Put both single coil and humbuckers on guitar?

[mchapa51]

I'm planning to build a guitar soon and i want to put both single coil and humbucker pickups on it and have a two way switch to change between the two. How would i go about doing that?

[reTrEaD]

This is both vague and unusual. The vague part is your description of the switch. Can you be more specific? The unusual part is changing between the two pickups. This makes it seem like you want to use either of the pickups but not both at the same time. Is that correct?

[newey]

mchapa51-

Hello and Welcome to G-Nutz2!

I got what you want to do, you want a guitar that has a set of SCs and a set of HBs, with the ability to switch between the two.

This sort of thing is often done by splitting the HBs, but for some, a split HB can't substitute for a real SC.

We would need to know how many HBs and how many SCs, and how you want each set to be switched before the switch to combine the sets, in order to diagram the whole thing out, but I'm sure you can give us a good head start, by drawing up a preliminary diagram that we'll then double check.


This is actually pretty straightforward. You just pick a scheme to wire the SCs, and a second scheme for the HBs. The wiring to the two sets of pickups remain separate from each other until the point where you get to the switch. The common of the switch goes to output, one throw is wired to the SC output, the other is wired to the HBs.

You could also use a regular Gibson-style 3-way toggle so that you could have either SCs or HBs, or have both sets of pups operating when in the middle position.

The only real question is V & T controls. Are you planning to have one master V and T? Or separate Vs & Ts for the SCs and for the HBs?

For a master V and T, these would be wired after the switch to combine the two sets of pups. The output from the switch would go to the CW lug of the Vol pot (unless you're a lefty . . .), and the V and T then are wired like any master V and T setup.

If each set of pups is getting separate controls, the pots would come before the switch, as on an LP.

So, basically, you just find two diagrams you like and combine the two at the switch; the V and T pots are the only real question mark. Draw that up, and you'll be well on your way. Ask questions and we'll help walk you through it!