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Post by blademaster2 on Jul 25, 2019 15:19:44 GMT -5
I have been thinking lately about the series/parallel difference in tone, since I have used that for my DiMarzio Dual Sound pups in a guitar that I built ages ago. In that guitar I have found that the difference in sound between series and parallel is pretty subtle. It is there, for sure, with parallel adding a slightly brighter and slightly thinner tone but definitely not a night and day change.
Then recently I installed a set of some very hot (Seymour Duncan Black Winter) humbuckers into another guitar, and I hooked them up to a coil splitting switch (even though I could have opted for series/parallel). The coil split switch is simpler to hook up, as it just grounds out the first coil in the series chain for each pickup and makes them essentially a single coil pup, making no change to the magnetic field shape nor the magnetization of the string.
The coil split difference is *far* more noticeable than the series/parallel difference. Huge.
Now considering that the series/parallel changes the signal level (series pup signal is probably around double the parallel pup signal) and the total pickup impedance (series pup impedance is similarly around double the parallel pup impedance) it tells me that the sonic effect of the electrical load of the cable/amplifier on the pickup's total impedance, and the signal level being doubled or not, is relatively subtle. What seems to make the *biggest* sonic difference in a humbucker is the spreading of the sensor for the signal along the string length between the two sets of poles versus the single point of sensing done by a single coil pickup.
That effect noticeably changes the frequencies that are produced, where the humbucker signal has a low-pass filtering due to the wider sensed region of the string length and presumably smooths out its associated harmonic content and loses the highs a little.
Bottom line for me: series/parallel makes a small difference whereas coil splitting for single coil/humbucker makes a much larger difference.
With that, I am actually now considering ditching the series/parallel switching configuration in my old guitar with the DiMarzio dual sound pickups and changing them to coil split switches.
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Post by Jaga on Jul 26, 2019 16:15:46 GMT -5
I like your thoughts related to the humbucker. I'd agree that the difference between humbucker in series and single coil is more dramatic then between humbucker in series and humbucker in parallel.
The question is, how to deal with 2-humbucker guitar? For example, series humbuckers can be connected in series or in parallel. Or coil splits can be connected in series or in parallel. How dramatic the difference will be in these cases?
One guy made a video with comparsion of 42 different guitar sounds. Have a look into my highlighted comment with timecodes to be able to switch between different parts of the video easily: I wanted to analyze all switching options to find out which of them are similar to each other. But I was not able to find the proper tool for this. I made spectrograms for each part of the video, but that was not helpful at all.
If applying the same concept to a 2-humbucker guitar, no humbucker can be set to parallel mode (but split exists). However, both of them can be series or parallel to each other.
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Post by newey on Jul 27, 2019 8:41:14 GMT -5
The key portion of the above is the term "very hot". Coil splitting does make a much larger difference with overwound types of pickups. With a more vintage style HB, I think the parallel/series option works better. It is quieter because it's hum-cancelling, and I find the added brightness similar to what one gets with a split coil.
To take an extreme example, I tried coil-spitting a "dual rails" HB (a HB in a SC form factor with tiny coils in series). The resultant volume drop made the single-coil option unusable. I then rewired the two coils for series/parallel, and both are now usable sounds. But even with regular HBs (not "hot" wound), I like parallel better.
Of course, individual tastes vary, if they didn't we'd all be playing the same type of guitar.
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Post by Jaga on Jul 27, 2019 9:49:39 GMT -5
But even with regular HBs (not "hot" wound), I like parallel better. How regular HBs differ from "hot" wound in terms of pickup resistance? For example, is a 10K humbucker (which is 5K when split) "hot" wound? |
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Post by blademaster2 on Jul 29, 2019 10:31:24 GMT -5
The key portion of the above is the term "very hot". Coil splitting does make a much larger difference with overwound types of pickups. With a more vintage style HB, I think the parallel/series option works better. It is quieter because it's hum-cancelling, and I find the added brightness similar to what one gets with a split coil. To take an extreme example, I tried coil-spitting a "dual rails" HB (a HB in a SC form factor with tiny coils in series). The resultant volume drop made the single-coil option unusable. I then rewired the two coils for series/parallel, and both are now usable sounds. But even with regular HBs (not "hot" wound), I like parallel better. Of course, individual tastes vary, if they didn't we'd all be playing the same type of guitar. Good point. I have yet to try this with my guitar with DiMarzio Dual Sound Pickups (essentially Super Distortion with Series/parallel switches). That will be the best apples-to-apples comparison I can make. The original Washburn guitar pups had the bridge pup with split coil and it, too was a big change compared to the Dual Sound series/parallel change and supports my claim (and I do not think those were very 'hot' pickups), but more work needs to be done. The coil-split mod to the guitar with dual sounds is the next step in my journey .... Newey, in your example you had a SC size humbucker with which you made your observation of the series/parallel effect. However that places the poles closer together and will be different (per my initial comment about the filtering effect of spacing the poles farther apart) compared to a standard-width humbucker and the larger spacing. As such yours was not quite apples-to-apples either, so I will see what I get with the coils split using the dual sounds as the only change on that guitar and make another observation. |
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Post by newey on Jul 29, 2019 11:57:14 GMT -5
As I said, my example was the extreme case.
