4 Conductor Seymours into a CU24 with Mccarty switching

[JeffFlowerday]

My CU24 has Mccarty switching..

I've already reversed the magnet on my Custom 5. 59' and Custom 5 are mounted and ready to be wired...

Jim, how do you wire it up again, you told me on the other forum but unfortunately it didn't make it over to this forum.

Thanks,
Jeff

[Big Mike]

Jim's the man for sure.

If I aint mistaken, no need to flip the magnet with McCarty switching. Green and drain to ground, Black to the switch, and red and white together, where the PRS red comes off on the push pull. Repeat. Enjoy!

[Big Mike]

Jim answered it here a few threads down, and I am correct! Yipee!thread (http://forums.birdsandmoons.com/forum/showthread.php?t=293)

[Jim Collins]

If you already did flip the magnet, it's okay. This way, you'll get a hum cancelling sound in the middle position, with the tone control pulled.

Do you remember how the previous pickups were wired? If you do, and the magnet is still flipped in one of the pickups, then:

Duncan black = PRS white
Duncan green = PRS black
Duncan red+white = PRS red.

[converge]

i also have a custom 24 with mccarty switching. i've been think about putting in some Anderson pickups (h2+ and h1-). this is my first attempt at installing pickups so i have no idea what i'm doing. is it just a matter of re-connecting the existing wires to the new pickups? thanks! :)

[jbird]

I thought you only had to flip the magnet with the 5 way switching?

[Big Mike]

Don't have to I don't think, although it sounds like from Jim's post you could make your middle position wih coil split hum cancel if you do.

You decide what P/u to go with yet? Your McCarty is shweet dude.

[JeffFlowerday]

Yah, I switched the magnet back, I didn't like it.

I ended up wiring the guitar up using the Seymour layout just adding the Neck Red/White pair to the pull switch as well so that I could coil tap all the pickups not just the bridge pickup.

Now I'm trying to get used to the Custom 5, it really doesn't sound that good clean but with gain, man is it fat with big bottom end. The 59' is a killer pickup it sounds great clean or dirty.


Thanks,
Jeff

[Big Mike]

I haven't tried the C5 although people speak highly of it. I am really fond of the '59 though. I had the same problem when I used JB's. Didn't dig the clean at all. Why don't you take advantage of Duncan's 21 day return policy and get another 59? Or you could try something else.

[Andrew Chen]

Have you tried the duncan custom? It has a ceramic magnet instead of alnico5 so it's abit brighter and hotter than the c5.

[Erik]

I'd be interested in your thoughts on the C-5 in the CU24. I dropped one in the bridge of my Les Paul and it sounds awesome...very round, full, and smooth. I'm considering adding one to my CU24 next.

Now, if you have a 5 way, do you just plug the colored leads into their respective slots in the 5 way board?



Erik

[Jim Collins]

If you have a rotary switch in your guitar, you must first make sure that the two pickups have opposing magnetic polarity. This may require flipping the magnet in one of the pickups.

Once that is done, the Duncan color code looks like this:

Duncan black = PRS white
Duncan green = PRS black
Duncan red+white = PRS red
Duncan bare wire to ground.

[Dan Desy]

If you have a rotary switch in your guitar, you must first make sure that the two pickups have opposing magnetic polarity. This may require flipping the magnet in one of the pickups.

Once that is done, the Duncan color code looks like this:

Duncan black = PRS white
Duncan green = PRS black
Duncan red+white = PRS red
Duncan bare wire to ground.What happens if you flip the magnet AND convert to McSwitching? It sounds different, somehow?

[Jim Collins]

McCarty switching is defined so that, when the tone control is pulled, the outside (adjustable pole piece) coils from each pickup are available to be selected by the toggle. If you use two pickups with the same polarity, the wiring is such that, when the tone control is pulled, the "center" leads from each pickup are sent to ground. This shorts out the inside (slug pole piece) coil of each pickup, because the other end of that coil is already sent to ground.

