The British Steelies Society

Would appreciate some urgent response on this guys. My BMI came fitted with a Josh Turner pick-up which was wired through a 3 position switch which didn't appear to do anything. I swapped it out for a Sho-Bud pick-up but now I have to change it back. There are 4 wires coming from the pick-up. Black, white, orange and red. On the switch the wires are red, orange, white and purple so I presume the purple and black are to connect to the Jack socket. Can I wire it in without the switch and which wires woul I then take from the pick-up to the jack socket. I've contacted BMI twice now but no response from them!

Sorry, guys, Gene Turner!

Hi Roy, is the pickup a humbucker, i.e. two coils. The 4 wires are probably 2 wires from one coil and 2 wires from the 2nd coil, the switch may have given the option of a humbucking pickup in one position and a single coil setup in the other, or another option would be a series humbucker in one position and a parallel humbucker in the 2nd position.

Do you have a multimeter? If so you could determine which coloured wires are connected to each coil. If you could post a photo of the pickup when not installed in your steel that would help to determine the wiring, also was the switch a 2 position switch?

Edit : just reread your post, it's a 3 position switch, so to me that would suggest a series humbucker, a parallel humbucker and a single coil option. If you could also post a picture of the connectors on the switch that would also help.

Edit2 : It could be a single coil with coil taps, i.e. the coil could be tapped at different points to enable different impedances to be selected by the switch, the higher the impedance the bassier the tone will be, a lower impedance will give a more treble tone.

A picture would be the thing

Hi Geoff, I haven't a clue to be honest. I explained it all to the chap who's buying it and turns out he's a bit of a techie so he said just to refit it the way it was and he'd sort it out. So it's now back in the guitar. Thank you for your help though.

acerod wrote:Hi Geoff, I haven't a clue to be honest. I explained it all to the chap who's buying it and turns out he's a bit of a techie so he said just to refit it the way it was and he'd sort it out. So it's now back in the guitar. Thank you for your help though.

Och well problem solved