Seymour Duncan Duckbucker, Analysis and Review

[antigua]

www.seymourduncan.com/pickup/duckbuckers-strat-bridge
www.seymourduncan.com/pickup/duckbuckers-strat-neck





The Seymour Duncan Duckbuckers are marketted as a side-by-side style humbucker, voiced like a typical Strat single coil. The Seymour Duncan "Vintage Rails" are essentially the same pickup, but with half width bladesin place of the six screws. DiMario makes a similar type product in the "Cruiser". Barden's single coil sized humbuckers are also set up to have a more single coil-type sound.

These pickups have a rather high loaded resonant peak 4.1kHz for the bridge, and 4.5kHz for the neck model. This puts Duckbuckers in "Custom Shop '69" territory, the brighter, more "vintage" side of Strat pickups.

The screws obviously produce less magnetic strength than typical AlNiCo 5 pole pieces, with a Gauss reading of 600 at the little screw tops. This is fairly similar to AlNiCo 3, though.

I really like these pickups, not so much for aggressive blues, but for clean Strat tones, rhythm playing, fingerpicking, etc. They produce a delicate tone, not especially percussive. I'd suppose it's due to a combination of a high resonant peak and weaker magnetic pull. The 4.5kHz loaded peak of the neck pickup is higher than most all Strat pickups, while the 4.0kHz bridge is still on the high side. I think this set would be even more Strat-like if you were to just buy three Duckbucker bridge pickups, and use them in all three positions. I've never liked stacked humbuckers. I like this approach to noiseless Strat pickups a lot better.

The only real advantage to stacked humbuckers (Fender Vintage Noiseless, DiMarzio Area), over Duckbucker-style or Lace Sensors, when it comes to noise-reduced single coil tone, is that stacks look "vintage correct". You can't tell they're humbuckers without some other indication. The problem with stacks, though, is that they cancel out some string movement due to their coaxial design. They look good, but sound less good. Word is that the MojoTone "Quiet Coil Strat" addresses this by hiding a single-coil sized humbucker underneath what looks like a typical Strat pickup. You therefore get the superior design aspect of a single coil sized humbucker, while maintaining a traditional Strat pick up look. A lot of Strat players love the original look of a Strat and simply don't want funny looking pickups. I think it would help with the popularity of Duckbuckers, Vintage Rails, etc. if they embraced this camouflage approach, at least as an option.



Parallel instead of series

Most all humbuckers on the market are wired in series. This set, as well as the Vintage Rails, are the only humbuckers that I know of that are intended to be wired in parallel. The reason why it's so rare is because it's generally considered a waste of resources. Seymour Duncan could have instead given the coils of the Duckbucker a fraction of the wind count, then wired them in series, and you could end up with the same inductance values, but having used a lot less wire.

This set is very similar to the Little '59 set, though since it's wired in parallel, it has the low output / high resonant peak associated with a Strat pickup, rather than a PAF, like the Little '59. I have wired Little '59's in parallel, and I can attest that they sound very much alike. It's a good sound. The Little '59 in parallel is slightly lower in output than a Duckbucker in parallel.

Full sized humbuckers that have been wired in parallel tend not to sound very much like a Strat, but this situation is different, because the pickups in question, are the correct size, in the correct location, and in the correct guitar. Putting typical Les Paul PAF's in parallel sounds un-Strat-like for various reasons that are unrelated to the parallel circuit itself.

The upside to the Little '59 and the Duckbucker being so similar is that should you choose to wire the Duckbucker in series instead, you should essentially end up with a Little '59. The plots below indicate that by wiring this pickup in series, you should get a +6dB voltage boost. It can therefore also be said that the Little '59 will produce +6dB greater output than the Duckbucker.


Six screws instead of twelve

This is mostly just aesthetics, trying to look vaguely like a "Wide Range Humbucker". Under the plastic cover, there are two full sized coils and full sized blades, but three of the screws are omitted, and the plastic cover omits holes for those screws. If you were to take a Little '59, remove six of the screws, and wire it in parallel, you'd have a Duckbucker. The gauss strength reads around 600 over the screws, and 100 over the plastic void, indicating that there is a steel core in there, below the plastic.

The underlying difference between a single coil, and two coils side by side, comes down to comb filtering. Comb filtering cuts out bands of frequencies at different intervals, because when the string is moving one way over one coil, it can move the other way over the other coil. The opposing movement causes cancellation of voltage. The farther apart the coils are, the more the comb filtering will cut into lower frequencies. Combining pickups together, such as neck + bridge, or bridge + middle, sounds distinctive, in part, because of this comb filtering. A typical PAF humbucker has coils that are offset by only half an inch, so the comb filtering is present, but mostly effecting higher frequencies above 2kHz, as discussed here.With a single coil sized humbucker, the coils are so close together that the comb filtering is almost non existent, effecting only very high frequency harmonics. Removing one row of screws does reduce comb filtering, but the comb filtering is so minimal to begin with that you're not changing much by doing so.

It's for the same reason that the close coils make for a true "single coil" tone that the Little '59 doesn't sound all that much like a real PAF. They might get the electrical values close, but the Little '59 can't duplicate the physical comb filtering that is exhibited with a full size humbucker. It would be like trying to make a neck pickup sound like a bridge, or vice versa. They can match the EQ, but they can't match the underlying timbre that is brought about by physical comb filtering.

J Donald Tillman made an awesome tool where you can see for yourself how the comb filtering pattern changes along with pickup width www.till.com/articles/PickupResponseDemo/

Seymour Duncan says "Its unique, split-pole pattern with 3 poles on each coil, also contributes to the single coil bounciness and snappy low end." For the reasons stated above, this is not true. It is the parallel wiring, and close proximity of the coils, that causes this "single coil" tone. This is just an attempt to claim that an aesthetic decision has functional merit, which is a very common occurrence in this market.


Q Factor

Another aspect of Fender single coils that makes them distinctive is a high Q factor, which makes for a stronger treble characteristic that is distinctly surf rock "electric guitar" sounding, and less "acoustic" sounding, like Filter'trons. AlNiCo produces a higher Q because it has low conductivity, and causes low eddy currents, which would otherwise reduce the resonant Q factor. Eddy currents are effectively a series resistance that increases with frequency, and series resistance reduced the Q factor. Pickups with lots of steel parts produce a lot of eddy currents, and therefore have a low Q factor; pickups such as PAF humbuckers and Gretsch Filter'trons. Higher Q factors cause pickups to have a more nasal voicing, while a low Q factor causes a pickup to have a flatter response, more like an acoustic guitar. Strat pickups, with their high Q factor, are therefore more nasal sounding, while Filter'trons and PAF's are more clear and even sounding.

