3 single coil noiseless humbuckers with 5 way switch question.

[t.coyle]

I had a question about the wiring of three single coil noisless pickups. The pickups In question would be a Dimarzio Area 58 for the neck, Dimarzio Area 67 in the middle, and a Dimarzio Area 61 In the bridge. All three pickups have 4 Conductor wiring. So I assume you could split them.

I was wondering if it is possible with just a 5 way superswitch or megaswitch or something similar it is possible to get a combo like this?

And also would I have to flip the magnet or wire the middle pickup in a different way to get hum canceling on the 2 in between sounds?

I was wondering this because it would kind of be like adding 2 different single coil voiced humbuckers for a total of 5 different single coil voiced humbuckers. I realize that since the coils wouldnt be tottally symetrical there would be a bit of noise. I like it when all of positions are around the same volume level so I wouldnt like having 2 of the single coil voiced humbuckers together at the same time as per normal wiring. I know I could probabbly do a 3 way switch and not worry about the in between sounds but I like that it would give some extra sounds.

Thanks for the help

 

[tfarny]

The second coil on those is not intended to be used to make sounds, only to cancel hum, and Dimarzio doesn't recommend splitting them. I think you are better off doing a "middle series" option on a push-pull switch to get more sounds. It's not clear at all from that diagram, anyhow, whether the positions are in series or parallel which would be crucial to figuring out how this would sound. On the other hand, go ahead and do it, and let us know what happens. I'm curious.

 

[Super Turbo Deluxe Custom]

The second coil on those is not intended to be used to make sounds, only to cancel hum, and Dimarzio doesn't recommend splitting them.

+1

 

[swarfrat]

I'm a little surprised they even bothered with the 4 conductor on a stacked single coil.

 

[Super Turbo Deluxe Custom]

On my Area T, the 2 conductors that are soldered together (black and white) are so short they're not useable w/out soldering a longer lead to it.  I don't know why they didn't just do it internally like a 2 conductor hum would be.

 

[Jusatele]

I at one time experimented around with just hooking the wire and then reversing the rotation so it was stacked on top of each other, will not try to explain the insanity behind that but  lets just say I put the bong away after trying it. Why they have 2 sets of windings to confuse you is kinda strange, if you use only one set you are going to really have a weak pickup.

 

[Cagey]

I had a very similar setup on one of my Warmoth Strats, with the Area 58 and Area 61 but a "Hot Rails" in the bridge position, and I wired it very much as you've described. Took a "Super Switch" to do it, and it was very disappointing. As has been mentioned, the lower coils on the stacked pickups aren't meant to be used as pickups, per se. They do function as such, but the output is extremely low so it isn't useful. By finding out which were the start and finish windings on each coil, and the orientation of the magnets, I was able to get noiseless performance across the board, but the 2 and 4 positions just sounded awful. The whole thing seems like a good idea on the surface, but the reality is very different.

In the end, I wired them as if they were all single coils. That is, the typical Strat wiring...

1 = bridge
2 = bridge + middle
3 = middle
4 = middle + neck
5 = neck

...and it sounds wonderful. Don't need a trick switch; the standard Strat 5 position switch works fine. Forget coil cuts, phase reversals, series/parallel and all that hysterical crap. Those "Area" pickups are nice - you won't suffer for them being noiseless. Of course, the Hot Rails wanks, as expected. It's pretty versatile.

 

[Alfang]

Along these same lines, I have the fender noiseless pups, I love them, but they have 4 conductors as well, I was planning to do a test on them and just bypass the noise canceling portion so that they would be true singles.

I won't know till I try how that will work, or weather or not they will sound better or diferent, they sound pretty darn good now, thats why i haven't messed with them.

 

[Cagey]

I'm fairly confident you'd be sorry. I'd bet a dollar to a hole in a donut that they'd be weak, thin, noisy, useless and uninteresting. Stacked humbuckers are simply not designed to be separated out. If you're going to go through the disassembly/rewiring/reassembly aggravation to get a "true" single coil sound, just pony up the dough for some pickups that are designed to be used that way and suffer the consequences. It'll save you a great deal of trouble until you decide to go back to the noiseless versions.

 

[Jusatele]

Cagey, you say the hot rails wanks? like is bad?
I like mine in the bridge of my strat, i run hot rails vintage rails and cool rails, it rocks. What amp you using, I find it breaks up a vox real good, just grinds
the tubes's edges off

 

[Cagey]

Cagey, you say the hot rails wanks? like is bad?
I like mine in the bridge of my strat, i run hot rails vintage rails and cool rails, it rocks. What amp you using, I find it breaks up a vox real good, just grinds
the tubes's edges off

No, I keep forgetting that's derogatory British slang. I mean it romps and stomps. It's good.

Many years ago, when a buddy and his very young son would come to visit, if you asked what they were going to do when they got home he'd say: "We gonna wank and crank!" - referring to his dad's penchant for incessant practicing at high volumes. Guy was just shameless about it.

Anyway, the term stuck with me, and I use it all the time to mean having great fun playing with wild abandon at high volumes. You can do that with a Hot Rails in a Strat <grin>

 

[swarfrat]

I think possibly the best way to do 5-way noiseless in a fairly traditional HSH setup is with a stacked single in the middle, a super switch, and the following:

Neck Series
Neck Parallel + Middle
Middle
Bridge Parallel + Middle
Bridge Series

This is probably the simplest setup which mirrors traditional 5-way tonalities but remains hum free.

 

[lafromla1]

The second coil on those is not intended to be used to make sounds, only to cancel hum, and Dimarzio doesn't recommend splitting them.

I tried splitting them to see what would happen.  The lower coil gives off no sound whatsoever.  They are not intended to be split per DiMarzio.

 

[t.coyle]

Thanks for the advice, needless to say I will not be bothering with that Idea.