50's SG needs 1 switch for series/parallel

[angelodp]

Hi I am looking for a layout that will allow me to go between series and parallel for the two humbuckers on my SG. Thats series or parallel between the two humbuckers not the individual coils. I am looking for a stealth way to do this that uses one DPDT switch if possible. Is it possible to maintain the 50's wiring and simple insert one switch to do this.


thanks ange

[JohnH]

Certainly that is possible - were you thinking of a push/pull. or a seperate switch?

You can have your 50's wiring if you wish (not a fan myself). What you can do is wire up each pickup with its volume and tone pots as a unit, then put that whole module in sereuis or parallel with the other pickups circuit.

LP's and SG's are obviously related, so you might be interested in part of this, which is how i have my LP.
LP modular wiring desugn

One caveat however, is that it would be best if you have 4 conductor wiring on your picups, or at least two conductors plus ground, so that the case of one of the pickups does not go 'live' in series mode, which attracts noise.

John

[angelodp]

Hi JohnH, yes I am thinking of a single switch, although a push/pull pot would work as well and would be undetectable. I simply want to retain the 50's wiring if possible, and be able to go from parallel to series when in the dual pickup mode ( center of gibson switch ). Your version is fab but beyond what I need. Is there a simplified version that just does what I am after?

Best A

[newey]

Angelo-

JohnH's whole scheme is beyond what you need, but it's modular, and he's suggesting you use just the one portion of it.

One SPDT (On-On) is all that's needed, plus the standard Gibby three-way toggle. With the switch in one position, the three-way gives you the standard N/ N + B / B. Flip the switch, and the three-way gives you B / B / B * N.

Granted, the series position isn't in the middle. "Compromise is."

Look at JohnH's Module #2 to see how this is done.

Certainly, you could do this with one-half of a P/P pot as well. There are probably other ways, but this is the simplest I've seen.

[JohnH]

yes to all said by newey.

A few more points that may be relevant:

pickups - are they four conductor, or single conductor plus braid (more likely if they are stock)

The switch can be wired either to put series in place of one of the single-pickup toggle selections (ie not the central toggle position), with one of the single pickup selections on both of the other two toggle settings. Or, using both sides of the new dpdt, it totally overides the main toggle into series so it does not matter where you set the main toggle. I think that is usually better, but you'll see on my guitar i was hiding my new switches on the rear, so i did it the first way to mainttain more control from the front face.

If you are interested in using a push/pull, check the depth of the unit and the depth of the cavity, since SGs are quite shallow. Other options are a mini-toggle or a slide switch

There are two ways to use the volume controls in a series mode. My preference, as shown on various of my designs, is that each pickup continues to be controlled by its individual volume and tone pot. This allows partial mixes to be set. But I do this using a treble-bleed circuit to maintain a consistent sweep of tone, and this tends to go with modern wiring rather than 50's wiring. It will still work with 50s wiring, but there may be some tonal oddity if one pickup is set to lower volume. If you are interested in this effect, I will investigate further.
The other way to wire it is so that in series mode, only one volume and one tone pot is active, as master controls.

cheers
John

[angelodp]

Hmm... I may have to go with a well placed slide switch as the cavity is not deep enough. I am also concerned about the single conductor set-up, as in braided vintage wire. I would have that 'live' situation with that style wire. I do not want to redo the pup wiring, ( I just made these PAF types myself... first go at winding HB's ), so I am thinking through the grounding scheme to alleviate this issue. Seems as though a single switch will do the deed, just need to sort out the grounding. I do like the idea of having each pickup retain its respective vol/tone knobs with the mod. I will post a layout tomorrow if I get a moment after work.

Thanks guys, appreciate your interest after the long spell away.

Ange

[JohnH]

Congrats if you have made the pickups!

If you wire the pups in series, the one nearest to ground will have no issue with its current wire, but the base plate and braid of the other one, nearer to hot, will be at the mid point of the chain instead of at ground and so maybe vulnerable. It's worth fixing if you can. Could you get back into the pickup and disconnect the grounded coil wire, and give it its own piece of shielded wire?

John

[angelodp]

Thanks, I have made two different pickup winders and getting great results. Do you see any way around the rework of the pickup?

Ange


Congrats if you have made the pickups!

If you wire the pups in series, the one nearest to ground will have no issue with its current wire, but the base plate and braid of the other one, nearer to hot, will be at the mid point of the chain instead of at ground and so maybe vulnerable. It's worth fixing if you can. Could you get back into the pickup and disconnect the grounded coil wire, and give it its own piece of shielded wire?

John[/quote]

[angelodp]

This is where I am at so far??

[newey]

Ange-

If you do it that way, with the P/P set to "series", you will only get the series combination with the 3-way switch set to "N" or the "N + B" settings- with the switch set to "Br", you'll kill all output, since the "series chain" will be disconnected from the output at the toggle switch.

IOW, it'll work, but you'll have a dead spot on the toggle switch when set to series mode.

Also, while your drawing of the Gibson 3-way toggle is a bit stylized (and so maybe I'm just misreading it), it seems like you have the frame grounding lug connected to your output instead of the common lug, which is usually the center lug:

[angelodp]

Hi Newey, I though I was doing this on the gibson switch. No? Can you suggest a better solution. 50's wiring/ 2HB's/ Gib switch + one switch that allows series parallel on the 2 HB's

Cheers A

[newey]

I though I was doing this on the gibson switch. No?

Well, if the switch you've got is as per your diagram, then you're fine.

As far as a better way to do it, John's way avoids the dead spot. Just use one-half of the P/P as S2 per his diagram. But his way also leaves both sets of pots operable in series, while yours avoids that.

BTW, you didn't say whether the pickups you made had covers or not. If not, the issue of using the two-conductor wiring isn't so much a problem.

[angelodp]

Hi Newy, yes they have a cover. I will try to fathom JohnH's method.

Thanks A

[angelodp]

Ok guys thanks for the intel, but I am not proceeding as it seem futile without the separate ground.

Cheers A