Since Duckbuckers have a couple of chunky steel blades in between it's two coils, as well as six little steel screws, it should have a lower Q factor also, but the Q factor is actually rather high, just like a Strat pickup, for one reason: extremely low DC resistance. The parallel wiring scheme that you're instructed to follow produces a resistance of 2.9k ohms for the bridge and 2.6k ohms for the neck, which is far lower than any production Strat pickups or humbucker wired in series. The very low DC resistance makes up for the series resistance that is caused by the eddy currents, leading to a resonance with a +5dB voltage at the 4kHz resonance, which is similar to most AlNiCo 5 Strat pickups. If you compare the height of the "loaded series" peaks to the "parallel loaded" peaks in the plots below, you can see that the series wiring produces a lower Q factor, as you'd normally expect.



Seymour Duncan Duckbucker Bridge SDBR-1B

DC Resistance:
- series:  11.71k ohms
- parallel: 2.918k ohms
Inductance:
- series:   5.722H
- parallel: 1.434H
Calculated capacitance:
- series:   256pF (266-20)
- parallel: 578pF (588-20)

Resonant Peak:
- series:   dV: 8.0dB f: 4.08kHz
- parallel: dV: 8.1dB f: 5.48kHz
Loaded Peaks (200k ohms & 470pF):
- series:   dV: 3.0dB f: 2.28kHz
- parallel: dV: 5.0dB f: 4.08kHz

Gauss at hex screw tops center: 600G





Seymour Duncan Duckbucker Neck SDBR-1N

DC Resistance:
- series:  10.42k ohms
- parallel: 2.600k ohms
Inductance:
- series:   4.340H
- parallel: 1.085H
Calculated capacitance:
- series:   283pF (293-20)
- parallel: 595pF (605-20)

Resonant Peak:
- series:   dV: 7.0dB f: 4.46kHz
- parallel: dV: 7.6dB f: 6.21kHz
Loaded Peaks (200k ohms & 470pF):
- series:   dV: 2.4dB f: 2.55kHz
- parallel: dV: 5.4dB f: 4.57kHz

Gauss at hex screw tops center: 600G

[gitpiddler]

Good info, which strat is pictured? The binding and TONE knobs are eye-catching.

[antigua]

Aug 16, 2017 19:50:40 GMT -5 gitpiddler said:

Good info, which strat is pictured? The binding and TONE knobs are eye-catching.

It's a Fender Japan Aerodyne Strat in the "gun metal blue" color. I really dig the arched top and binding. I bought it directly from Japan, but as of January 2017 I haven't been able to get any guitars from the big Japanese sellers due to... reverb.com/news/new-cites-regulations-for-all-rosewood-species . You can still get them through eBay thanks to Japanese scofflaw sellers, but their posted prices are somewhat higher than what the reputable guitar stores would sell them for. I added the white plastic pieces myself, the come stock in all black. 

I can tell the Aerodynes don't resonate quite the same as a traditional Strat body, as I think the arched top design results in something like 15% less wood mass, but they look and feel so good that I don't even care 

[Deleted]

Aug 16, 2017 19:50:40 GMT -5 gitpiddler said:

Good info, which strat is pictured? The binding and TONE knobs are eye-catching.

whats special about the tone knobs?

[frankfalbo]

He means all three knobs say TONE, none say Volume. 

[antigua]

I'm putting my set of Vintage Rails into a friend's guitar, so I thought I'd gather some vitals from them before they go. I had made an assumption that they were very similar to the Duckbuckers, and that's mostly true:


Seymour Duncan Vintage Rails

Bridge
- Series DC Resistance: 11.5K ohms
- Series Q @1khz: 2.13
- Series Measured L: 6.365H
- Series Calculated C: 164pF (253pF with ground)
- Paral. DC Resistance: 2.907K ohms
- Paral. Q @1khz: 2.15
- Paral. Measured L: 1.6009H
- Paral. Calculated C: 581.4pF (696pF with ground)
- Gauss: 600G (ceramic)

Neck
- Series DC Resistance: 10.2K ohms
- Series Q @1khz: 1.956
- Series Measured L: 4.870H
- Series Calculated C: 161pF (241pF with ground)
- Paral. DC Resistance: 2.572K ohms
- Paral. Q @1khz: 1.976
- Paral. Measured L: 1.2202H
- Paral. Calculated C: 543.9pF (653pF with ground)
- Gauss: 600G (ceramic)

The inductance of the Vintage Rails are a bit higher, and that's certainly due to the fact that the blade presents more permeable mass in the core of the two coils. The black part of the blade is some sort of non magnetic plastic, so they are true single core pickups, if not single coil, but it's presumable that both coils contribute to the output voltage, not just the cancelling voltage, since the second coil is in the return path of the steel blade none the less. 

As with the Duckbuckers, the Gauss reading at the tops of the made are 600G, but because the blades are physically wider than the tiny screws, the Vintage Rails have a broader area of high flux density. As has been observed in Kirk T McDonald document, the discrete pole pieces will produce second other harmonics, where as the blade of the Vintage Rails won't, so logically, the Duckbuckers would result in ever so slightly more treble, and the Vintage Rails, the opposite. 

I decided to skip the making of bode plots since they're likely to be real close to the Duckbucker plots anyway, with just slightly lower peak frequencies. 

[tescobedo]

Interesting idea with those Vintage Rails. You probably seen those sub $10 Chinese hot rails on ebay/aliexpress that function reasonably well and have similar specs to the SD pickups. Those are also offered in unassembled form, two wound coils,  a base plate, two stamped steel "rails" that fit inside the bobbin, a bar magnet, delivered in an unmarked bag that you can put together yourself as you please. I made one with the half and half rail scheme, similar to the Vintage Rail, the idea to lower inductance while retaining series wiring and maintain narrow sensing aperture. It worked ok, but I became curious about the influence of the bar magnet's field under the empty halves of the coils. There seems to be an effect that I suspect is different than if the blades themselves were actual magnets rather than steel polepieces. It became evident when I removed the steel rail polepieces completely, and had a low output, but functioning, quite low inductance, pickup, with complete air coils, relying on the magnetic field of the bar magnet under the coils, where it would normally rest. To be clear, it's very low level, and not a very good sound to my ears. But it's evident that there is an effect that's pretty complicated to parse regarding things like aperture sensing and phase relationships. Plus the very low inductance of two literal air coils. It hurts my head to ponder what this effect might be when each coil is half loaded with a polepiece, the other half free to integrate this bar magnet effect with  whatever voodoo it happens to apply. 

By the way, those unassembled hot rail "kits" are kind of neat way to play with pickup topologies. They make interesting sidewinders, both single coil and hum cancelling, and even decent, really narrow, vertical single coils. 

