40 tone wireing

[chuck7]

My next build will not be until some time next year, but of course I am already planning every thing out.  Currently I think I want to do a pair of Seymour Duncan P-Rails in it.  I want to get as much versatility out of the pickups as I can, but have the least number of controls possible.  And I don't really care about getting any out of phase sounds.  So I am thinking of doing the fallowing:

2 4 poll 5 way rotary knobs
1 250k push/pull volume pot

Optionally I could do a 500k push/pull volume and 500k tone pot, but I generally don't use tone controls, and I want to keep it clean.  The wiering would be as fallows.  Each rotary would control one pickup.  They would be wired to provide:

position 1: rail coil
position 2: P90 coil
position 3: pickup off
position 4: coils in series
position 5: coils in parallel


The push pull pot would be wired so that when down, the two pickups are in parallel, and when up they are in series.  The result, if my math is right, would be 40 possible tonal combinations.  16 possible blends blends between the coils of the two pickups x 2 because of the push/pull series/parallel switch + 4 tones per pickup x 2 pickups. 

Now I don't think I would ever use every single one of the possibilities, but some times you do something just because you can You might get some interesting results from something like neck P90 in parallel with bridge rail coil, or neck in series humbucker in series with bridge P90.

What do you guys think?  Sound like a cool idea, or just over kill on the tone options?

 

[taez555]

As someone who recently wired his warmoth so I could get 31 PU combinations, I say... go for it.       You may not use them all, (I only use about 10 of mine on a regular basis), but there's just something about having all the options available.  Plus, if you have the PU's and don't wire it like that, you'll be playing the guitar wondering the whole time whether or not their are some tones hidden in your guitar that you can't access.

erik

 

[dbw]

Very cool idea, I like it a lot.  alexplorer.net has something similar, but that was before the P-rails were available!

Now add four mini toggles to switch phase on each coil and you're in business!!  (That's a joke, I think THAT would be overkill.)

 

[GoDrex]

Sounds cool to me. I also like having options to play with.  Though I guess I'll just have to be happy with 21 possible combinations. Oh well! :icon_tongue:

 

[-CB-]

Not cool, imho

Too much of a good thing is too much of a good thing!

Famous flops due to control complexity -
Jassmaster, Jaguar, L6s.... just for starters.

Keep the controls simple.

 

[tfarny]

Do it, and more - make the 99 tone strat I saw somewhere. Put mini-switches in the body cavity so you don't drill any extra holes, push pots everywhere too. Play it for a while.
THEN, re-do the controls to simplify and keep only what you use.

BTW, how would you ever figure out a dual-rotary guitar at a gig? With your setup you could easily end up turning your guitar off when trying to change sounds.

 

[Shmoopie]

to much is not enough.

 

[GoDrex]

"Too much is always better than not enough..." - J.R. "Bob" Dobbs"

little known continuation of that quote:

"...but it's almost as bad."

 

[DiMitriR33]

well i say do it. i also say i wouldn't do it but it'll be a learning experience, i've done some weird wireing with many combos and i'm not so into it anymore but if you never use it atleast you can say you did it your self and show it off to your friends.

 

[RLW]

This thread has inspired me to go out and buy an Esquire and a Les Paul Junior tomorrow.

 

[David]

I like things simple, but those P-Rails intrigue me.  They look like too much fun.  Has anyone here tried them?

 

[chuck7]

BTW, how would you ever figure out a dual-rotary guitar at a gig? With your setup you could easily end up turning your guitar off when trying to change sounds.

I think by putting the off positions in the center of the switches, you could make it a little easier.  "Up once, single coil, Up twice P90, down once series, down twice parallel".  Then again, it would be a little more difficult to get from something like single neck p90 to neck parallel humbucker, bridge p90 in series with each other.  Lucky for me, I don't gig at this point, so it would mainly just be for getting creative at home