How to get 56 differents mic combinations on HSH guitar...

[N2h2]

Hi, for my second post I'll explain how I did to get over than 56 different mic combinations on my Jackson DK2 I already modified in the past to make it H-S-H mic config....
This mod is not very hard to install and cost less than 20 euros (30$).
the only hard thing if you know nothing about it is making additional holes in guitar body to install switch (it take some time and you have to be cautious to don't scratch your painting or break something)


First of all, you don't need to have a H-S-H config. This mod work for all guitars with 3 mics with 5 wire. even if it's a single coil. why? because many single coil have now the same method of wiring as humbucker, which mean:
1 north start wire / 1 north finish wire/ 1 south start wire / 1 south finish wire / 1 bare wire for ground...

So this mod work for strats, all HSH guitars and also with some HSS, SSH and HHH guitar.
Moreover than switching mic, this mod allow you to get some extra effect, WITHOUT USING ANY STOMPBOX ... I wasn't aware of that when i worked to create the wiring diagram, but i was soo happy when i discovered it. (I'll explain it in a second part...)

So first things first, what do i mean with 56 position? it seems to be impossible to have 56 different sounds only on 1 guitar? .
In fact yes, it's possible, If you count all different mic combination (5 ways switch) then same thing with one splitted. then with 2 splitted, then 3...
After all of that, it remain Phase inversion! so take all previous possibilities and inverse phase of 1,2... mic.

But a Schem is better to understand than all words:

In red you got standard mic config, in blue you got the single coil doubled, green is for mics with phase inverted.
purple overlay mean that you can find this config with other positions, without overlay means it's the only way to find this position.

Each different combination have a really different sound. There are absolutely no dead positions.
The fact is it's good to have some duplicated mic combination with different switches positions because it made the switch possible while playing.

All you need is your guitar, a 5 way standard switch, 3 dpdt switch and a push/pull potentiometer (notice that you can also replace the push pull part of the pot by a dpdt switch or a dpdt by a push pull.), and a special switch (i don't know how you call it, i found it at my electronics part dealer shop, this is a special switch looking like a DPDT switch, but: when you are on position 1it act like a standard DPDT, when you are on center position nothing is connected, and when you push it on position 3 it act as a DPDT but if you don't maintain the switch, it automatically go back to center position.)  An iron solder, and something to make holes in the guitar body.

Use my diagram below to wire your mics:


All grounds are connected together and also connected on jack outpout ground part and on the back of your potentiometers to avoid parasites.
Capacitor value for tone is something personal, usually, a 0.44micro F is used for Humbuckers and 0.22 micro F for singles. personally i wired a 0.22 and a 0.11 in parallel at same place (it give the perfect tone for what i play).
You can use all guitar mic you want with this mod, IF THEY GOT 4 WIRE AND A GROUND.

BE CAREFUL, this diagram was made for Seymour duncan microphone, Other kinds of mics have to be wired an other way because as eg. dimarzio use red wire for north start, Seymour use black wire for it :/
so just adapt the wiring as show on Pict below if you use different mic than me:




what each switch do with that wiring diag?

There are 2 phase inverter, one for each humbucker. there are one switch to split/double the "single coil",  the push/pull potentiometer (tone) force to use only one humbucker at a time when pushed and force to activate both humbucker if the other one is activated when pulled.
And the thing i called "special switch" permit you to split both humbucker at same time in position 1, let both humbucker doubled in position 2, and act like a kill switch in position 3 but this position has to be manually maintained ( when you stop maintaining it, you fall back on humbucker mod= center position) this is the way tom morello do his amazing scratch things in Rage again the machine by killing/activating/killing/activating... his volume with a hand while sliding on string with his other hand (first possible special effect)
All possible configs can be found on the first picture of this post.


And what it looks like:





Now about the effect part...

For example, configure your sound to use only bridge mic/splited/normal phase with distorded amps sound, play a note and maintain it, then fast switch bridge mic phase, switch back to normal phase, switch again... Like the tom morello technique but on a phase inverter instead of kill switch. you obtain almost the same sound as a Phaser stompbox give, BUT you can control it as you wish.
There are so much thing you can experiment with that config  that it would be too long and too hard to explain, so try it and make your own experience.

Now i did it on my favorite guitar i really think about doing it on two others... Because the possibilities are huge, i have strats sounds, humbucker sounds, hum cancelling sound, no hum cancelling sounds... It permite you to use very high gain/output mics with really crystal clean sound by splitting it, or using low gain output for hard metal by combining it with the one you need...

