Small 4 pin connectors for pickups?

[jmfranc]

I want the ability to swap out a pickup without doing all my wiring over. I am looking for a SMALL 4 pin connector that would keep as much quality signal as possible and need it to fit in the small cavity between pickups. I am A/Bing Super 2s and Dual Sounds and maybe some more down the road. A link would be great. Something from mouser.com? I just don't know what to get.

I guess I need two of the 4pin for the humbuckers and one 2 pin for the neck pickup.

I was looking at internal computer connectors since they are pretty small. Almost like a mini USB male and female.

[mgbills]

I'm interested as well. Ideally all pickup wires would go to a very small terminal block. I would also like to manage grounds in a similar way. I've found that even with a pro-grade soldering station, the 12 guage solid wire grounding buss begins to act like a big old heat sink. It would be great to have the pickups easily diconnectible for the control's.

Any info would be great. I've been combing the big electric houses. Most terminal blocks are either Molex type (and require a crimping machine to put the push-type ends on, or are just too large.

[jmfranc]

Well, no one else is chipping in so I thought I'd share my research and questions:

You've got 10 wires (4 per h/b and 2 for single).

Since I am building this guitar I can make room where need be. And I was thinking any cables that are used to carry power should give the best performance. I was looking at some small mini USB connectors but I think they are just meant to be used with so little signal that it should be used. So, I am looking at copper. Here's where I think I'm heading:

I am thinking of trying one of these cables (http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/NjAwWDc1MA==/$%28KGrHqJ,!i4E7E2,fQCHBO9Hj%296GpQ~~60_12.JPG) - this would take care 6 of the cables and then just need another with a 4 pin.

Cut the cable in half and connect and you now have your connectors after soldering your p/u wires to them. Anyone see anything wrong with that? Loss of signal quality? Know of a better solution? Please let us know!

[mgbills]

What's the wire guage into those plugs? I'm trying to guage the size.

Thanks jm

[waldo041]

this idea is exactly how jerry's travis bean 500 #12 was wired, so it will work no problem.

barring any fancier wiring then tigers scheme, you can combine the grounds of all the pickups down to 1 and eliminate 2 of the 10 total you have. so you would only need an 8 pin connector.

as for the 4 pin type, look into the 4 pin power connectors in computers. those are the exact type used in jerrys guitar mentioned above.


peace,
waldo

[TI4-1009]

What's the wire guage into those plugs? I'm trying to guage the size.

Thanks jm

I believe the wire guage of the four coming from the pickup is technically called "RCH"

[broesau]

Doesn't Emg use small connectors on their pickups?

[Pete B.]

Back in my college days we used to use small bread-boards for simple connections.
Maybe something like this would work good for quick pickup swaps (just a quick sample pic I found on the net to show the size).
Radio shack or similar supply places have these in all kinds of sizes/shapes.
The blue stuff underneath is a product called "Fun-Tak" made by Loc-Tite. I make little pillars out of the stuff and use it for quick pickup swaps, to hold the pickup in place instead of screwing it in (you can quickly move them around easily, get the poles to line up perfectly, try forwad/reverse angles, put it in 180 degrees out, quickly move from neck to bridge, etc).