Wiring a HSS Strat with a HB Sized P90 from Bare Knuckle and Lace Sensors.

[razed812]

The Lace Sensors are a Purple and a Silver in the neck and mid, respectively. The Bridge Pickup is a Stockholm HBS P90.

I know to use a 500K tone for the Stockholm and a 250K Tone for the Lace Sensors. But what should I do with the volume pot? The P90 won't sound right with a 250K and the Sensors won't sound right with 500K's.

I think a 470K resistor will do the job, but I don't know how to wire it so the  . Also, will I need a Super Switch, or will a regular 5-way switch work?

Also, how could I get the neck pickup and the bridge pickup to work in phase, if possible?

Help me, wiring experts!

 

[line6man]

Pot values really don't make that big of a difference. I'm not sure what you mean by "won't sound right." If the brighter pickup is too bright, roll the tone down, just like on any other guitar that gets too bright.

The pickups will be in phase if you wire them to be. If they are not, swap the leads around on one of them.

 

[Jumble Jumble]

There are various strategies if you really want to get that pot resistance adjusted.

1. Use a 330K pot or similar value as a compromise.

2. Have a separate volume control for the P90, and use a master tone.

3. Use a super switch

- With a super switch you will be able to:

a) wire a resistor (510K is better) so that you have 250K load on the single coil positions and 500K when the P90 is active

b) wire the tone controls to be active per position instead of per pickup, thus eliminating the cases where you have two tone controls in parallel

c) wire the middle position (or any other position) to select the neck and bridge pickups simultaneously

 

[razed812]

There are various strategies if you really want to get that pot resistance adjusted.

1. Use a 330K pot or similar value as a compromise.

2. Have a separate volume control for the P90, and use a master tone.

3. Use a super switch

- With a super switch you will be able to:

a) wire a resistor (510K is better) so that you have 250K load on the single coil positions and 500K when the P90 is active

b) wire the tone controls to be active per position instead of per pickup, thus eliminating the cases where you have two tone controls in parallel

c) wire the middle position (or any other position) to select the neck and bridge pickups simultaneously

The Super Switch seems like a far better option than compromising for a 330K or having a master tone.

I have a Super Switch, but I don't know how to wire it to have the pots and resistors like you said or how to set the positions to:

1. Bridge
2. Neck + Bridge
3. Middle
4. Neck + Middle
5. Neck only

Like I want.

So would anyone have a wiring diagram for that?

 

[Jumble Jumble]

I can make one for you later.

 

[razed812]

I can make one for you later.

That'd be awesome, thanks.

 

[tfarny]

You can do the approach above. But the idea that Fender pups need 250s and Gibson origin pups need 500s is not based in any science or objective truth, and very few people ever experiment with different values. 250k pots were probably $0.01 cheaper than 500s when Leo was designing the tele, and that's probably all there is to it. The truth is that it doesn't make a big difference, but I and plenty of other people would say, just stick a 500 in there and forget about it. You'll get a touch more treble out of your singles, which can be tamed using tone controls on your guitar (remember those?), your pedalboard (pretty much every pedal) or your amp, or by manipulating pickup height. If you hate the way it sounds, spend 5 minutes trying different values. It's truly no big deal.

Same applies to caps. .01 is the best cap for electric guitars, it rolls off treble while leaving midrange so that your tone doesn't turn to mud when you roll it back, but nobody uses it because Leo and Les didn't use it. .022 is better than .047 for all applications if you are unwilling to leave tradition land, but trying out different values is super easy and costs almost nothing.

 

[Cagey]

I'm in that camp. 500K audio taper pots on everything, .022µF caps for the tone controls and call it a love story. I don't care what kind of pickups they are (except EMGs). If it's not perfect, give it a little time and it will be.

 

[Jumble Jumble]

My yellow Strat that has the 250/500 setup in it is shortly to be rewired completely now I've narrowed everything down to how I want it. The single coils are being replaced with single-sized humbuckers (with which I prefer 500K pots), there's to be no splitting, and it's a 500K volume pot at all times.

But doing it the complicated way to start with was a fun experiment and did no harm. If I was going to mix singles and humbuckers again I'd probably try to implement the 250K/500K switching. It did make the single sounds more authentically Stratty.

 

[razed812]

You can do the approach above. But the idea that Fender pups need 250s and Gibson origin pups need 500s is not based in any science or objective truth, and very few people ever experiment with different values. 250k pots were probably $0.01 cheaper than 500s when Leo was designing the tele, and that's probably all there is to it. The truth is that it doesn't make a big difference, but I and plenty of other people would say, just stick a 500 in there and forget about it. You'll get a touch more treble out of your singles, which can be tamed using tone controls on your guitar (remember those?), your pedalboard (pretty much every pedal) or your amp, or by manipulating pickup height. If you hate the way it sounds, spend 5 minutes trying different values. It's truly no big deal.

Same applies to caps. .01 is the best cap for electric guitars, it rolls off treble while leaving midrange so that your tone doesn't turn to mud when you roll it back, but nobody uses it because Leo and Les didn't use it. .022 is better than .047 for all applications if you are unwilling to leave tradition land, but trying out different values is super easy and costs almost nothing.

Thanks for the enlightenment. I'll try the 500K's and different caps, can't make that much of a difference.

 

[Dan025]

first i want to say pot value isn't a science but it's not a fruitless thing to experiment. but that's wrong! it is a science but it's a complicated science yet ther emay be a wide range of acceptable results applied to an artistic instrument in a scenario where tradition is set by capitalist practices of lower costs in a scene where tradition is king so ymmv.

in a guitar circuit you have a pickup which is an inductor and a cable which is a capacitor believe it or not. when you have these two componants you get a resonant peak where impedence and voltage are high and current is low, since the amp reads voltage it makes a considerable bump in the responce. depending on the q- factor and all the things that effect q-factor you can have the peak at different strengths. if the peak is in the midrange it can give the guitar a really rock and roll sound. if it's too high you get an "ice pick in the ear" sound. the pot loads the pickup and the load effects the resonant peak most because it is the highest impedence, the load pulls it down more. you can do some tuning with the tone controls if things get too icepicky but some people want the guitar to always sound good and to just fine tune the sound with controls. i'd use the 500k pots and if the guitar has an icepick effect or some notes are otherwise overbearing then change it. the 250k might not sound all that bad on the p-90 either depending on how it's wound, what type and length pole pieces it has and what magnets are used, i've never done the calculations for the -3db high end roll off but i think a pickup has to be quite hot before a 250k makes it sound like mud, it should really just give it less of an edge, as a matter of fact many stomp boxes have a 500k input impedence so you may be ending up with 250k pickup load and not even know it.... if you must have a combo 250/500k, and i'd reserve judgment on that till you hear it, then we can discuss ways about doing that. easiest to understand is to use 2 510k resistors and just solder each to a pickup across the leads but 500k only is semi popular here, and it'll give you more volume and individuality between pickups be that god or bad..

if you need 250/500k for the different positions, there is a way to do it with the tone pots (assuming they are 500k) instead of resistors. with two tone pots you can use the inactive tone so the taper isn't effected. but it's not all bad if the taper is effected, you actually get more range this way because the caps get shunted on them selves so the tone cant have any parasitic effects other than the extra load. to do it as discretely as possible you can use a super switch but then you are talking more complexity (not that it's hard) and expense on a switch (not that it's expensive) so you may as well use resistors anyway.