Switching between parallel, series and split humbucker.

Pickups, wiring schemes, switch techniques and onboard active electronics for guitars and basses
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Rolbista
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Post by Rolbista »

So... I got this little project i've been working on recently, namely, rewiring my Jolana Tornado for humbuckers. I have already sent it to a luthier to enlarge pickup cavities and fit a new pickguard, and scored two humbuckers for a bottle of cheap wine. The humbuckers have separate ground and signal leads for each coil so i figured - why not make it splittable to a single? Well that would be cool, but what if i could switch between the usual humbucker with coils in series, humbucker with coils in parallel (I read that Filtertrons are wired this way) AND a single? I came up with this plan: ON-OFF-ON switch for each pickup with series on one side, parallel on the other and single coil in the OFF position, normal 3-way gibson switch after that, and a master tone and master volume pot. Initially i wanted to do this without mini switches and use push-pull pots instead, but they only have two positions ON-ON. This is a layut i came up with, but it seems there is a flaw somewhere, I just can't find it. Anyway, is that even doable with a single switch for each pickup?
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le perfectly drawn layout (there is only a master volume pot and a jack on this one)
le perfectly drawn layout (there is only a master volume pot and a jack on this one)
pickup wiring.png (3.9 KiB) Viewed 865 times

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deltafred
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Post by deltafred »

You will never get that to work as series because both coils have one end grounded. You need to isolate one so it can be placed in series with the other that is grounded.

I always struggle with wiring diagrams as they are just a jumble of wires pots and switches, almost like looking in the control cavity of a guitar/bass. A schematic says so much more.

This is a diagram I stole from talkbass.com which is very useful, I wish I could find the owner and give him the credit he is due.
Pickup_switching.png
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Rolbista
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Post by Rolbista »

Thanks, that was just what i was looking for!

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skylark44
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Post by skylark44 »

I've done this mod, on several of my guitars (and on my customer's guitars, as well)...here's a link that'll help out...http://www.guitarelectronics.com/produc ... allel.html .
Let me know how everything turns out. :mrgreen:

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