EMG HZ Humbucker Pickups and Splitting - A Natural Fit

I'm a curious sort of Bear. I like to see how stuff ticks - how does it work, and how can I make it do something interesting? Multi-wire humbucking or multi-coil pickups just beg to be split or tapped in some way. Why not have a few new sounds in your guitar? Usually, the cost is only a couple of dollars more than "standard" components (for the push-pull pots, the 5-way super switch, or the little mini switch(es)).


I've been working with lots of customizations using G&B Black-face pickups, and especially USA-made EMG HZ pickups. I've tinkered with early OEM-supplied HZs, all the way to HZ4 and HZ4A pickups. These pickups are really very easy to split! They come wired for weather, and the QuickConnect wiring harness used on these pickups makes it easy to drop them into a split-sound guitar. Bear in mind that EMG active pickups do not have the same wiring scheme and are usually not specifically splittable. The epoxy encasement generally prevents messing with the humbucker pickup's internal preamp and the wiring around the blades and windings.


From the factory, the QuickConnect harness already has the North Start wire (hot) singled out, the North End and South Start are already connected together and tinned (although they are usually folded back and shrink-tubed to the wire bundle), The South End and the Bare Ground are usually together, although I've seen some Polish-made harnesses that have the bare and South End as separate wires. Here's a picture depicting the way EMG HZ wire color coding works:




There are lots of good places to look up wiring diagrams on the 'net. Two of my favorites are the guitarelectronics.com website diagrams page, and the seymourduncan.com website diagrams page. The GuitarElectronics.com website does have color diagrams for many different types and brands of pickups... before you get stumped, look there. I also like the Seymour site because the diagrams are well-drawn and flawlessly implemented. Not all wiring diagrams are created equal. The same wiring concept can be done in different ways, even with the same components.


Here are a few close-ups of some of the EMG HZ pickups with which I've been working this week. Some are older OEM (installed as original equipment on guitars like ESPs, Jacksons, and others) and some are the retail-boxed variety you can purchase at most musical instrument sales sites.


I've taken some nice close-up pictures of a few different varieties of EMG HZ pickups - the good news is that the wiring scheme is the same among all of them.


An EMG HZ FH2, installed in one of my recent projects - a nice ESP EC-100QM



The typical appearance of an EMG HZ (either H4 or H4, as well as some other interesting OEM variants)


A nice-sounding EMG HZ H3 on the back side: note the black shiny epoxy-filled cavity...



A typical, early-style EMG HZ OEM pickup on the backside... I like the PCB notes on plus and minus and such... Clear epoxy on this one.



Here's a nice OEM EMG HZ pickup from the back, with the quick-connect installed. I LIKE the quick-connect on EMGs (and on Seymour Duncan's Blackouts (I love those Seymours!). I have gotten a guitar all put together, wired up, strung up, and decided to change the pickup after things are all put together. It takes only a few minutes and you can completely change the sound of your guitar without having to change ANY wiring!

The Secret Handshake of Installing Seymour Duncan Blackouts!

The Secret Handshake of Installing Seymour Duncan Blackout Pickups

(Or, in my case, Whiteouts)...


I recently installed a matched pair of Seymour Duncan Blackouts in my ESP LTD V200 vee guitar!


Today's entry will be a little about the Blackouts (which were white, in my case!), and a little about the ESP LTD V200.



First and formost: I'm converting my Vee to Blackouts, and about half way thorough the tear-down/build-up, I notice that the quick connectors (something like EMG Quik-Connects) have three wires in, two wires out - and all the diagrams refer to a red wire, a white wire, and a bare wire. I'm thinking (at this point) that the venerable and always reliable Seymour folks have gone loony and have given me the wrong parts. I wanted to split my coils, as well as get the full benefit of the next-generation active humbuckers!



I'm in distress at this point. I've got the whole guitar and all the parts exploded on my little work table, and I'm at a dead stop. I can connect RED to the red wire of the battery lead. But the "black wire" is a complete mystery and doesn't fit in anywhere.



Google is your friend. Repeat after me, Google is your friend. Lots of searching and trying to find the right terms, and I get the answer for which I'm looking... The "black wire" is actually a wrapped two-wire lead. Strip back the black, and you get the bare wrap-around wire, a white insulator, and the internal lead to the white insulator. Voila! Red, bare, and white!


After this monumental revelation (which is NOT OBVIOUS AT ALL in the instructions or in the quick connectors in hand!!!!!!!!!!!!!!), the rest was cake (I prefer german chocolate cake, personally)...





On to the ESP LTD V200. What a guitar! (I'll write a review for it at http://theguitarreview.com soon.)



I used white Seymour Duncan Blackouts;

Gibson cream humbucker rings (I like them to stand out and contrast);

Gold-and-abalone set-screw Telecaster-style knobs (Great looking, easy to push/pull);

A real USA-made CRL/Fender three-way switch;

NICE Alpha 500 kOhm push/pull potentiometers;

REAL USA copper wiring;

Silver-bearing solder;

Insulated four-wire from the jack to the pots;

REAL USA Switchcraft stereo jack (stereo is required for active pickup setups - DON'T (READ: DON'T) wire the body grounds into the setup or it will drain the battery over night. The third prong of the stereo input jack creates the circuit ground;

Grover 6-inline locking tuners(!);

Great gold screws;

Dressed and round-ended fretwires;

Real carnauba wax;

And lots of attention to detail (like a nice bare copper ground wire common running across the pots, etc.);

A good battery clip;

Careful electrician's tape covers on all exposed complex areas (top of switch contacts, push/pull solder groups, etc.).




I've included lots of pictures of the sneaky "black wire" in the Blackout pickups, a nice shot of the back of a blackout, and some (OK) pictures of the finished V.


I can now shred, split and do old rock and roll, do mellow warm humbucker stuff, and lots of progressive rock (my favorite).




Ask questions, please! Want a step by step HOWTO? Let me know. It'll take a bit to put it in my schedule, but I'd love to do it for you.


Until then, Bear at BearsGuitars.com and JBPMusic.com (where my music CDs are!)