series/parallel better on bridge or neck hb?

[thetragichero]

next week i will own my first HH guitar
i know i need a push/pull phase pot, and i can't seem to suss out a way to reverse the phase on a pickup and switch between series and parallel without completely shorting out the pickup
so would it be more useful for the series/paralle switch to be on the neck (which i'm thinking) or the bridge pickup?

[reTrEaD]

Dec 2, 2011 23:18:49 GMT -5 thetragichero said:

i can't seem to suss out a way to reverse the phase on a pickup and switch between series and parallel without completely shorting out the pickup

The order of switches can be important. Try working it out this way:

pickup ---> series/parallel switch ---> phase switch ---> pickup selector

Dec 2, 2011 23:18:49 GMT -5 thetragichero said:

so would it be more useful for the series/paralle switch to be on the neck (which i'm thinking) or the bridge pickup?

Putting the coils of a HB in parallel gives a little less output and makes the tone a lot brighter. I think you might like having parallel available for the neck, if you're only gonna do one or the other.

[ashcatlt]

The order of the switches shouldn't really matter. I'm having trouble figuring out how you're doing it to cause such a problem!

I think it would be tough to choose, but I might lean toward the neck for S/P if I had to choose. Parallel at the bridge can come across kind of "brittle" sounding sometimes. It's quite a bit different from the "nasal" sound that I expect from a bridge pickup.

[newey]

I think it depends quite a bit on the specific pickups involved. On my white Stratocopy with the single bridge HB (GFS dual lipstick tubes), I really like the parallel setting and use it three times as much as the series. I wouldn't call it "brittle", although it is quite bright.

But I have a 1M Vol pot in there ( along with a 500K tone pot), so it's always fairly bright-sounding and I usually play it with the tone control rolled off to about 5 or so. The parallel setting seems to like being rolled off a bit.

[cynical1]

I think it really comes down to your perceptions and the style you play in. And, as newey says, the pickup involved.

The Rockfield PAF I have in the bridge of #1 tends to sound more defined to me in parallel. It loses the typical twangy sound a bridge pickup has and for me it just sounds cleaner. When combined with the neck pickup it makes chords sound more articulated...but then I do have a .082 uf cap with the tone down to 3 or 4...but that's just me...

Personally, the neck pickup is the one I want to sound the most powerful, so adding a parallel option for me is a non-starter in that position...

Again, what style do you play in and what do you want the guitar to be able to do?

Happy Trails

Cynical One

[thetragichero]

mainly punk/"alternative" type stuff... heavily influenced by early 90s scenes in dc and the midwest
if it helps, this'll be in a mockingbird with rockfield swv pickups (fairly low-wound alnico 2 humbuckers)
i'm a big fan of 'cutting through the mix', so i figured neck position humbucker with a 'darker' magnet like a2 might benefit from the parallel setting... last thing i want is mud

[thetragichero]

for reference, the position i usually play on my strats depends on the guitar, but it's usually middle or bridge, unless i have a lace silver in the neck because then i'll gravitate towards that
on my tele it's bridge and neck in either series or parallel (depending on what i need)
so far we only have one part of on song where i need a really 'dark' sound, and that's something i've always done with the neck pickup's tone turned down (otherwise there's a good chance tones are all on 10)

[ashcatlt]

Not trying to say the bridge parallel is not useful. Like I said, it's hard to choose. In combinations, especially, it can be nice to have. Twang and that nasal sound is what I'm looking for when I go to the bridge alone. OTOH, a neck pickup can often come out muddy, and that extra snap from the parallel setting can be nice.

FWIW, Fugazi played Rics when I saw them, wide singles wound with smaller wire so you get higher DC resistance and output with less inductance. Course, I think they had their toggles duct taped into the B position...

Really, though, if it's just the phase thing that's stopping you from using all three switches, we can help with that!

[reTrEaD]

Dec 2, 2011 23:50:15 GMT -5 reTrEaD said:

The order of switches can be important.

Dec 3, 2011 9:50:01 GMT -5 ashcatlt said:

The order of the switches shouldn't really matter.

I'm really interested in seeing how you solve his problem. I've learned a ton by reading stuff on this site, especially threads from Johh H. It seems like there is no shortage of talent here.

I can understand how things work when the switches are in this order:
pickup ---> series/parallel switch ---> phase switch ---> pickup selector

We have 4 wires from the pickup, going into the s/p switch. And two wires going from the s/p switch to the phase switch. When we exchange the hot and ground wires coming from the output of the s/p switch by using a phase switch, that pickup is now out of phase with the other pickup. So both coils of "pickup A" are subtracting from the signal from "pickup B"



But get all messed up when I try to figure out what to do with the switches in this order:

pickup ---> phase switch ---> series/parallel switch ---> pickup selector

We have 4 wires coming from the pickup, but We can only exchange two of them with the phase switch. I can change the phase of one of the two coils, but not both of them. The end result is that pickup is out of phase with itself, but when we use that pickup with the other pickup, the two pickups aren't really out of phase with each other. One coil of "pickup A" subtract from the signal from "pickup B". And the other coil from "pickup A" adds to the signal from "pickup B".

If I try sending one wire from the slug coil and one wire from the screw coil to the phase switch, before the 4 wires go to the s/p switch, I end up with either shorts or opens when the phase switch is out of phase, depending on the position of the s/p switch.

I'm probably missing something you'd think is very obvious, but I honestly can't figure it out. So I'm willing to listen, if you're willing to teach.

[ashcatlt]

Now that you mention, I guess I must've been thinking coil cut. It would require four poles on the phase switch to put it before the S/P. Sorry.

But anyway, it can be done! No need to choose.

[thetragichero]

yeah the problem i was running into (in either order) is one coil shunted to ground, the other coil shunted to hot

[ashcatlt]

It will work with the S/P before the phase switch. The S/P has four inputs and two outputs. The phase switch has two ins and two outs. Connect the two outs from the S/P to the two ins on the phase. Connect the phase outs to the rest of the circuit.