DiMarzio Bluesbucker - Manual

DiMarzio DP163 Bluesbucker ™
Please Note—If you have no previous experience with wiring or feel
uncertain how to proceed, we strongly recommend having a professional
do the pickup installation. The expense should not be very great, and it
will help ensure you have a properly functioning instrument.
IMPORTANT—Although the Bluesbucker ™ is similar in
appearance to other DiMarzio humbuckers, there are
several important differences in wiring and mounting.
Please read these instructions carefully before installing
your new pickup.
General Instructions
If you have purchased our pickup to replace one that is currently in your guitar, do
the following:
• Remove your old pickup carefully. Installing your new pickup will be much easier
if you unsolder your original pickup cleanly, rather than cut its wires. Make a note
of exactly where the old pickup was connected as, in most cases, the new one
will go to the same place.
• Use a soldering iron with a fine tip (25 to 45 watts) and thin rosin core solder for
all connections.
• If you intend to use a miniature switch with the pickup, try to be as clean as
possible with the solder connections to avoid short circuits or damage to the
switch. DiMarzio offers two Push/Pull Potentiometers, the EP1200PP (250K) and
the EP1201PP (500K) with double-pole, double-throw miniature switches built in.
The switches perform exactly like separate miniature switches, and we
recommend them in situations where you do not want to drill extra holes in the
face or pickguard of your instrument.
Bluesbucker ™ Mounting Instructions
On most standard humbuckers, both coils are “hot”, meaning they both sense
string vibrations. On the Bluesbucker
™ , only the coil with the six adjustable slotted
polepieces is hot. Therefore, installation direction will have a noticeable effect on
the tone of the pickup. Installing the Bluesbucker
™ with the adjustable coil toward
the neck will provide a warmer tone than installing the pickup with the adjustable
coil toward the bridge. In the neck position, the volume will be the same in either
direction. In the bridge position, the pickup will be a little louder with the adjustable
coil toward the neck, and this is the direction we recommend starting with.
Standard Bluesbucker ™ Series Wiring
IMPORTANT: Although other brands of pickups may have the same color wires as
DiMarzio, the connections are not necessarily the same. For our pickup to function
properly, you must follow these instructions.
The Bluesbucker ™ has red, black, green and white wires.
The screw coil is the “hot” coil with red and black wires.
Note: This differs from other DiMarzio humbuckers. The
arrangement of the coils on the Bluesbucker
™ is shown in
the diagram to the right.
The BARE wire always goes to ground. When connecting the BARE wire to
ground, make sure it does not come in contact with any other connections.
The Bluesbucker ™ is usually wired in standard series humbucking mode. Solder
the BLACK and WHITE wires together. Insulate the solder connection with tape so
it does not touch any other part of the circuit. Solder the RED wire to the hot
connection in the guitar’s circuit. In most cases where you are replacing a pickup,
the RED wire will be soldered to the same place as the hot wire of the original
pickup. The GREEN and BARE wires are soldered to ground. This connection is
usually made to the back of a control.
PHASE: If you install this pickup in a guitar with other pickup types and find the
pickups to be out of phase when they are on together (sounding hollow and thin),
you should reverse the phase of the Bluesbucker
™ by soldering its WHITE wire to
ground and its BLACK wire to hot. Solder the RED and GREEN wires together
and insulate the connection. When installing a Bluesbucker
™ in a guitar with single-
coil pickups (similar to Stratocasters ® ), it is usually necessary to reverse the phase
of the Bluesbucker ™ in this manner.
Standard Bluesbucker ™ Parallel Wiring
The Bluesbucker ™ can be wired in parallel humbucking mode. It will still cancel
hum, but it will be slightly less powerful than in series mode, with more highs and
an overall “cleaner” sound. To do this, solder the RED and WHITE wires together.
This will be the hot connection. Solder the GREEN and BLACK wires together.
This will be the ground connection. The bare wire will also go to ground. If you
need to reverse the phase of the pickup for compatibility with other pickups, the
GREEN and BLACK connection will be hot and the RED and WHITE connection
will be ground. The bare wire will still be grounded.
Dual Sound
This wiring will produce two different sounds, humbucking series and humbucking
parallel. A double-pole, double-throw (DPDT) miniature switch (DiMarzio catalog
number EP1106) or a push-pull pot (EP1200PP or EP1201PP) is required for this
option, shown here.
Be sure to make the jumper
connection on the switch. The
wire labeled HOT OUTPUT
should be connected to the
same place as the hot wire
from your original pickup. The
wire labeled GROUND
OUTPUT is soldered to
ground.
To reverse the phase of the pickup, reverse these two wires: HOT OUTPUT will go
to ground, and GROUND OUTPUT to hot. The bare wire from the 4-conductor
cable is always soldered to ground.
