Wiring Question H-H

[Sweep-it]

Hi Guys!

First of all: I have no clue about wiring or guitar electronics. The info I get from you goes straight to my guitar tech

I have a H-H Superstrat, with one tone and one volume pot (push/pull if required) , 5-way selector, as well as one mini switch. Pu's are Tonezone and Airnorton.

I want to get the most out of those components, soundwise.

I need:
Bridge HB series connected
Bridge HB parallel connected
Bridge HB split
Neck HB series connected
Neck HB parallel connected
Neck HB split
Bridge SC + Neck SC

That's 7 sounds out of a 5-way selector, one mini switch and 2 push/pull pots. Should be doable?

Basically the only thing I care about is, that bridge HB/SC series is at switch position 1 and neck HB/SC series is at switch position 5. I don't care how I access the other sounds.
So how should/can I assign the other positions of the switch, as well as the mini switch and pp pots?

A few questions along the way:
When splitting the Tonezone and the Airnorton, which coil would be the better to choose? The one near the bridge, or near the neck? Also with the bridge SC + Neck SC position? inner or outer coils together?

Also: I don't know what pots to choose. The only thing I know is, I want maximum treble presence with the tonezone.

Would be great if you guys could help me out.

[buddroyce]

Yep it's doable with two push-pulls(DPDT) and a mini toggle switch(also DPDT). What do you is wire each humbucker to one of the push-pulls for series/parallel so that you basically have one push-pull for your neck humbucker for series/parallel and another for your bridge humbucker. That part should be straight forward as it's really just series/parallel wiring.

The trick to getting the coil tap going on a mini toggle is to make sure you have a mini toggle that's an ON/ON DPDT(6-pins) switch. What you would do is to run two jumper wires from each of the push-pull pots where the black and white wires would be and then run them to one side of the coil cut circuit. Here's a quick and extremely FUGLY drawing I did of the wiring diagram.



Mind you, if you ditch your tone pot and have just a volume you can have two mini three way toggles (ON/ON/ON) and wire each pickup to do series/split/parallel so you wouldn't have to worry about dealing with that ugly drawing I did.

Cheers,

Budd

[Sweep-it]

first of all, thanks for the detailed information. That was way more than necesary. My guitar tech is the one dealing with wiring diagrams and such, I just need to tell him exactly what I want.

The One PP pot per Humbucker for Series/parallel wiring sounds fine.

The trick to getting the coil tap going on a mini toggle is to make sure you have a mini toggle that's an ON/ON DPDT(6-pins) switch.

I don't necesary have to put the coil tap on the mini switch if it's not necrsary, but it would give me maximum flexibillity. Also, what coild should be active in SC mode?

But If I do it like you suggested, what about positions 2 3 and 4 of the 5-way selector? Any suggestions for those positions? One of them has to be Bridge SC + Neck SC, what about the other two? What are my options on "usable" sounds?

[buddroyce]

It depends on how your 5 way works. I would realistically ditch the 5 way and get a 3-way switch to simplify things. A 3-way switch plus the above wiring will yield every combination possible the two pickups in series/parallel modes(ie. series+ series, parallel+parallel, parellel+series, series+parallel in addition the series/parallel humbucker only sounds). When you engage the coil taps it'll cut the coils when in series mode giving you Neck SC, Bridge SC and Neck SC + Bridge SC.

Wiring it with a 5-way switch will yeild a lot of quirky combinations and would be too much of a hassle to deal with. (There are other ways to do this wiring, the diagram above is one possible way).

[Sweep-it]

Originally Posted by buddroyce

It depends on how your 5 way works.

I can get any switch I want. The guitar is just a piece of wood at the moment.

I would realistically ditch the 5 way and get a 3-way switch to simplify things. A 3-way switch plus the above wiring will yield every combination possible the two pickups in series/parallel modes(ie. series+ series, parallel+parallel, parellel+series, series+parallel in addition the series/parallel humbucker only sounds). When you engage the coil taps it'll cut the coils when in series mode giving you Neck SC, Bridge SC and Neck SC + Bridge SC.

