Trying to install 57/08 in my singlecut that had #6 and only 3 leads??

[myshadeisblue]

So I have my guitar all opened up and there are only 3 leads on the #6 pickups = braided wire, black and white.

And the 57/08 have four leads = braided wire, black, white, and red.

Where does the red one go? Lol. I don’t wanna screw up my coil split lol. Thanks for any help guys.

 

[theDeepender]

So I have my guitar all opened up and there are only 3 leads on the #6 pickups = braided wire, black and white.

And the 57/08 have four leads = braided wire, black, white, and red.

Where does the red one go? Lol. I don’t wanna screw up my coil split lol. Thanks for any help guys.

I could be wrong, but I think you need 4wires for a coil split. And I’m also guessing that depends on your definition of a coil split. In my mind, a true coil split is separating the coils of a humbucker to turn them into a single coil. I understand that there is such a thing as a coil tap that is completely different and allows the use of all or only a portion of a coil.

I returned a pickup that came in for me because they didn’t send me the 4 wire version.

I’m not sure that you can use a 4 wire and a 3 wire and still have the same coil splitting ability on both pups.

 

[JasonE]

I would email PRS customer support on it. I have installed a couple of sets of 57/08 pickups in a couple of my PRS guitars. They have used different wire colors and functions throughout the time they have made these pickups. I wired the last set I put in like I did the others and they didn't work. They changed which wire is the tap wire on them. Customer support straightened me out on it and they are great now.

Typically the white wire is the tap wire.

 

[garrett]

If it's a new set, it would be black and white are negative and positive (ground and hot), red is tap, and bare is shield (to ground always). If they're old, red might be positive/negative and white tap. Best to measure them with a multimeter to be sure.

It also depends if they're reverse polarity or not. I don't know how they do the aftermarket sets, but if they came out of a Custom, you'll need to flip the positive/negative leads on one of them to remain in phase. You can check by putting the tops of the pickups together. If they attract screw of one pickup to slug of the other, they are not reverse polarity and vice versa.

And yes it's correct Core PRS pickups generally tap rather than split (Tremonti bridge is an exception for some reason; it's four-conductor). You cannot separate the coils, only cancel one or the other. On the #6 pickups, black is hot, bare is ground and shield, white is tap.

 

[ViperDoc]

A 3-lead pickup has the inner coil connections pre-soldered to a single wire, so instead of
connecting those two leads to a switch, you just connect the one wire. PRS color codes have been all over the place. Email the PTC.