hessodreamy

Would a proper circuit diagram help y'all figger it? Could rustle one up, but thought it would be a bit compicated...

A while ago I decided to make my cheap rickenbacker copy into...STEREO...STEREO so I could send different pickups to different amps. It all worked great until I changed pickups, and now it doesnt work as it should. I put in a second output jack and a 3 way, 4 pole rotary switch, and here's what its supposed to do: (Bear in mind that the pickups go to their volume pots before the switch.) position 1: Bridge pickup to pickup selector and also to the 2nd output jack Middle pickup to output lug on selector and also to 2nd output jack position 2: Bridge pickup to 2nd output jack Middle Pickup to output lug on selector position 3: Bridge pickup to pickup selector Middle pickup to 2nd output jack In all positions the neck pickup goes to the pickup selector. *****new*********** Here's the circuit diagram: What happens now is that, in position 1, the bridge pickup is always on, regardless of where the pickup selector is. The only thing thats changed between working and not working is that the old pickups had only a 2 wires - a cold and hot - wheras the new ones have 4 wires and a ground, but i've only connected the new pickups in a normal series configuration. So does anyone have any idea why this isnt working as it should anymore?

I just bought a pickup on ebay which needed a bit of repair. I re-connected the ends of the coil wire and wa-hay it worked. Then I slipped and snapped off the end of the wire. Now I can't find the end of the wire underneath the windings. I'm sure this isn't the first time this has happened so thought someone might have a tip for finding it. I don't have to unwind the whole thing do I?

The neck and bridge pickups are wired to a 3way LP style switch. Each has a coil tap to an on-off switch. Middle pickup is selected with another on off switch. As I've had to cut the holes in the scratachplate to fit the humbuckers, is it possible that differences in pickup position (maybe half or 1 cm compared to a LP) could account for this? Only thing I can think of.

Have been experimenting with various different pickups on different guitars. I've put a couple of humuckers on my strat in neck and bridge position, and changed the wiring so you can have neck and bridge on, in parrallel. Although the neck pickup is a little quieter than the bridge, when I switch them both on, the tone output is pretty much that of the mellow neck pickup, and I have to turn it down more in order to get a proper blend, leaving the neck pickup really quiet when on its own. Is this normal? Is it just a matter of pickup matching or is there something I can do about it? On my LP style guitar i dont have this problem and get a good blend really easily. Any ideas?

Not entirely on-topic, but I was thinking of building the big muff and/or superfuzz I found on this site Uzzfay Utsgay. Has anyone tried any of these or similar? Do they work/sound good?

Have been experimenting with various different pickups on different guitars. I've put a couple of humuckers on my strat in neck and bridge position, and changed the wiring so you can have neck and bridge on, in parrallel. Although the neck pickup is a little quieter than the bridge, when I switch them both on, the tone output is pretty much that of the mellow neck pickup, and I have to turn it down more in order to get a proper blend, leaving the neck pickup really quiet when on its own. Is this normal? Is it just a matter of pickup matching or is there something I can do about it? On my LP style guitar i dont have this problem and get a good blend really easily. Any ideas?

Yeah. Tried lowering the neck p'up but didnt do much good. The bridge is just a epi p'up and I know they're not great. Don't even know what the bridge is. Have swapped them over now and sounds a bit more even. Still not clear on whether there is any relationship between impedance and output level, though, but never mind...

What is the relationship between the impedance of pickups and their output level?? Pickups with high impedance are described as 'hot', but does this mean a higher signal level or just a beefier frequency range? Here's the setup: I've put a pickup of 17ohms in bridge position and one in neck position of about 8ohms. I'm finding that the neck pickup is overpowering the bridge. Sure you're going to tell me to experiement but are there any measurements I can do to guide me? Cheers

hmmm... Done it now and am pleased to report... it just sounds like a cheap pickup. Maybe I had to high hopes for those coils.

Sure thing. I'll crank it up good for ya! Just to be clear - it's the magnet at the bottom of the pickup that I have to flip, right? Someone suggested pushing the pole pieces through, and turning the pickup upside-down, but that doesn't seem to affect the attract/repel relationship with another pickup. Or do I do both??? Just confused at the prospect of flipping the magent itself (rather than the pole peices) as a normal humbucker only has the 1 magnet.

Thanks that makes it loads clearer. Check the magnets and get them in line. Test the direction of the coils. Then wire them up. Got it.

