The Electra Forums

Hello All!

I have a beautiful x199BL and it makes me nuts that the bridge pickup is a replacement. Got myself an ol' MMK45 that is identical to what SHOULD be on this guitar and am wondering if any of you fine people have tips on replacing this... short of making myself a diagram, taking fotos, etc...

Thanks!!!

Here is a very nice color coded H/S/H diagram from the Westone site, I don't think they'll mind me posting it:

http://westone.info/wiring/dynasty/index.html


Not all MMK45's are created equal, as you can see the Bridge should have three conductors with a ground, while the Neck pickup only has two conductors. Early MMK's would have a row of slotted adjustable poles and a row of slugs, later ones would have allen head adjustables on both coils, and the last version would have a chrome Bar on the outer coil. Should be pretty straight forward with the diagram above, Good Luck, Mike.

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Electra Guitar Videos ===> http://www.youtube.com/user/mjm33mjm?feature=watch

Thanks Mike;

I've got the '84 w/the allen heads...save for the neck pup whih is flat pole heads and newer metal (dead giveaway as a replacement).. I'd like this to be original.

The replacement has 2 conductors and a ground... I hope this works. Embarrassed to say I've not used schematics before.. What is the yellow wire in the schematic, and should I ground on the pot as w/the bridge?

btw- we like your videos!

The Yellow wire ends up connecting both coils when the coil-cut is not engaged (I'm pretty sure), which is why only one coil is 'heard' in single coil mode. I do know that I've used this same diagram to correct a wiring error on a butchered LX that I bought.

If your pickup only has two leads, that means that you may have to skip the out of phase option, which is not the end of the world, but strictly speaking is how they were meant to be wired up. You'd connect the red lead to the coilcut switch, and the other lead to the selector switch (like the neck pickup is in the diagram). You can ground the pickup just about anywhere you'd like, but sometimes the length of the wire kind of dictates where you're going to be able to attach it to. The pots have a lot of surface area, translation: it takes a lot of heat to get the solder to stick to the pot housing, so you may end up just tying the grounds from both pickups together.

There were Bridge MMK pickups with only two leads manufactured, and they were used on the Workingman, Invicta, X130 and countless other Matsumoku guitars that didn't use the phase option.

Thanks for watching the Electra Videos, it's been a long hiatus, but now that Spring Break is here, I'm going to try to upload another video or two this week. Good luck, Mike.

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Electra Guitar Videos ===> http://www.youtube.com/user/mjm33mjm?feature=watch

Thanks Mike, much appreciated!

Well the MMK45 I've got has a red wire, a white wire, and I THINK the remaining (which appears the most substantial) is ground... might it be the 3rd needed? Would it be unheard of for me to run another wire from somewhere to enable the tap option?

We look forward to seeing what other guitars you showcase.

Your best bet may be to test it with an ohm meter. A cheap multi meter should do fine. Try putting one probe on the ground and one on the red. Then put one on the ground and one on the yellow. One reading should be bout twice the other. That is the lead for both coils. The other for one is the coil cut. Follow mikes directions from there.

Thanks! Much appreciated!
Will give it a shot asap...
hopefully I can make time this week!

btw- the yellow wire I'm referring to is in the schematic here;
http://westone.info/wiring/dynasty/index.html

I have no such wire...

All I have to work with is the red, black and the exposed one that was the wrap wire inside the insulation that enclosed the other 2.

*Thanx!*

The wire could be any color, although I was working on a Westone era LX and it was in fact yellow on that guitar. The wire is not part of the pickup, but a jumper that goes between the coilcut and phase switches, and could have been removed if/when someone changed out your original bridge pickup. In any event, I found this diagram to be helpful to me in the past, best of luck.

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Electra Guitar Videos ===> http://www.youtube.com/user/mjm33mjm?feature=watch

Thank you, I'll give it a try!