Please check my diagram - Need confirmation!

[cynical1]

Greetings -

I would greatly appreciate it if someone with more experience then I have would double check my layout to see if it's viable, or just way too much time spent on a cheezy drawing...

The guitar in question has a very small control cavity. The way it's drawn doesn't show the two DPDT switches as push\pulls, but I was thinking that would be a way to keep the control cavity more open...and save me drilling two more holes...

The color coding is what I've pulled off the net and manufacturers diagrams. This is the table for comparison: (Seymour Duncan info added for reference)

Pickup Manufacturer	Adjustable Pole..........	.............	..........	Slug Pole..........	.............	..........
	Start "A"	Finish " B"	M.P.	Start "C"	Finish "D"	M.P.
DiMarzio Humbucker	Green-	White	South	Red+	Black	North
WD/Kent Armstrong Humbucker	Red (Pink)	Blue (Black)	South	Green	White	North
Rockfield PAF Zebra (Neck) Humbucker	Red	Green	South	Black	White	North
ADDED FOR REFERENCE
Seymour Duncan Humbucker	Green-	Red	South	Black	White	North

Here's the drawing:



The tone chart should look like this:

Neck Switch	5-Way Switch	Pickups Selected
off	1	neck
off	2	neck + mid
off	3	mid
off	4	mid + bridge
off	5	bridge
on	1	neck
on	2	neck + mid
on	3	neck + mid
on	4	neck + mid + bridge
on	5	neck + bridge

HERE'S THE THEORY: The DiMarzio YJM is a very low output pickup. This is why both of the other humbuckers have a parallel switch and I used a neck pickup in the bridge.


I spent two weeks just figuring this diagram out...and I know this is about as basic as it gets.

Any input, suggestions or stern warnings are greatly appreciated.

Thanks for looking

- Scott

[sumgai]

Scott,

First observation: More members here should be make cheesy drawings like yours! Good quality there, keep it up.

Second observation: Wiring looks good, it should do exactly as your table describes.

Third observation: Your theory-fu is weak. Bridge pups are almost always wound a little hotter, not weaker - here's why: The string's excursion distance (the distance it travels away from the at-rest position) is largest at the center of the string, that's easy to see. It follows that the excursion distance is reduced as we get closer to the end points (fret nut and bridge). As you'd expect, this reduced distance means that there's less energy to excite the pickup. Thus, if we want to have a balanced output between all of the pups, those closest to the bridge will need to be stronger, in order to achieve that balance.

You said: "The DiMarzio YJM is a very low output pickup..." That's not gonna give you what you want, unless you get creative in reducing the output of the other pups..... which is counter-productive, to say the least.

Re-think your strategy here, the pay-off will be greater for the effort.

HTH


sumgai

[wolf]

I thought another reason for a hotter bridge pickup is that brighter harmonics are found near the bridge. A "hotter" winding would not sound as muddy here as opposed to being in the neck position.

[sumgai]

wolf,

I wasn't aware of that particular reason, but I suppose it could be true..... It'd be worth investigating, I'm sure.


sumgai

[cynical1]

Greetings -

Thanks for checking my hieroglyphics. Wiring this thing can't be any worse then using a vector based graphics program...

Let me expound on the theory for moment, as this sounded good to me at the time...but let me explain to see if it's just another WTF moment...happens as you get older...

According to DiMarzio, the YJM is rated:

Output: 93 (Which I take to be mV)
DC Resistance: 23.5

The Armstrong HR1RCCLOSE seems to be an imitation for the SD Cool Rails, which is pretty close to the Dimarzio DP188. I know the Armstrong measure out at 7.72 DC Resistance. Although I have no clue what the actual mV output is (asking WD Music for support is like drinking turpentine and pissing on a brush fire..a foolish venture) my guess is it's around 175-225mV.

Same thing with the Rockfield...rated at 7.86 DC resistance and I can only guess at the output...which I did...guessing it's between 200-250mV.

