How to wire a Seymour Duncan Triple Shot ring

With a Seymour Duncan Triple Shot ring, all five humbucker leads solder to the ring itself: white, green, black and red to the pads printed W, G, B and R, and bare to the pad printed Gnd. Only the ring’s own cable goes to the controls. In our one-humbucker drawing, that cable’s white conductor goes to the volume’s left lug, and its black and bare conductors go to the volume casing, on the spot the drawing’s legend marks for ground connections.

All 18 Triple Shot diagrams in our library put the pickup leads on the ring pads this way. Each diagram lists four ring settings for its humbucker: series, parallel, or a split to one coil (labelled slug coil and adjustable coil). Everything after the ring is ordinary volume, tone and toggle wiring. This article walks through the one-humbucker diagram, then the two-humbucker toggle diagram, then the push/pull variants.

What changes when the ring goes in

On a plain Seymour Duncan humbucker the harness handles the coil wiring. In our drawing of one humbucker with one volume, the pickup’s black goes to the volume’s input lug, green and bare go to the volume casing, and red and white are soldered to each other and taped.

With a Triple Shot, none of the pickup’s leads reach the controls. The diagram notes say:

• each humbucker’s white, green, black, red and bare leads solder to the ring pads printed W, G, B, R and Gnd, colour to matching letter;
• the ribbon from the pads to the two mini switches is inside the ring, so there is nothing to wire there;
• the ring cable leaves two unlabelled pads on the ring and shows white, black and bare conductors at the controls.

So in the one-humbucker Triple Shot drawing, the ring cable’s white takes the volume’s left lug, the place the plain drawing gives the pickup’s black, and its black and bare take the casing. The two leads you would normally join and tape, red and white, go to their own pads, and the ring’s switches take over the coil wiring.

One humbucker, one volume, one tone

The simplest complete harness is our drawing 1H_1TS_1V_1T, one humbucker on a Triple Shot ring with volume and tone.

The parts are a humbucker (the drawing uses a JB Model SH-4), a Triple Shot ring, a 500k volume and a 500k tone (CTS 500k Audio Pot), a .047 µF capacitor, an output jack (Switchcraft #11) and the bridge ground wire.

At the ring

At the controls

The tone’s right lug is left unconnected. The drawing’s legend marks its grey “Solder” spots as the places for ground connections, and the drawing puts them on the pot casings.

The library also has the layout without the tone control, 1H_1TS_1V, drawn as one humbucker on a Triple Shot ring with volume. It is the same ring and volume wiring, with the jack sleeve and the bridge ground wire on the volume casing.

What the four settings do

If you want to know what series and parallel mean inside a humbucker, our series vs parallel wiring article explains both, and the coil split wiring diagram guide covers splits.

Two humbuckers on a three-way toggle

For a two-humbucker guitar, each pickup gets its own ring. Our drawing 2H_2TS_3G_1V_1T, two humbuckers on Triple Shot rings with a three-way toggle, volume and tone, puts both ring cables on the toggle.

The pickups in the drawing are a ’59 Model SH-1 neck and a JB Model SH-4, with a Switchcraft 3-Way Toggle, a 500k volume, a 500k tone and a .047 µF capacitor. Each pickup solders to its own ring exactly as in the table above. At the controls:

Three toggle settings and four settings on each ring give 48 combinations, and the diagram lists every one. With both rings on series, each end of the toggle gives one humbucker and the middle gives both in parallel. In the middle with the bridge ring on parallel, for example, the diagram gives the neck humbucker (both coils) in parallel with the bridge humbucker (coils in parallel).

The library has the same rings with other control layouts, all on a three-way toggle with 500k pots:

• master volume (2H_2TS_3G_1V);
• master volume and two tones (2H_2TS_3G_1V_2T);
• two volumes (2H_2TS_3G_2V);
• two volumes and a master tone (2H_2TS_3G_2V_1T);
• two volumes and two tones (2H_2TS_3G_2V_2T).

