Corsair Deluxe - factory wiring

i found this black one hiding in the back corner of a guitar shop, neglected and unwanted... 

i got the pearly pink one as a project, so i wired it up. it sounds great! 

so now i have the black one on the bench, because it sounds pretty wimpy   
i discovered the reason: the bridge humbucker is reverse polarity from the other pickups?  
it looks to be factory wiring...

here is a close-up of the cables from the two humbuckers
the cable at the top is the neck pickup, you can see the blue wire going to the ground connection. below it is the bridge pickup cable with the white wire going to the ground.


switch for the neck pickup (humbucker/off/single coil). red/black is center tap, white is hot. center lug is output

on/off switch for the middle pup

switch for the bridge pickup (humbucker/off/single coil). red/black is center tap, blue is hot(?). center lug is output


this guitar does not have a phase reverse switch so this makes the bridge humbucker always out-of-phase with the other pickups, and it sounds diminished and weak. maybe this is why it was so unloved?
the neck/middle pups are in-phase and sound normal.

this black one sounds nowhere near as good as the pearly pink one, so i am going to change the bridge pickup connections.

so i wonder about this... was this intended?
or is this a mistake from the factory? is it possibly evidence of declining QC in production, once things moved from the Matsumoku factory?

is there anybody around here that has a Corsair Deluxe that has factory wiring intact?

more pics...

okay, changing the blue and the white wire did the trick. now the bridge pickup sounds right!
 
and i found something interesting when i removed the knob in order to do the repair...

all three on the Corsair had the same label
they are metal knobs with straight slotted set screws
this sky blue spectrum has identical knobs, but no labels on those  
the body also has the bevelled heel just like the black Corsair 

I was never a fan of pointies, but these are amazing, that neck is unbelievable!

oh yeah, the neck is excellent! not too thin, but slender and very comfortable

the pickups are excellent, very clear sound, not muddy at all
and they sound good split to single coil too, no big drop off in output
there is a treble bleed cap that makes the volume pot very useable through the whole range
the pickup set is very well matched, combinations of humbucker and single coils are well balanced and the characteristic sounds come through in any pickup combination. 

the middle pickup is so good, it sounds quacky even all by itself

just great sounding, great playing guitars!

Are they the same pickups as the Spectrum Series II?

looking at this page
and the way they phrase it "2 dual coil and one single coil"
and they look similar
i think it is probably a good bet they are the same 


this pic lets you see the inside of the 'dual coil' pickups
each coil is run to the control cavity with it's own shielded cable

I really think there are no better necks available anywhere; I have them on my Clipper, Spectrum II and Genesis 2 and they are a revelation; even ol' fumble fingers here can rocket about the neck willy-nilly!!
I also think the pickups are nicely sorted and very usable indeed, and for the record, I really like the pink one!!

I nearly bought a replacement neck on ebay, except the seller had removed and sold the bolt inserts  .....it sold on 1 bid @ £14.99 !

I didnt fancy removing them from mine incase they didnt fit correctly, sure would have been nice to have a spare....