Is this the wiring diagram I should use for my Emperor?

[Boze]

Starting with the less complicated install, I successfully put that 57 Classic in the Zephyr and love it. Now it's time for the Emperor's new pups. Another local guitarist gave me a deal on a pair of Fralin Pure PAFs (gold covers and screws should be arriving from Fralin today) and I wanted to make sure I was using the right diagram with the CTS pots I ordered. These PAFs have the braided shield ground like the 57 so that bit I understand. Just making sure I'm working from the right schematic since I've never done 2 hum, 2 vol, 2 tone and a 3-way switch.

In other pickup-install-education news, I was confused to see that the existing 1 volume and 1 tone on the Zephyr was not wired like the diagram I used for the 57 Classic: the Tone pot's middle lug was the one that went to the volume and the jack was connected to the tone rather than the middle lug of the volume pot. Has me wondering if I even heard what the the SDSL it replaced was supposed to sound like since I just left all the other joints as they were when I installed it (my second pickup install ever).

I only kept the old cap and rewired everything on the Zephyr's 57 to this schematic:

[sgosnell]

First, the colors may or may not be the same. You can't blindly go by the color of the wire coverings, because different manufacturers use different colors, and the color used for hot on one pickup may be ground on another. There is no standardization that I know of. Use what the pickup manufacturer specifies. Fralin can tell you what he uses. Not all pickups use coil splitting, so if there are only two wires it's usually easy enough to tell which is ground and which is hot. With four wires it's a crap shoot, so find out from the manufacturer.

Second, there are multiple ways to wire pickups, and they all mostly work, although there can be some quirks and sound differences between them. Each seems to have its proponents. The diagram from SD is probably as good as any, and it's pretty much the one I use, because the volume control has the least effect on tone. You can do some research on the interwebz and see the differences between "modern", "fifties", and other wiring schemes, and decide which you prefer. They all make sound, but there are subtle differences.

[Boze]

First, the colors may or may not be the same. You can't blindly go by the color of the wire coverings, because different manufacturers use different colors, and the color used for hot on one pickup may be ground on another. There is no standardization that I know of. Use what the pickup manufacturer specifies. Fralin can tell you what he uses. Not all pickups use coil splitting, so if there are only two wires it's usually easy enough to tell which is ground and which is hot. With four wires it's a crap shoot, so find out from the manufacturer.

Second, there are multiple ways to wire pickups, and they all mostly work, although there can be some quirks and sound differences between them. Each seems to have its proponents. The diagram from SD is probably as good as any, and it's pretty much the one I use, because the volume control has the least effect on tone. You can do some research on the interwebz and see the differences between "modern", "fifties", and other wiring schemes, and decide which you prefer. They all make sound, but there are subtle differences.

Thanks, yeah I wasn't going to try a 50s wiring since I'm new and bridging the caps between two pots looked a little extra for my amateurish soldering skills.

And the Fralins just have the single hot lead wire with the braided shielding for ground so that should go just like the 57 Classic did with the Zephyr. I've never made any use of a bridge pickup so the Fralin set gives me a perfect excuse to treat the Emperor to two fancy new pickups.

I was happy to see the screws aren't too tight in the Fralins. I like to compensate a bit with screw height on all pickups and the screws on the 57 are no fun with some being very difficult to move. Doesn't feel great pushing toward the top of your guitar with a screwdriver. The Zephyr is pretty well dialed in now though.

[sgosnell]

The polepieces become stiff when the pickups are potted with wax. The wax gets everywhere inside the pickup, by design, and a consequence is that the polepieces can become harder to turn against the friction of the wax. They generally loosen up somewhat after being turned a few times, so it's not a bad idea to run them through their travel a time or three before installing them into the guitar, just to make adjustment easier.

[Boze]

Harness is ready and passes the tap test.

Am I supposed to solder the output wire to both lugs on the Switchcraft 3-way switch? I don't get why there even are two.

[sgosnell]

There are two because there are two pickups, thus two inputs. These switches are made as simply as possible. It's made to switch between two outputs if desired, but for this application there is only one output desired. You could, if you wanted, switch one pickup between two outputs. No reason for that, but the switch is versatile and can do that, or send each pickup to a different output.