That seems quite logical, but I would have more options with a 5-way switch, wouldn't I? I'm sure there are more usable sounds I could get out of this guitar (like spliiting each coil of each humbucker, so I could choose which coil is active (just as an example))

Wiring it with a 5-way switch will yeild a lot of quirky combinations and would be too much of a hassle to deal with. (There are other ways to do this wiring, the diagram above is one possible way).

As I said, I'm not the one dealing with the diagrams and wiring, so it's no hassle at all

[buddroyce]

Originally Posted by Sweep-it

That seems quite logical, but I would have more options with a 5-way switch, wouldn't I? I'm sure there are more usable sounds I could get out of this guitar (like spliiting each coil of each humbucker, so I could choose which coil is active (just as an example))

With the configuration you're looking at using a 5 way switch will result in more of the same possibilities (I mean a lot of the positions will just be the same sounds because your push-pulls are what will be activating the series/parallel).

While it may be possible to do that coil select thing in this wiring, it's a lot easier said than done. Seriously, over the years of doing f***ed up wiring for people, I kinda realized that even though I could have a guitar with 200+ combination of tones and sounds, most of them are going to be very similar and that it's a pain to remember which ones sound good.

Quite frankly I don't see many people liking the sound of a bridge pickup wired in parallel and that the 5-way wiring Ibanez has for thier two humbucker models is usually more than enough for most people.

None the less have fun with the variety of tones you have available to you once it's done. I'd check with your guitar tech to see how he would wire a 5-way switch with this wiring.

[Sweep-it]

Originally Posted by buddroyce

While it may be possible to do that coil select thing in this wiring, it's a lot easier said than done. Seriously, over the years of doing f***ed up wiring for people, I kinda realized that even though I could have a guitar with 200+ combination of tones and sounds, most of them are going to be very similar and that it's a pain to remember which ones sound good.

As I said, the sounds I really need quick access to, are bridge series and neck series, all the other sounds are just for recording, and messing around at home, so I don't care if they might be hard to access while playing.

Quite frankly I don't see many people liking the sound of a bridge pickup wired in parallel and that the 5-way wiring Ibanez has for thier two humbucker models is usually more than enough for most people.

You're propably right, but I for myself love the sound of a parallel bridge HB. Not something I'd use for everyday playing, but quite fun to mess around with.
For live situations I only need a bridge HB and a Neck HB anyways, but it's always great to have some more sounds.

But I'm beginning to see, that a 3-way switch might be the right choice, because then I'd have a really intuitive layout, and it's easy to access all sounds.

Thanks for the help so far.

But there are still a few questions I'd love to have answered:

Which Pots to choose for the Pickups? (maximum treble presence for the Tonezone is my main concern)

And what coil to choose in split mode for both Humbuckers? I know that's a matter of preference, but I thought you people could give some opinions on those 2 humbuckers specifically. (for instance something like: tonezone has a lot of bass, so it might be more suitable to choose the coil next to the bridge, to get more treble presence in SC mode. Or: The Neck SC should be as warm as possible, so better choose the coil next to the fret board)
Maybe someone tried both, and could tell me about the differences.

[buddroyce]

I dunno about which coil sounds better as I've never been a single coil person(closest thing to a single coil neck or bridge pickup I've ever used was a Dimarzio Humbucker from Hell).

However, for maximum treble pressence for your Tone Zone try a 1meg Volume pot. However, since you're using push-pulls a push-pull with a 1meg pot is hard to find so I'd probably stick with the 500k push pulls.

(Another idea I mentioned to someone previously is the idea of a direct switch which wires your bridge pickup right to your output jack for maximum in your face tone out of your bridge pickup. It'll give you the maximum amount of treble out of your TZ since it's your TZ is going right to your output jack with nothing in between. Some call it a solo switch, but since I stole the idea from ESP and they called it a direct switch I'll call it that too)