Hi guys, I am still perfecting the guitar I'm building and am stuck with wiring. Once upon a time I'm sure I could do all this in my head but nowadays, my brain is stubbornly short circuited I'm afraid.
I have 3 Burns single coil pickups. As well, I have a Fender Super 5way Switch. I also have mini switch if needed!! Taking advice from here on another thred, I have put the pickup which is reversed wired and reverse polarity in the bridge position!
What I am trying/hoping to do is to have a normal strat type wiring in position 1 3 5 BUT in position 4 I am hoping to have the bridge and middle pickup wired as humbucking and in position 2 have the bridge and neck pickup in humbucking!
Is it possible??
Sorry if this has been explained before elsewhere but I have read and read and have got to the point where UI just have to have it explained.
I'm not going to draw you a diagram out, you're going to do that yourself on these principles.
You have four 'sets of connections' (poles) and five 'possible connections' (throws) of a switch to play with.
The bridge is never in parallel with anything. You're only using series connections. Therefore, you don't have to move any 'pickups' in the system, you can just insert bypass wires for when only one pickup is selected.
So, as a nudge in the right direction:
You have two 'modules' that are either in series with each other, or being bypassed. Therefore you only need two poles of the superswitch, one for each module.
Use one pole of your superswitch to select whether you're using the Neck pickup, the Middle pickup, or bypassing both.
Use another pole to select whether you're selecting the Bridge pickup, or bypassing it.
As I understand it, humbucking works on a Strat in Positions 2 and 4 when the middle pickup is reverse wound/reverse pole (RWRP).
IOW, for example, two pickups will be North pole, clockwise wound and one will be South pole, counterclockwise wound...or visa versa. Either way, the humbucking only occurs when you have both poles N. and S. poles and clockwise and counterclockwise windings are together in the circuit.
So, if I understand your scheme, rather then put the RWRP pickup in the traditional middle position, put it in the bridge. There is a caveat in this.
In the typical Strat matched set, which is what I believe you have, the bridge pickup is the hottest of the three. It will now be in the middle. Not knowing much about Burns pickups I can't give you a precise insight as to what this will change in the tone and output in any given position, but it will give you humbucking in both positions 2 and 4.
Happy Trails
Cynical One
"Fascism should rightly be called Corporatism, as it is the merger of corporate and government power." - Benito Mussolini "When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross." - Sinclair Lewis (1935) "Democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine" - Thomas Jefferson “Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.” - Oscar Wilde слава україні - Slava Ukrayini
I'm not going to draw you a diagram out, you're going to do that yourself on these principles.
You have four 'sets of connections' (poles) and five 'possible connections' (throws) of a switch to play with.
The bridge is never in parallel with anything. You're only using series connections. Therefore, you don't have to move any 'pickups' in the system, you can just insert bypass wires for when only one pickup is selected.
So, as a nudge in the right direction:
You have two 'modules' that are either in series with each other, or being bypassed. Therefore you only need two poles of the superswitch, one for each module.
Use one pole of your superswitch to select whether you're using the Neck pickup, the Middle pickup, or bypassing both.
Use another pole to select whether you're selecting the Bridge pickup, or bypassing it.
You can do it!
Thats just the point, I can't! Mnay years ago I was professionally tested in a 2 day exhaustive bunch of tests and was told the results showed that I had the iq of the top 5% of the population but my brain just doesn't work the way it used to anymore! Once upon a time I could've done this in my head, but with age and the pharmaceuticals I'm on, I'm farked!
My brain may or may not be dying, but I definitely am confused here.
Peppercorn's original post discussed std Strat wiring with a P/P to add N and/or B in parallel to the 5-way. There was also discussion of a phase switch option.
When did we get talking about series wiring, as asmith is referencing and as his diagram shows?
What I am trying/hoping to do is to have a normal strat type wiring in position 1 3 5 BUT in position 4 I am hoping to have the bridge and middle pickup wired as humbucking and in position 2 have the bridge and neck pickup in humbucking!
I think the confusion is coming from the statement:
I am hoping to have the bridge and middle pickup wired as humbucking
I took this to mean only that he wants B and M to exhibit cancellation of hum, IOW, that one is RWRP with respect to the other, but that they would still be wired in parallel as per std Strat wiring.
But "wired as humbucking" could equally be read as meaning "wired like a Humbucker™ pickup is wired", meaning not only RWRP but a series connection as well.
Use one pole for each pickup. Run the hot wire from the pickup to the lugs corresponding to the positions where you want to hear it. If I read your request correctly, you'll use two lugs on the neck and middle poles and three for the bridge. Connect all three commons together and then to the volume control.
This will leave one pole unused.
Edit - I suppose it's worth explicitly stating that the "-" wires of all three pickups should go to ground.
Last Edit: May 18, 2011 20:52:31 GMT -5 by ashcatlt
newey has asked the key question. so, do you want humcancelling in 2 and 4 - with parallel connections between pickups (as standard Strat wiring, but with B+N and B+M)? or series connection for a louder deeper tone?
Also, just checking, Is your switch actually a superswitch, with its 24 lugs?
If you have a standard 5-way, and just want the parallel version of B+N as on a Tele, you can just use your extra switch to do 'bridge on", (or 'neck on') as an addition to standard Strat wiring. You could still do that with a 24 lug switch also
newey has asked the key question. so, do you want humcancelling in 2 and 4 - with parallel connections between pickups (as standard Strat wiring, but with B+N and B+M)? or series connection for a louder deeper tone?
