We know… you went to install your brand new Seymour Duncan pickups, and the wiring instructions tell you how to connect everything – BUT – the wire colors of your stock pickups look the same but are located in completely different places than our wiring instructions indicate (or they’re completely different colors altogether). You have just come face to face with one of the brutal (and frustrating) realities of pickup swapping: different pickup manufacturers use different wire color-codes. You cannot simply replace your old pickup’s wires with your new pickup’s wires color-for-color. What should you do?
In most cases, ignore the original wiring, and follow the Seymour Duncan wiring instructions. However, if your guitar’s wiring is set up in a way that our wiring instructions do not address (special coil-splitting, or unique switching, etc…), then you may find this pickup wire color-code chart very helpful. All you need to do is put the wires from your new pickup where the original pickup’s wires went, but translate the wire colors by using the chart.
For more wiring info, check out our wiring diagrams here.