A Little Nutzy Pair of HSH Wirings

[Yogi B]

So I have this HSH guitar I've been manically eyeing at for a while now with the intention of giving it a good poke with my soldering iron.

Currently it's wired in the basic HSH style:

1. Bridge (both coils in series)
2. Bridge split + Middle in parallel
3. Middle
4. Neck split + Middle in parallel
5. Neck (both coils in series)

Overall I'm pretty happy with the current variations, though position 3 is something I can live without, because the middle pickup is pretty dominating in positions 2 & 4 already, so alone in position 3 doesn't give a great deal of variety; and secondly, being a lone single coil, it hums.

My answer to that is to replace that selection with that of Bridge and Neck in parallel (or something functionally equivalent).

However I'd also like some additional variations atop the current selections, though some that are maybe a bit more subtle than what I'd usually go for. Plus all positions should, to some degree, be hum cancelling. I'm also somewhat limited by the humbuckers' lack of 4-conductor wiring.

I've come up with two options:



I'd be appreciative of someone giving them a look over, but I guess the real question is which to choose...

[JohnH]

Nice possibilities! We know youll make whatever you choose work in clever ways, so, its down to which...

Im slightly biased towards the first one, following a theory that the best sounds have fewer coils involved. eg, one combo not included that I like very much on an HH is a coil each from neck and bridge, in series.

[Yogi B]

Aug 31, 2018 22:56:33 GMT -5 JohnH said:

I'm slightly biased towards the first one, following a theory that the best sounds have fewer coils involved. eg, one combo not included that I like very much on an HH is a coil each from neck and bridge, in series.

I was trying to get one coil of each humbucker in parallel as an option in position 3, but ran out of poles on the 4PDT, I didn't consider series as that would likely need even more. In fact I didn't really aim for the results achieved in either 'alternate mode' position 3, they were a result of what options I had left after pretty much wiring myself into a corner.

Not sure if it's obvious, but with the alternate positions 1 & 5 of wiring (ii) including the 'other' humbucker out of phase with itself, the intention is to make the result similar to a half-split humbucker.

[Yogi B]

Sept 1, 2018 16:28:29 GMT -5 Yogi B said:

I was trying to get one coil of each humbucker in parallel as an option in position 3, but ran out of poles on the 4PDT, I didn't consider series as that would likely need even more.

Before actually breaking out the iron I've put some more thought into this: using version (ii) as a starting point, and with a little rearranging, it is possible to get that (hum-cancelling) parallel combination of one coil from each humbucker. The downside being of the two unused coils, one is shorted, the other left hanging from hot. (Series still looks out of reach).

[Yogi B]

Oct 29, 2018 19:20:53 GMT -5 Yogi B said:

The downside being: of the two unused coils, one is shorted, the other left hanging from hot.

That hanging coil was bugging me, and after an early hours epiphany, I have a fourth and probably final version, as well as a name:

In a slightly heretical fashion, we've not seen that many unsoldered terminals since the first version!

The idea was to swap both positions 2 & 4 between the two 'modes' formed by the 4PDT. This simplifies the switching a bit, eliminates that hanging coil, and better organises the possible sounds into groups of 5 humbucker-ish and 5 single-coil-ish selections -- the latter group approximating the 'proper' (B-Bender) Nashville Tele switching, hence the name.

(N.B. I've also swapped the orientation of the 4PDT)

[newey]

Nicely done (and nicely drawn)! all these schemes need to be reposted in the schematics sub-board.