F100 Wiring Question

Hello All,

I'm new to this forum, so sorry if this is the wrong board, mods please feel free to move it if so.

I have an early 80's F100 that I was given many years ago. It was in pretty bad shape and in several pieces, and the guy I got it from knew nothing about it. I didn't know what it was either, but I have done a lot of research and have slowly been piecing it back together over the past year or so. I'm by no means wealthy, so I have had to forgo OEM parts, but I have been carefully selecting parts that perfectly so I don't damage the guitar in case someday I have the funds to correctly restore it. There is some concern that I may not have the original neck, so a full restore may not truly be possible, but still.

When I got it, it only had one pickup and the existing pickup was pretty banged up and rusty. The wiring is in questionable shape, and the plastic is cracked. It definitely needs to be replaced. OEM replacements seem to run about $100 a piece which unfortunately I don't have to put towards the guitar right now. I would like to buy correct pickups one day, but for now I would love to just get the thing playable after all this time. I have found and purchased a cheap but well-reviewed set of mini-humbuckers that fit in the stock pickup holes perfectly. Unfortunately, my guitar technical knowledge is limited.

I do know a bit about electronics, so I have no issue reading the schematics, my problem is that the pickups I have only have two wires as opposed to the stock pickups which have three. I realize that the stock pickups were able to switch between active and passive mode, but obviously that will not be possible with these aftermarket pickups. I have this wiring configuration: http://www.guitarsbyleo.com/GALLERY2/main.php?g2_itemId=3075, however on my electronics the "bridge pickup" position on switch one is jumpered over to switch two with a small capacitor. There may be other small changes as well, but that's the only one I have found thus far.

My questions are as follows:

* Can I just wire these pickups in to VR1 and S1 as though they were the stock pickups in humbucking mode? I would cap the single coil wires if I did this.

* If so, can I still wire the bridge pickup to that position of S1 even though there appears to be a jumper over to S2?

* Am I making an egregious mistake with this whole endeavor?

Any advice or tips would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

I'm not techy enough to answer your questions regarding the wiring. But, I can say that the contemporary F-100 pickups are wound differently than the originals. So, new replacement G&L pickups will likely not achieve the true vintage sound that it once had.

In reading your post, it sounds like this particular F-100 was pretty far gone. Yes, you can certainly restore it. But, with lots of original examples out there selling for reasonable players grade prices you could have a lot of money wrapped up in this one to restore it to correct vintage specs. Pictures would be helpful to determine how to proceed and give a better indication if it is worth the extra effort to restore to correct vintage specs versus assembling a functional parts guitar.

Sentimentality may also be a deciding factor. Is this guitar sentimental to you? If not, you may be better off financially to just make a functional parts guitar out of it and wire it for optimal performance with the new pickups you select.

Just my 2 cents.

Thanks for the input.

The guitar is not sentimental to me at all, and at the moment I am indeed essentially just treating it like a parts guitar and pursuing assembly within my means. I just wanted to make it clear that I'm not butchering this thing or doing anything irreparable even though I'm not using all OEM parts. I got some <censored word> on another forum a few months ago from a guy who said I should sell what I have to a collector if I can't properly restore it myself, but at this point it's more about completing this project for myself than truly restoring the guitar.

There may come a time when I do sell it to a collector, and I realize it isn't going to fetch much, but I want it to be in restorable condition when I do so out of principle. I am not passionate about G&L guitars, but I am passionate about other things, and I don't like when people permanently alter something valuable. Right now I just want to get the guitar playable, and I figure I can do so while still being a good steward to the parts that are still salvageable.

Cool of you to want to treat it in a noble way. Anyway, sounds like the new pickups can't be split without hacking into the wire between the coils? I'm not familiar enough with F100 wiring/pickups despite having one of my own. From what I understand, active and passive pickups were the same though.

Would love to see pics; is it hardtail or trem? How many pieces? Could be it's not a total lost cause

Cool of you to want to treat it in a noble way. Anyway, sounds like the new pickups can't be split without hacking into the wire between the coils? I'm not familiar enough with F100 wiring/pickups despite having one of my own. From what I understand, active and passive pickups were the same though.

Would love to see pics; is it hardtail or trem? How many pieces? Could be it's not a total lost cause

Here's some pics from back when I didn't even know what it was: https://imgur.com/gallery/mca0F

I've been taking some pics along the way, I may post some when it's finished.

It's a tremolo bridge but the bar is long gone. I did not paint the body that hideous green, nor did I stain the neck. I have since stripped the body to (mostly) bare wood and I'm prepping to paint it Chinese red. The stain/poly job on the neck is not terrible, so I will likely keep that as-is. As aforementioned, some have said it may not be the original neck. I had to replace: tuning machines, nut, pickups, and lots of hardware. Bridge, electronics, springs, and all major hardware was included so that was lucky.

As of today the only thing I still need to purchase is fretboard inlays. I figure I can wait on those until I get it up and running since it's playable without them and I want to choose them based on how they will look with the assembled guitar.

Cool of you to want to treat it in a noble way. Anyway, sounds like the new pickups can't be split without hacking into the wire between the coils? I'm not familiar enough with F100 wiring/pickups despite having one of my own. From what I understand, active and passive pickups were the same though.

Would love to see pics; is it hardtail or trem? How many pieces? Could be it's not a total lost cause

The current MFD humbuckers are four wire like the originals but are wound with more wire.
See: 2007 Custom Creations F-100 Return Edition and 2009-present standard production F-100 Picture Diagram and
List of pickups used in G&L guitars.

Hope this helps.

Yep. Sounds like whatever he's trying to use are two wire, meaning without further mods split tone won't work.

Yep. Sounds like whatever he's trying to use are two wire, meaning without further mods split tone won't work.

Do you by chance have any advice on wiring for a two-wire pickup? I know that split tone won't work and that I will likely need to leave one of the switches in a certain position, I just don't know exactly which leads to wire to.

What sort of pickups are you installing? It may be possible with some pickups to open the cover and solder in a third lead, but maybe not with minis. Leaving the black wires off S2 would I believe leave that three-way doing totally nothing and give you full humbucking tone. You might try asking on the Seymour Duncan forum for some wiring expertise on how you might still retain at least the Bass Boost functionality from that switch, but I'd be scared to make a recommendation on my own and have you waste your time.

Looks like the control plate is indeed for an active; cool. Do you actually have the preamp still? G&L's online store should also sell you things like a vibrato arm ferrule etc.

What sort of pickups are you installing? It may be possible with some pickups to open the cover and solder in a third lead, but maybe not with minis. Leaving the black wires off S2 would I believe leave that three-way doing totally nothing and give you full humbucking tone. You might try asking on the Seymour Duncan forum for some wiring expertise on how you might still retain at least the Bass Boost functionality from that switch, but I'd be scared to make a recommendation on my own and have you waste your time.

Looks like the control plate is indeed for an active; cool. Do you actually have the preamp still? G&L's online store should also sell you things like a vibrato arm ferrule etc.

I do indeed still have the pre-amp, the electronics themselves are in good shape. As mentioned in my first post, my internals are identical to the schematic I posted with the sole difference being that I have a capacitor running from S1 to S2.

I posted in the Seymour Duncan forums, thanks for that idea. I don't think I will open the pickups and try to get a third wire involved, I think at this point my plan is just to wire them directly to S1 and the grounds to VR1. I think that should give me active humbuckers and leave S2 dead as you stated. Only one way to find out I suppose.