Would This Work?

[Resodude]

Hi,

Ill start with the picture

So what I'm wondering is can you make one pickup have it's own volume control? So if you want, you can use all of them but just lower the volume for like the bridge one and so on...

The gray ring is a tone control.

Would it work?

If yes, can you show me?

[Kappasitanz]

yes its possible, i guess you have a hsh config... first of check that you have 4 wires in each humbucker, after that you can just coilsplit each humbucker (wire it as two single coils) so you can conect each pup to a volume pot, all of the pots outputs to a switch, from the switch to your tone pot and then the output

kinda sort of......

[Resodude]

Theyre supposed to be all single coils and the point with all this was to not have a switch, but insteaad have the ability to lower the volume (to zero) if you dont want the pickup to recieve signals.

Edited June 26, 2007 by Resodude

[grungehead]

Theyre supposed to be all single coils and the point with all this was to not have a switch, but insteaad have the ability to lower the volume (to zero) if you dont want the pickup to recieve signals.

im pretty sure this diagram here would work

i forgot to add that you need to connect sleeve to ground and all the other things that have the grounding symbols together. i would solder each pickup's ground wire to the corresponding pot and then ground all the pots together via a really long wire.

hope this helps!

[Geo]

With 5 single coils in parallel (as shown in both diagrams), the total output will be pretty low. I know DC resistance doesn't tell you everything about a pickup, but it's a start. Let's say each pickup has a DC resistance of 6k. When they're all in parallel, you have [1/R1] + [1/R2] etc. = 1/Rtotal. Five pickups at 6k, in parallel, have a DC resistance of 1.2k. Assuming the magnetism and pickup height are comparable to a Strat pickup, you now have 1/5 the normal Strat 1-pickup output.

Also, you have to wire the volume pots in such a way that they don't interact with each ohter. I.e., so that turning down one pot doesn't kill the output of every pickup. There's a way to do this (Gibson did it with their 2vol/2tone guitars). It involves swapping connections as opposed to Strat pot wiring, but I'm not sure what the difference is. If you follow a Gibson diagram just for the 3 connections on each pot, you should be fine.

Not to poop the party, but I don't think this will work very well, and I personally wouldn't bother with it.

[Resodude]

The idea was for something like this.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/guitardude/519946757/

Only with some modifications.

[GregP]

Rick Neilsen is eccentric, as well as rich enough to just have people custom-create weird guitars for him on a whim. Indeed, the "impracticality" of any given scheme is part of what fires up his imagination and makes him laugh to his own private joke. If you want to do it for a hoot, by all means, give'er! It's not a very desirable wiring scheme, though, for anything other than a gimmick.

It's better to plan things from the top down than the bottom up. So rather than thinking, "more pickups with complete volume controls = ultimate flexibility" (design being translated as purpose), you need to think "What can I do to get ultimate flexibility?" Of course, that's assuming that flexibility is your goal. And if flexibility IS your goal, there are many better ways to achieve it. 5 single coils with individual volumes is a kludge. But a funny one, so if that's your intention then go for it. !

[Geo]

It's better to plan things from the top down than the bottom up. So rather than thinking, "more pickups with complete volume controls = ultimate flexibility" (design being translated as purpose), you need to think "What can I do to get ultimate flexibility?" Of course, that's assuming that flexibility is your goal. And if flexibility IS your goal, there are many better ways to achieve it. 5 single coils with individual volumes is a kludge. But a funny one, so if that's your intention then go for it. !

Exactly. I would rather play a good guitar with one pickup through a good tube amp than mess with multiple pickups, preamps, tone knobs, phase switches, etc. I can barely handle having four tone options on my guitar!

[grungehead]

With 5 single coils in parallel (as shown in both diagrams), the total output will be pretty low. I know DC resistance doesn't tell you everything about a pickup, but it's a start. Let's say each pickup has a DC resistance of 6k. When they're all in parallel, you have [1/R1] + [1/R2] etc. = 1/Rtotal. Five pickups at 6k, in parallel, have a DC resistance of 1.2k. Assuming the magnetism and pickup height are comparable to a Strat pickup, you now have 1/5 the normal Strat 1-pickup output.

Also, you have to wire the volume pots in such a way that they don't interact with each ohter. I.e., so that turning down one pot doesn't kill the output of every pickup. There's a way to do this (Gibson did it with their 2vol/2tone guitars). It involves swapping connections as opposed to Strat pot wiring, but I'm not sure what the difference is. If you follow a Gibson diagram just for the 3 connections on each pot, you should be fine.

Not to poop the party, but I don't think this will work very well, and I personally wouldn't bother with it.

what if he added a booster? i know this would add yet another knob..

you could just wire the booster so that it is always on, always full blast... (no knob needed)

then you'd be going through batteries faster than courtney love goes through men...

or...

you could use a stero jack and use the power from that to power it! huzzah! an answer to all of your problems!

Edited June 28, 2007 by grungehead