Pickup switching scheme

[Sovereign_13]

Playing around with switching schemes in my head for a Bass VI with 3 single-coil-sized humbuckers (as suggested by the rep from DiMarzio).  All three are dual-rail pickups, and I was thinking it might be neat to be able to switch between series and parallel for each pickup.

The advantage, in my mind, would be to be able to choose parallel coils for a more articulated tone and series coils for when clarity is less important than oomph.

Without drilling extra holes in the pickguard (or the body) to accommodate extra switches, I've come up with two different schemes to get series/parallel switching:

What I'm calling "Jaguar-style" uses the traditional Jaguar/Bass VI 3-switch plate.  Instead of simple on/off wiring, I would wire each pickup as "series/off/parallel".  This has both the advantage and the disadvantage of the most pickup combinations, by allowing each pickup to be selected individually and in each mode.  What I don't know is if I'll ever want the "all 3" or "neck and bridge" options, or if those options would even be useful on that type of instrument.  That many options can also lead to tricky on-the-fly pickup switching.

The other option I call "Strat-style", although it's really more of a Strat/Jaguar hybrid.  With this option, I would trade the Jaguar on/off switches for series/parallel switches and use a 5-way selector on the upper bout.  The advantages here are that panel-mount DPDT switches are easier to find than DP3T on-on-on or DP3T on-off-on switches, and the overall switching scheme is a little more compartmentalized.  The disadvantage is that you lose out on a couple of pickup combinations (probably not a big deal).

For either case, the traditional "bass strangle" (or "thin") function will be handled by a push-pull switch on the tone knob.

Thoughts?

 

[Cagey]

Have you ever tried playing around with switching coils in/out/around with single coil-sized humbuckers? You might want to find a way to try that with a single unit at some position before configuring an entire instrument that way. In my experience, they're not well-suited to that sort of thing. I question why Dimarzio/Duncan/et al even bring out all four coil wires.

 

[Zhaezzy]

I will second what Cagey said but I think the series parallel would work better. Also sometimes it is nice to get the switching down to what sounds good and leave out options that don't add to the experience of playing the guitar. Another option would be to make a universal coil tap and on off switches. Hiding the universal coil tap in a pot.

 

[Sovereign_13]

I don't plan on coil-splitting the humbuckers, just series-parallel.  When I say "series/off/parallel" I mean "off" as in "pickup off" like you find on Jaguars and VIs.  That would eliminate the need for a blade switch, but it would complicate the switchplate controls - when you turn a pickup on, you'd have to decide then if you want it to be in series or parallel.  With a 5-way, you never have to bother with the switchplate at all if you don't want.

I admit I've only messed with series/parallel/coil-splitting on full-sized humbuckers.  Frankly, I haven't been impressed with the coil-splits on the (comparatively few) humbuckers I've tried, but series/parallel seems to work a bit better.  The coils aren't really made to stand alone, but as long as you keep both of them in the circuit, they seem to work pretty well.  It definitely depends on the pickup, though.

I have thought about prototyping the switching scheme ahead of time, although it's kind of hard to tell if the sound is usable without assembling everything.  I suppose I could just leave the switchplate off and pull the pickup leads out that hole to a prototyping setup.

 

[Verne Bunsen]

I've toyed with the single-sized rail humbuckers and, in my opinion, the parallel and split configurations were a bit un-inspiring on their own. HOWEVER, they could make for some cool sonics when combined with other pickups. I did a Mustang a while back for a friend of mine and it had a Mustang single coil in the neck and a SD Hot Rails in the bridge, wired for Series/Split/Parallel. While the audio samples I captured of it may not be expressly relevant to your project, they may at least provide some food for thought. Or not? If interested you can hear them here:

http://www.unofficialwarmoth.com/index.php?topic=25643.45
(The build was inspired by Kurt Cobain's Competition Mustang, hence all the Nirvana tunes represented!)

A couple of disclaimers: my recording apparatus has improved since I recorded these, and I eventually got the guitar to intonate correctly  :icon_biggrin: As a side note, listening to those again has made me really want to put the DS-1 back on my board....

As far as your actual question: If I were doing it, your second scheme is how I would approach it. A configuration switch for each pickup and a 5-way for pickup selection. Individual switches for turning pickups on off is way cumbersome in my opinion...

I may be telling you what you already know here, but just as an FYI the DPDT and DP3T switches do not have the same mounting footprint or throw length. May require some work if you deviate from the "normal" spec.

 

[Sovereign_13]

Thanks, VB, I will give those tones a listen.  They might not be exactly relevant, but I'll at least be able to hear if the tone changes in a way that is in line with my goal.

The over-arching idea behind having series/parallel options is to be able to "thin" down the tone a little to bring back note clarity.  I don't expect it to be some completely new tonal characteristic, just a way to dial in a sound when using the 2 and 4 positions.  I don't expect to use a single pickup alone in parallel mode.

The more I've thought about this, the more I've started to lean toward a separate pickup selector, just to keep the "main" controls more separate from the "tweaking" controls.

Good to know about the footprint difference.  I wasn't planning to buy any switches until I had the switchplate in hand, so I didn't end up with switches that don't mount to my plate.