[antigua]

Oct 3, 2020 0:05:29 GMT -5 tescobedo said:

Interesting idea with those Vintage Rails. You probably seen those sub $10 Chinese hot rails on ebay/aliexpress that function reasonably well and have similar specs to the SD pickups. Those are also offered in unassembled form, two wound coils,  a base plate, two stamped steel "rails" that fit inside the bobbin, a bar magnet, delivered in an unmarked bag that you can put together yourself as you please. I made one with the half and half rail scheme, similar to the Vintage Rail, the idea to lower inductance while retaining series wiring and maintain narrow sensing aperture. It worked ok, but I became curious about the influence of the bar magnet's field under the empty halves of the coils. There seems to be an effect that I suspect is different than if the blades themselves were actual magnets rather than steel polepieces. It became evident when I removed the steel rail polepieces completely, and had a low output, but functioning, quite low inductance, pickup, with complete air coils, relying on the magnetic field of the bar magnet under the coils, where it would normally rest. To be clear, it's very low level, and not a very good sound to my ears. But it's evident that there is an effect that's pretty complicated to parse regarding things like aperture sensing and phase relationships. Plus the very low inductance of two literal air coils. It hurts my head to ponder what this effect might be when each coil is half loaded with a polepiece, the other half free to integrate this bar magnet effect with  whatever voodoo it happens to apply. 

By the way, those unassembled hot rail "kits" are kind of neat way to play with pickup topologies. They make interesting sidewinders, both single coil and hum cancelling, and even decent, really narrow, vertical single coils. 

I think even if you buy them assembled, they come apart pretty easy. They're such simple designs that I have a hard time understanding why Seymour Duncan went to this new PCB, fully enclosed design. 

The output seemed a little low. I think the problem is that one blade causes results in a weaker magnetic field and two, and that the difference with respect to aperture width / sensing area, is trivial, both in terms of the math as well as the subjective experience. I've wired dual blade pickups in parallel, they maintain a stronger magnetic field and, IMO sound a lot more like a Fender style single coil. Think Bardens. Those $12 dual blade on Amazon tend to have hot specs in series, but wire them in parallel and I think they're basically the perfect noiseless Strat pickup.

[ssstonelover]

Antigua,
This is all interesting stuff, and sorry I'm so late for the party! (by a few years!) I too like the Duckbuster, but am only lukewarm about the other 2 pickups in the "everything axe" pickup set by Seymour Duncan.
Now I know why -- parallel vs series being a big part of it and what it does to the sound per your analysis.
Looks lIke I can crack open that particular guitar and give the 'parallel' treatment to the other 2 pickups and be pretty happy. I can even use some DPDT on-on-on if I want to get fancy and have all combinations...

In other news, I also suppose the Donlis, Oripure or Fleur rail (or pole piece type) pickups might react in a similar way, if I can find the right version (they come in several flavor of resistance and magnets).
Out of curiosity, have you tested any 'rails /or pole piece type' Strat sized pickups from any of those 3 companies? It would be interesting to see where they line up on all this.

[antigua]

Apr 4, 2023 1:39:43 GMT -5 ssstonelover said:

Antigua,
This is all interesting stuff, and sorry I'm so late for the party! (by a few years!) I too like the Duckbuster, but am only lukewarm about the other 2 pickups in the "everything axe" pickup set by Seymour Duncan.
Now I know why -- parallel vs series being a big part of it and what it does to the sound per your analysis.
Looks lIke I can crack open that particular guitar and give the 'parallel' treatment to the other 2 pickups and be pretty happy. I can even use some DPDT on-on-on if I want to get fancy and have all combinations...

In other news, I also suppose the Donlis, Oripure or Fleur rail (or pole piece type) pickups might react in a similar way, if I can find the right version (they come in several flavor of resistance and magnets).
Out of curiosity, have you tested any 'rails /or pole piece type' Strat sized pickups from any of those 3 companies? It would be interesting to see where they line up on all this.

I have at least one of each brand in a guitar right now, they're all similar to GFS / Artec, good, with vintage correct performance, but they skimp of the finer details, they look like modern production products. You see things like electrical tape, shielding, vinyl wire, and of course their logo painted on the top, which I've had a hard time removing with solvents and abrasives. 

BYO, and a newcomer on AliExpress called "WAAAH" pickups, are exceptionally good for the price, very vintage correct, I'd check these out www.aliexpress.com/store/1101844801?spm=a2g0o.detail.1000007.1.280c4e65WPH6SW    WAAAH has a red Telecaster set, with a coil tap, which is particularly unique and awesome. 

On this topic though, you might come across these, avoid them, they're complete trash  www.aliexpress.us/item/2251832806331473.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.main.43.38781cf9swdXDV&algo_pvid=e6c5c5b7-c983-42e4-87a5-6d39e21733d0&algo_exp_id=e6c5c5b7-c983-42e4-87a5-6d39e21733d0-21&pdp_npi=3%40dis%21USD%2153.92%2129.66%21%21%21%21%21%40210217c716806666795091730d0750%2166946612401%21sea%21US%21800019275&curPageLogUid=90Iz4QYp0ILb

[ssstonelover]

Thanks Antigua!

Of all the brands you checked, or can extrapolate from, which others might give a reasonable Duckbuster (imitation single coil) sound in parallel mode yet still perform in series mode without getting too dark and wooly, or is that asking too much due to the vastly different resistance and 'H' values when flipping from series to parallel?

GFS:
- I like their Strat sized lipstick set VERY much and have used these on 3 builds to date. Using the Free-way 10- position switch I find 2 pups combine in series fine too.
- Gold Foil Single Coil Pickup set: I tried one set, did not fall in love, but it seems fine overall (the metal foil version may be more lipstick sounding, but who knows)
- the Lil Killer Strat pup(6K/6K/10K setup) I like, but due to the Kwikplug, parallel wiring split is not available. In other words I could not try the Duckbuster/parallel setup.
- I have a set of the mini humbucker Gretch look "MINITRON" but have not mounted them or tested them yet.

Fleor:
- I mounted high wind Strat sized rails on a customer's Squier (neck and bridge), but too brash/harsh sounding for my taste. I suspect a lower wind or different magnet (Alnico) would work way better in series mode. In terms of knowing in advance which wind would be most effective in the parallel mode... It may be one of the heavier winds which conversely may not sound so hot in standard series mode.... Do you have an opinion on that? (balancing act for a reasonable outcome in both settings)

Donlis:
- I like their P90 set. I should play it more to get an idea how much I like it.... I used the Oak Grigsby 4-way switch and the 2 pups in series sound fine too.
- I have not tried their traditional single coils (yet) but I liked what you wrote (in another one of your write ups) so I may buy some soon.
- Their Twin Blade Rail Strat sized pickups, or their Dual Coil Strat size With 12pcs Pole Screw have mostly really high K and H values, so may sound really dark/muffled, though may open up in parallel mode (any opinion?). The possibly most open sounding of the lot could be the DB01 (7.4K, 4.9H) though it may suffer then in parallel mode and be too thin (but maybe you have an opinion on that)

Waah: I have them marked up for purchase in my Aliexpress account, I have not pulled the plug, but thanks for the recommendation. In Strat size, they only have the traditional pups, but I still like those too... The Tele tapping set sounds quite intriguing.