Dual Sound with Single-Coil Switching
Follow the same diagram as for Dual Sound above, but use a three-position (on-
on-on) DPDT mini switch (DiMarzio catalog number EP1108.) The two outside
positions will be series and parallel humbucking; the center position will be single-
coil (non-humbucking).
Dual Sound with Single-Coil Switching, Reverse Phase
To reverse the phase of a
Bluesbucker
™ wired to an
on-on-on switch, do not
reverse HOT and GROUND
as on other humbuckers.
Instead, you must wire the
switch as shown to the right.
BLACK WHITE
RED GREEN
SCREW
COIL
STUD
COIL
GREEN
GROUND OUTPUT
HOT OUTPUT
WHITE
BLACK
RED
WHITE
GROUND OUTPUT
HOT OUTPUT
GREEN
RED
BLACK
Single-Coil Switching (Coil Splitting)
Single-coil switching will produce a bright, clean sound. Unlike most standard
humbuckers, there will not be a very noticeable decrease in volume compared to
series wiring. Note: As with conventional humbuckers, turning off a coil means the
pickup is no longer humbucking, and does not cancel 60-cycle hum.
Important: Because of the Bluesbucker’s unique design, the adjustable-polepiece
coil must be the coil that stays on. The green/white coil has very little output, and
is barely audible by itself.
To turn off one coil, you can use the same type
DPDT as is used for phase switching, or a simpler
SPDT switch, or a push-pull pot. This diagram to
the right shows the SPDT type. The RED wire is
the hot output, wired the same as described in the
Standard Humbucking Series Wiring section. The
GREEN and BARE wires are soldered to ground.
If the Bluesbucker ™ is to be wired in reverse
phase, it should be wired as shown to the right.
The BLACK wire is the hot output. The WHITE
and BARE wires are soldered to ground.
You may choose to have two pickups
go from humbucking to single-coil on
one DPDT switch, as shown in this
diagram to the right. The GREEN and
BARE wires from both pickups go to
ground. The RED wires are the hot
outputs.
Phase Switch
Phase switching will only function in an instrument with two or more pickups. The
effect will only occur when both pickups are on, and will be most obvious when the
pickups are at approximately the same volume. Only one of the pickups should be
wired to the phase switch, shown here, and it makes no audible difference which
pickup you choose.
The switch is the same type
as for Dual Sound switching,
DPDT (DiMarzio catalog
number EP1106) or push-
pull pot (EP1200PP or
EP1201PP).
To wire the pickup to a Dual Sound switch and a phase switch, wire it like this:
The wire labeled HOT OUTPUT is connected to the same spot as the original
pickup. The wire labeled GROUND OUTPUT is soldered to a ground connection,
such as the back of a control. The bare wire from the 4-conductor cable should
also be soldered to ground.
Note: We do not recommend wiring the Bluesbucker ™ to both a phase switch and
a single-coil switch. When the Bluesbucker ™ is in single-coil mode, reversing the
phase will also result in the green/white coil being on instead of the red/black, and
the sound will be barely audible.
Treble Compensation
Many players notice a loss of high frequencies when the volume control is turned
down. To avoid this, install a 560pF capacitor alone or with a 300K ohm resistor in
parallel (270K or 330K will also work) across the two “hot” legs of the volume
control, as shown in this drawing:
Try to solder these components cleanly to the legs of the volume control, without
breaking the solder connections that are already present.
Component Values
500K is the most common resistance value for humbuckers for both volume and
tone controls. Using 250K controls will result in a slightly warmer sound and a
slight drop in power. DiMarzio also offers a 1 Meg tone control (DiMarzio part
number EP1202), which slightly increases treble response and power. This control
can be combined with either 250K or 500K volume controls. A capacitor of .022µfd
is the recommended value for the tone control.
Additional Notes
All DiMarzio pickups have been potted in an exclusive penetrating formula to
eliminate squeal and subdue extraneous noise. For further noise reduction, we
recommend shielding the entire guitar internally with DiMarzio Shielding Tape
(EP1000). This will eliminate stray hum fields from the circuitry of your guitar.
If you have any problems or questions, please call our tech line, (718) 816-8112
between 12:00 PM and 5:00 PM Eastern Time or email [email protected].
Stratocaster  is a registered trademark of Fender Musical Instrument Corp., with which DiMarzio,
Inc. is not affiliated.
Wiring diagrams and technical information
may be found on our website
http://www.dimarzio.com
1388 Richmond Terrace
P.O. Box 100387
Staten Island, NY 10310 USA
Tel (718) 981-9286 Tech (718) 816-8112
Fax (718) 720-5296
Email: [email protected]
RESISTOR
CAPACITOR
WHITE
GROUND
BLACK
GREEN
GROUND
RED
BLACK &
WHITE
GROUND
BLACK &
WHITE
GREEN
GROUND OUTPUT
HOT OUTPUT
RED
GROUND OUTPUT
HOT OUTPUT
GREEN
WHITE
BLACK
RED