Tone Control for Bridge Humbucker

[ThreeChordWonder]

Actually this is quite easy.

Start with the attached wiring diagram by someone else.

Wire all three pickup hots to the left bank of contacts in the five-way as you would do for three single coils. The pickup ground wires all go to the backs of pot casings, but leave the humbucker middle wires soldered to each other but otherwise free.

Now wire up the master volume, master tone and output jack just like a Telecaster's.

Now add a wire from the neck pickup hot lug on the switch to one lug on your third pot, the blender pot, and another from the bridge pickup hot to the middle lug on the pot.
.

Now the auto coil split.

If you've wired the circuit as above you should have one side of the selector switch completely free of wires.

Identify which contact corresponds to the bridge pickup input on that side of the switch.

Solder the bridge humbucker "middle" wires - both of them - to that contact.

Next, identify which contact corresponds to the middle pickup input on that side of the switch. Solder a wire between that contact and ground.

The way this works is that in P1 (bridge) the moving contact on the switch only contacts the "middle" wires from the humbucker. That does nothing, so you still get the full hubucker. Move the switch to P2 (bridge plus middle) and the moving contact now connects the humbucker "middle" wires to ground. So you get a coil split leaving the north (slug) coil active. From P3 onwards the humbucker hot isn't connected anyway.

[ThreeChordWonder]

Here you go...

[ThreeChordWonder]

If you want to coil split to the south (screw) coil instead, the easiest way is to swap the green and black connections on the humbucker. To keep the middle and neck in phase you also have to flip the white / yellow hots and the black grounds on the neck and middle. You're basically flipping the phase on all three pickups, bringing them all back into phase with each other. The humbucker bare wire would still go to ground and the red and white would still go to the right side of the switch as drawn.

If you want to stop the bridge coming back in in P4 or P5 you'll either need to remember to turn the blender right down or you can fit a switch in the blend loop. Either a separate mini switch or a push-pull or push-push, e.g. replacing the regular blender pot. Wire the bridge connection to one middle lug on one side of the push-pull bank, wire the push = on connection on the push-pull part to the pot lug for push = blender works, or use the pull = on for the opposite.

For pot values I personally would go for 500k audio taper for the master volume and master tone, but you may want to use 250k pots. The choice is yours.

A 0.022 uF cap probably suits the single coils best, but a 0.047 uF would probably suit the humbucker best. Your choice again.

For the blend pot, I would go for a 500k, but your choice on linear vs audio taper. Some say linear is better.

[ThreeChordWonder]

Reversed wiring for coil split to the south (screwed pole pieces) coil.

[AlanB]

Many thanks 3CW for all this very helpful work. Much appreciated. I now have lots to consider and think about. Regards, Alan.