Oripure: I don't mind modern production look, but I have not tried these yet. I guess at this point my only question is if a reasonable difference exists between them and the Fleor besides in price.

Homeland: Ah a good visual-only knock off of the everything axe pickup set... Thanks for the warning, I'll stay away from those!

[antigua]

Apr 5, 2023 2:08:28 GMT -5 ssstonelover said:

Thanks Antigua!

Of all the brands you checked, or can extrapolate from, which others might give a reasonable Duckbuster (imitation single coil) sound in parallel mode yet still perform in series mode without getting too dark and wooly, or is that asking too much due to the vastly different resistance and 'H' values when flipping from series to parallel?

GFS:
- I like their Strat sized lipstick set VERY much and have used these on 3 builds to date. Using the Free-way 10- position switch I find 2 pups combine in series fine too.
- Gold Foil Single Coil Pickup set: I tried one set, did not fall in love, but it seems fine overall (the metal foil version may be more lipstick sounding, but who knows)
- the Lil Killer Strat pup(6K/6K/10K setup) I like, but due to the Kwikplug, parallel wiring split is not available. In other words I could not try the Duckbuster/parallel setup.
- I have a set of the mini humbucker Gretch look "MINITRON" but have not mounted them or tested them yet.

Fleor:
- I mounted high wind Strat sized rails on a customer's Squier (neck and bridge), but too brash/harsh sounding for my taste. I suspect a lower wind or different magnet (Alnico) would work way better in series mode. In terms of knowing in advance which wind would be most effective in the parallel mode... It may be one of the heavier winds which conversely may not sound so hot in standard series mode.... Do you have an opinion on that? (balancing act for a reasonable outcome in both settings)

Donlis:
- I like their P90 set. I should play it more to get an idea how much I like it.... I used the Oak Grigsby 4-way switch and the 2 pups in series sound fine too.
- I have not tried their traditional single coils (yet) but I liked what you wrote (in another one of your write ups) so I may buy some soon.
- Their Twin Blade Rail Strat sized pickups, or their Dual Coil Strat size With 12pcs Pole Screw have mostly really high K and H values, so may sound really dark/muffled, though may open up in parallel mode (any opinion?). The possibly most open sounding of the lot could be the DB01 (7.4K, 4.9H) though it may suffer then in parallel mode and be too thin (but maybe you have an opinion on that)

Waah: I have them marked up for purchase in my Aliexpress account, I have not pulled the plug, but thanks for the recommendation. In Strat size, they only have the traditional pups, but I still like those too... The Tele tapping set sounds quite intriguing.

Oripure: I don't mind modern production look, but I have not tried these yet. I guess at this point my only question is if a reasonable difference exists between them and the Fleor besides in price.

Homeland: Ah a good visual knock off of the everything axe pickup set... Thanks for the warning, I'll stay away from those!

My favorite single coil sized blade humbuckers are the lower inductance ones, like the DiMarzio Chopper, or the models that Seymour Duncan and other would designate as a "neck pickup". It's just a sad fact with pickups that in order for the parallel tone to remind you of a good Strat pickup, that you have to have a high inductance in series, seems to be true for full sized and mini sized humbuckers.


I have Strat with both hot and cool rail humbuckers, and even the Duckbuckers, in fact I brought the guitar pictured at the top of the thread out of storage to play in our jam later, and I just try to pair up the guitar with songs that will compliment its strength and weakness. I have to admit the Duckbucker is probably more weakness than strength, but I like the variety, it lets me have multiple Strat that don't all do the same thing. I find the Strat with the higher inductance blades that split will to be the most useful, because it can sound like a Strat in parallel or a fire breather in series, it works for a lot of music. The DiMarzio Choppers, and the lower inductance neck pickups, some closest to making good on the promise of a PAF like tone in a Strat, IMO, so I have a good time with that guitar, but to be honest when I want a PAF tone it usually just makes more sense to grab an Epiphone, I have to show my HH guitars some love too. 

I find those "hot" Strat pickups usually do sound harsh, because they have a lower resonant peak, somewhere between 2kHz and 3kHz depending on the guitar cable or lack of one. It can be remedied by rolling back the tone knob to soften the knee, but then it ends up not being a very clear pickup. Over time I've moved to Strat pickups with a DC resistance of 6k ohms or less, because it ensures that the resonant peak will be upwards of 4kHz, and it feels much easier to control, and sound more like the Strats I'm used to hearing on the radio. 


It sounds like you bought one of these www.alibaba.com/product-detail/Donlis-High-Output-dual-coil-single_60614681728.html , I bought a fake "everything axe" set with three of those, I made a post about them here www.strat-talk.com/threads/analysis-of-chinese-knock-off-of-seymour-duncan-everything-axe-set.502390/ , I didn't get along with those for a few reasons. 

One thing you might like is something I did in the early 2000's purely by accident. I went into a guitar store, and they only had three Little '59 bridge pickups, but I was after a bridge and two neck pickups, so I just bought all three bridge pickups because it was what they had in stock, and I wired my Strat so that the bridge pickup was in series, and the neck and middle were parallel, and I had push pull knobs to reverse the series/parallel of any of the three, and that actually worked pretty good. I used that guitar and that pickup config the one time I ever recorded in a legitimate big name recording studio. The Little 59 bridge pickups in parallel were perfectly find neck and middle pickups, but I thought of the pickup situation as a hack since it had three bridge pickups. So, about ten years ago I gutted that pick guard put different pickups in it, which I though should be more ideal, but now I kind of regret taking it apart, because it actually was pretty ideal already. I think it sounded more Strat like than Duckbuckers. All in all Duckbuckers and Little 59's are meant to look more traditional, the sound quality takes a hit due to the poorer magnetic coupling.

 The closest I've come to having single coils and humbuckers in a Strat is with EMG single coils and the SPC mid boost, it starts with a pretty genuine single coil sound, and turning up the SPL control bumps up the mid range to sound a lot like a single coil sized humbucker, but super quietly. The sound quality is definitely really good, the upside to dealing with a 9 volt battery and more circuitry in the guitar. 

[ssstonelover]

Antiqua,
Great info as usual!

