Pickup wiring question

[rspst14]

Hey guys, this may be a bit off topic, but it would be great if someone could explain to me what is going on in this wiring diagram:

http://www.seymourduncan.com/website/support/schematics/2hum_vol_tone_3way-w-ssp.html

My guitar has 1 volume, 1 tone, and a 3 way switch.  I have two DPDT push/pull pots, and two 4-conductor Duncan humbuckers.  I was thinking of wiring up some type of coil split or series wiring trick using the DPDT pots.  I came across this schematic, but I'm really not sure what's going on here.  I'd really appreciate it if someone could explain it to me.  Thanks.

Ryan

[Peter Snowberg]

In that schematic the switch allows you to choose between series and parallel wiring. If you use a DPDT ON-ON-ON switch, the center position is a single coil selection.

I would suggest playing with single coil, series/parallel, and phase switches. Try wiring up some toggles and letting them hang off your guitar for a week or two. Once you figure out which tones you like, wire things up to the pots and seal the guitar up again.

I really like phase switches and single coil switches. The side effect of that type of series/parallel switch is that the phase is also swapped along with the series/parallel swap. You might even want to consider wiring up both a series/parallel and a phase switch to one pickup and leaving the other as a basic humbucker. You could also mount an additional toggle switch in there for even more control. The options are just wide open.

Take care and happy exploring!
-Peter

[rspst14]

Thanks.  Is it possible to wire it up so that one push/pull pot switches the two pickups (not individual coils) between parallel and series, while the other splits the coils on both pickups?  That's how I initially wanted to wire it.

Ryan

[Peter Snowberg]

A series/parallel switch takes two switch poles so you would need a 4PDT switch to switch both at once.

The single coil switch on the other hand takes just a single pole so you could sure do that without a problem. There are two ways to do a coil split. One involves switching one of the coils out of the circuit and the other involves shorting one of the coils. I like the first method much better because I suspect that the second method may damp the string vibrations a tiny bit.

Take care,
-Peter

[Tubebass]

Peter, I think Ryan is saying that he wants to switch the pickups in series with each other. That's not a bad idea....I love the sound of two pickups in series and my bass is wired that way permanently, with a blend pot. It should be doable with a DPDT.

[Peter Snowberg]

Thanks Tubebase.

That's what happens when I reply to a post a minute or two after waking up. My cat decided to bring me a gopher early this morning and drop it next to my pillow. Maybe she's concerned about my diet. Yuck!

Anyway.... Sure you can series/parallel the two pickups. I have four toggle switches on one of my Strat-like guitars that allow for 19 or 21 combinations (can't remember which now) of series/parallel with a phase switch on the neck pickup. I love some of the series combos because they have higher voltage output.

Great idea on the blend pot. I don't really like the tone control on most guitars and blending a single coil into whatever you have mixed already can do some wonderful things for the complexity of the tone. I customized a friend's start with a stacked humbucker in the bridge position. I wired one of the humbucker coils up just like the single coil it replaced and then used a push-pull pot to select the phase of that coil as it went off to the 5 way switch. The other coil was wired out of phase and to the wiper of the pot (500K). One end of the element was grounded and the other end went to the output of the 5-way switch. The result was GREAT! You could dial in a degree of humbucking with the neck or middle coils (or a combo of both), you could get the stock middle-bridge combo or an out of phase combo, you could get a bridge humbucker, and you could dial in a variety of tones between single and humbucker for the bridge.

Phase is a really important variable IMHO.

Take care,
-Peter

[EdJ]

Hey those are great ideas Peter!
Maybe i can share one here too(this i learned from Anno Galama i must add).I had a broken humbucker laying around and did the following things with it.One coil i pushed out the iron bars(forgot how they are called)and mounted it undereath a P90.I had to drill 2 holes through the plastic for the 2 screws of the P90 that adjust the height,the screws in the p90 which go under the strings fit perfectly through the holes in the coil from the humbucker.I attatched a switch so i can switch between the P90 alone and the p90 with the coil in humbucking.To be honest you can barely hear the difference but in humbucking position the P90 is quiet now.Works great!The other coil of the humbucker i used instead of the capacitor in the tone control.I took out the screws and attatched one end of the coil to the tone pot and the other end to ground.
Remember the Lawrence filters?I once took one apart and it consist of two little coils(the L filter that is,the Q filter is the same only with a little cap attatched to it).I can now use my tone control to really control the tone not just dial from shrill to dull.
Ed

[Nasse]

There was nice series parallel circuit for two pickups with just regular strat five position switch (no extra mini toggle switches needed) in EPFM book. Did it fot two guitars and liked it.

[ryanscissorhands]

Well, I'm not an expert on wiring pickups. In fact, I suck. But if you want a cool pickup config with your 2 Seymour Duncan humbuckers, you could model the Godin Flat Five-X pickup config, and all you'd need is a 5-way switch. (This assumes that you can wire each coil separately)

http://www.godinguitars.com/flatfivex1.pdf

Go to the last page and it shows you what each of the 5 positions does. Pretty cool if you ask me. I don't know how to wire it, but if you could get some help, you'd get the best of speudo-single coils and humbuckers.