Series/parallel and coil split possible with 3 push/pulls?

[reery]

Hi there, I'm on to finish my first Warmoth-Strat and I'm stuck with the electronics-part.

Pickups:
HSH, the single-coil in middle-position is also a humbucker.

1 Master volume with push/pull. I want this to switch the neck humbucker from series to parallel.
1 Master tone with push/pull. I want this to split both neck and bridge.
1 Dummy tone with push/pull. I want this to add bridge to every switch position.

I know how to achieve the last 2 options but switching the neck from series to parallel doesn't work for some reason.
Further questioning if this idea is possible at all?

Best,
reery

 

[tangent]

its more complex than just toggling the neck from parallel to series

series wiring adds a lot of complexity to the circuit, on a guitar with all single coils it is very useful but IMO it may not be worth the effort on a HSH since you already have 'fatter' tones from the humbuckers

if you do want to do series/parallel options you would be well served by removing your 'dummy tone' and replacing it with a 4PDT On-On-On switch, then replace your normal 5-way blade switch with a 4P5T Superswitch.. with that setup you can have very versatile wiring

see here for many example wiring diagrams: http://www.geocities.jp/dgb_studio/index_e.htm

 

[Alfang]

Theres been a bunch of people with posts just like yours, trying to get all sounds from one guitar.  And don't get me wrong, i tried this too. I built my own pups with 3 taps in each coil, i had 16 mini toggles to switch between  a thousand possible combinations.

I got over that, it worked, I had a bunch of dif. sounds, what I finally set on was this,  1  5 way switch and one volume knob, not even a tone controll. Simple is best, all this coil splitting series parallel is a bunch of crap

But of course this is my opinion, and others will certainly claim otherwise.  But heres what always happens with multiple choice settings, you find the one that sounds good and you always play that.

No one plays a humbucker split, it just never sounds as good as a real single, when I joined this forum I was a humbucker guy, now i only use singles, they sound the best,to me. And a good single can play any sound out there, VanHalen, SRV whoever....

Good luck

 

[reery]

That's what I got told from the luthier here, too.

If I want single-coil-sound I've to get these.

As this is my first built guitar, and also my first quality guitar I wanted a lot of variation in sound just to conquer the style I want to play in the end.
I ended up by just wiring the splitting and adding-function. That's enough for now, the soldering job yesterday made me mad. It was the most awful job on the whole guitar, but well... it's working straightaway.

 

[Dan025]

most of us agree with alfang's position on simple is better, it's good advise.

the problem with your request is that with the normal way to do these things, the humbucker tap will become a kill switch if you have the neck pickup in parallel mode. things are traditionally done with the minimum number of wires possible and are sometimes not that obvious, there are other ways to do these things but you wont find diagrams for them because it use more wires and normally would be undesirable. what you are asking is something that will need more wires than the standard diagrams. you may need to do something different somewhere unless you are cool with the kill switch scenario. you may also want to be mindful of output phase and hum-canceling and grounding of each pickup. with series/parallel you need to be careful about the grounding of that pickup as well

i can draw a diagram but im not gonna do it tonight

 

[Alfang]

Theres always this option, you go crazy with switches and whatever just to play arround, then buy a new pick guard and reconfigure it a diferent way later on.

Nothings permanant as far as wiring a guitar is concerned, it can all be unsoldered and done again

 

[rockskate4x]

Don't let Alfang rain on your parade. Before letting anyone tell you that your wiring idea is too complicated, look at Guthrie Govan's signiture guitar, the Jimmy Page Les Paul wiring schematic, and some of our own Orpheo's monstrous creations, just to name a few. There are more than a few tone hounds that really do find it worthwhile to have tons of tone options on the guitar. Keep in mind that there are always compromises with such wirings since no single guitar can have nail all of the worthwhile tones out there, but you might find a find a set of good tones that you like. Bottom line is, you won't really know until you try it and play around with it a few times. I suggest getting what you want now and see if it is what you want later.

By the way, I have nothing against Alfang's views. He tried what wanted first, and with newer knowledge settled for something that worked better for him, and that is exactly what I hope you do, as it is very difficult to get it "right" the first time. Happy tone hunting!  :rock-on:

 

[spauldingrules]

In my experience, I agree with Alfang.  However, I have found a series/parallel switch useful on a neck humbucker in a tele.

 

[Alfang]

Yo rockskate I wasn't tryin to rain on any parades at all. My first post was a comment on what many have tried, and my second comment was a " GO For It" post

I say go for it and go crazy with switches and knobs, it's a fun experiment