Post by borsanova on Nov 4, 2006 13:51:05 GMT -5
Only one switch for humbucker & out of phase!
Here is a smart trick to get three new and very different sounds out of one switch.
I designed it for my Korean DeArmond T-400 semi-acoustic with two DeArmond USA single coils and a bigsby. But it will work on any guitar with two pickups and four controls like a Les Paul.
I found this guitar on Ebay when I was looking for a replacement for my DeArmond Starfire Special. The Special was a fantastic blues guitar and I was really sad when I sold it (for a lot of money though). The T-400 is much harder to find. Mine is in perfect conditions and with new Dean Markley strings 10-52 it delivers really incredible sound.
With both pickups on you get an excellent twang, perfect for the Duane Eddy and Link Wray thing. The neck pickup is good for jazz and similar, while the bridge pickup gives an excellent blues tone.
So this guitar sounds already fantastic as it is, but unfortunately I'm always asking myself how other pickup combinations would sound. Especially with the DeArmond single coils I would have wanted to know how they sounded in humbucker mode. I didn't dare to do this to my Duo Jet and neither to my Starfire Special, but on the T-400 I found that the modification was extremely simple to achieve without altering the looks.
Still I wouldn't have done it, if I didn't come up with a new circuit design for two different new sounds with just one switch: humbucker and parallel out-of-phase. Can I hear someone say impossible? It's really simple instead, but as with most simple solutions I guess I first had to built my Les Paul with four push-pulls to find it.
So here is what I did. First I flipped the in and out connections on both of my volume pots so they didn't cancel out each other anymore with the pickup selector in the central position and one of the two turned to zero. This first step is most important to achieve the full benefits of the modification, because otherwise the out-of-phase mode won't work.
Then I placed a single switch in the lower f-hole, so nobody will ever notice. I used a lever switch which I soldered to the neck volume pot (this was really tricky and you should consider well where to place your switch, since there are several alternatives like glueing it below the top, a push-pull switch or a mini switch through the top).
The rest of the rewiring however is quite easy and quickly done. After flipping the connections on the volume pots (see above), you cut the outgoing connection (to ground) on the bridge pickup and solder a new shielded wire that you connect to the center of your new switch. One side of the switch must be connected to the ground and the other to the neck volume pot's outer lug at one o'clock. That's all.
This modification preserves your standard configuration (with the only difference that with your pickup selector in the middle position putting one volume pot to zero won't shut down the guitar anymore).
By switching you get a whole range of new sound possibilities. With both volumes to ten and the pickup selector in position 2 or 3 you'll get the neck pickup alone and in position 1 you'll have both pickups in series for a full humbucker sound. Chet Atkins complained that DeArmonds didn't have bass? Here you got it all.
But the good thing is that you can also use your controls for further effects. So put the selector in position 3 (neck alone) and turn the bridge volume to zero and you'll be surprised how your sound turns thin and sharp (allowing to emulate even some Shadows tones). In fact this position creates a reverse current in the bridge pickup and puts both pickups in parallel out-of-phase. You can also use both volume (and tone controls) to mix the signal. Put the neck volume to 8 or the bridge volume to 2 and you'll see how your sound turns fatter as the other pickup starts to prevail.
This trick can be used to maximum benefit even on the humbucker configuration. Maybe you'll find that your humbucker could sound a bit more brilliant? Just put your neck tone control to 0 and you'll find how the sound turns brighter. In this configuration you'll have a humbucker only at the lower end (the bass frequencies) while the trebles signal leaves the guitar before passing through the neck pickup. Thus at the higher end you'll have the bridge pickup alone. While the full humbucker still conserves some twang, this last trick takes the twang completely out and gives an incredibly broad, full, rich and bright sound.
The versatility of this guitar is now really suprizing. With both pickups in parallel bend your lower e-string and you get the full Duane Eddy thing (or the James Bond Theme if you like). If you put the two pickups out-of-phase you can even sound like a slightly rougher version of Hank Marvin.
Then put your T-400 in humbucker mode, turn down the bridge tone control a bit and you'll get an incredibly creamy sound (think of Dire Straits' Brothers in Arms). And finally use the trick with the neck tone control for a bass humbucker/trebles single coil combination and you'll smoke even Peter Green (Bandit).
The DeArmond T-400 is far better than any Guild I played and it burns even the Gretsch 6120N I once had. And with this mode one switch is enough to really launch it into the stratosphere!
