Suggest some alrenate wirings for me!

[gdgross]

I'm converting my ESP strat to use a full sized bridge humbucker. I will have to rout out a bigger cavity for the humbucker, but I'm okay doing that. This is a player's guitar, not a relic. Pickups will be kinman aVn-69 in neck and middle (already installed), and rio grande bbq in the bridge (coming next week).

The question is what to do with position 4.

The others will be pretty much standard -
1 - Neck
2 - N/M in parallel
3 - Middle
4 - ??
5 - Bridge

Typical would be M/B in parallel, but I found that with normal strats, I hardly ever use that position. I generally prefer N/M to M/B for just about everything. Plus this is going to be a fat strat anyway, so that pickup combo wouldn't be the same.

So what should I do with the extra switch pos? N/M in series? B/N? B/M? B split?

I should be able to do any kind of switching that's suggested, as I have a super switch (which is like 5pst x4 or something equally ridiculous) coming in the mail. I kind of like simplicity in guitar wiring, but I'm not opposed to adding a dpdt push pull if the options are useful/cool enough.

Thanks!
Geoff

[newey]

gd-

The subject of Strat wiring with the Superswitch has been much discussed 'round these parts. The Schematics archive at the head of the Electronics and Wiring page has several such diagrams, and while not all feature a HB, several could easily be so adapted.

Here's one such:

guitarnuts2.proboards45.com/index.cgi?board=schem&action=display&thread=1178889702


Not exactly what you have in mind, but could be a starting point.

If it were me, my temptation would be to use a push/pull pot to turn the bridge HB on and off, with the pot being HB Vol. The switch can then give you all combos with the 2 single coils, including all 3 together. You could use the unused positions on the superswitch for other options, like the single coils in series or OOP. The other 2 pots could be neck/mid Vol and master tone. This would allow the HB to be independently "backed off" a bit if it overpowers the SCs when played in combination.

Of course, such a scheme loses the "HB alone" option, but the SC volume control can be dialed down to access the HB alone with the knob pulled up on the push/pull.

But that's my wants - not necessarily yours. The switch gives you plenty of options all by itself.

[bpdude]

I think it depends on what music you play.
If you play some jazz then you will find the N+M series useful, for a fatter sound.
I can also recommend the neck - bridge (humbucker or split) out of phase combination for a more funky rhythm sound. Because the humbucker will have a higher output then the neck pickup, the two won't cancel each other out completely. If you split the humbucker for this, you can select the coil that will make the two pickups hum canceling.

You could experiment by tying the cable ends together to the volume pot before finally deciding which combination you want to use.

[gdgross]

Thanks for the suggestions, guys. I'll do some searching around here.

The neck - bridge (oop) does sound interesting.

This guitar is going to end up more geared towards the rock side of things than anything else. I'm keeping my other strat a little more traditional. The singes I have in there are pretty hot already, so they just might mate well with the bridge HB even without splitting it. I'll play around when I get it.

[gdgross]

Okay, I think what I want to try is some combination of neck and bridge for pos 4. Not sure of phase, split, etc. yet.

But here's another question. I'd like to have just 1 volume pot. I know sc's want to see 250k and hb's want to see 500k.

Could it be as simple as adding a 500k (ok, 470k...) resistor in series with a 500k pot that gets switched in when the sc's are selected?

[ChrisK]

Could it be as simple as adding a 500k (ok, 470k...) resistor in series with a 500k pot that gets switched in when the sc's are selected?

No.

But, not to worry. Using 500K pots for volume with single coils will only make them sound a little brighter. That's why we invented tone controls.

If you do feel the need to reduce the brightness of the single coils, just switch a 470K resistor in parallel with them (and the 500K volume pot) for an equivalent 250k'ish loading.

[gdgross]

chrisk said:

Could it be as simple as adding a 500k (ok, 470k...) resistor in series with a 500k pot that gets switched in when the sc's are selected?

No.

But, not to worry. Using 500K pots for volume with single coils will only make them sound a little brighter. That's why we invented tone controls.

If you do feel the need to reduce the brightness of the single coils, just switch a 470K resistor in parallel with them (and the 500K volume pot) for an equivalent 250k'ish loading.

Doh! I meant in parallel anyway...

Thanks!

[gdgross]

So I found a wiring diagram on another forum that looks like it will switch in some 470k resistors when the SCs are selected and leave them out when the HB is selected. Uses a 4 pole switch, looks like, which is fine, since I have one now.



This diagram has the HB split in pos 4, which I don't think I will care for.

Anyone ever run HB coils in parallel instead of series? Is it worthwhile?

[newey]

Anyone ever run HB coils in parallel instead of series? Is it worthwhile?

Absolutely! This is a much discussed wiring option around here, and very popular soundwise. I would describe the sound as being brighter, a bit thinner, than the series HB, but a bit "smoother" than a SC sound. I use that position a lot on my guitars that have that wiring.

[sumgai]

gd,

You can safely eliminate R2, it's needed only because of a wiring omission regarding R3. Where R3 connects to the switch at pins 2, 3 and 4... continue that jumper over to pin 5 (on the same pole). You'll get the same overall effect, with one less component.

Just be aware that adding resistors like this tends to change the response curves of the volume and tone controls. Moreover, you now have a 470KΩ resistor in parallel with the tone pot's 250KΩ - even with the tone control set to 10, you're definitely gonna notice that a lot of the high frequencies are now missing in action.

I can't heartily recommend this mod, but others like things like this, so try it and see what you think.

HTH


sumgai

[JohnH]

One thing to bear in mind with switching in that 470k resistor - the sound effect is almost exactly the same as turning down the tone control to about 8 (in the case of the 250k pot in that diagram), but you lose the chance to have the slight extra edge from 8 to 10. I doubt the difference is very great in fact.

So it would be a good idea only if you were sure you prefered the sounds, and were happy to lose the possibility of extra single-coil brightness for the sake of not needing to adjust the tone control.

John