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Post by nickosaurus on Jan 4, 2014 19:13:53 GMT -5
Hey nuts,
This is my first post here.
I just have a question about wiring up my telecaster. I have a 4 conductor humbucker in both the neck and bridge however I still want to get some sort of single coil tones. THe neck is a PAF humbucker and the bridge is a moderate output hotrail, so I'm hoping that will come close when in series/parallel.
My question is how would I go about wiring this with 2 SPDT switches to make both pickups be able to go in series/parallel
Also, do you guys think that series/parallel is the best option for a single coil sound? I've heard about splitting causing unreasonable drops in output and that series/parallel is the better option for tonal quality.
This will be my first gutsy wiring mod (only installed pickup/killswitch before) and I'm a bit nervous since this instrument is worth a lot more than my old project guitar.
Most of the parts are here (SPDTs, V pot, T pot, new pickups etc) so once I understand this we'll be ready to put the show on the road!
Thanks!
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Post by ashcatlt on Jan 4, 2014 20:02:10 GMT -5
Welcome aboard!
Local parallel is a noticeably different sound from the split coil sound. It's generally even brighter than an SC, and not any louder, if as loud. That said, it might be just what you're looking for, but...
...I'm afraid you're not going to get series/parallel switching out of single pole switches.
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Post by JohnH on Jan 5, 2014 1:56:14 GMT -5
Given that you are having two switches, and each will need to have two poles dpdt, you could make each a three position on-on-on dpdt, and have series, single and parallel options for each pickup. Each pickup would have its two coils wired like this (at left):
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Post by nickosaurus on Jan 5, 2014 1:59:08 GMT -5
Whoops. I was initially going to be splitting them so that's why I ordered the single throws. I just assumed you could wire series/parallel with them. What components do I need? It's not like they're expensive or anything - new parts for a different project. EDIT: Ninja'd ! So I need double throw poles. That's okay! Is there a legend to reading the diagram? Does it include the tone/volume pots?
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Post by newey on Jan 5, 2014 9:07:10 GMT -5
nicko- Hello and Welcome to G-Nutz2!The diagrams are simply showing a single "module" for a series/parallel switch for a HB pickup. It does not show V and T controls, the output jack, or any switching between pickups. Those things would all be other modules that one would incorporate into a complete diagram. The two squiggly lines with the vertical bar at the left side of the diagram represent the two coils of a HB pickup. (The squiggly line with the bar is the schematic symbol for an inductor, which is what a guitar pickup is.) The box with six dots represents a DPDT switch. In a complete diagram, this module would come right after the pickup. The blue lines going off into space represent the signal going out to other pieces. If one is using a master V and T, the next item in line would likely be a pickup selector switch. The diagram also only shows one HB, so if one is going to use a series/parallel switch for each HB, the diagram would be duplicated for each pickup. Note that there are two diagrams: One is showing the use of a DPDT On-On switch to switch the coils of the HB between series and parallel. The other shows the use of a three-position DPDT On-On-On switch to select series/coil cut/parallel. The wiring of both is identical, the only difference is the type of switch used. The legend under each diagram shows the internal connections for each type of switch. Using that, see if you can follow the signal path through each of the switch settings. Doing so will help you understand what's going on here. And, as always, feel free to ask lots of questions. If you need a complete diagram of the wiring, we can provide one, but we need to "zero in" on exactly what you want, so as to avoid doing multiple diagrams.
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Post by nickosaurus on Jan 5, 2014 21:17:49 GMT -5
Cheers Newey. It's nice to see such an active and helpful community! Thanks for walking me through the diagram. I assumed most of what you said, however I didn't want to go out and say and make a fool of myself if I was wrong (still very new to wiring) Going through the wiring like you suggested makes a lot of sense. Just one question though - on the 'split' coil in the centre position there still appears to be both the north and south coils being activated (since it covers top right and second right joints). Could you explain how that splits the coil? I was going to be using a three way switch with a 250k volume/tone pots and an .047f cap on the tone pot too. I've heard some debate on whether 500k would be better for this mod.. I don't want it to get too ice pickish when split/series... What do you think? It would be cool if I could get the whole diagram - is there any more information you need? Thanks!
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Post by newey on Jan 5, 2014 22:50:48 GMT -5
The upper coil, top wire, is wired to output. The upper coils' lower wire goes to the right-hand center lug of the switch. In the center switch position, that lower wire gets connected to ground (right-hand center lug connects to right-hand upper lug, which is connected to ground.)
So the upper-most coil is operational in the middle switch position.
