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Hey everyone,
I'm new to the forum and this is going to be a long post. I admittingly know just about nothing when it comes to guitar wiring, but I am attempting to finally resolve my issue with the bridge humbucker on my Modern Player Telecaster Plus. I had a guitar repair tech replace the stock humbucker with a Seymour Duncan JB in the bridge a few years back. I do enjoy the sound for the most part, but when I compare it to my other guitars with humbuckers, it's really bright and nasal sounding. After reading up on my tele on this forum and others, I now understand that the bridge humbucker is wired in parallel and not in series. Ideally, I want the humbucker to be in series as that's what I'm used to and the sound that I enjoy from a humbucker.
At first, I was looking to have the humbucker switch wired in series/coli split, but now I want to have the switch wired as series/parallel. I rarely use the coil split on the bridge and I can see some applications for having that nasal parallel sound. I had the coil split simply because that's how it was stock, but I never really had much use for it.
Here's a picture of the wiring in my guitar after the new JB was installed. Sorry that it's not very clear.
DPDT Switch
Red & White wires are soldered together and to the middle right pole.
A red wire is soldered from the bottom right pole to the back of the tone pot (ground).
Green & Bare wires are soldered together and to the back of the tone pot (in the white tube).
Black wire is wired directly to the 5 way switch (it was soldered to a grey wire/with green shrink tube to extend it to the switch).
There's a good chance I may be confused in saying this, but shouldn't the way that it is currently wired be in series? It sure doesn't sound like a full humbucker to me though. The green/bare wires are grounded to the back of the tone pot and the black wire (hot) is wired directly to the switch. I noticed on the wiring diagram for the original pickup, the red wire (hot) was wired to a pole on the switch and then another red wire was wired from the same pole to the 5 way switch. Is that an issue?
Since then, I switched the Green and Black wires as I read on the Seymour Duncan website that those 2 wires have to be switched if the middle pickup is a Fender style pickup (my middle pickup is stock). Black is now soldered with the bare to the back of the tone pot and the Green is soldered to the 5 way switch (soldered to the extension/taped). I don't think I did too bad for my first time soldering. I actually notice less hum now in the bridge position since switching the wires (maybe there was a phase issue?)
So back to the series/parallel wiring for the switch, I found this diagram online. These might seem like silly questions, but if I follow this diagram, would that work in getting the humbucker to switch from series to parallel? Would I need to swap the positions of the Green and Black wires since my middle pickup is stock or would I switch all four wires? Is the black line on the bottom 2 poles simply just a normal wire connected?
When I turn the tone knob all the way down on the humbucker, it completes removes any low frequencies and almost sounds like the rhythm guitars on the first Boston album (it's pretty close to Foreplay/Long Time). When I use the tone knob on the other 2 single coil pickups, it removes the higher frequencies which is what I believe it's supposed to do.
Thanks to anyone who made it this far in my post!
I'm new to the forum and this is going to be a long post. I admittingly know just about nothing when it comes to guitar wiring, but I am attempting to finally resolve my issue with the bridge humbucker on my Modern Player Telecaster Plus. I had a guitar repair tech replace the stock humbucker with a Seymour Duncan JB in the bridge a few years back. I do enjoy the sound for the most part, but when I compare it to my other guitars with humbuckers, it's really bright and nasal sounding. After reading up on my tele on this forum and others, I now understand that the bridge humbucker is wired in parallel and not in series. Ideally, I want the humbucker to be in series as that's what I'm used to and the sound that I enjoy from a humbucker.
At first, I was looking to have the humbucker switch wired in series/coli split, but now I want to have the switch wired as series/parallel. I rarely use the coil split on the bridge and I can see some applications for having that nasal parallel sound. I had the coil split simply because that's how it was stock, but I never really had much use for it.
Here's a picture of the wiring in my guitar after the new JB was installed. Sorry that it's not very clear.
DPDT Switch
Red & White wires are soldered together and to the middle right pole.
A red wire is soldered from the bottom right pole to the back of the tone pot (ground).
Green & Bare wires are soldered together and to the back of the tone pot (in the white tube).
Black wire is wired directly to the 5 way switch (it was soldered to a grey wire/with green shrink tube to extend it to the switch).
There's a good chance I may be confused in saying this, but shouldn't the way that it is currently wired be in series? It sure doesn't sound like a full humbucker to me though. The green/bare wires are grounded to the back of the tone pot and the black wire (hot) is wired directly to the switch. I noticed on the wiring diagram for the original pickup, the red wire (hot) was wired to a pole on the switch and then another red wire was wired from the same pole to the 5 way switch. Is that an issue?
Since then, I switched the Green and Black wires as I read on the Seymour Duncan website that those 2 wires have to be switched if the middle pickup is a Fender style pickup (my middle pickup is stock). Black is now soldered with the bare to the back of the tone pot and the Green is soldered to the 5 way switch (soldered to the extension/taped). I don't think I did too bad for my first time soldering. I actually notice less hum now in the bridge position since switching the wires (maybe there was a phase issue?)
So back to the series/parallel wiring for the switch, I found this diagram online. These might seem like silly questions, but if I follow this diagram, would that work in getting the humbucker to switch from series to parallel? Would I need to swap the positions of the Green and Black wires since my middle pickup is stock or would I switch all four wires? Is the black line on the bottom 2 poles simply just a normal wire connected?
When I turn the tone knob all the way down on the humbucker, it completes removes any low frequencies and almost sounds like the rhythm guitars on the first Boston album (it's pretty close to Foreplay/Long Time). When I use the tone knob on the other 2 single coil pickups, it removes the higher frequencies which is what I believe it's supposed to do.
Thanks to anyone who made it this far in my post!
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