Dimarzio Split

[ericweavers1]

Hi, i am new to these boards and am sorry if is in the wrong section, so...

...I've bought the OLP Petrucci and am putting a tone zone and a humbucker from hell in it.

The guitar has one volume and one tone.

I also bought a push/pull volume on a whim.

A)Is it possible to split one of the pups with this equipment
B)If yes, where exactly can I find out how
C)Which pickup would i be best to split?

Any input is appreciated.
THanks
Eric

[vonFrenchie]

As long as its a four-wire humbucker (according to Dimarzio.com they both are) it can be split. Im not sure which would be better but most people prefer to be able to split both pickups.

[UnklMickey]

ericweavers1 said:

...
A)Is it possible to split one of the pups with this equipment
B)If yes, where exactly can I find out how
C)Which pickup would i be best to split?...

Hi Eric,

Welcome to GuitarNuts2.

A -- yes, in fact you can split BOTH of them at the same time with one DPDT push-pull switch.

B -- this is the right place, but i personally prefer to leave that to other members. (if you don't get some help in a few days, i'll be back to follow up)

C -- both at once, is the best choice IMHO.

if you "stack" the coils properly in your wiring, the "both" position of the selector will have one north and one south coil so it will still be hum-canceling.

since you will have a SC at the bridge and a SC at the neck, it will sound sort of "tele-ish".

the neck only and bridge only positions will have only one coil so of course they won't be hum cancelling.

since the TZ is a diMarzio, and the DB is a duncan, the color codes will be different. pay close attention to that in the wiring.


for now, i leave you in the capable hands of our other members.




good luck,


unk

[ericweavers1]

Thanks for the insight. Good to know I can do this...I'll just somehow have to find out how.

Oh, and the Humbucker From Hell is an actual Dimarzio pickup-it's super clean.

[vonFrenchie]

I was confused when I had first heard of the humbucker from hell. I always thought that Duncan held the license for Dimebag Darrell's pickups. But when I read about it Dimarzio didnt mention Darrell at all.

[ericweavers1]

You may have already figured this, but it's no association with DIme. IT's just called what it is because if improperly placed in the bridge postion you get quite a raucous.

[UnklMickey]

ericweavers1 said:

Thanks for the insight. Good to know I can do this...I'll just somehow have to find out how.

Oh, and the Humbucker From Hell is an actual Dimarzio pickup-it's super clean.

ooops!

i have no idea why, but when i first read your post, i thought you said Dimebucker from hell.

my bad. sorry for the confusion.



anyway, here's how i would do it, the switches are actually the 2 sections of a DPDT switch:

[ericweavers1]

Wow. Thankyou so much for taking the time. No worries about the confusion.

I'm fairly new to this stuff so....

From what i understand, each diagram represents one pickup, And each rectangle with a resistor on the side is a coil.

In the top (neck) humbucker, the red wire goes to the hot connection (the selector switch)
the black wire connects to one pole of the push/pull
the grey (white for real i think) soldered to same post on push/pull as black
the green (ground) soldered to a pole on the push/pull then grounded (to where?)

Does it matter which pole on the push/pull each wire is soldered to. If it does could you tell me just assuming the poles go:

1_2
3_4
5_6

What combinations are achieved through this wiring, and when the pot is pulled, how will the 3-way toggle act?

Again thankyou so much. Any help with any of these questions is greatly appreciated. This forum is great.

So

[UnklMickey]

newby? no problem.


more info:

as you guessed, white is shown as gray, 'cause white on white is invisible.

the 4 things along the left edge of the diagram are coil symbols.

(resistor symbols are more angular, or zig-zag in appearance.)

the wires leaving them and going to the right are the wires exiting your HBs.

it's almost certain, the way you will find most diMarzios connected, will be like the one on the top half of the drawing (minus the switch, of course).

red is hot (goes to the 3-way selector), black and white are the series link (connected to each other, and nothing else), green is grounded.

BUT.........................

i don't know who makes the pickups for OLP.

the color codes may be different.

*******************************************************

the reason i am having you do a non-standard "stack" on the lower part of the drawing, you will get one north and one south coil. (they will hum-cancel when used together)

if you are using a typical 3-way switch and parallel configuration (almost all stock 2 HB guitars do):

the red wire from the top goes to the selector.

the green wire goes to ground -- back of a pot, common terminal, wherever the non-hot wire from the pickup is currently connected. keep it simple, use the same place for ground that you presently have.




the white wire from the bottom goes to the selector.

the black wire from the bottom goes to ground.


it doesn't matter if the top part of the drawing uses 1,3,&5 or the bottom part does.

if the numbers you gave, indicate the side of the switch, with 1 being closest to the pickguard,

the switch will make connection between 3 & 5 when the knob is down.

the switch will make connection between 3 & 1 when the knob is pulled up.

this is true for the switches i have used (on Alpha mini-pots).

there ARE, reportedly some switches that are reversed from this.


IF you want the coil-cut to occur when the switch is up,

for the top half of the drawing:

black and white go to 1

green on right (output ground) goes to 3

green from pickup goes to 5

you can certainly figure out how to make the connections for the bottom half of the drawing now.



so now your 3-way will act as normal when the knob is down:

Neck HB -- Both HBs -- Bridge HB


when the knob is pulled up,

Neck SC -- Both SCs -- Bridge SC

so basically it changed from a LP to a standard Tele.



good luck,

unk

[ericweavers1]

Great stuff unk. This all makes almost complete perfect sense now and is exactly what i am looking for.

Where do the bare wires go? Does it matter just as long as they're connected to ground?

Just one thing. I'm not sure what you mean by output ground. I know which wire on the diagram you mean, but what exactly is the output ground and where does it come from?

Once again thanks for your tiem and insight.

[UnklMickey]

Hi Eric,

just one thing?

well, there's actually 2 things, but who's counting.


the bare wires (i assume you mean connected to the baseplate of the pickups) should connect to the same place as the string ground. (wire coming from the tremolo or bridge.)


i may have confused you a bit using the term output ground for that point on my diagram.

that connects to the same place in the circuit where the existing pickup connects (not the hot wire going to the 3-way, the other one)

it might be going to the same place as the string ground.

it might connected to the back cover of the volume control.

it might be connected to the FRAME of the selector.

it might be a green wire, if the Petrucci already has a 4-wire HB made by diMarzio or Duncan

it might even be the braided shield of the hot wire from the existing pickup, if they have 2-conductor wiring.


the point is, you will need to look at what is already there, and figure out what's what.

i haven't seen the innards of an OLP, so i can't help you on that part.



best regards,

unk

[ericweavers1]

I really appreciate it unc.