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The Pickup Place / Re: Pickup splitting Hum

« on: December 20, 2018, 04:18:15 PM »

Yet another option would be to wire a pot (aka "Spin-a-Split" - 100k linear works well for me) to dial-in the inner coil of the bridge (or whichever would normally be silent when split), you can actual cancel most of the hum, while only adding a small amount of output back to the pickup.  With the humbucker in parallel mode it might be even less noticeable, while still removing the hum; or, with a dual-ganged pot, you could also have it control the inner coil of the neck pickup, which could help keep the output where it currently is...while still removing most if not all of the hum.

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The Pickup Place / Re: Low-output bridge humbucker suggestions

« on: December 20, 2018, 04:00:06 PM »

The EJ Custom pickups are made to sound like a Gretsch Country Gentleman with Filtertron pickups.  However, the neck version is even lower output and brighter than the bridge version...

Also, have you tried wiring the bridge humbucker in parallel?  It will still buck the hum, but lower the output significantly.

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The Pickup Place / Re: Middle humbucker recommendation?

« on: December 19, 2018, 09:47:28 AM »

Why not add a single coil sized humbucker?

I'm looking for something that will have fairly different, usable tones when split to either coil; single coil-sized tend to sound the same when split to either coil.

If you want to use all coils for tonal options, something PAF-like (36th, Air Classic) may be better.

I am currently leaning towards Air Classic Neck, Air Norton Middle, Air Zone Bridge.  And when I say "all pickup combinations will be available" I mean...picture a modular synth.

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The Pickup Place / Re: Wiring diagrams for HH, 1 tone, 1 volume, 1 mini-switch configuration

« on: December 19, 2018, 09:04:06 AM »

Parallel out-of-phase combinations usually do sound very thin, because most guitars have very similar pickups in the neck and bridge - phase cancellation will eliminate any frequencies that are picked up the same at both points, so all you're left with is the differences in the pickup builds and locations.  Bridge pickups will get higher frequencies than the neck, so that's typically all that's left over.  However, if you roll-off or cut certain frequencies on one of the pickups, you get to keep those same frequencies from the other pickup.  I've used Deaf Eddie's "Chromacaster" and "Five-Tone-Tele" wiring mods on various guitars, and he even helped me come up with some custom configurations specifically for more usable out-of-phase tones; for a while, I had alligator clips hanging out from under the pickguard so I could try every capacitor I had lying around, but I still haven't tried just using a tone control.  In series or parallel, just about any cap will make a more usable out-of-phase sound than no cap at all, but finding the right cap can lead you to a go-to sound that you use more often than not. 

And instead of coil splits, you could use a variable split (aka "Spin-a-Split") that basically adds a volume pot to one of the coils of a humbucker, so that you can dial-in one to fatten up the split sound, and even get most or all of the humbucking functionality back.  I used 100k linear pots on each of the humbuckers in my Hagstrom Swede, and found the most useful setting to be right around 2.5 - on both, so I really could have used a dual-ganged pot that adjusted both at the same time; that guitar didn't have any out-of-phase options, so I would probably want to keep the controls separate if it did.  With the right pickups it can give you a good range of P90/Filtertron/Telecaster-type sounds.

Whether or not your daughter needs complex/variable pickup combinations, I don't know.

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The Pickup Place / Re: Wiring diagrams for HH, 1 tone, 1 volume, 1 mini-switch configuration

« on: December 18, 2018, 03:22:45 PM »

There's also the EYB Megaswitches, which come in several flavors and offer even more wiring options:

Type-E Megaswitch, wiring option #1:

1. Neck humbucker
2. Neck humbucker split, neck coil
3. Bridge humbucker + neck humbucker, both split, outer coils
4. Bridge humbucker, split, bar-side coil
5. Bridge humbucker

Type-E Megaswitch, wiring option #2:

1. Neck humbucker
2. Neck humbucker split, neck coil
3. Bridge humbucker + neck humbucker, both split, inner coils
4. Bridge humbucker, split, bar-side coil
5. Bridge humbucker

Type-E Megaswitch, wiring option #3:

1. Neck humbucker
2. Neck humbucker split, neck coil
3. Bridge humbucker + neck humbucker
4. Bridge humbucker, split, bar-side coil
5. Bridge humbucker

Type-P Megaswitch (based on PRS 5-way rotary switch):

1. Neck humbucker
2. Inner coils of the humbucker parallel
3. Inner coils of humbuckers in series
4. Outer coils of the humbucker parallel
5. Humbucker pickup

All of these descriptions have been Google-translated from German, but StewMac sells 'em:
https://www.stewmac.com/Pickups_and_Electronics/Components_and_Parts/Switches/Megaswitch.html

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The Pickup Place / Re: Wiring diagrams for HH, 1 tone, 1 volume, 1 mini-switch configuration

« on: December 18, 2018, 02:43:00 PM »

If your concerned about keeping the original pickguard intact, you could get another pickguard made however you want; I recommend Mike Quick's QuickGuards.com - just email him and let him know what you're after.  He has the most impressive selection of pickguard materials that I've seen.

Angela's Instruments sells Fender's 4-pole 5-way Super Switch for the American Double Fat Stratocaster (two humbuckers); their page also includes the wiring diagram: https://www.angela.com/fenderfivewaysuperswitch0992251000.aspx

This gives you:

1. Neck humbucker (in series)
2. Outer neck coil
3. Neck (series) and Bridge (series) humbuckers in parallel
4. Inner coils of Neck and Bridge in parallel
5. Bridge humbucker (series)

In this setup you could replace your volume and tone pots with push-pulls to have a series/parallel switch for each pickup, and use the mini-toggle as a phase switch (though I would try to use a 3-way that also moves the tone control to one pickup or the other, which would decrease the amount of phase cancellation between the two pickups, for a range of very usable sounds - I haven't personally done this with a tone pot yet, but I always try various tone capacitors on the phase switch until I find one that sounds better than fully out-of-phase).

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The Pickup Place / Re: Middle humbucker recommendation?

« on: December 18, 2018, 08:35:25 AM »

The folks at Dimarzio said the same thing - that a middle pickup would get in the way of picking - but I intentionally pick over the neck humbucker quite often, either for the 2nd octave harmonics or just for the tone of picking that far from the bridge.  My pick is rarely far enough past my thumb to hit a pickup, even with low action, so that I can strum entire chords of pinch harmonics if I want.  Maybe that's just me.

I have heard that the Bluesbucker splits well, but what does the other coil sound like?  I'm essentially wiring all of the coils as individual pickups, and I'm worried that one is a little lop-sided.

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The Pickup Place / Middle humbucker recommendation?

« on: December 17, 2018, 10:31:13 AM »

I have two Godin Empires that I'm subjecting to a lot of mods, one of which now has an Air Norton and a Tone Zone, just like my other guitar, a '98 Parker Fly.  They definitely sound different with nickel covers and mahogany, but I'm very happy with them, and they are much more of a known quantity than the South Korean-sourced, vintage-output factory pickups that Godin uses (despite everything else being top-notch and made in Québec).

So the next step is adding a middle humbucker, à la the SG Custom.  This guitar is my test-bed for various wiring and switching ideas, so eventually, all pickup combinations will be available.  With that in mind, I'm looking for a pickup that will be able to add something when its coils are split or connected in parallel or combined with coils from the other two pickups.  I'm also open to moving the Air Norton to the middle position, if there's something else that would work best in the neck.