Here is a smart trick to get three new and very different sounds out of one switch.
I designed it for my Korean DeArmond T-400 semi-acoustic with two DeArmond USA single coils and a bigsby. But it will work on any guitar with two pickups and four controls like a Les Paul.
I found this guitar on Ebay when I was looking for a replacement for my DeArmond Starfire Special. The Special was a fantastic blues guitar and I was really sad when I sold it (for a lot of money though). The T-400 is much harder to find. Mine is in perfect conditions and with new Dean Markley strings 10-52 it delivers really incredible sound.
With both pickups on you get an excellent twang, perfect for the Duane Eddy and Link Wray thing. The neck pickup is good for jazz and similar, while the bridge pickup gives an excellent blues tone.
So this guitar sounds already fantastic as it is, but unfortunately I'm always asking myself how other pickup combinations would sound. Especially with the DeArmond single coils I would have wanted to know how they sounded in humbucker mode. I didn't dare to do this to my Duo Jet and neither to my Starfire Special, but on the T-400 I found that the modification was extremely simple to achieve without altering the looks.
Still I wouldn't have done it, if I didn't come up with a new circuit design for two different new sounds with just one switch: humbucker and parallel out-of-phase. Can I hear someone say impossible? It's really simple instead, but as with most simple solutions I guess I first had to built my Les Paul with four push-pulls to find it.
So here is what I did. First I flipped the in and out connections on both of my volume pots so they didn't cancel out each other anymore with the pickup selector in the central position and one of the two turned to zero. This first step is most important to achieve the full benefits of the modification, because otherwise the out-of-phase mode won't work.
Then I placed a single switch in the lower f-hole, so nobody will ever notice. I used a lever switch which I soldered to the neck volume pot (this was really tricky and you should consider well where to place your switch, since there are several alternatives like glueing it below the top, a push-pull switch or a mini switch through the top).
The rest of the rewiring however is quite easy and quickly done. After flipping the connections on the volume pots (see above), you cut the outgoing connection (to ground) on the bridge pickup and solder a new shielded wire that you connect to the center of your new switch. One side of the switch must be connected to the ground and the other to the neck volume pot's outer lug at one o'clock. That's all.
This modification preserves your standard configuration (with the only difference that with your pickup selector in the middle position putting one volume pot to zero won't shut down the guitar anymore).
By switching you get a whole range of new sound possibilities. With both volumes to ten and the pickup selector in position 2 or 3 you'll get the neck pickup alone and in position 1 you'll have both pickups in series for a full humbucker sound. Chet Atkins complained that DeArmonds didn't have bass? Here you got it all.
But the good thing is that you can also use your controls for further effects. So put the selector in position 3 (neck alone) and turn the bridge volume to zero and you'll be surprised how your sound turns thin and sharp (allowing to emulate even some Shadows tones). In fact this position creates a reverse current in the bridge pickup and puts both pickups in parallel out-of-phase. You can also use both volume (and tone controls) to mix the signal. Put the neck volume to 8 or the bridge volume to 2 and you'll see how your sound turns fatter as the other pickup starts to prevail.
This trick can be used to maximum benefit even on the humbucker configuration. Maybe you'll find that your humbucker could sound a bit more brilliant? Just put your neck tone control to 0 and you'll find how the sound turns brighter. In this configuration you'll have a humbucker only at the lower end (the bass frequencies) while the trebles signal leaves the guitar before passing through the neck pickup. Thus at the higher end you'll have the bridge pickup alone. While the full humbucker still conserves some twang, this last trick takes the twang completely out and gives an incredibly broad, full, rich and bright sound.
The versatility of this guitar is now really suprizing. With both pickups in parallel bend your lower e-string and you get the full Duane Eddy thing (or the James Bond Theme if you like). If you put the two pickups out-of-phase you can even sound like a slightly rougher version of Hank Marvin.
Then put your T-400 in humbucker mode, turn down the bridge tone control a bit and you'll get an incredibly creamy sound (think of Dire Straits' Brothers in Arms). And finally use the trick with the neck tone control for a bass humbucker/trebles single coil combination and you'll smoke even Peter Green (Bandit).
The DeArmond T-400 is far better than any Guild I played and it burns even the Gretsch 6120N I once had. And with this mode one switch is enough to really launch it into the stratosphere!