Custom pickup wiring

[SuperJemBoy]

FINALLY my new pickups arrived, a set of Dimarzio PAF Pros, to be exact.

I need wiring for the following setup.

A 3-way selector that does the same as a Les Paul with one volume, one tone, except I want the tone pot to be a push pull so I can coil split the full humbuckers.
So when the coil split is engaged, I would be able to use the outer coils of each humbucker on its own, the pickup selector deciding which one.

Is this wiring possible? Also, what are the differences between having a coil wired in series and a coil wired in parallel?
Currently I have a 5 way switch a la Jackson + Ibanez. Is it possible to fit a 3-way switch where a 5 way has been?

Hope I've made myself clear!
Thanks

Joe

P.S I can't remember the difference between coil tap and coil split but I want the one that will give me strat singlecoil sounds. Thanks

[dot-dot-dot]

Should all be doable.

Parallel pickups sound brighter but have less output than series pickups. They sound, to me, quite like a single coil (but hum free).

You can use a DPDT push/pull to split both pots, yes. Use one side for each pickup, and just earth the black/white wires in the up position.

[SuperJemBoy]

Can you give me a diagram of how it should be wired up?

Thanks

[Scott of Actual Time]

Originally Posted by SuperJemBoy

A 3-way selector that does the same as a Les Paul with one volume, one tone, except I want the tone pot to be a push pull so I can coil split the full humbuckers.
So when the coil split is engaged, I would be able to use the outer coils of each humbucker on its own, the pickup selector deciding which one. Is this wiring possible?

yes. however, to get the outer coils, you may have to change the wiring from the default DiMarzio instructions by swapping the colored wire soldered to ground with the color wire soldered to hot, the terminals on the switch. whether you need to do this for the bridge pickup only or both of them depends on how the neck pickup is installed, so you might try the neck pickup in the default wiring and see what happens.

for both pickups, you should wire the series link [the two wires you solder together] to the middle terminals [one each] of the push/pull pot, and a ground wire to the top terminals.

Originally Posted by SuperJemBoy

Also, what are the differences between having a coil wired in series and a coil wired in parallel?

series is louder and more output [this is "normal" humbucking mode]; parallel sounds like two single coils.

Originally Posted by SuperJemBoy

Currently I have a 5 way switch a la Jackson + Ibanez. Is it possible to fit a 3-way switch where a 5 way has been?

it would be easy to use a Tele-style 3 way blade switch, the kind that looks just like a 5-way except it only has 3 positions. it would be difficult and ugly to use a round Les Paul type switch, since you'd have to drill a new hole and plug the holes from the 5-way.

Originally Posted by SuperJemBoy

P.S I can't remember the difference between coil tap and coil split but I want the one that will give me strat singlecoil sounds. Thanks

you're talking coil split or cut. coil tap is when there's a third wire coming out of a single coil, and you can run half the pickup windings or all of them. that was done in the 70s a lot, but is rarely done now.

[SuperJemBoy]

thanks!