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Editor's Note: This feature is reprinted with the exclusive permission of Stewart McDonald's Guitar Shop Supply, a respected, professional source of luthier tools, supplies, and expertise. Please click here for a glossary of terms.

To fully understand all of the intricacies of a 4-conductor humbucking pickup could easily fill all of the memory of our your standard hard drive (or so it seems). For now, let's start with a few of the basics.

A 4-conductor pickup allows a great deal of tonal flexibility. Understanding where the four wires come from and how they can be connected gives us a good beginning. The diagram and charts presented here show how the various combinations are achieved. I have included several wiring codes from major pickup manufacturers, so you can see how the codes apply to the two pickup coils.

NOTE: A coil cut can be achieved in the series link combinations by applying a switched ground to the series link. Some manufacturers tie the finish wrap for the series link, while others use the start of the coil. This is only important when mixing and matching different manufacturers' pickups in the same guitar.

Experiment with the different sounds created by these combinations, and look for my next installment in the May, 1999, issue of The Amplifier when I'll cover a few variations on pickup coil-cutting.

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