Hanging coil

[gunther]

I've heard you guys discuss 'hanging' coils, where a coil is connected to hot on one end, and nothing on the other (is that right?)

I wired up my dummy coil in my strat like this:



Does this mean that the coil is 'hanging' when i havent got it selected?

How much more hum have you guys experienced with a hanging coil?....

Also, how could i wire up the dummy coil so it doesnt have a hanging coil when not selected? (the switch is a dpdt on/on)

thanks!

[michaelcbell]

gunther,

First off, I'm quite respectful of your work on dummy coils and will help where I can. Secondly, I"m not quite sure what I'm looking at here. Obviously there's a coil and what seems to be a switch, but exactly how it works is eluding me. Assuming that the switch in the picture is your DPDT and is used to select or deselect the dummy coil, you do have a hanging hot when the coil is 'off'. Given that the switch is a DPDT, you've got the ability to remove that problem by connecting as follows:

Given that the switch lugs are numbered in the following fashion:
1 4
2 5
3 6

Connect lugs 1 and 4 with a jumper
"from selector switch" goes to lug 2
"output" goes to lug 5
the coil start connects to lug 3 and the end to lug 6

Do that and all your hanging hot problems will disappear.

For my next trick...

[gunther]

Sorry, i've only shown half of the dpdt switch in the pic.

Thanks for the wiring tip

[ChrisK]

gunther,

Since the dummy coil appears to be in series with the other active coil (as in a passive coil producing an electromagnetically generated output signal),

and produces NO electromagnetically generated output signal other than reversed phase EM noise reception (it gots no magnet(s)),

why don't you just leave the dummy coil connected in series with any of the "active" coils selected and short directly across it when its presence is undesired?


Note:
Since you're working on a Strat or a guitar using the Strat Fender "normal" 5-way selector switch (that there DP3T shorting lever switch with the two extra notch positions),

and you are willing to use a single master tone and volume,

or you're willing to wire each tone control directly across the pickup it is normally selected for by the other pole on said lever switch,

you can easily realize automatic dummy coil selection for any single pickup position that is RWRP with the dummy coil.

Since, as I mentioned, the normal 5-way lever switch is really a mechanical extrapolation of the 3-way Tele switch, positions 2 and 4 short two adjacent pickups together.

Pole 1
P1
Wiring, pickup selection:
1. Bhot, Bridge
2. None, Bridge and Middle
3. Mhot, Middle
4. None, Middle and Neck
5. Nhot, Neck

Pole 2,
P2
Wiring, dummy selection:
1. P1, dummy lead "A", In
2. None, Shorted
3. dummy lead "B", output to volume pot, In
4. None, Shorted
5. P1, dummy lead "A", In

In other words, pole 1 selects the pickups and pole 2 shorts the dummy coil in positions 2 & 4.

[michaelcbell]

From your other post, gunther, I noticed you said that your tone seems a bit less "exciting" with the dummy in the mix. I have little experience with dummy coils (ok, none) but if you inserted the coil in parallel instead of series you might mitigate that effect, though automatic dummy selection might prove a bit more difficult.