1. I happen to have a Strat copy set up with the 'Everything Axe' pickup set, so can certainly rewire it to have parallel/series for each pickup. No, it will not be as perfect as your 3 x Little 59 bridge pickup wired parallel/series, but may approximate what you uncovered, albeit it more imperfectly -- plus give me more reasons to use that guitar!

2. I can also (another guitar) buy 3 higher output blade pickups (example from Fleor) and do parallel/series to better replicate your 3 x Little 59 bridge pickup guitar experiment.
If so then I ask:
-Is it better to get the version with the ceramic magnets (like the Little 59) or the Alnico version they also sell? I think there may be trade-offs when shuttling between series and parallel depending on the magnet type in terms of harshness/sweetness, and since the resonant peak is not listed...and since I worry about harshness that is the reason for the question
-The 'strongest' Fleor is listed with a K value between 13-14K, so higher than the 11.7K listed for the Little 59 bridge pickup, so JB jr territory. The other Fleor option is 9-10k which would 'clean up' the sound a bunch in series but would reduce parallel to somewhere between 2.25-2.5k, so that would be the second possibility. The question would be, "which would make the more convincing "Strat" sound in parallel while not being terrible in series?"
I was just reading your Chopper review, and it seems you had some success in doing series/parallel there too, and that the Chopper may have been more the 9-10K resistance range. Not sure if this is a good example in terms of this discussion, but I throw it out there as it might be and you can throw that into the mix as needed in terms of how it might guide selecting a Chinese knockoff with the right balance of resistance and magnets to be workable in parallel and series (a compromise I know) guitarnuts2.proboards.com/thread/8502/dimarzio-chopper-analysis-review

EMG: I had to do an install for a friend (and routed the battery box too). Yup, I think you are right, it can work in both Strat/PAF territory.

[antigua]

Apr 5, 2023 17:36:32 GMT -5 ssstonelover said:

Antiqua,
Great info as usual!

1. I happen to have a Strat copy set up with the 'Everything Axe' pickup set, so can certainly rewire it to have parallel/series for each pickup. No, it will not be as perfect as your 3 x Little 59 bridge pickup wired parallel/series, but may approximate what you uncovered, albeit it more imperfectly -- plus give me more reasons to use that guitar!

2. I can also (another guitar) buy 3 higher output blade pickups (example from Fleor) and do parallel/series to better replicate your 3 x Little 59 bridge pickup guitar experiment.
If so then I ask:
-Is it better to get the version with the ceramic magnets (like the Little 59) or the Alnico version they also sell? I think there may be trade-offs when shuttling between series and parallel depending on the magnet type in terms of harshness/sweetness, and since the resonant peak is not listed...and since I worry about harshness that is the reason for the question
-The 'strongest' Fleor is listed with a K value between 13-14K, so higher than the 11.7K listed for the Little 59 bridge pickup, so JB jr territory. The other Fleor option is 9-10k which would 'clean up' the sound a bunch in series but would reduce parallel to somewhere between 2.25-2.5k, so that would be the second possibility. The question would be, "which would make the more convincing "Strat" sound in parallel while not being terrible in series?"
I was just reading your Chopper review, and it seems you had some success in doing series/parallel there too, and that the Chopper may have been more the 9-10K resistance range. Not sure if this is a good example in terms of this discussion, but I throw it out there as it might be and you can throw that into the mix as needed in terms of how it might guide selecting a Chinese knockoff with the right balance of resistance and magnets to be workable in parallel and series (a compromise I know) guitarnuts2.proboards.com/thread/8502/dimarzio-chopper-analysis-review

EMG: I had to do an install for a friend (and routed the battery box too). Yup, I think you are right, it can work in both Strat/PAF territory.

I think rewiring an everything axe to allow for series parallel on the bridge and neck would be great, maybe even the middle pickup as well. I love the sound of a higher inductance humbucker in the middle of a Strat, it's a lot like the Lindsey Buckingham Turner Model 1 sound. 

Get the ceramic, no question in my mind. I've tried a couple sets with AlNiCo bars, and it's just too weak. AlNiCo is supposed to have a length to width ratio of  about 4:1 for optimal residual flux strength, but with those pickups, the little bar magnet is only about 2:1, so the strength is even weaker than what you'd expect with a full sized AlNiCo PAF. A pickup with an overly weak magnetic field tends to sound / feel weak and mushy, it's a feel thing because it will feel like you're plucking the strings hard and not getting as much bright snap as you come to expect with a regular strong pickup, and part of the "Strat" sound is the snap you get with the strong AlNiCo 5 pole pieces. It's subjective, you might like it that way, but I think there's a reason why most all the blade HBs on the market use ceramic, going all the back to Barden and Bill Lawrence models. If they're cheap enough, it might be worthwhile to buy both and try both, that's the beauty of Chinese pickups. You might be right that a weak magnetic field in the weaker parallel wiring sounds better than when wired in series, but I would doubt it myself, I haven't liked any pickups with especially weak magnetic fields. My pickup journey started when I had to replace some Texas Specials that had somehow become demagnetized in storage. 

I have a Strat with the DiMarzio Billy Corgan set, and those pickups are really hot, I think 15k-ish, and they sound the most Strat like in parallel. It's a pretty versatile guitar in that it could sound like a typical Strat or a very hot Strat, it just doesn't do the in between thing too well, but I can play a lot of repertoire between "Strat" and "super hot Strat", especially Smashing Pumpkins and other 90's era bands. The split or parallel Chopper was good also, but the Billy Corgan set just comes that much closer making me believe I'm playing a regular Strat. 

I was playing the Duckbucker Strat tonight, 80's pop and 90's grunge, and I was reminded that if you have an array of pedals, especially a Tube Screamer or a Timmy clone or an optical compressor, you can punch up the signal such that the parallel tone of a mini humbucker sounds perfectly thick. A lot of the cork sniffing only applies when you're plugging directly into an amp like a Fender, without a pedal or anything to push the mids and the gain. I also keep the tone control rolled back a bit, if not for that, the brightness would be much. 

[ssstonelover]

Hi Antigua,
Everything Axe parallel mods:
- I happen to have 6 x DPDT on-on switches, so I am set there
- I also have 4 x push-push pots sitting here, but they are 250K...so series mode trebles may leave something to be desired
Pot values: I assume 500K is more optimal to handle the series modes, but to maximize the parallel 'stratty' settings, what do you think of 250K there, or stay with 500K for both situations? Sounds logical anyway.
It occurs to me I could put a 500K resistor between leg 1 and 3 on a 500K pot (wired on-off through a switch) to shuttle the pot from 500 to 250K, as needed but since I might be working overtime with pickup mode switching (or have some pickups in one mode while others in another mode to maximize sound choices) I'd rather avoid that.
The second option is to put in a blower mode to bypass tone and volume when in series mode and use a 500K when in parallel. Something maybe better to avoid or unnecessary. There may be other choices too....

