Dynasonic pickups, three wires??

[Miguello]

I bought some actual Dearmond Dynasonics, and they have three wires? Bare ground, white, and a red. Which one of them gets grounded and which one goes to the pot lug? I searched the interwebs, and a I see a LOT of people asking, and no one giving a definite answer... I saw a lot of well I have Fralins or TV Jones, or any other brand, and they get wired like THIS....

Thanks for any help....

 

[MadKaw]

The site I would normally look at seems to be infected with malware at the moment... as near as I can figure out on my own, black and red are common, white is hot.
I give that about a 50% confidence level.

 

[Miguello]

No black. Bare ground, thin red, and a thin white.

 

[Miguello]

No one knows this? I find that hard to believe with as many mod friendly people that we have here.

 

[Mellowcat]

Here's an old Martin covered DeArmond. It doesn't have a lead on it right now. The hot comes out of the pickup. In this case it's red. The ground wires connect to the lug.

 

[Ricochet]

Somehow I seem to recall white is hot but the only pic I could find shows red is hot. Guitar is in storage or I would check.

 

[Miguello]

Unfortunately the design on the bottom is entirely different now. It does not have the long posts when springs and all that stuff there's two wires red and white on the back of the pickup that attach to two posts on one end of the pickup.

 

[Ricochet]

Unfortunately the design on the bottom is entirely different now. It does not have the long posts when springs and all that stuff there's two wires red and white on the back of the pickup that attach to two posts on one end of the pickup.

You can pick either red or white as the hot, just be consistent for both pickups.

 

[Miguello]

So in other words if I screw up in reverse them it'll be out of phase in the middle it's pretty much like a telecaster. So the other wire goes to the ground?

 

[tartanphantom]

Unfortunately the design on the bottom is entirely different now. It does not have the long posts when springs and all that stuff there's two wires red and white on the back of the pickup that attach to two posts on one end of the pickup.

Ok, so first things first-- That is not a traditional Dynasonic. It's actually a DeArmond 2000, which is an updated version of the Dynasonic, but actually quite different in build design. I do know that the current DeArmond Company (NOT the same as DeArmond-Rowe, the original company) markets these as "Dynasonics".

It's kind of like FMIC Gretsch is not the same as pre-Baldwin Gretsch, but they are related.

In any case, you are dealing with a single coil pickup, and in the case of these pickups neither the bridge or the neck version are reverse-wound, hence they are not hum-canceling in the middle switch position. Because of this, as long as you wire both the neck and bridge pickups the same way, it won't make any difference whether you wire the red as hot or the white as hot. Since the output is AC, it really doesn't matter as long as multiple pickup arrays are all wired the same way. In the AC electrics world, White is usually considered "hot" and black or blue is considered "neutral". Whichever one you choose as the hot lead, just be sure to wire the other lead to ground together with the bare lead.

 

[stiv]

Yeah, I was about to point out that the one in the pic it’s not a Dynasonic but a 2000. Dynas has long magnets with springs for adjustable heights, 2000 are more similar to a P90 in construction.
Master Tartanphantom beat me on that.

 

[Miguello]

Well someone better tell Dearmond that then. When I said actual Dearmond Dynasonics I meant not the cheap junk knockoffs that 20 different dealers sell. Sorry I didn't want to buy a set of pickups that were twice the value of the guitar either. Actually 3-5 times the value of the guitar now that I am looking at them. Either way the problem is solved, and thank you for the info

 

[Miguello]

It lives, and sounds TEN times better than the original mini buckers.

 

[JackNangle]

Looks great! Did they drop straight in the routes or did you have to do woodwork?

 

[Miguello]

I buzzed the edges of the covers with a makita mounted flap wheel. WAY less trouble, and no body touch ups.

 

[Miguello]

Made a tortoise guard and matching truss cover. Sounds freaking amazing!!

 

[JackNangle]

Looks great, I really want a dynasonic guitar!

 

[Miguello]

What looks even better is that it has a dark brown back that looks really good with the tortoise.