
you 've been very helpful since I unscrew mines and did not make notice of which is what!!!!!!

edit: In mine I had a white wire from one pickup, a red connecting both and a black from the other pickup.

So according to you the polarity goes like this (bridge to neck): S-N, N-S !! is that correct???

Thank you

 

[WayneW]

The wiring of my pickups was the same for both bridge and neck. The red was hot, black was ground and the white and green wires were connected and taped off. And yes, according to my electronic polarity tester, and compared to pictures of other PRS SE Zach Myers guitars, the polarity is as you stated from bridge to neck: S-N, N-S. The pickups should be oriented so that the wiring harness comes off the bottom right of each pickup which places the slug coils of each pickup facing each other.

 

[Dorin]

Anyone succeeded in modding your ZM? I also what to add coil splits on mine.

 

[STEVE SS]

I succed to wire mine Jimmy Page's style (4 push/pull switches) following these instructions :

In your case you' d better follow the Seymour Duncan' s diagram in here: http://www.seymourduncan.com/wiring...h,2-volume,2-tone,3-way-toggle,accessory-none

I followed SD diagram for J Page wirring, but it had a dead spot, so I dumped it. But other than that (the dead spot) the wirring was working properly.
I Wish you luck

 

[WayneW]

Anyone succeeded in modding your ZM? I also what to add coil splits on mine.

I replaced all the pots with CTS pots and vintage wiring. I also installed a Free-Way Ultra 6 position switch, Gotoh SD90 locking tuners and got rosewood backplates from Guilford Guitars on eBay for the control cavity and switch cavity.

 

[Dorin]

Thanks for the reply, guys! Hopefully I'll have the time to do this soon. Cheers!

 

[J. Daniel]

Just got a used one and I’m looking forward to coil tapping these PU’s as well.

They are. Little to aggressive for my tastes

 

[jjazzman]

Posting circuit diagram of push/pull wiring for Zach