Guitar Pickup Manufacturer's Wiring and Color Codes
This page is derived from a page I found on the web ages ago, which eventually disappeared into the void (information on the web can be a very ephemeral thing!) - I then found a copy of it on the Wayback Machine and promptly copied it to my own machine. If anyone seeing this happens to be the original author of the page, I hope they don't mind me resurrecting it!
How to use this table
A Humbucking Guitar Pickup has two coils, each with two connections: the start and end, which we have labelled A and B for the fist coil, and C and D for the second. For normal operation, B and D are connected together, and C and A are connected to the "hot" tag of the switch or volume pot and ground respectively. To coil tap a pickup, make an additional connection to the junction of B and D, and short it to ground.
The columns headed "MP" indicate the magnet polarity of each coil, which may be of assistance when mixing pickups from different manufacturers. For single coil pickups, details are only shown for one coil.
If your pickups are not listed below, do not despair, I have detailed a simple procedure to determine the correct wiring for any pickups on the Pickup Polarity Test page.
| Pickup Manufacturer | Adjustable Pole | Slug Pole | ||||
| Start "A" | Finish " B" | M.P. | Start "C" | Finish "D" | M.P. | |
| Tom Anderson Humbucker |
Black- | White | South | Green | Red+ | North |
| Tom Anderson Single-coil |
NA | NA | NA | Black | White, Red, Purple or Yellow | North |
| WD/Kent Armstrong Humbucker |
Red (Pink) |
Blue (Black) |
South | Green | White | North |
| WD/Kent Armstrong Single-coil |
NA | NA | NA | Black | White | South |
| Joe Barden Humbucker |
Green | Red | South | Black | White | North |
| Bartolini | Black+ | Red | South | Green- | White | North |
| Benedetto Humbucker |
Green- | White | South | Red+ | Black | North |
| DiMarzio Humbucker |
Green- | White | South | Red+ | Black | North |
| DiMarzio Single-coil |
NA | NA | NA | Black | White | South |
| Seymour Duncan Humbucker |
Green- | Red | South | Black | White | North |
| Seymour Duncan Single-coil |
NA | NA | NA | Black | White | South |
| Seymour Duncan tapped |
White | Green/ Black | Red | |||
| Fender Stratocaster |
NA | NA | NA | Black | White | South |
| Fender Telecaster Lead |
NA | NA | NA | Black (or blue) |
White (or yellow) |
South |
| Fender Telecaster Rhythm |
NA | NA | NA | Black | White | South |
| Fender 70's Humbucker |
Ground | Series- link | South | Hot | Series-link | North |
| Fender Humbucker |
Red- | Black | South | Green+ | White | North |
| Lindy Fralin Humbucker |
Black | Red | South | White | Red | North |
| Lindy Fralin Single-coil |
NA | NA | NA | Black | White | North or South |
| Gibson Humbucker |
Black- | Green | South | Red+ | White | North |
| Gibson P-90 |
Black | White | North | NA | NA | NA |
| Gibson P-100 |
Black | White | North | Black | White | North |
| Gotoh | Green- | Red | South | Black+ | White | North |
| Ibanez tapped | Bare | White | Red | |||
| Jackson | Black- | Red | South | Green+ | White | North |
| Lawrence Humbucker |
Green | Black- | North | White | Red+ | South |
| Lawrence Single-coil |
NA | NA | NA | Grey | White | North |
| Peavey | Black- | White | North | Red+ | Green | South |
| Peavey tapped | White | Green/Black | Red | |||
| Schaller Humbucker |
White | Green- | South | Brown | Yellow+ | North |
| Schaller Single-coil |
NA | NA | NA | Black | White | South or North |
| Shadow | Yellow- | Brown | North | White | Green+ | South |