Into the 21st century

[ptirman]

I've been out of it for a while and just getting back in so forgive the amateur question. I am placing 2 P-90's in my Warmoth build. What sort of pots,switches etc. should I get to maximize the potential of the 2 pickups? In other words are there ways to switch between in and out of phase to get the maximum number of tones or am I stuck with bridge-both-neck only? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Cheersπ

 

[rockskate4x]

tfarny has a thing or two to say about pots and different caps

http://www.unofficialwarmoth.com/index.php?topic=10535.0

 

[ptirman]

tfarny has a thing or two to say about pots and different caps

http://www.unofficialwarmoth.com/index.php?topic=10535.0

Thanks very much for this. It's too complicated for my simple brain though. I'm really interested what variations people are doing with just 2 single coil pickups. I'll then make a decision and take it to someone who knows what the heck they're doing.

 

[-CB-]

Do a 3 way toggle and three position rotary.

You'll get -

neck
both in parallel, in phase
bridge
both in series, in phase
both out of phase, either series or parallel.

if you do it correctly, the 3 way toggle will work "as standard" and the 3 position rotary will give you two more new flavors, plus "standard".  If you go a 4 way rotary... then you can both out of phase serial, and both out of phase parallel... but really... they sound almost the same, unless you "unphase" one of them with a capacitor in series with the signal from one of the pickups.  At that point, you get the snarly out of phase, and another more "strat 2/4" tone.

 

[Unwound G]

On my  Thinline Tele, I coupled a Fralin P90 neck with a Fralin Tele bridge in RWRP to each other.  The pickup switch is a Fender 4-way and the selections are :-

1.  Neck pickup only
2.  Neck and Bridge in parallel (hum cancelling)
3.  Neck pickup alone
4.  Neck and Bridge in series (hum cancelling).

The 4th position gives a really thick syrupy tone like a full sized humbucker which drives the amp perfectly for big crunchy chords and sweet singing lines.

I used 250k pot for both volume and tone.  For tone cap, I put in a 0.022uf Orange Drop.

 

[Dan025]

with two pups you can get
neck
bridge
both:
        parallel,
        series
        parallel 180 out of phase (reverse polarity)
        series 180 oof (reverse polarity)
        parallel neck 1/3 oop (neck through a capacitor)
        parallel bridge 1/3 oop (bridge through a cap)
        parallel neck 2/3 oop (through cap and reverse polarity)
        parallel bridge 2/3 oop

a cap gives a 90 degree phase shift but when in a circuit with other forms of resistance and reactance (ie. inductance) will have less than 90 and vary with frequency. a phase shift through a cap makes a 2 pup guitar sound a little more stratty. the parameters of the pups and the size of the cap will affect the shift and how much bass the cap cuts from the pup. some call it half oof but there is no real way to measure it and it varies with frequency so 1/3 and 2/3 oop is not correct either but makes the distinction between weather the pups are in phase before the cap. the part oop options help retain bass and fullness and volume and may be better options than fully oop. the pickup wire without a cap in series with it should provide most of the bass so i guess bridge through a cap sounds warmer and more rounded and neck in series with a cap sounds tighter and snapier. i haven't tried them all yet. you can experiment with cap size and type as well.

so that is 10 combos and an plethora of cap sizes and types to choose from on the part oop combos now you just need to decide what to choose and how you want to select it, good luck!
       

 

[ptirman]

=CB=,UnwoundG, and Dan025 Perfect, thanks. This is exactly what I wanted and needed to learn. I'll let you know how it ends up with photos and descriptions when I get moving on it.

 

[drewfx]

You can also do, vintage-Ric-style, bridge pickup alone with the cap in series. Vintage Ric's used .0047 caps for this for a bass cut on the bridge pickup.

Rickenbacher describe it in their FAQ like this: "The advantage was a crisp, chimey treble pickup (particularly effective on the 12 strings). The disadvantage was somewhat of a loss of output from the pickup.":

http://www.rickenbacker.com/faq_item.asp?faq_id=32

drewfx

 

[ptirman]

Thanks Drewfx, I'm going to look into this.