Does your Explorer have push/pull coil-tapping pots? If it does, are you planning to keep them in your circuit, or are you going to eliminate that feature? Obviously, this is a critical question...
Almost all standard Humbuckers have one coil with adjustable screws for pole-pieces, and the other coil has (non-adjustable) Iron 'slugs' for pole-pieces. These coils are usually referred to as the 'screw coil' and the 'slug coil', respectively. Obviously, each of these coils has a beginning and an end, with one wire attached to each end of the coil. Two coils x two wires each = four wires. The pickup's output-cable has a fifth bare wire in it; this fifth wire is always grounded - it is to ground the pickup's metal chassis, and the shielding in the output cable.
As far as I can find from a net search, the Epiphone wire color-code (which is the same as Gibson's code) is as follows:
• The Red wire is the beginning of the slug coil (it is used as the pickup's 'hot' output).
• The White wire is the end of the slug coil (normally connected to the Green wire).
• The Black wire is the beginning of the screw coil (it is used as the pickup's ground).
• The Green wire is the end of the screw coil (normally connected to the White wire).
As I mentioned, there is a fifth wire, which is always grounded. According to the thread I linked to, this is a "big black wire" - I guess this is a layer of heat-shrink tubing, around the bare wire...
If you're replacing the stock pickups with another brand of pickup, you will need to find out what color they use for each of the four coil connections. If you make sure that you connect the beginning- and end-wires for both the slug-coil and the screw coil to match the positions listed above - not the colors - you should get the correct functions.
I hope this is all clear - if not, you can contact me at > info1@guitartech.us <.
Stephen White
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