Also, just checking, Is your switch actually a superswitch, with its 24 lugs?
If you have a standard 5-way, and just want the parallel version of B+N as on a Tele, you can just use your extra switch to do 'bridge on", (or 'neck on') as an addition to standard Strat wiring. You could still do that with a 24 lug switch also
J
Yes I want hum cancelling in positions 2 & 4 and yes I DO have a Fender Super switch with 24 lugs!
OK sorry for the confusion!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Welcome to MY world.
Please ignore any other thread I have posted! I built this guitar from scratch and am trying to get the best out of it and am experimenting with the wiring! I have had it hooked up several ways now but have decided to go with this!
I have a rwrp p/u in the bridge! I would like to be able to play each p/u as a single coil, hence positions 1 3 5. but in position 4, I was hoping to have the bridge p/u wired as a humbucker (hum canceling) with the middle p/u AND in pos 2 the bridge p/u wired as a humbucker (hum canceling) with the neck p/u
Does that make sense??? My reading and limited understanding on wiring and my experiments up until this point seems to lead me to believe it can be done! But, how you do it with a Fender super switch is beyond me!
I have a rwrp p/u in the bridge! I would like to be able to play each p/u as a single coil, hence positions 1 3 5. but in position 4, I was hoping to have the bridge p/u wired as a humbucker (hum canceling) with the middle p/u AND in pos 2 the bridge p/u wired as a humbucker (hum canceling) with the neck p/u
Does that make sense???
You know, I'm just the wood butcher around here, but what you have set up with the RWRP in the bridge should give you exactly what you're asking for.
1 - Neck SC
2 - Neck SC and Bridge RWRP SC (Humbucking)
3 - Middle SC
4 - Middle SC and Bridge RWRP SC (Humbucking)
5 - Bridge SC
Jumpering the Fender Super Switch is something for the more erudite among us to translate...but the physical locations are cool by me...
Happy Trails
Cynical One
"Fascism should rightly be called Corporatism, as it is the merger of corporate and government power." - Benito Mussolini "When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross." - Sinclair Lewis (1935) "Democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine" - Thomas Jefferson “Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.” - Oscar Wilde слава україні - Slava Ukrayini
My read on the thing is that you want to have Bridge + Mid just like a standard strat, and you'd like to replace the Neck + Mid from standard strat with Neck + Bridge like on a tele. If this is correct then my reply above is the correct answer. While I believe it's pretty straightforward I do understand that a genius IQ can sometimes get in the way of understanding such simple things (ask me how I know) and so you should ask specific questions if you can't sort my description.
The confusion comes in that there are two ways to connect a pair of pickups if you want the fundamentals transduced thereby to add (ie - "in phase).
1). Parallel: the + of both pickups goes to the hot output and the - of both goes to ground. This is the usual way of connecting two separate pickups in most guitars.
2). Series: the - of one pickup to ground, its + to the - of the other and the + of that second to the hot output. This is the normal way that the individual coils of a humbucker are connected.
The difference has nothing to do with humcancelling. If they cancel hum in parallel (like B+M on most strats) then they'll cancel hum in series and vice versa.
The difference is in tone (series is darker and more midrangey) and output (series is louder).
If you actually did want series, then I think asmith has you taken care of, .
Last Edit: May 18, 2011 20:50:41 GMT -5 by ashcatlt
Use one pole for each pickup. Run the hot wire from the pickup to the lugs corresponding to the positions where you want to hear it. If I read your request correctly, you'll use two lugs on the neck and middle poles and three for the bridge. Connect all three commons together and then to the volume control.
This will leave one pole unused.
Edit - I suppose it's worth explicitly stating that the "-" wires of all three pickups should go to ground.
Since you haven't answered the series/parallel question I'm going with this. Just do it. Everything will be cool.
Use one pole for each pickup. Run the hot wire from the pickup to the lugs corresponding to the positions where you want to hear it. If I read your request correctly, you'll use two lugs on the neck and middle poles and three for the bridge. Connect all three commons together and then to the volume control.
This will leave one pole unused.
Edit - I suppose it's worth explicitly stating that the "-" wires of all three pickups should go to ground.
Since you haven't answered the series/parallel question I'm going with this. Just do it. Everything will be cool.
Sorry mate I didn't see your other post or this one until now! I DID want series which is how I figured humbucking pickups were wired which DID get rid of hum!!?? So fnking confusing!!!
So, I figureed that the - wire of the bridge p/u went to the + wire of the other p/u and then that - to ground and the + bridge p/u wire went to hot tip. Yea?
Last Edit: May 18, 2011 21:45:17 GMT -5 by peppercorn
Okay then. I guess I need to apologize for my earlier exasperation since it looks like I was the one mistaken about your intent. Sorry about that guys!
I'm glad you got what you wanted and are happy with it.
Like I said earlier, though, it's not the series thing which causes the hum-canceling. Modern Strats and Teles are hum-canceling when two pickups are selected, and these are generally wired in parallel.
The hum-canceling comes from the fact that one of the coils is wired backwards ("reverse wound") with respect to the other. This way the noise voltage picked up by one coil is opposite polarity from that of the other. It's got to do with that Right Hand Rule. As the noise wave goes up in one coil it goes down in the other. Since 1 + (-1) = 0...
Last Edit: May 19, 2011 8:52:45 GMT -5 by ashcatlt