humbucking coil tap.

[kuzi16]

ive always said im not good with electricity. ive been finishing up the pick guard templates for the guitar im working on and have moved on to the wiring. after much thought i got to the point i am now
i am working from the Seymour Duncan color code and this diagram

however i am not using Duncan pickups but the basic concept is the same. the guitar im working on has two humbuckers and i am going to tap the coils of both. when both pickups are on and both have one coil going wouldn't the above posted diagram make the north coil on both be the one that is still active? this would negate the humbucking quality wouldn't it?

if i wanted to make the north coil on the neck PU active and the south coil on the bridge PU active ( so it bucks hum) would i change the diagram so that on a Seymour Duncan pickup the GREEN wire would go to the bridge volume pot on the first lug and The BLACK would go to the ground.

OR would the black wire go to the center pole on the switch, with a line from that pole to the volume, the white and red go to the last pole and green still go to ground?

or am i off on both?

if you want any more info on what switches im using its found in this thread
the discussion in that thread was more of the pickup selection so i don't think it will help any. the ones for the coil tap are just SPDT on/on.

[wolf]

Do the pickups have 4 conductor wiring?
If they do, then you can do the type of wiring you are talking about.
I would suggest (based just on my personal opinion) that a better sound would be produced if the "middle coils" remain active. (South coil of neck pickup and North coil of bridge pickup).
In order to do this properly, you have to wire one of the humbuckers "inside out" as I like to say. (In this case it is the bridge humbucker that is wired inside out).



That is probably enought to show you for now because you will have to figure out the wire colors of the pickups you are using.

[kuzi16]

that was EXACTLY what i was trying to get at. i was hinting at it with my first thought. i just couldn't make that jump.

i have my wire codes for my Yamaha pickups so i don't need you to do any more. i just needed some conceptual help. thank you for that.

this is one hell of a franken-tar. its the neck of a harmony h803 the switches from a fender jag (actually only one switch; had to buy the others) pups from a Yamaha RGX220 and four brand new one meg pots. had to do a bit of routing but it should do well given where it came from.

i was gunna put bolts coming out of the neck... wait- it IS a bolt on neck. told ya it was a franken-tar


BTW, why do you think that the inner coils being the active ones would sound better? hypothetically speaking (i have no more room on the pick guard) if i wanted to throw a phase switch in the mix would this change your opinion to the outer ones then be a better option?

[Runewalker]

"Better" is relative to personal preferences. You options for the "phantom Mid pickup" are Inner/Inner, Outer/Outer, Inner/Outer, Outer/Inner.

"Better" depends on your intent, and since "better" is personal preferences, there is no "better".

The design you have will only produce the 2 single coil combos in System Parallel. After that the 4 options above are dictated by physical pup orientation (which way you turn the coils. Most humbuckers, but not all, a "slug" side and an "adjustable poles" side. So physical orientation on those can be described as adj. poles toward the bridge or toward the neck).

Since you have only system parallel, the 2 singles in Inner/Inner will sound most like a Strat in the Nec/Mid 4th (or 2nd depending on your convention) position on its lever switch. That is the classic "hollow" strat sound, and one preferred by many guitarists as an important tone arrow in the quiver. So perhaps that is why Wolf says it is better.

The outer/outer array is more like a Tele sound. If we were all about "better" then "better" would be to have both options, Inner/Inner and Outer/Outer. Each has its place depending on the tune played and the mood of the player.

The outer/inner or inner/Outer are pretty close to each other, with one somewhat brighter than the other, but neither as distinctly different as the outer/outer or inner/inner.

So depends where you and your style and tone destinations are.

If you had system Series then the inner/inner, does a nice job of emulating a middle humbucker as well, like a Les Paul 3 pup, except I don't think the Gibby 3 way actually lets you select the mid alone (might be wrong on that one).

OoP will definitely give a different sound than any of the -hums alone or in-phase combos. But whether Inner/Inner, etc OoP is better

Not to advocate my own collaborative work, but a annotated list of some of the combinations you will achieve is here: guitarnuts2.proboards45.com/index.cgi?board=schem&action=display&thread=1181507361

Stay on the first page of the thread, go about half way down on the scroll bar to: Sonic Evaluation. You will see some of the combos above described.

While the design you are building is limited and does not unleash all the hidden sounds or even some of the optimal sounds of an HH config, it does have a major benefit of separate Volume controls. So you will be able to achieve additional tone variations with the mixing capabilities of the vols in combos.

If I were to try to choose between an OoP switch or a System Series switch on this particular design, I personally would go for the SysSeries. Not "better" just a personal preference.

Good luck, welcome to a lifetime of ruin. ;D

[kuzi16]

i do realize my limitations with the setup i have chosen. separate vol/tone is kind of a make or break for me. i just like it.

i would put in a phase switch or a series/parallel switch but i am all out of room. if you have ever seen a harmony h803 you would understand. the body is thin and small. i had to rout out more than i wanted to just to get that setup to work. push/pulls wont fit and neither will a standard 3 way Gibson switch. (the body is too thin)

its a franken-tar. i had to work with what i had. believe me, if i had a better body to start with id have all kinds of stuff going on.

ill re-work the pick guard template and see if i can fit in a mini toggle without having to route more.
... doubt i can though


i feel that 8 tones are enough for this guitar that i basically paid $20 for:
bridge as single
bridge as humbucker
bridge as single and neck as humbucker
bridge as single neck as single
bridge as humbucker neck as humbucker
bridge as humbucker neck as single
neck as single
neck as humbucker

i think thats it...
with a tone and volume for each pickup, i cant complain.

thank you guys for your help and opinions. any more thoughts are always welcome.

[ironiguana]

I just finished wiring up a custom Warmoth guitar with this wiring I found on Dimarzio:

www.dimarzio.com//media/diagrams/E.pdf

It gives you all the gibson HB sounds that I love and the strat and tele sounds too. Most importantly, it is simple to operate.

[kuzi16]

thank you for the thought. I had considered that actually. what brought me over to the other one was an independant tone and volume in conjunction with the fact that i was using hardware that was sittin around the house. the only thing i had to buy was plastic for a pick guard and a selection switch. the strat style switches wont even fit in the slim line body i have.

good lookin out though.