Question About Series Wiring And Ground

[Norowl]

If this is hard to understand or you just don`t want to read the whole post, I can say shortly that what I want to know is: If a pickups will recieve its ground signal from a disconnected pole, what will happen? A noisy pickup? And what if the second pickup send its hot signal to a disconnected pole? I assume it will only be turned off.

Another thing I`m not sure about is wich pickup shall go first in the series. In the bridge there is a "modern" hot output humbucker. And in the neck there is an old single coil wich has much lower output. Does this really matter? I plan on changing the neck pickup sometime but this will do for now...

I have an old Framus guitar with to paralell wired pickups. each has its own independent volume and tone pots, but it has no pickupswitch. However, it has two disconnected SPDT switches. I think they where originally meant as on/off switches.. They wheren`t toggled in when I bought the guitar because they where broke. I`ve fixed them now.

I want to use them to have optional series wiring but know little about basic electronics, and this is my first mod..

I plan on wiring this kind of like on and off switching with an extra effect(hopefully).. I will wire the hot signal from PICKUP A to the SPDT A, and the ground signal to PICKUP B to SPDT B

This means if SPDT A is in position 1, it will send the hot signal where it usually does. But if it is in position 2 it will send it to one of the poles on the SPDT B. Then If SPDT B is in pos2, PICKUP B will recieve its ground from the hot signal of PICKUP A and we have series wiring. if it is in pos1, it will recieve the ground from where it usually does..

However, If SPDT A is in pos2 and SPDT B in pos1, the hot signal from PICKUP A will go to a disconnected pole on SPDT B. This simply means that it will be turned off, right?

And if SPDT B Is in pos 2 and SPDT A is in pos 1, PICKUP B will recieve it`s ground from a disconnected pole.. What will this do? create a noisy pickup?

I don`t know much about basic pickup electronics.. Sorry..

Btw. I have to use these switches because the pickguard is in metal and no other will fit!!

thanks for reading!

Edited August 27, 2011 by Norowl

[Norowl]

actually after talking this over with a friend, I`m pretty convinced now that all that will happen is that the pickups are turned off. And I`ve decided to put the humbuvker first in the series. because it so close to the bridge adn becomes a bit to bright. time to heat up the soldering iron:)

[xadioriderx]

you only need one dpdt switch to make the two pickups series/parallel.

so why not use one switch for that, and the other for either a coil split, or making the humbucker bobbins series/parallel as well (if its a 3 or 4 wire humbucker. if its not, go to my webpage in my sig and you can convert it to 3 or 4 wires)

then you could have the humbucker bobbins in series or parallel, which is in turn then in series or parallel with the single coil.

or you can do a phase reversal or something.

or better yet the second switch can be a dp3t switch and can make the humbucker series/parallel/split all in one!

no use for 2 switches for one function, unless you like that being a way to turn off the pickup... but it seems like having to flip both switches at the same time on the fly would be a bit redundant

Edited August 29, 2011 by xadioriderx