Simple all-hum-cancelling HH wiring?

[GuitarDoc]

That sounds like a great, super-fast switching, and intuitive setup. And all hum cancelling. So superswitch + push-pulls sounds like the grail setup for me.

If using the parallel switches, how would that affect the 2 and 4 positions?

It shouldn't. You're still just selecting one of the coils, whether the other coil was connected to the first in series or parallel shouldn't matter. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong.

[sumitagarwal]

It shouldn't. You're still just selecting one of the coils, whether the other coil was connected to the first in series or parallel shouldn't matter. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong.

Veeeerrry interesting. I'll be curious to hear anyone else chime in on that detail.

And then the obvious tangent: what are the best pups for running such a beast? Clearly it depends on preferences and priorities, but there will be some favorites.

[Mincer]

Generally, I run mine with a vintage output in the neck, and medium hot (like the Hybrid, or the Custom Custom) in the bridge. It keeps the dynamics in tact, and the splits sound fantastic.

[sumitagarwal]

Generally, I run mine with a vintage output in the neck, and medium hot (like the Hybrid, or the Custom Custom) in the bridge. It keeps the dynamics in tact, and the splits sound fantastic.

That's pretty much where my head is at too. Probably on the lower end of vintage for the neck, although that might compromise the split tones. There must be some SD's with pretty unequal outputs, so I could get a vintage output neck with a hotter screw coil than slug coil?

[GuitarDoc]

That's pretty much where my head is at too. Probably on the lower end of vintage for the neck, although that might compromise the split tones.

There are many neck pups that have been used with great success...59, A2P, Jazz, Pearly Gates, etc.

There must be some SD's with pretty unequal outputs, so I could get a vintage output neck with a hotter screw coil than slug coil?

I'm not really sure what you are asking here. Are you talking about 2 pups with unequal outputs, or 1 pup with coils that have unequal outputs? The C/59 has coils with unequal outputs and lends itself very well to splitting. If you use a C/59 for the bridge pup, you could split to either the 59 coil (for lower output) or the Custom coil (for higher output).

[GuitarDoc]

You know that you can wire to split to any coil that you want to. And you can rotate the pup to have the active split coil either inside or outside without affecting anything else.

[sumitagarwal]

There are many neck pups that have been used with great success...59, A2P, Jazz, Pearly Gates, etc.




I'm not really sure what you are asking here. Are you talking about 2 pups with unequal outputs, or 1 pup with coils that have unequal outputs? The C/59 has coils with unequal outputs and lends itself very well to splitting. If you use a C/59 for the bridge pup, you could split to either the 59 coil (for lower output) or the Custom coil (for higher output).

Was referring to the latter: pickups with one of the coils hotter than the other (like a Fralin Unbucker). Better for splitting, and also a more open standard in-series tone.

To the best of my knowledge only the C/59 has that characteristic among standard Duncans?

[ErikH]

So, looking at all of those, none of it is simple....LOL. At least not to me. Simple = Volume, Tone, 3-way blade or toggle switch. Neck, Neck+Bridge, Bridge. No splitting, no parallel, no combining coils. Straight up pickup switching and all noise cancelling.

I've done the fancy wiring before and found out that I never used any more than 3 of the settings anyway so I prefer to keep it simple. My Les Paul is the only guitar that has coil-splitting and that is because it came that way (push/pull volume controls).

[sumitagarwal]

So, looking at all of those, none of it is simple....LOL. At least not to me. Simple = Volume, Tone, 3-way blade or toggle switch. Neck, Neck+Bridge, Bridge. No splitting, no parallel, no combining coils. Straight up pickup switching and all noise cancelling.

I've done the fancy wiring before and found out that I never used any more than 3 of the settings anyway so I prefer to keep it simple. My Les Paul is the only guitar that has coil-splitting and that is because it came that way (push/pull volume controls).

I don't disagree one bit. 5-way blade really is the best overall approach for most people, in my opion.

I can deal with more knobs and complexity, and I find that an important thing for me is separate controls for the bridge and for the neck, so no dancing is required when switching between them. I realized that's why I like LP controls so much, and I think any splitting/etc/etc is probably best when it only affects one pickup at a time. I've noticed that PRS tend to be wired this way, whether using mini switches or push-pulls, and I think that's why.

[ErikH]

I don't disagree one bit. 5-way blade really is the best overall approach for most people, in my opion.

I can deal with more knobs and complexity, and I find that an important thing for me is separate controls for the bridge and for the neck, so no dancing is required when switching between them. I realized that's why I like LP controls so much, and I think any splitting/etc/etc is probably best when it only affects one pickup at a time. I've noticed that PRS tend to be wired this way, whether using mini switches or push-pulls, and I think that's why.

That's why I never changed the wiring on my Les Paul. I can deal with the push/pull to split each one independently if I get the itch to do so (which is rare). My frankenstrat is HH with a 3-way blade and straight up simple, single volume and no tone control. I have a HSS Warmoth with a 5-way and I don't even split the humbucker on that one. The neck/middle are Classic Stack Plus and are noiseless. I like the sound of the humbucker and middle single together. I did have it with a HH setup and a 5-way super switch to split each one independently in the 2 and 4 positions. That worked good for what I needed at the time. Then I decided to change it to HSS and prefer it like this.

[Bill Dennis]

I'll just start off with saying that I play with medium gain and I hate hum.

With that in mind, I'm wondering what the simplest wiring might be to get the following modes while avoiding as much redundancy as possible and not having any non-hum-cancelling positions. I know this might not be possible, but an ideal load out would be:

• Series neck
• Series both
• Series bridge
• Outer singles
• Inner singles
• Parallel neck (if possible)
• Parallel bridge (if possible)

I feel like this is approaching Jimmy Page wiring, but would like something simpler if possible and I'm also happy to skip the single coil neck and single coil bridge modes.

The Charvel DK24 has something very close that I duplicated in my Ibanez. It requires a super switch and a 4 pull mini toggle and I would not call it simple but it's about as simple as it's going to get to do what you want

[sumitagarwal]

The Charvel DK24 has something very close that I duplicated in my Ibanez. It requires a super switch and a 4 pull mini toggle and I would not call it simple but it's about as simple as it's going to get to do what you want

Oh, this seems awesome! For a blade switch guitar anyway..

[sumitagarwal]

So for a toggle switch guitar this Free-way wiring seems excellent, very usable, and almost entirely hum-cancelling. I'd probably try to figure out how to set it up so that the one single-coil mode would be the coil closest to the neck. Then you'd have: "LP" neck, middle, and bridge positions, "Tele" middle position, "Strat" notch position, and neck single-coil.

[sumitagarwal]

Two good options with a single push/pull (or switch) as well.

I'm surprised on the site I didn't see any diagram for:

1: Series neck
2: Series neck + series bridge
3: Series bridge
4: Parallel neck
5: Inner neck coil + inner bridge coil
6: Parallel bridge (or maybe outer neck coil + outer bridge coil)

That would seem dead simple to operate, cover reasonable approximations of all the major tones, and be hum-cancelling in every position.