[mobys436]

Anyone ever try running 2 area/virtual vintage pickups in series? As in, all 4 coils in series.

It's not an uncommon mod for true singlecoils to get humbucker-ish tones. Curious if it's been attempted with stacked singlecoils.

[darkbluemurder]

Yes.

Two of my strats have Area pickups (from bridge to neck Injector neck/61/67 and Virtual Solo/58/Virtual Vintage 54 Pro), and both allow for bridge + middle, bridge + neck in series or bridge in series with neck and middle in parallel.

The tones are basically the same color as the parallel combinations, only louder, with more low end and less top end. An exception would be the Injector neck in series with the 61 - this is closer to a bridge humbucker than any other combination I tried with bridge and middle (VS + 58, Injector bridge + 58).

All in all is not different to putting two single coils in series - just see the stacked pickups as single coils.

Cheers Stephan

[mobys436]

Yes.

Two of my strats have Area pickups (from bridge to neck Injector neck/61/67 and Virtual Solo/58/Virtual Vintage 54 Pro), and both allow for bridge + middle, bridge + neck in series or bridge in series with neck and middle in parallel.

The tones are basically the same color as the parallel combinations, only louder, with more low end and less top end. An exception would be the Injector neck in series with the 61 - this is closer to a bridge humbucker than any other combination I tried with bridge and middle (VS + 58, Injector bridge + 58).

All in all is not different to putting two single coils in series - just see the stacked pickups as single coils.

Cheers Stephan

Interesting! You think dc res and output has a play in how "humbucker-ish" they get when ran in series?

In particular I have a 54 pro in neck, and a heavy blues 2 in middle that I'm interested in trying in series.

Also contemplating wether I should bypass the tone pot when putting them in series.

[mobys436]

Tried them in series, and eh, wasn't what I expected. Does indeed sound like the stock position 4, just louder, and slightly less hollow. Guess I'll just go to a different guitar for neck humbucker tones.

[BluesJam]

I had HS3’s stacked coils, and for versatility of wiring options, they are better than the modern DiMarzio versions because the upper and lower stacks have fully wound coils.  Series and single coil sound differences were audible.

I think the more pickups you put in series at the same time may result in loss of definition in notes.  Brian May uses true single coils in series and gets a nice thick humbucking tone. 

[darkbluemurder]

I found the series and the single coil wirings useful for the Area series. Series connection is standard. Single coil operation using only the signal coil is useful in combination with a split humbucker. I don't think the parallel wiring or the dummy coil alone would be very useful but I haven't tried it.

Cheers Stephan

[RayBarbeeMusic]

Anyone ever try running 2 area/virtual vintage pickups in series? As in, all 4 coils in series.

It's not an uncommon mod for true singlecoils to get humbucker-ish tones. Curious if it's been attempted with stacked singlecoils.

Yep.  Stephan is using the wiring I gave him.  My recent experience is that I use a 1M volume with 1M resistors to create a 500k load in all positions EXCEPT when I pop them into series, the extra 1M resistor goes away so the series pickups see a 1M load.  Opens up the high end. 

You could get away with it using a bright bridge pickup to, but I use injector bridge so when in series, that's a lot of frickin wire.  Even two Area '67s in series, ignoring the dummy coils, is 10k of 42ga wire, about as much as you could ever fit on a modern humbucker if you wrap it really tight, and a hotter bridge is even more wire.  Add that the pickups aren't sitting right next to each other so that you get some phase cancellation, that can make the high end pretty dark. 

[darkbluemurder]

Very interesting idea with the 1M volume pot. I will probably use a 330k resistor to bring the load down to appr. 250k for the parallel mode to retain the tone I have with a 500k volume pot and a 470k resistor. Gotta check whether I still have some 1M pots in my stash. One one of the guitars the 500k volume pot is scratchy and needs to go anyway.

Cheers Stephan