Spin-a-split, master series, phase? Diagram added

The first and second requests sounds like the Series/Parallel Blend Pot w/ DPDT switch.
guitarnuts2.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=modules&action=display&thread=3863

Some ppl have problems with blend pot due to the taper, and some don't,
you may want to go with one of the various JP LP mods instead.
You won't hear much of a difference between the two coils on the neck pup also depending if it's in combo with the bridge pup.

John,

I must admit that I just had a closer look at the link you posted, and it looks pretty close to what I’m trying to achieve. I may borrow from it a fair bit! A couple questions from your description:

1) When you say series/parallel, that is between the two pickups correct? Not between the coils in a single pickup?
2) How do you have coil cut and tone control on the same pot?

Thanks for entertaining a newby. I can read the diagram as far as what is connected to what… but I’m not really experienced enough yet to figure out how it translates into the functionality you describe.

Very cool. So this might be a dumb question, but could you do one spin-a-split, say on the neck tone control, and then do what you've described to split the bridge coils with the other tone control, but still have it act as a master tone control as well? Or am I just getting rediculous now? Basically a hybrid of what I originally said, and your design.

Ok... so I did do a very rough sketch up. As it is my first time ever doing a pickup wiring design, I'm sure it is riddled with errors. That's where you guys come in! Please let me know if anything is unclear... I know it is a pretty rough drawing.



I started with the Seymour Duncan 2 humbuckers, 3 way, 2 volume 1 tone diagram as the base, and attempted to wedge in the following mods from other drawings:

1) Spin a slit on neck tone
2) Tone split (as per JohnH) on bridge tone
3) Phase switch on bridge push/pull
4) Master series/parallel switch on neck push/pull

On review just now I see that I took the red/white coil leads for the neck PUP to the wrong tone pot... probably should have just went to bed last night instead of pushing to finish this. Please factore those as connected to the centre lug on the NECK tone control.

This is based on Seymour Duncan colors. My actual pickups are GFS, and the colours are the same. Only difference is their wiring diagram shows the North start (black) connected to ground, and the South start (green) connected to hot. SD seems to have it the opposite... but my understanding is since the coils are in series it doesn't really matter which direction the signal flows through them. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

That's about it. Thanks for the help so far, and for helping me sort this mess that I've created above out!

If you feel like getting another Push/pull pot, here is a way to make your variale coil tap also function as a variable broadbucker.


ust as a note the phase switch is optional, however variable out of phaseness, and out of phase highs through the broadbucker could be an intresting sound

chille51-

With the phase switch "up" (IOW, connecting the top lugs as shown on the diagram), and with the series/parallel switch set to series (also "up") both pickups get connected to the neck volume pot "hot" lead. This defeats the series connection between the two.

Wow... I really am smashing my head against the wall here. How DO I have both out of phase and series at the same time?

Thanks Newey. I did go and look at JohnH's JP mod, and it did help, as did your description. Still not sure I got it right, but I think I'm headed in the right direction. I don't have Visio on my home PC to alter the drawing (did it at work), but these are the changes I have in mind:

- Delete the connection between lug F on phase switch and lug D on series switch
- Instead of going from centre lug on the neck volume to the 3 way, take that connection to lug D on the series switch instead
- Connect lug D through to 3 way

I think this works... but I'm probably still wrong. Anyone want to verify? It is basically what you said Newey, going from Pickup to phase switch to volume control to series switch to toggle. I think. LOL.

Yeah, I’m having a hard time with it myself. Are you sure the connection to the volume pot defeats the series setting? Because I was just thinking about it abstractly, and I’m not sure how you would have a series connection WITHOUT connecting to the volume pot. If the idea of the pickups being in series is that the negative lead on PUP 1 connects to the hot lead on PUP 2, thereby forcing the signal of PUP 1 to travel through PUP 2 before it gets to ground… well presumably that second hot lead is always going to be connected to a volume pot at some point, no? How else would you have volume control?
Maybe I’m missing something fundamental here? Not doubting you Newey, just trying to understand what I might be overlooking in my theory.

I think you are on the right lines with neweys post 15, but what's the problem?
J

I guess I have one question that might help me sort it out in my head a bit. I'm not sure which pickup I should be aiming to put first in the series. I've tried to draw it out both ways. In this case, I have the neck pickup being flipped out of phase on the phase switch. Do I then want the neck pickup first in the series, or last? Does it matter? Is one easier to achieve then the other?

I think this schematic sketch is probably what you want:



The bridge gets the spin a split instead of a tone pot, so 0 is fully split and 10 is full Hb. When I tried this I found most of the tone change happens between 0 and about 4, and it is nice to keep a bit of weight in a split bridge humbucker, by setting at about 1 or so. So it's a good option.

Each pup gets a volume control, which work to control mixes in both series and parallel modes. They should be 500k log taper, as should the other pots.

The master tone VR4 will split the neck when set at 10.

S1 is the standard toggle and S3 does series/parallel, overriding the main toggle when in series mode

S2 is neck phase and works in all modes, also changing which neck coil is split.

I've put SD colours so that if you have two identical SD pups, you get hum cancelling in all modes where both pups are split, in and out of phase. Confirm this by checking if both screw coils have the same magnetic polarity (ie do they repel each other when placed together - or similarly repel the same end of another magnet?)

Treble bleed circuits are added to the volume pots, highly recommended but optional.

I think all that will work fine, but there are a couple of niggling concerns about the master tone arrangement:
1. Having the master tone after the volume pots will mean that the tone control works differently when the volumes are reduced,since it is then not directly connected to the pickup coils. Its not unknown though, and Explorers are wired this way, so see what you think
2. A master tone across the output, when in series mode, will take the edge off the tone as compared to having it just for one pickup.

But I wouldn't worry too much, I think this is well worth a try. But you might like to make provision when wiring, to try changing the master tone to a neck-only tone, still with the neck split function. All you need to do is to move the output end on the tone cap to the top end of the neck volume pot ('10' on VR2 above)

cheers

John

Wow, thanks guys. Sorry it took me a while to get back to you, I was out of town this weekend. Thanks for the schematic John! And Newey, thanks for translating it into a wiring diagram if you ever get to it. I'm much better at reading those!

Seems basicly good. Just swap the red and white wires from the neck pickup where they connect to the phase switch, so the switch pushed in is in-phase.

Also, note the the pots are drawn assuming the shafts point downwards on the diagram, and the three main lugs on each pot are nearest the viewer, not on the far side.

cheers

John