Question: What has worked out for you in terms of pot values on these kinds of guitars for you, and what would be best practice? I know you like to have some tone 'on reserve' to sweeten hot pickups, maybe with a low cap value.

Chinese hot series to parallel mod guitar:
-I get you on the ceramics and the hotter values working in a parallel mode better. I'm guessing your advice for pots (above) would apply just about equally well here too but, if not, let me know what other tweaks would make sense.

Smashing Pumpkins, cool, ditto on grunge, 90's, and pedals.
I agree pedals can do a lot to get thick sounds while letting one keep the base character of the guitar sweet, clean, and available. After all it's a lot easier to add girth to a pup than to remove it. Frankly I'd rather not cork sniff, plus I do have a tube screamer, volume pedal, etc. LOL

[antigua]

I would use 500k pots with any pickup that is mostly made of steel parts, 250k is best paired Fender AlNiCo poled pickups. The Q factor of rail pickups are on the low side due to eddy currents, and this is true regardless of whether the pickup is wired series or parallel. If you start with 500k pots, you can get the same sound as with 250k pots by rolling the town down to around 8.

If you find that parallel mode is always too bright, 250k pots might be more idea in that case, but if you have a series/parallel DP/DT push pull, I don't think there's a way to have 250k only in parallel mode, using a resistor. Although something else I didn't mention is that my three '59 bridge Strat used three Fender S-1 switch knobs, and those are 4P/2T, so you could have it to where a resistor knocks the 500k pot down to 250 with a Fender S-1 switch, but they cost about $55 a piece when you add up the switch and the plastic knob. One of those things where you have to spend the money because there's no cheap version from China. That I know of.

[ssstonelover]

Hi Antigua,
- OK, 500K confirmed for volume. 
- I'm thinking a 250K "no load" for tone, meaning that if I want bright I basically can cut tone right out completely. I think side benefit of that is the roll down should be smoother than with a 500K too, so a win that way too.
- Whether I use a standard or 'no load' tone pot I can marry that with some capacitor choices to get anything from a slightly cocked wah to awful mud (using a 6-way rotary for example) though I usually don't go far into treble cut at all.
- And if I forgo the 'no load' pot I can get the same effect by using a 3-way switch (using an on-on-on DPDT) that shuttles me between standard vol+tone, to vol control only, or total blower bypass...
That's a bunch of choices, but then it really become a moot point thinking about 500K and 250K tone pot choices or of buying any S-1 switches...ouch!

If you are open to toggle switches this place Love My Switches has a goodly assortment including 4PDT Toggle Switches in on-on. on-off, and on-on-on and the prices are great, plus the supplier, Taiway, is from Taiwan, so likely reputable. Those switches are on this page: 4PDT and I'm sure they can replicate anything an S-1 can do, though your pickguard will be looking busier.

I made a preliminary drawing to get started on all this so when I crack open the existing guitar I can use the trusty multimeter to wire groom the rats nest of wiring for the parallel/series. Overall spacing will be really close unless I use push-pulls, or I can rout the control cavity a bit bigger (not a problem for me) to create additional space and working convenience. Anyway I have to start with a sketch to scale.
I may make some simplifications, if you think I'm overthinking tone 'loss' issues. It's just I've had bad experience turning down tone pots and getting instant mud with no intermediate graduations. Maybe yu have some tricks for that too.
You're welcome to see if I made any errors on Duncan wire colors going into the DPDTs, before I gut stuff and get the multimeter on the switches...LOL... yes, beginning sketch below.

[antigua]

That's an impressive diagram. You even depicted the underside of the pickups accurately. Maybe make sure the toggles will clear the edges of the control cavity, it might be close. You can cut away some of the wood of course, but I don't love the idea of doing that to my guitars, I'll go out of my way to contain everything with the existing route. 

1 meg pots are effectively "no load", without the detent. I'm not a fan of no load pots. I use 1 meg sometimes, but a maxed out Q factor rarely seems to be real pleasing to my ears. 

I have tone toggles, I put a bunch of them in my Strats, but I don't anymore, because I don't use them often enough, and I have trouble with them coming loose, because it takes so much finger torque to turn the dial. More recently I've done push pull pots to switch between a .047 and a .0047 caps, to just get the fake humbucker sound really quickly, that seems to be good enough. But in this guitar, aside from the Duckbucker, the pickups already have a low-mids disposition.

With mini humbuckers, a bass cut control might be nice, because there's often a problem of the neck or middle sounding heavy in the bass end, or install a Bill Lawrence Q-Filter to knock down the inductance, and of course split or parallel options, and the cool this is that they all sound a bit different. Some just take out the bass, some move the resonant peak upwards, splitting changes the pickup aperture, parallel doesn't. 

I set up my boss' Strat with "Vintage Rails",  the rail version of Duckbuckers. He asked me to put something noiseless and batteryless in it. It has an good modern look to it. For his guitar I did the usual global volume, then a tone for the neck and middle, and a tone for the bridge, and the bridge tone is a push pull, which when pulled up changes the bridge form parallel to series, so you get SSS or SSH, in essence, the two most popular Strat configurations. I was pretty happy with that setup, I might require my Duckbucker guitar to work the same way.

[ssstonelover]

I like your ideas -- well rooted on parallel/series experience
-I may stay away from a no-load pot based on your experience, "maxed out Q factor rarely seems to be real pleasing to my ears", as I don't want that.
-I may switch from the current sketch to a PTB type circuit to control bass and treble (one of your suggestions). I think it's territory I can navigate more easily than working on a Q filter (at this moment) and more comprehensive for tone shaping/correcting. I did skim your thread Q Filter to try to get up to speed, but it will take several reads to get it all.

Question 1 and 2:
- Given the nature of this beast, what values would you use for a PTB tone circuit for the 2 pots and the capacitors?
- Do you use reverse taper pots on the bass cut or maybe just a linear taper and wire it in reverse so you get the "regular" clockwise feel? I ask as I did one PTB (with input from Frets) but I find the bass cut pretty weird as implemented on that one as the turn direction was in reverse and too powerful (meaning I basically almost turned off most volume, though in fairness a bass is bass heavy anyway). PTB + Mid Range too

[antigua]

For PTB, the regular tone control can be anything, the treble cut is a parallel control where as the bass cut is a series control, so when they're both on interacts poorly, similar to "50 wiring" when you try to roll back tone and volume at the same time, so you probably will use one or the other at any given time.    

