Suhr/Ilitch BPSSC Question

[cem]

I was wondering if this back plate silent single coil system would work on my strat which has this wiring:

Eleven easy sounds

Would i be able to make it work for the positions 5 and 1 on the 5 way switch?
Or better yet, can i use the 3rd pot on the guitar which is not connected to anything atm, as a blend pot to kill the hum when I'm on these two positions if need be?

The wiring is already complicated. Would this system work as it should?

[JohnH]

Those backplate coils are a very clever idea, based on creating an amount of hum, or anti-hum, that balances and negates that created by a single coil pickup. And f0r two singles in parallel which are also the same polarity, it can cancel hum there to.

The trick in any design that is not extremely simple is to get the backplate working when needed, but avoid it adding hum in cases where the pickups themselves are hum-cancelling, or if any are reversed.

Here with Carlos' design, there is a very complex and highly evolved circuit, so getting the backplate to help without causing issues when its not needed is tricky. I think it is beyond trying to make it happen automatically. But maybe you can have it under operator control and you switch it in when needed.

The backplate is not a cheap thing, and another control is another thing to have to set. So id suggest only to add it if you really think you have a hum problem for what and where you play, based on other guitars.

If this is the case, then Id suggest to wire it between the ground for all of the pots and pickups, and the real jack ground, so its in series with everything. Incorporate an on-on-on mini-toggle so you can have it on, off (ie bypassed = shorted out) or on in reverse. Then you have all the options for when it might help. There will be some when you want it off, and others where it helps but is not fully cancelling. Not sure if a pot will help, but I recall the Illitch system may already have a pot for preset adjustments.