3 Humbuckers with some tricks

[Hasselhoof]

Hi all, I'm new to designing my own set up, and was wondering if anyone can check my diagram for me to see if its ok?
I will be using 3 single coil sized HBs from Seymour Duncan and some of this diagram pis copied from their site, but they didn't have one that did what I really wanted.

What I want to be able to do is have any of the 3 HBs on and have them in or out of phase and parallel, sieries or single coil, kind of like the red special with HBs

Thanks in advance
Rich

 

[line6man]

It works, but personally, I would give more thought to the coils chosen for single coil mode. You don't want them to all be the same phase (Not to be confused with the phase switches. Those won't help.), or you won't be able to humcancel. Choose inner or outer coils for the neck and bridge to get RWRP pairs, and then do what you want with the middle pickup.

 

[Frank67]

I did something related that is described here:

http://unofficialwarmoth.com/index.php?topic=22466.0

I have the three humbuckers each going to a separate three way on-on-on miniswitch that handles serial-single coil-parallel for each pickup. The tone poti is wired as a push pull that switches the polarity of the bridge pickup for out of phase sounds. Hence the only out pf phase that i cannot do is the combination of middle and neck but that is fine. Your solution seems more advanced with three additional mini switches.
The neck and middle have the 'north' coil active in sc mode, the bridge the 'south' coil. Via a five way S1 switch there are ten possible combinations of pickups available giving endless tonal variations. I haven't done the wiring myself and I am no electronics expert but your drawing looked reasonable to me

Good luck!

 

[Hasselhoof]

Thanks guys

I have take a second look at the set up, and taken the advice on the single coil sized HBs. Now looking at some bare knuckle humbuckers, still three of them, but with some additions to the diagram 

I should now be able to run the humbuckers in one long series loop as HBs or SCs etc, and I have dropped the middle pickups phase changer as all three out of phase would not be out of phase... going to change the first toggle on the middle humbucker to select the south single coil rather than the north to get the RW/RP.

 

[Cagey]

Y'know... assuming you can find room on the face of the guitar for 8 SPDT switches, you'd only have 255 different settings available. Of course, you can add the nearly infinite variability of the volume and tone pots, but are you sure that's enough?

 

[line6man]

Thanks guys

I have take a second look at the set up, and taken the advice on the single coil sized HBs. Now looking at some bare knuckle humbuckers, still three of them, but with some additions to the diagram 

I should now be able to run the humbuckers in one long series loop as HBs or SCs etc, and I have dropped the middle pickups phase changer as all three out of phase would not be out of phase... going to change the first toggle on the middle humbucker to select the south single coil rather than the north to get the RW/RP.

I'll bet thirty-five cents that 90% of your options are either going to be utterly useless, or identical to other options. And if not that, than you will find it to be more hassle than its worth, to play the guitar.

 

[SustainerPlayer]

Rythm, rythm, rythm ... now solo ... click, click, click, click, no not that click, click ... solo, solo, solo ... now back to rythm ... click, click, click, ups not that one, click, click ... rythm, rythm rythm ... wait bridge already? ... click, click, click ... etc.

 

[mark1178]

Rythm, rythm, rythm ... now solo ... click, click, click, click, no not that click, click ... solo, solo, solo ... now back to rythm ... click, click, click, ups not that one, click, click ... rythm, rythm rythm ... wait bridge already? ... click, click, click ... etc.

This is why I'm kinda glad they didn't have the SD Triple Shots available when I was in my band years ago. Some co-workers have asked me to join their cover band, now catching up on cover songs with my current build, I find that I'm switching coils every song, and sometimes twice a song, I need a tech or a third arm.

 

[Updown]

I'll bet thirty-five cents that 90% of your options are either going to be utterly useless, or identical to other options. And if not that, than you will find it to be more hassle than its worth, to play the guitar.

