Gemini Pickups Wiring General Information

Gemini humbuckers are designed for series wiring. The two coils are connected internally in series. In most cases, there is no centre tap and parallel wiring would produce very poor results.

They each have one or more start leads and two or more end leads to the wiring. Any start lead can be connected to the live output and any of the end leads to the earth output of the switching used. The maximum number of sounds is obviously the multiple of the two numbers. 1 x 2 = 2, 2 x 2 = 4, 2 x 4 = 8 and 3 x 3 = 9.

However, some wiring combinations produce sounds that are nearly identical. The recommended wiring includes only the designed sounds. There are two for the 3 conductor designs, six each for the Medusa, Chameleon II, Hydra II and Cerberus II.

Sequence of wiring

The sequence in which switches and controls are connected is important for succesful results when installing pickups.

Pickup mode switching
Volume and/or tone if they are individual for the pickups
Pickup selector switch
Volume and/or Tone if master
Output to jack socket

One of the commonest ways to fit Gemini multi-mode pickups is to use a guitar with 2 x tones and 2 x volumes, convert it to master and volume with 2 x 6 way rotary switches. In this case, the position of the tone and volume in the sequence must change to be after the pickup selector instead of before. The great advantage of this approach is that no woodwork is required.