If you flipped the magnet of one of the pickups, in order for that pickup to be in phase with the other, you'd have to reverse the "outside" leads. (The "center" lead is just an extension of the join between the two coils.) This would put both pickups in phase, and the toggle would work the same way, provided the tone control was pushed in -- the "center" leads from each pickup go nowhere. If all you did was flip the magnet in one pickup, and reverse the outside leads of that pickup, when you pulled the tone control, you would short out the inside (slug) coil of one pickup, and the outside (adjustable) coil of the other pickup. So, when the tone control is pulled, two of the three sounds would be different -- if this was how you implemented it.

When PRS builds a Custom 22 or Custom 24 with McCarty switching, they do not use McCarty pickups. They still use the pickups that would have come on the guitar, if that guitar had rotary switching. They alter the wiring so that pulling the tone control makes the outside (adjustable) coil of each pickup available to the circuit.

[Dan Desy]

I'm about to drop Duncans (Screamin' Demon & 59) in my Custom 24w/rotary switching. The magnet on the 59 has been flipped. What are the wire color correspondance in my case?

Thanks!

[green]

If the magnet was flipped and Mccarty wiring was used.......when in the middle position push pull down.........wouldn't the pickups be magnetically out of phase with each other......Peter green style without the extra volume control

[Jim Collins]

The Peter Green sound is largely the result of the two pickups being out of phase, and the guitar having Gibson style wiring -- volume and tone/pickup. The fact that the neck pickup is mounted in reverse also contributes to the sound, but mounting a pickup in reverse has nothing to do with the that pickup's phase relationship to the other pickup.

There are two ways to get a pickup out of phase with another pickup. Either reverse the magnet OR reverse the wiring. If you reverse the magnet AND reverse the wiring, that pickup will be in phase with the other pickup. So, in Dan's case, the pickups can easily be wired so that both pickups are in phase. The wiring is a little different, though.

I'll assume that both pickups have four conductors plus an independent ground. (Normally, a '59 does not have that, but it can be ordered that way.)

I've described my numbering scheme for the six lugs on the DPDT switch countless times. Left row, #1 through #3, with #3 closest to the pot casing. Right row, #4 through #6, with #6 closest to the pot casing.

Both pickups should have the bare wires soldered to ground.

Neck pickup: Black lead soldered to proper lug on toggle switch. Red and white leads soldered to #3. Green lead soldered to #1. New lead from #2 to ground.

Bridge pickup: Black lead soldered to ground. Red and white leads soldered to #6. Green lead soldered to #4. New lead from #5 to proper lug on toggle switch.

[Dan Desy]

Jim,
I'm wiring to my existing rotary selector, not the push/pull.
So right now, each pickup (HFS/VB) has a red, white and black wire coldered to the PC board, and a ground soldered to the tone control (or whatever).

I want to know what the color wire on the SD (both 4 conductors) need to replace which of the R/W/Bl wires.

Thanks!

[Jim Collins]

With the magnet in one pickup flipped:

PRS white = Duncan black
PRS black = Duncan green
PRS red = Duncan red+white
Bare wires go to ground.

[Dan Desy]

With the magnet in one pickup flipped:

PRS white = Duncan black
PRS black = Duncan green
PRS red = Duncan red+white
Bare wires go to ground.
Exactly what I was looking for, thanks!
What would we do without you, Jim? ;)

[Dan Desy]

OK, Jim.

I did the switch. Everything works fine. It cure sounds like I got the punch I was looking for. However, there's way too much treble contents in the tone, especially in the 7,8 and 9 positions. Can I use a teble roll-off capacitor? How do I hook it up and what value should I use?

Thanks.

[Jim Collins]

Does this guitar have a sweet switch or a tone control?

[Dan Desy]

Does this guitar have a sweet switch or a tone control?
Tone control.

[Jim Collins]

Well, a tone control is a treble rolloff capacitor. Is this not enough?

[Dan Desy]

Well, a tone control is a treble rolloff capacitor. Is this not enough?
What a classic answer :)... Yeah I guess you're right. I'll play around with it.