The lower coil has its upper wire going to the switch; the lower wire is grounded. The upper wire goes first to the center left-hand switch lug, and then diagonally to the lower right lug. With the switch in the center position, that wire connects to nothing at all. So the ground end of the coil is connected, but not the other end, and we get no sound from the lower coil.
The switch, then, splits to the upper coil in the center position. If the other coil is instead desired as the one to be split, the wiring can be mirror-imaged so as to accomplish that.
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Post by ozboomer on Jan 6, 2014 0:35:53 GMT -5
Local parallel is a noticeably different sound from the split coil sound. It's generally even brighter than an SC, and not any louder, if as loud. "Local parallel"!? I'm still not quite with it, in terms of the jargon, it seems... Does this mean that the two coils of the one humbucker are wired in parallel, and THAT wring of the humbucker is then switched in combination with other pickups, rather than using a single, 'split coil' element of the humbucker, which I understand is the 'standard' way the combining is done? As I can rarely(!) get enough BRIGHTNESS out of my combined SC pickup arrangements, this might lead to a whole new experimentation path... as I've barely investigated humbuckers... other than with a split-coil arrangement being set in parallel with the MID pickup in a SSH configuration. What sort of combinations of RW/RP for individual coils in a humbucker are available? *The mind boggles...*...and here I was, thinking I was done with my experimentation for a while... Silly me.
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Post by newey on Jan 6, 2014 6:09:04 GMT -5
Oz-
Exactly. I have several guitars wired this way, and prefer it to a coil split.
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Post by nickosaurus on Jan 6, 2014 8:08:52 GMT -5
So is it possible to get some advice for where to go from here? Once I've wired the 2 DPDT switches i'll have 4 wires left.. They'll be 1 active and 1 ground from each pup right? Or does going through the switches change something?
Just trying to think how I'll go into wiring the 3 way switch and subsequently the V and T pots
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Post by ashcatlt on Jan 6, 2014 11:34:03 GMT -5
ozboomer - Yeah. Local parallel, also called intrapickup parallel, speaks to how the two coils of a single HB are combined. This opposed to system or interpickup parallel which would be the (standard) way that two or more separate pickups are combined.
nickosaurus - Treat the wires coming from the switches like the wires from the pickups in any standard Tele scheme.
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Post by nickosaurus on Jan 11, 2014 3:19:37 GMT -5
THanks for the responses guys - tele is well on its way! I have one question now though.. Since I now have 2 spare SPDT (on/off/on) switches is there anything I can do with them? Are they able to split a humbucker? In my SG I wouldn't mind splitting the bridge humbucker (unfortunately the neck is a 2-conductor) Also, would it be possible to use the other switch for an off/on for my bridge humbucker? (be able to turn the bridge humbucker on at any time) Any other ideas? I'm really open to something wacky or cool. THis is my project guitar so I love messing around with the wiring. It's had a lot of different variation in it's short life Cheers!
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Post by ashcatlt on Jan 11, 2014 13:51:49 GMT -5
Yes. You can use the SPDT to split a four conductor HB. One lug gets the two wires that are taped together and the other gets ground. You can use the SPDT to add the bridge pickup regatdless of the position of the 3-way. One lug gets a spit from the bridge's "hot" wire (the one going to the current toggle) and the other gets a spit from the output wire from the toggle to the jack. You could also use an SPDT as a master kill switch by wiring it across the output jack. You could wire a second cap in series with one of the T caps and put the SPDT across that and have switchahle tone caps. You could just put the switch in series with one of the T pots and caps for a "no load" option.
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Post by nickosaurus on Jan 11, 2014 18:42:44 GMT -5
Cool!
One issue for me though. The green and white wires are quite short.
Since they're both going to be soldered to the same lug - can I splice them with one wire that goes directly to the lug? Or should I splice them into two separate wires and solder them that way?
Also, which lug correlates to each position? Should I assume if I soldered the wires to the left lug that will be the down position (depending on orientation of course)?
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Post by JohnH on Jan 12, 2014 15:07:00 GMT -5
Cool! One issue for me though. The green and white wires are quite short. Since they're both going to be soldered to the same lug - can I splice them with one wire that goes directly to the lug? Or should I splice them into two separate wires and solder them that way? Also, which lug correlates to each position? Should I assume if I soldered the wires to the left lug that will be the down position (depending on orientation of course)? Its ok to join those wires and extend them with a single wire. Just add something to insulate the join (a piece of outer sleeving from a larger cable works ok if you dont have heat-shrink sleeving. Better than tape which goes icky over time) On toggles, when the lever is pushed say left, the centre lug(s) gets connected to the right lug(s)
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Post by nickosaurus on Jan 12, 2014 21:27:36 GMT -5
Worked like a charm first try (for once ) Thanks a lot guys! This is so cool
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