For the bass cut, the components are more exotic, for that you'd want a reverse log tapper pot, in order to get the right sweep, otherwise you have to use a regular pot and wire it so that "0" is full bass and "10" is bass cut. The pot value should be as high as possible, preferably 1 meg,  I think this fits the description www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/BI-Technologies-TT-Electronics/P160KNP-0EC15C1MEG?qs=56eeD6vBg8izWncDClqKdQ%3D%3D  , with 500k you get leakage, and bass is lost just by having the control present, and 250k is worse still. The value of the cap is subjective and depends on the pickups, I'd use alligator clips to audition different values, the smaller the value the more low end that will be rolled off. If you use a small value like 100pF, you might find that it makes the sound utterly gutless, but if you do 300pF or higher, then maybe it just takes the "mud" out, and that might be more useable. When you combine the caps in parallel, the values add together, so if you have a cap assortment,  you can just keep adding on more capacitance until you like the sound. 

[ssstonelover]

Thanks! I ordered that 1 MEG reverse audio pot from Mouser just now along with a backup from Alpha, just in case the first choice does not work out, but I see it has outstanding published cycle life so should be the real winner. It does have a smooth shaft according to the spec, and I have 6mm grub screw knobs that will work. The Alpha is splined -- small difference but way worse cycle life...so just a backup..or I throw that into the bass LOL.
I hear you on the "old-alligator-clip-audio-auditioning-test" using different cap values. I do have a reasonable assortment of tiny value caps, and can parallel them together too if the value is something I don't have.

Diagram reworked, and hopefully I've got the bass part of the PTB circuit right to reduce any treble/bass interaction (as much as it can be).
 
By the time the 1 Meg pot arrives, I should have the body and pickguard parts placement fitting well.

[antigua]

FYI, I ordered those reverse tapered pots from Mouser, and even though the picture showed splined shaft, I ended up receiving straight shafts, the kind that require the knob to be fastened with a grub screw from the side, like a Telecaster knob. Looking closer I see it says, "Shaft Type: Smooth / Slotted" I assumed the picture showed what I would get and I didn't look close enough at the specs. 

I think this is the correct pot www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Alpha-Taiwan/RV16AF-10-15K-C1M-3LA?qs=8%252Br4Hz5Xir%2FXbg1IgSnjZg%3D%3D , but according to the picture the knurled shaft is taller than a typical control pot's shaft, so it would have to be cut shorter with a small saw or a dremel. I've done that once or twice. 

[ssstonelover]

They will work, smooth or not! I do also now have the Alpha (similar C1M spec) so if I want spline I can use it down the road....

[antigua]

After all this talk about wiring, I ended up putting the Duckbuckers in a different Strat, and I wired it very similar to my original guitar from twenty years ago, all three knobs are push pull 500k, each toggled series/parallel with parallel being down. The volume is global, the middle tone is for the neck and middle, and the end tone control is for the bridge, and then I couldn't help myself, I ran a little toggle button to the trem cavity to allow bridge + neck and B+M+N pickup combos. I almost never use that option, but I hate not having it. 

Reviewing my notes, Duckbuckers are electrically about the same as a Little '59, but wired in parallel. My first impression when playing it for a little while was just to remind me what I realized about Little 59's in the past but had sort of forgotten; that they're on the hot side for single coil sized humbuckers, they have a low resonant peak, especially the bridge pickup, and they want you think think you're hearing a PAF, but that not what I envision at all when I hear the bridge pickup, but the neck pickup? Maybe, sure. I like the parallel sound though. I set them pretty close to the strings. 

[ssstonelover]

Hi Antiqua,
Thanks for the update and for the impressions you have on your rewiring. I hear you that the the extra switch for N+B, and N+M+B might be marginally useful, but good to have in reserve.

My Everything Axe was previously wired with 3x250K pots so I'm hoping the 500K volume and 500K treble tone take the tone blanket off a bit. Also in terms of the treble tone pot it has a no-load feature (which I can ignore or use depending on what I find out, and compare soundwise to your earlier comments). The PTS C1M pot should be interesting....and will be a first for me on guitar.

I've elected to ditch the 5-way switch and go with the 10-position Free-way switch instead. So, why would I want to do that you ask? Well in parallel mode I can get the N+B, N+M+B, BxM, MxN, and BxN and I expect those series connection might be interesting, and give some cleaner series than what the series mode on the individual pickups might be capable of.

Also I have some on-on-on switches so could go all the way and have each pickup available in parallel/single/series. While I have not been a big fan of turning SD Little 59 or JB jr. into split coil (sound-wise), if they are in split coil and then combined in series (BxM, MxN, BxN) that may be OK.

Like you I'm really doing this for the parallel mode option. If I get some additional cool tones from combining that with the Free-way switch (with that set on Series) that could be a silver lining.

Today I prepped the body (old Jay Turser), cleaning out the factory routing (filled with lumpy thick paint in cavity and neck pocket), so I can have everything shipshape and easily shielded prior to installing the refreshed electronics.
I have to drill one more hole on the pickguard....for the 3rd switch. These short handle ones (Taiway) should not interfere with the Free-way switch.

[ssstonelover]

Hi Antigua,
The guitar is done.
-Due to my repurposing of the existing pickguard (already with 2 DPDT switches) I had some constraints on placement of additional switches. The main 5-way switch was also changed out to a Free-Way, also chunkier than the original model.
-For the standard tone pot I ended up using a no-load A250K with a small .012uF capacitor. I think that suits these SD pickups (which don't really need high frequencies brought down much if at all).
-For the bass cut tone pot I used an Alpha C1M pot from Mouser with a .0022uF cap. This cap seems to be the standard G&L value, so was used as a default starting point. I think I should have a bit more cut to thin out the pickups (in some positions) and will need to go to .0033uF or 0047uF to have a bit more dramatic effect. No big deal.
-I have some quick connects installed (jack-volume wiring + bridge ground) so removing the pickguard is a cinch for reworking cap values.
-I used 3 on-on-on DPDT switches to get not only the parallel and series, but the single coil option as well, just to see what the result would be.
-All the DPDT switches have the shortest toggle handles, so don't interfere with knobs or the Free-Way switch.
-I widened the control cavity rout slightly to accommodate all the goodies and get an easy drop-in fit (so wires don't need any coaxing).