Yep .... that's what will happen.  :icon_thumright:

Plus you will need a large chart in front of you, so you remember all the settings  :laughing7:
..... waste of time if ya ask me.

 

[Super Turbo Deluxe Custom]

2 words.

Jurassic Park.

 

[Cagey]

2 words.

Jurassic Park.

Hehe! Yeah. "Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should."

 

[Re-Pete]

Just had a quick look at the Thread.

Quite a complex set of controls for each pickup, and their interactions with other pickups, but only a master volume & tone?

No balance in volume or subtlety of tone between each pickup as a result?

The outputs of each pickup will have to be very carefully balanced in their respective positions. If you don't, you could end up with one louder pickup which you can't mix down as a result of having only one volume for all pickups.  :dontknow:

 

[Hasselhoof]

Thanks for the advice guys, very helpful, and taking this on board I have worked out something a bit simpler, based on an HSH format



Or possibly



The difference between the 2 diagrams is the bridge pickup switch, the first it picks the south coil the second it picks the north (same as the neck pickup)

 

[line6man]

You have the tone controls backwards, and the treble bleed capacitors wired as low-pass filters.

 

[Dan025]

you don't actually need phase switches on all 3. any 2 would work fine, unless oyuu want to put the coils of a single humbucker out of phase with each other, in which case you are not setup to do that.

 

[Hasselhoof]

I know, all 3 out of phase would be the same as all 3 in phase, I'm planning on using push pull pots for the phase switching and it would allow me to pick which pickups i wanted out of phase.

 

[Cagey]

I think we should all let Mr. Hasselhoof do what he wants. Some people don't take direction. Some are immune to suggestion. Some are convinced of their own genius. Sometimes, the only way to learn about futility is to tilt at windmills. Sometimes, the only way to learn about hot stoves is to touch them.

We've all been through it to some degree or another, which is why we try to help spare the pain. But, there are those who need to take the beating. So, let him do it. What's the worst thing that could happen? He'll waste some time and money, but it'll be a hard-earned lesson and it's not only unlikely he'll do it again, he'll spread the wisdom. Of course, there'll be another kid who'll say "eat my shorts", but you gotta try, right?

 

[line6man]

I think we should all let Mr. Hasselhoof do what he wants. Some people don't take direction. Some are immune to suggestion. Some are convinced of their own genius. Sometimes, the only way to learn about futility is to tilt at windmills. Sometimes, the only way to learn about hot stoves is to touch them.

We've all been through it to some degree or another, which is why we try to help spare the pain. But, there are those who need to take the beating. So, let him do it. What's the worst thing that could happen? He'll waste some time and money, but it'll be a hard-earned lesson and it's not only unlikely he'll do it again, he'll spread the wisdom. Of course, there'll be another kid who'll say "eat my shorts", but you gotta try, right?

For as rude as this sounds, it is right on the money.  :dontknow:

 

[Hasselhoof]

I am taking direction, I might not agree, but I am listening, this is very much a work in progress, and I will be trial running it on an old guitar I have, some things will work and some will not. This process of refining my plan is an organic process and it will grow, and bits will die off as it matures, but please do not think I do not appreciate the input you all have given.
Thanks you, even for the slightly forthright comment that reminded me of what it was like being a teenager and knowing that I was right and my parents couldn't possibly know more than me 

 

[Jumble Jumble]

I know, all 3 out of phase would be the same as all 3 in phase, I'm planning on using push pull pots for the phase switching and it would allow me to pick which pickups i wanted out of phase.

Also, one pickup out of phase is the same as two pickups out of phase.

There is no situation possible in which you need three phase switches. Observe:

Bridge + neck - one switch necessary (on either)
Bridge + mid - one switch necessary (on either)
Mid + neck - one switch necessary (on either)

Bridge + neck + mid - two switches necessary (on any)

(obviously with only one pickup active, a phase switch will have no effect)

So if you have a phase switch for the bridge and one for the neck, then all four of the multi-pickup options can be switched to out of phase.