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Post by blademaster2 on Jul 30, 2019 16:38:26 GMT -5
I like your thoughts related to the humbucker. I'd agree that the difference between humbucker in series and single coil is more dramatic then between humbucker in series and humbucker in parallel.
The question is, how to deal with 2-humbucker guitar? For example, series humbuckers can be connected in series or in parallel. Or coil splits can be connected in series or in parallel. How dramatic the difference will be in these cases?
One guy made a video with comparsion of 42 different guitar sounds. Have a look into my highlighted comment with timecodes to be able to switch between different parts of the video easily: I wanted to analyze all switching options to find out which of them are similar to each other. But I was not able to find the proper tool for this. I made spectrograms for each part of the video, but that was not helpful at all.
If applying the same concept to a 2-humbucker guitar, no humbucker can be set to parallel mode (but split exists). However, both of them can be series or parallel to each other.
I have never tried hooking up pickups themselves in series (Brian May does it), and I think that most guitars will more easily support a parallel combination than a series combination with pickup selection (both Les Paul's and Stratocasters switch their pickups in parallel through their selector switches). Again, if the effect is similar to the coils of a single humbucker in series/parallel then I anticipate less of a difference between the two for the pickup selector switching, especially if they are similar impedance and therefore similar loading effect on each other when connected in parallel. |
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Post by Jaga on Jul 30, 2019 18:48:33 GMT -5
I think that most guitars will more easily support a parallel combination than a series combination with pickup selection (both Les Paul's and Stratocasters switch their pickups in parallel through their selector switches). Of course stock wiring is usually parallel wiring of multiple pickups. But who said that stock wiring is good?  I know that for Les Paul you could easily have Neck / Series / Bridge mod instead of parallel wiring. Not sure if you'd need to change the switch though. For Stratocasters series mods also exist. Again, if the effect is similar to the coils of a single humbucker in series/parallel then I anticipate less of a difference between the two for the pickup selector switching, especially if they are similar impedance and therefore similar loading effect on each other when connected in parallel. When we talk about how pickups sound, we should also consider pickup placement. Similar bridge and neck pickups sound different because they're in different places. I believe that it's all individual and also depends on a guitar. One should check all wiring options and decide which ones to keep. |
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Post by reTrEaD on Jul 30, 2019 22:15:15 GMT -5
I think that most guitars will more easily support a parallel combination than a series combination with pickup selection (both Les Paul's and Stratocasters switch their pickups in parallel through their selector switches). Of course stock wiring is usually parallel wiring of multiple pickups. But who said that stock wiring is good? I know that for Les Paul you could easily have Neck / Series / Bridge mod instead of parallel wiring. Not sure if you'd need to change the switch though. For Stratocasters series mods also exist. Without placing any value judgment on pickups in series vs pickup in parallel, I agree with blademaster2 about the switches. You would definitely need to replace or highly modify a standard LP toggle to be able to do pickups in parallel. Those switches were specifically designed to do both pickups in parallel. Likewise, the bridging between contacts in the 2 and 4 position of the Strat 5-way lends itself to parallel combinations. Some clever usage can result in series combinations but that's not particularly easy to work out. |
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Post by blademaster2 on Jul 31, 2019 0:13:32 GMT -5
Okay, so now I am confused.
I reconnected one of the two Dual Sound DiMarzio pickups in another guitar of mine so that it would switch between series-humbucker and split coil. I *expected* to hear something similar to the difference I have heard in other pickups with that switchable configuration (such as last week's trial using Seymour Duncan Black Winter pickups). The result? *Nothing*. No difference I could detect between the two settings. I went back and checked my connections and all seemed to be correct using an ohmeter and hearing the noise when I touched the signal lines. As far as I can tell it is doing the split coil setting correctly. But no difference in sound - at all.
I then reverted back to the series/parallel connection and confirmed that the very subtle difference I heard before was back, as I expected.
So now I am eating my words about split coil versus parallel. Plus, I am totally confused as to why there was no perceptible change when throwing the switch, while on the other humbuckers the difference was profound. I have another guitar where I wired the bridge pickup to do series, parallel, and either coil alone (same as split coil), and finally phase reversal of the two coils together and the single split coil reverse phase. That guitar, too, sounds very different with single coil settings versus parallel.
So two out of three experiments support my assertion, but this last one not at all.
I will need to give this some further thought, and maybe some more experimentation.
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Post by reTrEaD on Jul 31, 2019 8:43:55 GMT -5
blademaster2, if you're ever unsure of the wiring for a coil split you can check the resistance at the guitar's output jack with an ohmmeter. The dc resistance of pickups is much lower than that of the volume pot. So you'll get a reading that's pretty close to what's happening at the pickup. Split should be 1/2 the resistance of series. Parallel should be 1/4 the resistance of series.
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Post by blademaster2 on Jul 31, 2019 9:01:58 GMT -5
I thought of that already, but this guitar uses shorting to switch off pickups, so both PUPs will need to be in parallel at once and frankly I was too lazy to do that added math.
Good suggestion however. I might turn to it today (it was too late last night, and I am struggling with how something so simple did not do what I expected).
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