I hope you enjoy this tuto, and as usual, sorry for my crappy English, and if someone could tell me the name of the thing i called "special switch" it would help me a lot in future...
And if something appears unclear, don't hesitate to ask me...

[slacker]

Very nice ideas thanks for sharing them.
The special switch called a DPDT On-Off-On(momentary) or something similar depending on where you buy it from.

[N2h2]

ok, thanks.
As I'm french, i don't know the english term for many electronics part. and moreover, my dealer is unable most of the time to give me the official name of it... but That's it. thanks again...

[jasperoosthoek]

As I'm french, i don't know the english term for many electronics part. and moreover, my dealer is unable most of the time to give me the official name of it... but That's it. thanks again...

As a non-native English speaker I can understand your troubles. Google and wikipedia are my best friends. As you ask for it: Mic only refers to an acoustic microphone that record sound waves. What you mean is a pickup (sometimes also called pup). When I saw your post I originally thought that you placed your acoustic microphone at 56 different positions .

My Vigier Excalibur (Shawn Lane and Special) are HSH too. You are probably familiar with those. I personally don't need to have all the pickup possibilities but I installed a push-pull (DPDT switch) potmeter to split the humbuckers. My ideal HSH system would be a 5 way switch that operates like the stock Vigier, a switch to turn it into Stratocaster mode and maybe an anti-phase push-pull pot. But as I don't want to modify the Vigiers I might do that on a 'Frankenstrat'.

The biggest problem I would have with such a system is that I'd have to keep track of the switches all the time. Also if you accidentally push one of them you have to look at the positions. But as you say it works fine for you. Still, it's a very nice idea.

Have you ever considered connecting them in series as opposed to connecting them in parallel? Then there are probably another 100 positions to play with...

[ashcat_lt]

I only counted 54 which were not "purpled out" as redundant.  Did it kind of quick, though, so I might have missed something.

I did notice a number of redundancies which you seem to have missed as they are not "purpled".  

Also, while I can sort of dig where you're going with switching phase on one pickup for special effect (it can sometimes cause a sustaining note to break into a harmonic and other similar things) we normally don't count these things as seperate sounds.  It will sound exactly the same either way, and it's only the act of switching in mid sustain which causes your effect.

Any combination of coils where they are all out of phase is likewise not really a different sound.  |N + M| = |(-N) + (-M)| and so on.

I can't actually see your scheme to verify whether it actually.  You have come across quite a number of useful tones, but it ain't quite 56 distinct tones.  

BTW - you're missing quite a few of the tones which are available from this 6 coil (including the splittable Middle as 2) config.  The "internal parallel" combinations of the HB coils are all missing.  Also, there are no "system series" combinations.

[N2h2]

Well.

1/Thx for "pickup" word... my mistake

2/I probably missed one or 2 redundant position. it's true...

3/ Yes indeed more positions are available with inverting phase of middle pickup. series/parallel wiring. but i really think soo much position is more than I'll ever need. . If I'm not wrong, it must be about 250 possibilities.
I alredy have 4 more little switch. It'sstill playable and easy to switch while playing. but one or 2 more would become hard to use.
Of course, it switches need to be placed in a good place to be easily accessible when playing. that's why i didn't put them on a straight line. for me it's the best way to place it, but I'm sure it couldn't be the perfect place for everyone, all depends on how you play and handle your guitar while playing.

4/ About phase inversion:
True, You should have exactly the same sound if you have a pickup in normal or reversed phase. but in reality no... As the2 part of my pickups seems to be a little different. I didn't noticed any differences when i tried it with heavy distorsion, but with a clear sound, it can be noticeable. (I play on a tube amp, i don't know if difference is noticeable on a transistor amp).
I have not enough skills to understand why my pickups have different sound with normal vs inverted phase, but it's a bit different for sure.
Sometime theory is different than reality, here this is the case.
And difference is a lot bigger if 2 pickups are used at same time.

In my case, |m+n| is different than |(-m)+(-n)|
If someone can explain me why i would be happy to learn a new thing...

This post wasn't made to be exhaustive about all possibilities.
Many guitarist spend their money on equalizer, fx stompboxes... to have a different sound. sometime, you can really change your tone just by installing a switch. It was just to show that there are an incredible amount of possibilities of sounds on only one guitar... At least 10 times more than the default configuration of almost every guitars you can find on music stores and not for more money than a brand new set of strings...

