hessodreamy

Thanks for the replies, guys. What I tested with the multimeter was the resistance between the points where the ends of the coil is soldered onto the metal plate. I got infinite resistance. That, to me, says there's a break in the wire and I should chuck it. Just wanted a second opinion. Thanks for the assist. In the bin it goes

Are Lace Sensor pickups put together massively different from regular pickups? My Neck pickup has died (actually I think its letting out a little squak of a signal). I figured it was going to be the coil wire broken but the guys at the guitar shop said something about a built in preamp. Sounds crazy to me. Basically is there anything I can do to salvage this pickup, short of re-winding? (which the guys at the shop said would be a waste of time anyway). I don't have high hopes of saving it, as the Multimeter didnt detect any connection between the ends of the coils (inside the pickup itself, rather than the other end of the wire). Cheers

What I meant to say was: 3. bridge & middle in series 4. bridge & middle in series & always on regardless of where the pickup selector is. ie the combination routed to the output rather than the pickup selector. Basically so you can have M&B in series and in parallel with the neck. Likewise with 5&6. But I've kind of given up on this path now. I think it is kind of complicated, especially where things go wrong. Though I think the problem i was having is that my neck pickup has actually broken!! I was loathe to drill holes in the scratchplate for more switches. But I think now that's the way to go. Once I get a new neck pickup!

Hmm. just tried wiring it up. Didn't work. Circuit bit complicated for me to figure where it went wrong. I wouldn't be told, would I?

This should help: The red wires to the switches are corresponding 'hot' wires from the pickups. I presume you already know which one's they are. If not let me know and I'll give you some pointers. Of course the 'cold' wires from the pickups should go to ground, like the back of the volume pot. The switches simply make or break the connection of each pickup to the volume switch. I'm pretty sure the other pin on the same side of the switch doesn't need to be grounded, but if you get nasty hum, give it a go. I must say I like the simplicity of the setup. I never really felt the need for tone controls, either!

Yeah it does. Cheers

Well, it depends what you want the switches to do, really. There's a number of things you could do with it. Obvious use for one is to coil tap the humbucker to get single coil sound. I assume the switches have 2 position not 3. Is that right?

That's cool. I guess regular humbuckers are parallel to the bridge so that all the pole pieces are under the strings, or (for rail-types) covering the strings, and maybe the sum of the 2 coils, with 1 being further away from the bridge, minimises the effect of unbalanced volume so close to the bridge. Correct me if i'm wrong, here. Think I'll just put it at an angle like the original pickup, and stagger it so that it covers the strings. Cheers!

Ok great. Here's a follow up question: Bridge pup on a strat is at an angle. I presume this is due to a difference in volumes across the strings. If I'm putting another coil next to it, should I run it at a similar angle to the first pickup, but offset, so that it stays in line with the strings? I know regular strats keep bridge humbuckers straight, yet a jagstang (slightly eccentric guitar, I know) has the whole 'bucker at an angle. Which would be best? Does it matter.

I've got a couple of lace sensors and was thinking of wiring a couple of them up as a humbucker. I'm down with the old series wiring thing, but if i just wire them in series, it'll be hum adding, won't it? How bad is this? I've experimented in the past making humbuckers out of single coils, by flipping the coils over and wiring them in series out of phase, to make them hum cancelling. Is this possible with the lace sensor design? Doesn't look to me like it is cos I think the bobbins are open on top and closed at the bottom. Anyone got any experience in this?

I should add that I'm reluctant to install loads of switches before I know if I'll like how it sounds. I could end up with some hacked up guitar. That's why I was going down the rotary route.

Y'know, I didn't think it was a very complicated circuit at all. But I think I have thrown too much in the mix. Let me put it another way: If I wire the cold wire of the bridge to the middle lug on the 5way, What will the 5 positions on the 5-way give me?

yeah but no but, just the number of switches in play made it hard for me to keep track of where things were being routed (having a bit of a thick day, OK?) So if I route the cold of the bridge to the hot of the middle, they're in series, right? and if i then select the middle pickup, what do i hear? I'm not sure the effect the bridge being wired up with have. How about selecting the bridge & middle? Will that give me middle in parallel with bridge & middle in series? I guess there's an easy way to find out - give it a go!!!

hmmm. yeah. I saw that before and could not for the life of me figure out what was going on!!! dead complicated!

