2 Humbucker, push/pull for coil tap and push/pull for parallel?

[eblankenship]

Hi all.  I'm looking for a little help coming up with a wiring diagram for my soon to be completed tele.  This guitar has two humbucking pickups, a single volume, a single tone and a 3 way toggle switch.  My original plan was to coil tap the pickups, using a push pull for each pickup individually.  After I thought about it, I realized I didn't need that much fine grained control.  Tapping them both at the same time with one switch likely makes more sense.  Since this leaves me with a free push pull, I thought I'd like to use it to switch between making the humbuckers parallel when pulled out. Is this possible?  If I can't make both of them parallel with a single switch, then I'd be happy with controlling just the neck pickup and making it parallel when the switch is pulled out. 

I found this diagram which seems to accomplish what I am trying to do, however, I don't fully understand this comment, "Note: to access the series mode, the pickup selector switch must be in the neck position."

http://www.guitarelectronics.com/product/WD2HH3T11_05/Guitar-Wiring-Diagram-2-Humbuckers3-Way-Toggle-Switch1-Volume1Tone005.html

Does anyone have a schematic that they've successfully used in the past to accomplish what I'm looking for?  Any help would be greatly appreciated!

I found this video, which is great to hear the difference between series and parallel.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=related&v=WxbaBWPTT2k&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DWxbaBWPTT2k%26feature%3Drelated

 

[Jumble Jumble]

What will happen when they're both pulled out?

 

[eblankenship]

I wish I knew, Jumble!  I don't have a lot of experience with wiring and I've not had much luck finding someone who has done something similar.  Perhaps the reason is because this is not a common mod?  Or perhaps it's not possible with this setup?

 

[Fat Pete]

In that diagram one switch is splits both pickups at the same time and the other puts the pickups in series with each other as used on 4-way tele switch mods, not sure that's very useful with 2 humbuckers - or if it's what you're looking for...

 

[eblankenship]

Thanks for the feedback, Pete.  That's not quite what I was looking for.  I think I may have found it after a few more hours searching this morning.


Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Super Turbo Deluxe Custom]

Can you remember all that?  I know it's only four combinations, and being push/pull, they won't clutter the layout with switches.  Do you remember multiple multiple choice tests; a and b, but not c, b and c, sometimes a?  When switches start affecting other switches, it becomes less intuitive, at least to me.

 

[eblankenship]

I think I'll be able to remember.  For the most part, I feel I'll be pulling the volume to get my primary single coils tones.  Should I want an alternate single coil sound, I'll use the tone instead.  And for parallel sounds, I just pull them both.  Seems straightforward enough.

 

[Fat Pete]

Yep, that variation looks like it covers all the options that might produce useful sounds, with plenty of scope for confusion and/or delay in live situations!

Also remember to work out how the wire colours work out if you're not using BKs.

 

[eblankenship]

Appreciate all the feedback, fellas.  As luck would have it, my pickups are a set of Bareknuckle Mules, so the colors are accurate. 

I hear you on the confusion in a live situation.  Here is where I am coming from with this guitar.  As I designed the guitar, my goal was to have a guitar which I could use on a variety of songs and styles.  My band plays mostly originals(75%) and some covers(25%) with our style ranging from rock,blues,soul & funk.  I also didn't want a guitar with a million knobs and switches, full of options I'd never use. So I wanted to stick to options that would give me the most musically useful tones.  I've primarily been a strat player most of my life, so the coil tap seemed to be a no brainer.  I know it won't sound exactly like a strat, but it will be a useful tone. When I found that video on YouTube, I really like the sound of the individual humbucker switching between series and parallel.  I play with another guitar player, and I could see it being useful to choose a complimentary rhythm tone between our guitars.  Since I already had purchased the second push/pull, it seemed like an easy mod and more musical for my uses than an out of phase option. 

Starting at 3:10 you can hear the difference for parallel --> http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WxbaBWPTT2k

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

Both pickups in Series would be fatter/louder slightly.
This is position #1 on my 4 way tele switch.  Positions 2, 3, & 4 are the standard tele, with #3 being the typical parallel configuration.

 

[Jumble Jumble]

OK, I just quickly worked out in my head how you can definitely do this, a bit more simply. The series/parallel switch would override the split one, so when the pickups are in parallel mode, the split switch wouldn't do anything. How does that sound? I don't have time to do a diagram right now though.

 

[eblankenship]

Jumble, that sounds promising! So you're saying, regardless of the other switch, i could control parallel with a single push/pull, instead of both?

 

[stratamania]

I think he is saying you would still have one for series parallel and the other for the split. When one is engaged it overrides the other.

It will be interesting to see the diagram he comes up with when he has a chance to do so...

 

[Jumble Jumble]

Sorry I haven't done this, but I'm on my way home from my NAMM trip now and should get to it in the next few days.