[Skreddy]

The old Schecter pickup system (I think it's somehow associated with Mark Knofler as shown here) used 3 toggles for pickup selection and phasing (middle position is "off").  Lots of cool sounds, and yes, a pickup does sound different when its phase is reversed (don't ask me why or how).

I'm thinking, though, that the standard 5-way blade switch, with its 2 separate, parallel sides, has yet to be fully exploited.  The idea Fender had of using the 2nd side to select tone knobs is okay, but so much more is just waiting to be done.

It's a very serious philosophical matter we're delving into regarding product/instrument design.  Some folks like every option to be exposed individually with lots of switches and knobs, and some folks like to think of ways to just get the most useful options integrated into the simplest interface possible.  Both are definitely "good."  There are plenty of tweakers out there who will make good use of every option available.  But I think the most commercial design philosophy is the one where you hide the complexity from the user and just force the product to work the way you feel is best.

[Skreddy]

Edit: I just did some more research into the Schecter pickups I have, and they're super-duper overwound (like 14k), but one of the wires is "tapped" (like half or ~7k).  So that switching system is not changing phase at all, and I was wrong about that in my previous post (too late to edit, hence the extra post).  Carry on...

[ashcat_lt]

Some folks claim that they can hear a difference as to whether the speaker pushes toward them or pulls away from them with the initial attack.  I can't. 

I can imagine the possiblity that certain assymetrical compression/clipping schemes you might notice a difference when flipping the absolute polarity, but I still think it's kind of a stretch.

My best guess as to why it is that you hear a difference when flipping the phase on one pickup is that you know you've flipped the phase.  We call that a placebo effect in English.  Without a double-blind test I just don't really believe it.  Even then...

[N2h2]

I didn't told that the difference was huge. In fact it's really little. it's just a little difference in the amount of bass, mid and high frequencies.

I should have been more precise... I'll try:

In fact you cannot have 56 (or less as i forget some redundant) different sound if you use exactly same amplifier/stompboxes configuration.

As an example:
I'll randomly call 1, 2, 3 and 4 four different pickups configurations.

If i use clean sound on my amp with treble at 6, mid at 6 and bass at 6, sound 1, 2 and 3 are different but 4 seems to give same sound as 3.
Now i use same channel but i reduce mids at 3 and increase treble at 8. sounds 3 and 4 become different, but now, 1 and 2 sounds nearly the same way.
Moreover, many combinations sounds the sames way with a big distorsion.

Because some pickups combination are more precise for middles frequencies, other for treble ...
Many parameter have effects on some frequencies, Wood of guitars, electronics, tone capacitor, stompboxes, cable, amps/tubes, quality of soldering, and even environment (parasites, room reverb...)...
That's why i gave many info about use pickups, guitars.

Now maybe my good ears are involved... I know I'm able to notice when a string is not perfectly tuned (i can hear differences of tune when there is more than 2 or 3%, some of my friends cannot under 15-20%).
I also understand that some sounds are so close that it's almost useless to switch between them.
I just make that post to explain that no many things are needed to make a guitar become really versatil, just by adding some switch.
If there was many info about "specials guitar wiring" i wouldn't post, but i realised that it's difficult to find other things than the classic 5 position switch system when i tried to find info to mod my guitar. And it was to share some knowledge (even if it's not a revolution) because many of guys here gave me usefull info for other mod i did on my amps and stompboxes...

Of course, It can appears useless for some people, and not enough for some others.
This schematics is good enough to me and for what i play. Everybody is free to use it as inspiration to make his own mod. and for sure, It's not the better way to wire a guitar if you want maximum different sounds with minimum ammount of switches.

[jasperoosthoek]

If you say you hear a difference between the phase of a single pickup then believe that.
If you consider that the inner windings are smaller then they will more produce higher frequencies than the wider outer windings. And as all wire loop have an inductance, resistance and are capacitively linked to each other and the ground this will generate a very complicated network.

The windings that are closer to the ground side are less bothered by their capacitance with the ground as their voltage changes less. The wires closer to the output will change voltage more and this will leak more signal to the ground.

So depending which side you connect to the ground changes whether the inner trebly or outer less trebly loops leak more signal.

This is just a possible explanation. Just to say that there is no reason to assume that there is absolutely no difference. As you say, it is small.