Series/Split Coil/Parallel + PTB + Free-Way 11-way

[ssstonelover]

This wiring springs out of my discussion with Antigua in his thread Duncan Duckbucker, Analysis and Review. His input helped shape what I could do to make an "Everything Axe" more useful and versatile.

Here is an electronics rework on the pickups and controls to get more voices. Overall the guitar has become more versatile and a lot of the settings can be pre-set to favorite positions so you are not overwhelmed in a 'live' performance, but just shuttling between 2-3 favorite contrast settings (rhythm/lead/etc)
-Due to my repurposing of the existing pickguard (already with 2 DPDT switches) I had some constraints on placement of additional switches. The main 5-way switch was also changed out to a Free-Way, also chunkier than the original model. However you can move the parts to suit your purposes.
-For the standard tone pot I ended up using a no-load A250K with a small .012uF capacitor. I think that suits these SD pickups (Little 59/DuckBuster/JB jr.) which don't really need high frequencies brought down much if at all).
-For the bass cut tone pot I used an Alpha C1M pot from Mouser with a .0022uF cap. This cap value is a default for a standard G&L. I think I should have a bit more cut to thin out the pickups (in some positions) and will need to go to .0033uF or 0047uF to have a bit more dramatic effect, so that change is still pending while I test the rig "as-is".
-I have some quick connects installed (jack-volume wiring and the bridge ground) so removing the pickguard is a cinch for reworking cap values.
-I used 3 on-on-on DPDT switches to get not only the parallel and series, but the single coil option as well, just to see what the result would be.
-All the DPDT switches have the shortest toggle handles you can buy, if you look around, so happily don't interfere with knobs or the Free-Way switch.
-I widened the control cavity rout slightly to accommodate all the goodies and get an easy drop-in fit (so wires don't need any coaxing).

-The initial lesson learnt is that there is no appreciate advantage to the extra work in getting the single coil switch position. The sound is virtually identical to the parallel mode setting (at least at the volumes I've tried so far (lowish non-rock star levels). [Edit: I now tried at higher volumes and can hear some difference. Oddly the parallel sound appears to have more treble and be a bit cleareras a result] In fact only by using the multimeter and checking DC resistance can I really know for sure I am either in single coil or parallel mode. This is likely the result of interplay between impedance and capacitance when shuttling between single coil and parallel coil modes which effectively cancel out resonant peak change and thus make them sound similar. In discussion with Antigua in this thread, he surmised:

"I'm a little surprised you didn't hear a difference between parallel and split, because you really hear a difference with full sized humbuckers. This is an educational experiment though, because it goes to show that the reason split and parallel [work] is because you have two coils reading the strings instead of one, but in this case the two coils are so close together that it doesn't matter, they're effectively reading the same harmonics from the string, and this is further proof that a single coil sized humbucker doesn't have the potential to sound like a full sized humbucker.
"When the humbuckers are split, you have half the inductance and about double the capacitance as compared to series, but in parallel you have about a quarter the inductance and quadruple capacitance, so the proportions of L and C get re-arranged, but the resonant peak ends up remaining nearly the same, although the impedance changes a bit for each wiring mode."

-Simplifying to on-on DPDT individual switches or alternatively using using push pull switches on pots would get the same result and make total sense plus a cleaner look, if you would be using single coil size HB pickups. Of course if you are setting this up with full size humbuckers, then by all means stay with the design 'as-is' as there will be audible differences in the 3 modes (parallel/series/split).

-There was actually one fringe benefit to doing the single coil option. In achieving the RWRP setup with either of the other pickups for the mid pickup (the Strat 2 and 4 positions) I found transposing the hot and ground leads on the DPDT relative to the other switches solved the hum. In other words just changing the coil on the switch did not reverse coil direction too.
-The sound/tone range is way cooler now and more versatile. It has a lot more lower end girth, so into HB territory particularly when 2 or more pickups are put in series (see below).
-The Free-Way switch is cool as you can get two or 3 pickups in series together (whether or not they are in series or parallel individually). You can achieve some heavy low sounds/chords. To that end I rigged up a further switch to get all 3 pickups in series (independent of whatever mode they are in individually). It's actually not too crazy, and you can lighten the bass if you need to with the bass cut pot anyway.
-Just remember a lot of the switches can be 'pre-set' to favorite positions so you are only really moving the 5-way switch only in a live context yet still getting lots of variation.