HSH wiring help

[mrpig]

Hello everybody,

I am currently in the process of wiring my guitar with HSH. I have no experience putting wiring diagrams together so any help would be appreciated.

Here is what I would like to achieve if possible.

Position 1: Neck Humbucker

Position 2: Neck Split Outer Coil and Middle

Position 3: Outside Coils of Both Humbuckers

Position 4: Bridge Humbucker split and middle

Position 5: Bridge Humbucker

I would also like the option to have just the neck humbucker split but I'm not sure how I would add that.

Thanks for the help everybody!

[newey]

mrpig-

Hello and Welcome to G-Nutz2!

OK, so your "wish list" shows 5 switch positions, so a 5-way switch of some sort needs to be on the menu. And, for what you want to do, a Superswitch (or its equivalent, there are other brands available) will be necessary. What type of guitar is this going to go into?

Your 5 desired combinations can be done (at first glance anyway) with a Superswitch, which is a 4-pole, 5 throw (4P5T) switch. The "4 poles" part means it's essentially 4 separate switches operated by a single lever.

I would also like the option to have just the neck humbucker split but I'm not sure how I would add that.

That is also possible, but it will mean another switch. This could be a mini-toggle or perhaps a push/pull pot switch. When you say "have just the neck HB split", this could mean different things. The neck HB is already being split at positions "2" and "3" (I put these in parentheses because the usual numbering is the reverse, with the bridge as #1 and the neck as #5, but you'll see it done both ways). So, do you just want a switch that splits the neck HB at position "1" on the 5-way switch? Or do you want to have the neck pickup on- and split- in addition to the setting on the 5-way switch (IOW, you could have the neck "On" and split along with the bridge and middle both at your position 4, or with the bridge HB at position 5?). Or, finally, do you mean that you want the neck split coil to override the 5-way switch, so that flipping the switch gives just the neck split coil, regardless of the 5-way switch setting?

Any one of those options can potentially be done with appropriate added switching.

We also need to know what type of pickups you are using, and their wire color scheme, if you will want a diagram. The HBs must be of the 4-wire type (excluding the bare wire, if any).

You will also want to think carefully (or at least, you ought to want to do so . . .) about coil polarities and coil placement so as to maximize hum-cancellation with the split coil settings. At your position 3, you have specified the outer coils of both HBs. For that setting to be hum-cancelling, you will need one of those outer coils to be reverse wound, reverse polarity (RWRP) with the other coil. They have to be opposite of each other. Depending on the type of pickups you are using, it may be necessary for you to rotate one of the two HBs 180° to achieve this.

Then, you specified that, at position 2, it would be the neck outer coil split with the middle. But I noticed that, when it came to position 4, you just wrote "Bridge HB split and middle", without specifying which bridge coil it would be. That was very prescient of you.

Because position 4 can't be the outer coil of the bridge HB with the middle if we are to maintain hum-cancellation. As we established above, if position 3 is going to be outer coils of both HBs, and we want that position to hum-cancel, the two coils have to be opposite of each other. If those 2 are RWRP with respect to each other, then they can't both be RWRP with respect to the middle pickup.

But, if we start with opposite outer coils to fulfill the desired position 3, and if the neck outer coil is RWRP from the middle, then the specified position 2 will likewise be hum-cancelling. And, if instead of the outer bridge coil, we use the inner coil instead, then position 4 will be hum-cancelling as well, and all 3 split-position settings will hum-cancel. Pretty sure that can be done, splitting to one bridge coil at position 3 and the opposite one at position 4 should be do-able with a superswitch.

[mrpig]

Thanks,

To clarify, I currently I have a 5-way superswitch and a mini toggle. I also rewrote the positions in the correct format and was a bit more specific.

Position 1: Bridge Humbucker

Position 2: Bridge Split Inside Coil and Middle

Position 3: Outside Coils of Both Humbuckers

Position 4: Neck Split Outside Coil and Middle

Position 5: Neck Humbucker

I would just like the Neck Humbucker to split to the outside coil in position 5 so a mini toggle to split the neck humbucker in position 5 would work. The pickups I have are all Seymour Duncan.

[newey]

OK, that's all good. It may be the weekend before I can get to a diagram. I will leave it to you to work out the coil placements IRL so that you get one North and one South coil as the outside coils. Once you figure that out, let me know which neck coil will be the outer one- if you want the outer neck paired with the middle, then the neck pickup needs to be oriented such that the outside coil is opposite of the middle pup (You can determine this by placing the faces of the pickups together, face-to-face, opposites attract. If you've already mounted them and don't want to undo them, you can use a small compass.

One we figure which neck coil needs to be the outer one, everything else just falls into place accordingly.

[reTrEaD]

Mar 25, 2021 22:23:11 GMT -5 mrpig said:

Thanks,

To clarify, I currently I have a 5-way superswitch and a mini toggle. I also rewrote the positions in the correct format and was a bit more specific.

Position 1: Bridge Humbucker

Position 2: Bridge Split Inside Coil and Middle

Position 3: Outside Coils of Both Humbuckers

Position 4: Neck Split Outside Coil and Middle

Position 5: Neck Humbucker

I would just like the Neck Humbucker to split to the outside coil in position 5 so a mini toggle to split the neck humbucker in position 5 would work. The pickups I have are all Seymour Duncan.

Hi mrpig

It looks like you have just two coils being selected at any given time. This would fit well into a structure like the Strat-o-Various v1.0 found in this thread. However that may be more that what you're looking for. We can keep this as simple or as flexible as you desire.

Even without the Strat-o-Various architecture, would possible to get only the combinations you listed in five selections. Then choose to wire such that each pair is in the configuration (series or parallel) in that particular position. For instance, positions 1 and 2 could have the coils in series and positions 2, 3, and 4 could have the coils in parallel.

Regarding which coil to use from the HBs in positions 2 and 4, you'll want to determine the magnetic polarity of your middle pickup. If it's south-up, you'll want to pair it with a north-up (slug) coil from a HB. If it's north-up, you'll want to pair it with a south-up (screw) coil from the HB.

In position 3, you'll want to use a north (slug) coil from one of the HBs and a south (screw) coil from the other.

These choices will provide hum-canceling.

Also, you mentioned a mini-toggle. If it's a DPDT, splitting the HBs to single-coil can be done more elegantly. But even a SPST can be made to work.

[mrpig]

Thanks for the help everybody,

I'm trying to keep this as simple as possible. The outer coil on the neck will be the screw coil. The mini toggle I have is a DPDT

[reTrEaD]

I put together a couple of HSH schemes. Neither of them are exactly what you asked for but you might like one of them better than what you've asked about. Both of them provide hum-canceling in all 6 selections.





They're both predicated on the middle pickup having a south-up magnetic polarity. You haven't yet told us the magnetic polarity of your middle pickup.

Also, the Series/Parallel switch for the #5 Neck HB selection can easily be changed to a Series/Split switch, selecting whichever coil you desire. However, a single-coil by itself won't hum-cancel.