I can probably attribute the resolute lack of response to this question to at least 1 of 2 things: 1. A badly asked question 2. A lack of personal hygiene Anybody like to point out where i'm going wrong? Is my question not clear? Not enough info? too much info? Rubbish lamo paintshop circuit diagrams? Or should i just change my deodorant? Constructive criticism gratefully received

OK Maybe I have been making things hard for myself. I'm thinking now I'l try a simple rotary switch. I figure if I use a 2pole, 6 position switch I can get this: 1. stock 2. bridge always on 3. bridge in series with middle 4. bridge always on & in series with middle 5. bridge in series with neck 6. bridge always on & in series with neck by wiring it up as such pole A being the bridge cold wire, pole B being the bridge hot 1. A->ground, B->bridge lug on selector 2. A->ground, B->output of selector 3. A->middle lug on selector, B->bridge lug on selector 4. A->middle lug on selector, B->output of selctor 5. A->neck lug on selector, B->bridge lug on selector 6. A->neck lug on selector, B->output of selctor Will this do the trick? I think it will but am unsure about what happens what, say, the middle pickup is selected while the cold of the bridge is routed to it. WHat do I get? just the middle? middle & bridge in series? hum? Here's another lame diagram!!!:

If I'm not mistaken the wire in question should be wired to ground, as normal. The One you need to re-route is the link between the 2 coils (ie the join between the orange/black & white. If You're using a push-pull, then you connect both these wires to 1 node, and switch between connecting it to ground (for single coil), and not connecting to anything (double coil) Remember that the 2 coils of a humbucker are reverse wired AND reverse-would. This cancels the hum. If you simply wired 2 pickups in series you'd get the double coil sound but they would (i believe) be hum ADDING. Of course, I'm open to contradiction on this...

I've come up with a mod for a 3 singles strat, to add options for putting middle in series with either neck or bridge. Also added an 'always on' switch for the bridge. It looks ok to me, unless I'm missing something, which I frequently do. In isolation I think they'll do their job, but how about together? 2 More questions: 1. You think it'll sound any good? 2. Have I done it a stupidly complcated way? Do i really need to use a 3 pole switch? the idea for the 3 way switch is thus: Position 1 - stock strat tones Position 2 - middle pickup in series with neck Position 3 - middle pickup in series with bridge obviously neck/bridge would need to be selected on the 5 way to get anything out of the series combo. I think position 3 on the 5 way would give silence (or possibly really bad hum- i'm not sure) So, before I go buy lots of bits (not even sure i can get the 3 way, unless I go with a rotary switch) and write off my weekend, anyone have any thoughts?

excellent advice. Good site by the way. I shamelessly nicked bits of your diagram in a previous post i made! Cheers

Thanks a lot. I do know that I need to connect the output/ground of the neck pickup. Must have just been having a slow day when I did the schematic! Not sure what you mean by combining the coil taps in one DPDT switch. Did you mean a single switch to go from 2 hums to 2 singles, and then a second switch to flip the phase? I wouldn't go for that - one of the sounds i'm after is that beidge humbucker/neck single sound a la radiohead. Hadn't considered the hum cancelling of the 2 pickups. Would I need to use the north of one coil and the south of the other? Or is it just a matter of wiring it up and flicking the hot and cold on the phase switch if it hums? Actually I think that amounts to the same thing, but i'm not sure!

This is a pretty simple mod to put in a couple of coil taps for neck & bridge, and a DPDT switch to reverse the phase of the bridge pickup relative to the neck (as opposed to 1 coil of the humbucker relative to the other coil, as a lot of circuits do) - kinda like a mustang (I think) I'm pretty sure this'll work ok, and that the phasing will work regardless of whether single or double coils are selected, but I ran into problems once before doing something similar (but more complicated). Can someone double-check my circuit? Cheers

Hey, if you're putting switches into the guitar, there are more interesting things you could do than a simple on/off. Check out the diagrams on the guitar nuts site, which has some great looking mods, as well as a lot of really good info for diy guitar electronics in general. There's also the deaf eddie site which has more cool mods. In particular these mods include switching for putting the pickups in series rather than parallel, giving a fatter, humbucker-ish sound. I've not tried any of them myself, though. Enjoy the butchery of yuor guitar. There's no going back now!

dagnammit! I see it now. What threw me off was that it was working before the pickup change, so was looking for something more complicated. In hindsight it probably didnt work to start off with! Thanks for the help guys!

Surely someone must be able to help me. I was banking on the smarts and sharp minds of such a fine bunch of techies. (flattery....flattery...)

Sure would. ← There you go. Diagram put in original post. Apologies for the crudeness of it. Cheers