3x3-way-switch for HH setup

[oskob]

Hi!

I'm looking to create what this guy has done:


I'm sure that is has been done many times before, but I can't seem to find a schematic for it anywhere because I don't have a clue what to search for :/

If someone can point me in a general direction I would be greatly thankful!

[newey]

This uses Seymour Duncan colors. Both pickups are wired the same. The output (black wire) goes to the three-way pickup selector, and the rest is wired as standard (volume and tone, etc.) from the switch outward.



This isn't optimal, and perhaps someone else will come up with a better way. It will work just fine, but the black/white coil will be "hanging from hot" when you have the green/red coil selected. This may, in theory, be a bit noisier than otherwise- or it may make no difference at all. We try to avoid having a hanging coil in our designs "just in case" it might add some noise. But I can't figure how to do this without a hanging coil, at least not so as to have the full HB be in the middle position.

You will need to purchase 2 DPDT On-On-On switches to do this.

[oskob]

Wow, nice! Thanks a lot!
The "hanging coil", is that because that the green wire isnt connected to the switch, so it's not directly disconnected from the circuit (but inderect)?
Just curious, I'm a noob at these things :/ but I'm trying to learn!

[JohnH]

I thought the vid was quite useful, since the clips were very simple so you can hear the differences. One or two observations match what i found, which are that the outer bridge coil sounds very thin, and also that the two neck coils sound very similar.

You could consider an alternative of series/single/parallel wiring of each humbucker. The toggle switches that youd use are the same type of on/on/on. It may give you more useful variations and if the single coil options are the inner coils, and these are arranged to be opposite polarity, you can get the best humcancelling and quakiest options.

Parallel wiring of a humbucker is very low noise, and is a bright sound, a bit thicker and not as edgy as a single coil.

[newey]

The "hanging coil", is that because that the green wire isnt connected to the switch, so it's not directly disconnected from the circuit (but inderect)?

It's the other coil that's the problem.

With SD wiring colors, the green and red are to the South (screw) coil, the black and white are to the North (slug) coil. You haven't said what pickups you'll be using, so you may need to translate wire colors from the diagram to your reality. But anyway, the green wire is permanently wired to ground, so that coil can never be "hanging from the hot". the other wire from the South coil, the red one, gets switched to output for the S coil setting, and is connected to the white wire in the middle position, making the series junction between the S and N coils, to give you the full series HB. In the "N coil" position, the red wire is just disconnected, and so it isn't hanging from anything.

But then consider the N coil, which is the black and white wires. The black wire is permanently connected to the "hot" output. When we use the switch to disconnect the white wire from the ground, in order to select the S coil, we disconnect the coil from ground, so we break the circuit and the N coil doesn't produce sound. But the black wire is still connected to the hot output, and thus we say it is "hanging from the hot". Theoretically, the hanging coil could possibly act like an antenna and pick up noise from the outside electrical environment- for electric motors, fluorescent light ballasts, old CRT monitors, etc.

Do not get the idea that this is anything critical to the operation of the guitar. It isn't. It might not matter at all, you might never hear it. But we try to avoid hanging coils when it's possible to do so. Here, it isn't possible to avoid it, at least so far as I can figure it. You'd need different switching.

I'm guessing that my diagram is probably either exactly, or pretty close to, how the guy in the video wired his. He probably has a hanging coil there and doesn't know or care.

I also will second what JohnH said. I was going to make the same point, but I wanted to give you a diagram to do as you wished first. A series/parallel/single coil switch is, IMO, a better choice. Either of the neck coils sound basically identical, so why have a switch to give you N or S?

Also understand that, out of the 4 possible permutations of one bridge coil coupled with one neck coil (NS,NN,SN,SS), only two of the 4 combos will be hum-cancelling.

JohnH says the outer bridge coil sounds too thin- and it does sound thinner than the inner one. This is because the slight difference in coil position is magnified closer to the bridge, where the string has less travel. But there is at least a different sound at the bridge between the N and S coils. If you like the sound of both bridge coils individually, you could do the bridge pickup with a N/both/S switch, and use a series/parallel/SC switch for the neck.

The ability to select either coil of a HB individually can be useful to maximize the number of hum-cancelling combos when dealing with a three pickup guitar like a HSS or HSH configuration, since one coil will match with the middle pickup and the other with the neck (or with one particular neck coil, for a HSH). In a two-HB setup, I'm underwhelmed, for the reasons John noted.

[oskob]

I'm planning on using DiMarzio crunchlab/liquifire (so the cable colors should be easy to translate, even for me )

Hmm, so maybe my wiring setup of truth wasn't all that true after all. I hear what you are saying, a lot of the combinations will just sound bad.
The thing is, I have no idea which will sound good, so picking 5 of them to put on a 5 way switch is pretty hard for me. So this was a way to try them all out and after a while I'm sure it will come down to like 5 combinations, and then I at least know what I like for future guitar projects. (Im building this guitar body from scratch, so I have the chance to put how many switches I want to on the guitar

I will do some research on the sound of parallel humbuckers, and maybe throw that in there instead of maximum coil selecting ability, so that I have [ordinary humbucker], [split to one of the coils] and [parallel] for each pickup.

BTW, is phasing something I need to worry about in these situations?

Edit: Forgot to say a Big Thanks for the very good replies

[newey]

Forgot to say a Big Thanks for the very good replies

No, it's our manners that are remiss-

Hello and Welcome to G-Nutz2!

Our "Sound Samples" section will have HBs in parallel, in there somewhere.

[oskob]

Thanks