I finally got a new neck pickup for my Mustang! It took a long time to get it soldered correctly. Turns out it's important to make good solder points. The pickup I picked up was a Seymour Duncan Little '59.
The bridge pickup I already had was a Seymour Duncan JB Jr. I wired it up pretty much like the default Mustang, where you can can get a number of pickup options; though I find the "Out of Phase" positions do not typically sound pleasing.
Originally, many moons ago, the goal was to put in the Hot-Rodded Set; the full size humbuckers: the SH-2 and SH-4. Well, being rather hesitant to chop off a large portion of the Mustang, I made the compromise purchases of the next closest pickups, the Jr. and then later, the '59.
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| The Standard Mustang body is routed for single coils only. Dual Full Size Humbuckers require routing the Mustang like the picture above |
Overall, I find the combo suits my needs exactly. It has just the right amount of versatility for cleans, leads, rhythms, etc. The Mustang now has all the warmth and thickness of a Les Paul.....hehee, well maybe not quite that much. But it's pretty close considering the small Mustang body.
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| All wired and strung up. Complete with new tuners too! |
While the '59 sounds very good for clean rhythm playing and soft lead work it's absolutely different than the stock Mustang neck. There is a significant loss of "clean"; you know? that crystal clear single coil clean tone with lots of amp buzz? :)
For the music I play, the change is preferable, but if someone is going for a Fender clean, I'd suggest getting a different pickup. This one has got the standard warm neck tone of a Les Paul in a Mustang body. Not much else to it than that.
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| Bye Bye Old Buddy |
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| Hello New Friend |
The Seymour Duncan website had wiring diagrams and lord knows a plethora of forums did as well, each with a myriad of variations. None of them seemed to be exactly what I needed so I used this one. This is the set up that works for me. Wired basically exactly like the standard default Mustang, except I got the phase in and phase out modes switched. So when both switches are facing out, or both are facing in, the pickups are in phase whereas the default Mustang would have that setup as out of phase. To get it like that I believe you need to have it so that both green wires are on the bottom middle two posts and both black wires are on the top middle posts, and not flipped like I've done. Honestly it makes close to zero difference; it's just a personal preference.
Included below is a diagram of the wiring schematic I used. The blue background is to help ID the white wires. Speaking of, the white and black wires that criss cross on the switches...Those are the standard ground and live wires that the Mustang came with. So please do not confuse the black "ground" wire with the black wires of the humbuckers.
Pickups To Switches
The red and white wires of each humbucker are soldered together and then black electrical taped together. The green wire goes to the middle two posts of one side of its switch, and the black wire goes to the opposite middle two. The bare wire goes to the ground of the switch.
Switches to Pots and Jack
The black wire that's sticking up? That goes to a spot under one of the bridge posts (not pictured). The little green circle on the tone pot is a capacitor, and the dark grey squares on the pots are solder points.
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There are five permutations of switch positions.
All except "Both Off" have 2 versions of the same thing.
Switch Options are:
Neck Bridge Description
---=--- ---=--- Both Off
---=--- =------ Bridge Only
---=--- ------=
=------ ---=--- Neck Only
------= ---=---
=------ =------ Both On - Out of Phase
------= ------=
=------ ------= Both On - In Phase
------= =------
****Extra Obvious Advice From Personal Experience****
1. The Duncans will come with very long wire. Do not trim too much though, because if you make a mistake, splicing will just be extra work you don't want to have to do.
2. The Mustang has close to no room inside it so everything will be a tight fit.
3. Get little cups or plastic bags to hold all of the screws you remove. DON'T lose the screws! If you drop one in your carpet you're gonna have a bad time.
4. Don't fully string up the guitar until you are sure everything is wired okay. It sucks when you've strung it up only to find that the neck pickup is now shorting out.
5. Don't touch the metal part of the soldering iron when it is plugged in. :D
It is muy caliente and a new blister is not fun.
6. Put some music on and drink a refreshing beer. Use the cold bottle/can to soothe your new blister. :)