OK OK OK. I've measured my pickups voltage output. Some of them give a positive from cold to hot, and some give negative output. The negative ones would be the reverse-wound middle pickup, right? So if I use these reverse-wound pickups (as 1 of the coils, the other being normal wound) do I still have to flip the magnets? Is it a question of popping the pole-pieces through and turning it upside down? And does it matter which way round I put the pickup itself? Im thinking it doesn't.

I know this has been brught up many times, cos I've read all the posts and still could do with a little guidance. I've got some single coils I like the sound of, but for the sake of versatility and for just fannying about, wanted to incorporated them into a humbucker. I'm OK with the electronics side. They're in series and out of phase. There was a good post about using a voltmeter to check the phase of the pickup. I've got a few questions though. 1- I'm not sure if I need to be concerned with the magnets themselves. Someone suggested popping them through the pickup and turning the thing upside down. Is this necessary? 2- Does it matter which way round I place the pickups themselves? Or just feed the finish of coil 1 to the finish of coil 2? ie is there one end of the pickup which is the 'start' and one end which is the 'finish'? 3- If one of the pickups is reverse wound do I then need to put it in phase with the other? If a reverse-wound pickup is out of phase does it then become in-phase? Ok maybe i'm not ok with the elctronics side. oooh i'm so confused!! Any help, guys???

Have a look at this site. humbucker mods. Got a diagram for humbucker/single coil/ out of phase switch. I'm planning to use it on my guitar - make it like a shergold. Only thing is you'll need an on/on/on switch

That just what I thought. Anybody else got any input on this? And how much of a difference the position of the pickup makes (ie how far along the string) Always glad to waste your employer's money!

So far I have coil tapped a couple of different humbuckers, and both times they sounded really thin. (You might say thats the point) I was wondering if both of the coils in a humbucker are sonically the same (except for the reverse polarity thing). Or if I'd get different results from using the other coil? So far i've been using the south coil. Wonder what the north one is like. Cheers

On my strat I want to switch between the neck & middle pickups being in parallel and being in phase. Can I use a single pole switch or do i need a 2 pole???

Not sure about that last bit. I thought switch S4 did just that anyway? ie Bypassing the selector switch and sending the bridge pickup straight to the volume knob (or in the case the output lug of the 5 way, which goes to the volume knob anyway) Have I got that wrong? And as for S1, is there a way I can wire it so that I can have the Neck & Middle in series without shorting anything? And on S3, the - wire which goes to #1 terminal in S2 IS the ground wire. The humbucker has only a ground, a link wire and the hot output. I can't find the start wire of the 1st pickup. Is this a problem? Given this, if I wire S3 as suggested the coil will be permanently grounded will it not? Thanks loads for your help so far , by the way.

To Clarify, the BMN switch is the standard 5 way pickup selector switch. The bits noted BMN are the bridge, middle and Neck lugs respectively. The OUT is the output of the pickup selector, going to the volume knob. Does S2 ground the pickup? I thought routing the + end of pickup to ground and the +end of pickup to the output would just reverse the phase?

To Clarify, the BMN switch is the standard 5 way pickup selector switch. The bits noted BMN are the bridge, middle and Neck lugs respectively. The OUT is the output of the pickup selector, going to the volume knob.

OK Here's the piccie!

Think you can help? If you give me your email address I can send it to you. Don't seem to be able to link to my webspace.

Hi I've been making some alterations to the setup on my strat. This has brought about some unexpected effects and if there's anyone out there who's good at this kind of thing it would be great if you could let me know what I've done wrong and how I put it right. The diagram is below. (If it doesn't show and you think you can help I'll be happy to Email it to you) Switch S1 puts the Middle & Neck pickups in series by routing the neg of the neck from ground (Standard parallel setting) instead to the hot of the Middle pickup (Series setting). switch s2 reverses the phase of the bridge pickup by routing the hot out and neg out of the pickup to (respectively) a hot out/ ground (normal phase) or ground/hot out (reverse phase) Switch S3 is a coil tap. it optionally connects the link wire between the 2 coils on the humbucker to ground, shorting one of the coils. Switch S4 is the 'bridge pickup always on' switch. It takes the hot out which has come from S2 and routes it to either the Bridge lug on the 5way selector (normal setting) or to the output of the 5 way (always on). The problem is that S4 has the hot routed always to the output lug no matter what it is switched to (multimeter shows no resistance between the opposing connectors on the switch) Also, when S2 is switched to reverse phase there is no output from the guitar at all. Thanks for looking. This setup could be really cool if I get it to work!

I Dunno about the Marshall but I've had a CS3 for many years and loved it. You get loads of sustain but you don't get that squeezed sound (though maybe you want that). I've been using quite extreme settings for things like the smiths/ REM. Also great for bringing on loadsa feedback!