Adding a phase push/pull

None of the ring’s four settings is a phase setting. The phase diagrams add one with a 500k push/pull pot. Our drawing 2H_2TS_3G_1VppPH_1T, two humbuckers on Triple Shot rings with a push/pull phase volume and tone, uses a CTS 500k push/pull as the master volume.

One ring cable now goes to the push/pull’s switch instead of straight to the toggle and ground. Its white goes to the middle-left lug and its black to the middle-right lug. The switch’s top and bottom lugs are cross-wired in an X, the bottom-left lug goes to the casing, and the bottom-right lug feeds the toggle’s right lug. That ring’s bare still goes to a casing Solder spot. The other ring is wired as before, white to the toggle’s left lug and black and bare to the frame lug.

Note the difference from the plain toggle diagram: on the phase-switched ring the black conductor is no longer a ground: it goes to the push/pull, not to the casing. Per the diagram’s checks, pulling the volume puts the two pickups out of phase in the middle position of the toggle. The diagram lists 96 combinations: 48 with the knob down and 48 with it pulled.

The phase switch also comes in these layouts:

• master volume only (2H_2TS_3G_1VppPH);
• master volume and two tones (2H_2TS_3G_1VppPH_2T);
• two volumes, phase on the neck volume (2H_2TS_3G_2VppPH), and the same with a master tone (2H_2TS_3G_2VppPH_1T);
• two volumes and two tones, phase on the bridge volume (2H_2TS_3G_2VppPH_2T).

Phase and series/parallel together

The largest Triple Shot diagrams add a second push/pull that puts the two pickups in series with each other. In our drawing 2H_2TS_3G_2VppPHppSP, two humbuckers on Triple Shot rings with push/pull phase and series/parallel volumes, the neck volume’s push/pull is the phase switch and the bridge volume’s push/pull is the series/parallel switch. The diagram’s checks:

• both knobs down and both rings on series: each toggle position gives the selected humbucker, or both in parallel in the middle;
• pull the bridge volume: the middle and bridge positions give both pickups in series, and the neck position is open;
• pull the neck volume: the middle position puts the two pickups out of phase.

That neck position going silent with the series/parallel knob pulled is how this diagram is drawn, not a wiring fault. The diagram lists 192 combinations. The same pair of push/pulls also comes with a master tone (2H_2TS_3G_2VppPHppSP_1T), with two tones and the switches swapped between the volumes (2H_2TS_3G_2VppPHppSP_2T), and as a phase volume with a series/parallel tone (2H_2TS_3G_1VppPH_1TppSP).

Checking the harness

The diagrams’ bench checks are about where the signal goes in each setting. Work through them in this order:

1. Set every ring to series. For one humbucker, the full humbucker should reach the volume and the jack tip. For two, each toggle position should give the selected humbucker, and the middle both in parallel.
2. Step each ring through parallel, slug coil and adjustable coil. Each setting should still reach the tip, in every toggle position.
3. On a phase or series/parallel harness, repeat with each knob pulled and compare the result with the checks above.

If a setting does not reach the tip, compare the five pickup leads with the pad table above and the ring cable with the controls table. Our multimeter course covers continuity and resistance checks, and how to fix a dead pickup goes through a silent pickup step by step.

Next step

Open the one-humbucker Triple Shot diagram or the two-humbucker toggle version and compare its parts list with your guitar. The full set is in the Seymour Duncan wiring diagrams section of the library, and the controls and switching course covers toggles and push/pulls.

Diagrams used

• One humbucker with one volume: the plain humbucker for comparison.
• One humbucker on a Triple Shot ring, volume and tone (1H_1TS_1V_1T) and volume only (1H_1TS_1V): pad letters, ring cable, four settings.
• Two humbuckers on Triple Shot rings, three-way toggle, volume and tone (2H_2TS_3G_1V_1T): toggle wiring and the 48 combinations.
• Two humbuckers on Triple Shot rings, push/pull phase volume and tone (2H_2TS_3G_1VppPH_1T): the phase switch.
• Two humbuckers on Triple Shot rings, push/pull phase and series/parallel volumes (2H_2TS_3G_2VppPHppSP): series/parallel between the pickups.