-The initial lesson learnt is that there is no appreciate advantage to the extra work in getting the single coil switch position. The sound is virtually identical to the parallel mode setting (at least at the volumes I've tried so far (lowish non-rock star levels). In fact only by using the multimeter and checking DC resistance can I really know for sure I am either in single coil or parallel mode. Dispensing with the switches and using push pull would get the same result (for my purposes anyway) and makes total sense and a cleaner look (what you did).
-There was actually one fringe benefit to doing the single coil option. In achieving the RWRP setup with either of the other pickups for the mid pickup I found transposing the hot and ground leads on the DPDT relative to the other switches solved the hum. In other words just changing the coil on the switch did not reverse coil direction too.
-The parallel sound and the series sound are fine but in some ways I'm still a single coil lover, so I still don't think this guitar is going to become my number one but it is way cooler now and more versatile. A lot more lower end girth, so into HB territory.
-The Free-Way switch is cool as you can get two or 3 pickups in series together (whether or not they are in series or parallel individually). You can achieve some heavy low sounds/chords. To that end I rigged up a further switch to get all 3 pickups in series (whatever mode they are in individually). It's actually not too crazy, and you can lighten the bass if you need to with the bass cut pot anyway.

[antigua]

I love the look of that guitar, with the black and pearl. The sophisticated look of the pickups goes well with the sophisticated look of the toggle switches. It looks like a guitar that could land on the moon. Also that's cool that you diagram it all out, with good looking graphics. 

I'm a little surprised you didn't hear a difference between parallel and split, because you really hear a difference with full sized humbuckers. This is an educational experiment though, because it goes to show that the reason split and parallel is because you have two coils reading the strings instead of one, but in this case the two coils are so close together that it doesn't matter, they're effectively reading the same harmonics from the string, and this is further proof that a single coil sized humbucker doesn't have the potential to sound like a full sized humbucker. 

When the humbuckers are split, you have half the inductance about about double the capacitance as compared to series, but in parallel you have about a quarter the inductance and quadruple capacitance, so the proportions of L and C get re-arranged, but the resonant peak ends up remaining nearly the same, although the impedance changes a bit for each wiring mode, similar to how it is speakers are wired in series or parallel. 

Tonight I finished putting Vintage Rails into the blue guitar that originally had the Duckbuckers, and I wired it the same way with three push pull pots, parallel down series up. It's a bit like having the same guitar twice, but they look and feel different.  An mildly interesting difference between Vintage Rails and Duckbuckers is that Vintage Rails like a second order harmonic because the string vibrates across a magnetically homogenous "rail", where as with a Duckbucker and all other pickups with discrete pole pieces, the reluctance increases and decreases as it passes across the pole piece, but that second order harmonics which is caused by that fact is very faint and doesn't really have any impact on the sound. I think the stronger magnetic field afforded by the more solid metal of the "rail" makes a bigger difference in how they sound. 

[ssstonelover]

Thanks for a likely explanation for my not hearing a clear sound difference between parallel and single coil modes.
Frankly I have not spent time to understand how resonant peak is affected in the interplay between capacitance and impedance, i.e. no time spent on Spice, GuitarFreak, or other modeling simulations or book learning. Ah....my bad. I did read your article on ceramic vs alnico however... differences

If you write up comments on your SD Vintage Rail rebuild I'd love to read it, to see how the rework plays out in the series context with rails.
Personally I have another guitar set up with GFS Lit Killer 6K/6K/10K rails but those pups are wired series and because of the Kwikplug you can't access parallel mode, just coil splitting (which I did not do as I suspected it might be disappointing). I kind of like it, good strong signal and useable tone leaning toward the typical sounds I like to hear (though not classic Strat of course, more o a 'modern Strat' I guess).
If your experiment is 'wow' I will probably buy some Fluor 14K rails and give them a whirl (series/parallel) on another body (and with less complex wiring as what I did had some overkill).

Going back to the guitar I just did, yes, it does have pole pieces, but the string spacing (esp neck) does not line up even closely on the outside strings (thanks to the narrow bridge), but all strings seem to ring out OK.... I have also noticed on one ceramic SC guitars I have with outer stings not lining up, no volume fall off either. 'Air coil' or some other factor at play?

[antigua]

If the DC resistance of the Lil Killers are 6k and 10k and wired in series, then it sounds like they probably have inductances in the range of steel poled Strat pickups, 3H to 4H, but they sound like they were made "Stratty" where as the Vintage Rails and Duckbuckers seem to be Cool Rails or a Little '59 just wired in parallel instead of series. It's a waste of wire to design a humbucker that is meant to be wired in parallel, because get the same end result by using less wire and connecting them in series, but Seymour Duncan probably has a marginal cost on a coil that is used for multiple pickups. 

I like the Vintage Rails in my Fender Aerodyne, they're modern looking pickups for a modern looking Strat. I added a little push toggle, similar looking to the button on the Deluxe Strat, that gives me B+N and B+M+N. I played 90's rock with this guitar for about an hour with a drummer, I actually ended up using the bridge in series a lot, because in parallel it's a mighty thin tone, when you need some creamy power chords, the series mode is very good to have, but the clean parallel bridge tone with the tone rolled down a way sounds really awesome, very vintage, like how Strats were often heard in the 50's. I also used the neck in series a few times, to get more of a piano like bang out of it, still rather clear. I like how the dramatic drop of the resonant peak between series and parallel really changes the overall voice of the pickups quite a bit. 

The pole pieces don't have to line up with the string because the magnetic fields are not that focused for one thing. The neighobring pole pieces also slightly magnetize the stings also, so you would get more of a drop if the string were on the outside of the pole piece, where there is no neighbor. That's why you can perform string bends with virtually no drop in volume, but in the special case where the pole pieces are of different polarizations, there is instead a dramatic drop in output when you bend the string in between the pole pieces.  The Seymour Duncan single coil sized humbuckers all have the same pole piece spacing, no matter if it's a neck or bridge model, so if you were to buy three bridge pickups and use them as a set you'd have the same string alignment situation with that guitar. 

[gckelloch]

One thing I noticed about the 10k Lil' Killer I installed (along with two other pickups) in my bro's S-type was the assumption by GFS (Artec?) that grounding one of the blades would thereby ground the other blade through the magnet, but I don't think ceramic magnets are conductive. That might create some audible hum in some cases. After I finished the wiring and sent him the pickguard, I had him apply a piece of Cu tape across the blades to ground the other blade. You can use a V meter to check the continuity between blades b4 opening up the guitar to connect them.

Surprisingly, the 10k Lil' killer he got had an unusual freq response when tested with white noise through an earbud. As I recall, holding the earbud over one blade had a much higher freq, yet lower level, peak than the other. Using my 160pF cable and the earbud between both blades, the peak centered between 4-4.5kHz with an extended high freq shelf below the peak. I haven't seen that in any other pickups I've tested. Incidentally, the other two pickups had peaks very close to that one.

I used a 500k V & 250k T pot because I figured the Maple neck would make the guitar brighter than a Mahog neck generally used in Gibson guitars with Steel core pickups of that inductance range, and it does sound tonally "balanced". Of course, the only advantage of a 250k tone pot over a 500k is more accurate control (better sensitivity?) throughout the sweep.