series vs parallel humbuckers

[bozmillar]

I have a question about guitar wiring. I have an SG knockoff (2 humbuckers, 2 volume, 2 tone knobs). When I have the switch set to the middle (both pickups) I believe they're wired in series, because if I turn on pickup down, I get no output.

I am planning on rewiring it in parallel, mostly because I like the idea of being able to use the volume knobs as a mixer of the two pickups. Mostly, I just find the series wiring annoying (in function, not sound).

Question is, how will wiring in parallel affect the sound of the pickups verse series?

[paul999]

I'm pretty sure that it doesn't at all. It's been a while since I acted as a luthier and had a licensed warranty repair shop but I'm sure I'd of remembered that.

[bozmillar]

thanks. although, it turns out I was wrong, I think. The wiring in my guitar looks almost exactly like this: GuitarElectronics.com Guitar Wiring Diagam w/ 2 Humbuckers/3-Way Toggle Switch/2 Volumes/2 Tones

This doesn't look like series to me. So when my switch is in the middle, selecting both pickups, why would there be no output when I turn one volume knob all the way down, but have the other all the way up. Is there a way I can rewire it so that it just sums the outputs of the pickups?

[bozmillar]

oh wait, I see. As I turn down one pickup, it's shunting the output of the other.

[bozmillar]

ok, nevermind. Easy fix. I have it working the way I like it now.

[paul999]

I was just thinking about how to do this. This was never my favorite electronic setup. what did you do to fix it?

[bozmillar]

Originally Posted by paul999

I was just thinking about how to do this. This was never my favorite electronic setup. what did you do to fix it?

Just had to trade which terminals of the volume pot that the pickup and switch were connected to. See image below. Do same thing to both volume pots.



Note: it does change the feel of the volume pots when mixing both pickups. Adjusting the volume of one pickup makes a more drastic change. Where before I would have to bring the neck volume down to 4 or 5, I now only have to bring it down to 7 or 8 to get the same result, so you have less precision in your mixing of the pickups, but much more range (because you can bring it down to 0).

I guess it's also important to note that now both tone pots affect the sound of both pickups even when one pickup is turned all the way down when using both pickups, where before, the effect of a tone pot would relative to the volume of the pickup, but still effect both pickups.

I think I'll take advantage of this and turn the tone knob for the neck pickup into a HPF instead of a LPF. It's pretty rare, if ever, that I actually use the tone knobs, and I feel like it's more often that I would prefer to take out some of the low end of the neck pickup than remove the high end. I'll do that one tonight. Should be about as quick and easy as this mod was. I'll report back on how it sounds.

[paul999]

Makes sense. When I built my custom guitars I didn't even install tone knobs. Of course I was building for myself.

[bozmillar]

yeah, I never use my tone knobs for anything. They're just kind of there taking up space. I guess one use would be to make them blend between humbucking and single coil pickups. Might be kind of a cool function to have.

This is my first time actually cracking open my guitar to make changes, and I'm suddenly beginning to see how many possibilities I can have with just a few dabs of solder.

[garww]

Originally Posted by bozmillar

I have a question about guitar wiring. I have an SG knockoff (2 humbuckers, 2 volume, 2 tone knobs). When I have the switch set to the middle (both pickups) I believe they're wired in series, because if I turn on pickup down, I get no output.

I am planning on rewiring it in parallel, mostly because I like the idea of being able to use the volume knobs as a mixer of the two pickups. Mostly, I just find the series wiring annoying (in function, not sound).

Question is, how will wiring in parallel affect the sound of the pickups verse series?

My Turser with p90s is like this. I noticed it was not like my old SG in tone and control right away.

I do use the tone, because I use that WAH pedal voicing. In series like this I can't get it.