Out of the box both of these pickups spank the YJM. (But, I love the neck only tone out of this pickup)

I am not a shredder, despite the YJM pickup, butI love a clean tone from the guitar. If I want to muddy it up I can use a myriad of pedals or a pre-amp. My main goal here was to create clean tone without driving the amp too much if I turn up the guitar volume.

If I'm terribly wrong on this please correct me, but won't running pickups in parallel reduce their output? This is about as creative as I get, so please help me out if I'm way off on this...

I've been playing bass for over 25 years and finally thought it was time to figure out what the other two string on the guitar were for...

Thanks again for helping me out with this little project.

Happy Trails

Scott

[newey]

finally thought it was time to figure out what the other two string on the guitar were for...

. . . They're for getting the girls.

[cynical1]

newey said:

finally thought it was time to figure out what the other two string on the guitar were for...

. . . They're for getting the girls.

...so much for my misspent youth...

[ChrisK]

All youth is misspent...................

They say that "youth is wasted on the young".

Actually, youth is just wasted.................. ;D

[ChrisK]

Connecting pickup coils in parallel does reduce their output, it averages their output which can sound weaker, but tonally more complex and brighter due to the paralleled inductance, as opposed to series which is middy and stronger due to the added signals and inductance.

The DC resistance paradigm as an indicator of output level breaks down for the YJM and pickups of its ilk. ("My pickup puts out 12K", ?active resistance?). While the DC resistance can be relatively indicative of the output (in a most general sense with all other things being equal), it really only indicates the resistance of the wire.

It is an anti-series structure where there is a coil with magnets and a coil without magnets (but possibly with slugs for enhanced inductance) The (very) weak coil is in series out of phase with the strong coil to effect hum cancellation, but places significant resistance in series with the driving coil.

(You'll notice that I noticed that you actually are using the YJM in the neck.)

I've heard tell that using the strong (top) coil alone on the YJM makes for an excellent single coil sound ('cuz, it is one!). It won't be humbucking, but it will be hotter.

The neck position is not as annoying with a little hum as opposed to the bridge. Since the YJM leads are shielded, and if your guitar cavity is shielded, you may well want to try the YJM with a single coil sound (just short across the weak coil, if you choose the wrong one you'll get no output to speak of).


BTW, your tone cap switch idea is neat, I use it in my designs. I use a SPST Center-off (unless I care about the positional selection of capacitance, then I use a DPDT ON-ON-OPN) switch such that in the middle position, both caps are in series and I just short across each one to realize the capacitance of the other.

When both caps are in series (0.015 uF), one gets the "woman tone". UNK ;D UNK ;D UNK ;D UNK ;D

(While this pun might not make sense to most, it is intended to draw out a particular possible lurker.................................)

UNK?

[cynical1]

Thanks for joining in ChrisK.

I've read the same things about stacked humbuckers and a stronger output from splitting them...but again, I'm back to the real estate issue in the cavity again.

First off, the Tone Cap mod is not mine. I found it on www.1728.com/guitar3.htm, which I believe is Wolf's site. This site was the inspiration for most of this simple design, and an incredibly generous resource of information. This project never would have gotten off the ground without Wolf.

I do like the spin you put on it. Very clever and I'm saving that one for reference on the second project.

All of you have been very helpful and generous with your ideas. This whole design has been an evil compromise between what I wanted to try, and what I had room for. (I have much more room in the second project guitar...that'll probably wind up looking like the Control Panel at Chernobyl...)

I wish I could pull out the router and open it up. But a little history here first. This is an old Washburn body that I got from a friend in VA. His dogs got to it before I did. He cut most of the damage away...and I cut a tiny bit more to suit my taste. There's enough wood left to be a guitar, but more along the line of Allan Holdsworth versus Brian Setzer size...

Thanks again to everyone for your inspiration and selfless sharing of ideas. You guys make we want to build more guitars...which will thrill the wife to no end...

Well, time to feed the horses...

Happy Trails

Cynical1