P90s with Fender Lead II wiring??

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Hello JM
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P90s with Fender Lead II wiring??

Post by Hello JM » Thu Oct 06, 2022 4:45 pm

Hello everyone, I have a loaded pickguard from a Fender Player Lead II and I am thinking of changing out the pickups for a pair of P90s. I'd like to rehouse the P90s and wiring into a new pickguard and put it in my Jazzmaster.

My question is: will the phase switch on the Lead II work or sound good with P90s? Any input is greatly appreciated! Thanks.

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Embenny
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Re: P90s with Fender Lead II wiring??

Post by Embenny » Thu Oct 06, 2022 4:52 pm

You just have to make sure the P90s have three conductors. P90s traditionally have a shielded baseplate and come with a shielded "single conductor" lead where the lead is hot and the shielding is a sum of both the coil start and the baseplate.

It's like telecaster or jaguar pickups, you need to isolate the coil start from the grounded shield, or else the phase reverse (or series mod) will put the baseplate into the signal path, which leads to extra noise.
The artist formerly known as mbene085.

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Re: P90s with Fender Lead II wiring??

Post by Hello JM » Thu Oct 06, 2022 7:52 pm

mbene085 wrote:
Thu Oct 06, 2022 4:52 pm
You just have to make sure the P90s have three conductors. P90s traditionally have a shielded baseplate and come with a shielded "single conductor" lead where the lead is hot and the shielding is a sum of both the coil start and the baseplate.

It's like telecaster or jaguar pickups, you need to isolate the coil start from the grounded shield, or else the phase reverse (or series mod) will put the baseplate into the signal path, which leads to extra noise.
Thanks for the reply! I'm pretty inexperience with wiring things up like that. My abilities only stretch as far as installing new pickups at this point.
Could you please explain how I would isolate the coil start from the grounded shield? And how I would know which is coil start and which is the grounded shield?

Thanks!

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Embenny
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Re: P90s with Fender Lead II wiring??

Post by Embenny » Thu Oct 06, 2022 8:07 pm

Hello JM wrote:
Thu Oct 06, 2022 7:52 pm
Thanks for the reply! I'm pretty inexperience with wiring things up like that. My abilities only stretch as far as installing new pickups at this point.
Could you please explain how I would isolate the coil start from the grounded shield? And how I would know which is coil start and which is the grounded shield?

Thanks!
You just make sure you buy P90s with three leads (well, two plus the shielded cable, most likely). Most manufacturers either give you an option, or at least warn you if they only use the traditional Gibson lead (one lead plus shielded cable). They'll provide you with the information as to which lead is which.
The artist formerly known as mbene085.

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