Can Anyone Help Me Here?

[stolb3rg]

I really need a wiring diagram for the guitar im building.... Its going to be 2 Buckers.... Id like to have 4 mini toggle switches, one for each coil so that i can have any possibility between the 2 P.u's. Im also going to have a concentric Pot. for the master tone / vol. I cant find anywhere that has this.... so id appreciate more than you can imagine is someone could get me a scematic. thanks!

[Mattia]

I really need a wiring diagram for the guitar im building....    Its going to be  2 Buckers.... Id like to have 4 mini toggle switches, one for each coil so that i can have any possibility between the 2 P.u's.  Im also going to have a concentric Pot. for the master tone / vol.  I cant find anywhere that has this.... so id appreciate more than you can imagine is someone could get me a scematic. thanks!

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Um, get ye to a wiring site for most of it. StewMac has various wiring diagrams in their free info section for concentric pots, if you want that.

Basically, 2 of your mini switches will do series/parallel/single duty (on/on/on, stewmac has wiring diagrams, as do Seymour Duncan). Next mini switch (I suppose) you want to do phase and/or series wiring (although I'm not sure you can do phase shift and series in one pickup, and I'm too lazy to figure it out), and one to simply select the pickups (N,N+B,, right?

[stolb3rg]

Well.... MAbey its not possible... But what i mean (And thanks alot for helpin me somewhat) Because each humbucker has 2 coils, then thatd be 4 coils in total.. I just would like an on/off for each individual coil... If your still confused, then ill have to carefully try again....

[68 lost souls]

It would probably be easier to do a normal 3 way between them then two on/on/on switches to split it either way i.e. south coil, full, north coil. Thats only 3 switches

[Mattia]

Well.... MAbey its not possible...  But what i mean (And thanks alot for helpin me somewhat) Because each humbucker has 2 coils, then thatd be 4 coils in total.. I just would like an on/off for each individual coil... If your still confused, then ill have to carefully try again....

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Ah, ok, I get it now. But let me explain why that setup isn't the most versatile/useful setup you can get.

In theory you could have an on/off switch per coil, but why? All that would give you is weak single coil sounds (tapped buckers aren't quite the same as real single coils, sound wise, as each coil is often quite a bit weaker, thinner sounding), and if you turn both coils on, they'll be in parallel, giving you a 'fat single coil' tone, rather than a real humbucker tone.

Humbuckers consist of two coils joined up in series, out of phase with each other so that they 'buck' the hum. ie, the + of one coil goes into the - of the other, and the other two leads are used as overall + and - (simplified version, electrically perhaps not quite 'correct' version, but it should help). Daisy-chained. Parallel operation: the + for each coil goes straight to output, the - straight to ground. What a coil tap usually does is 'short circtuit' one of the two coils, so only the remaining coil goes to the output. Now, there will be some difference between selecting one single coil vs the other, but it's fairly minimal. IMO the most useful sounds out of these 3 are, in order: True humbucking (series operation), Parallel (single-coil-ish, less midrange/fat sounding than standard series operation, still humbucking, still quite high output), Single Coil/Coil Tap (Generally fairly thin sounding, lower output, character similar to parallel operation but not quite).

If you want real single coil tone, install single coils.

Now, you can have one switch per pickup that'll select series, parallel or coil tap for that pickup. That's plenty of versatility right there, and fairly idiot-proof when it comes to 'at a glance' evaluation of what pickup's doing what. It's what I do on pretty much all my humbucker guitars, because its versatile.

You still need a 3-way to select the pickups themselves, of course.

Now, the other two possibilities, tone-wise, that I see are: putting the two humbuckers in series with each other, and phase shifting one or both.

Starting with the series operation: what this does, essentially, is create one giant mega-humbucker, with each humbucker being one 'coil' in the big 'bucker. Regular operation (switch selection) is parallel, and that's the sound you're used to. What you get if you put the pickups in series is a fatter, fuller, slightly higher output, bit of midrange emphasis. It's fairly easily done, just look at the switch, the leads (+ from one into - of the other) and figure it out. I find this a pretty useful sound, and generally put it on a push/push pot, usuall the volume control. Tap for more punch, basically. One detail: the way I wire 'em, if you select bridge only and have 'em in series, it's like a kill switch. By making one 'giant' bucker, you only have one output, and that one output goes to the switch. Necessities of working with gibson-style leaf switches, anyway. I suppose it could be gotten around with a multi-pole switch.

Phase shifting a pickup is simply done by reversing the + and - leads for one pickup. You probably won't notice much if any change if you only have the one pickup selected, but if you have both selected, and you phase shift one, the change will be pretty darn clear. The result is generally a thinner, twangier, nasal tone, as you've basically inverted the sine wave; frequencies that reinforced each other now cancel each other out, and vice versa. Personally, on the one guitar I did this on (phase shift for bridge pickup only), I didn't find it useful. It's the control I really pracitally never use. But that's just me, I guess.

As I see it, you'd need three mini switches (On/On/On) for the series/parallel/single per pickup and pickup selection, plus one more, or a push/pull pot if you can leave the stacked pot alone and use two controls instead, for the series. If you really want the phase shifting as well, a second push/pull can take care of it.

Order of pickups -> output:

Pickup -> s/p/single switch -> (phase switch) -> series switch -> pickup selector -> volume control (or vice versa if you want independent volume controls per pickup) -> output jack.

Doing all this stuff yourself, on paper, and understanding what signal's going where is going to help immesurably. Don't worry if you can't read electronics diagrams, though; draw the actual pots and switch terminals, and use some coloured pencils/markers. As long as you understand what's happening where, you'll be able to trouble shoot, and honestly, it's not horribly difficult.