2 humbuckers, Superswitch

Sporky McGuffin

Sporky McGuffin

New member
I have a Jazz and a Custom 5 for my G&L Legacy. I was thinking:

1) Neck (series)
2) Neck (parallel)
3) Outer coils (parallel)
4) Erm...
5) Bridge (series)

Any ideas for what to do with position 4? I was thinking maybe outer coils in series but out of phase. Or 3 could be neck series in parallel with bridge series and 4 could be outer coils in parallel.

Hmm.
 
Re: 2 humbuckers, Superswitch

After trying it I'm a huge fan of "coil swapping." Basically, take the bridge screw coil and put it in series with the neck stud coil (or you could do bridge stud and neck screw). It's a very cool in-between sound that surprisingly has some single coil characteristics even though it's electrically a humbucker. It's due to the distance between the coils.
 
Re: 2 humbuckers, Superswitch

I would borrow from Ibanez. Position 3 is neck and bridge buckers. Positon 4 would be the split coils in parallel selection. (Where you would expect to find it on a Strat.) See circuit diagrams on Ibanez website.
 
Re: 2 humbuckers, Superswitch

MikeS said:
After trying it I'm a huge fan of "coil swapping." Basically, take the bridge screw coil and put it in series with the neck stud coil (or you could do bridge stud and neck screw). It's a very cool in-between sound that surprisingly has some single coil characteristics even though it's electrically a humbucker. It's due to the distance between the coils.
Click to expand...

+1 i love coil swap! it's one of the coolest mods out there imo, single coil-ish tones without the drop in output or hum. imo it kinda sounds like a cross between a tele lead and a p-90.
 
Re: 2 humbuckers, Superswitch

Maybe outer coils in series then - that's yer coil swapping doodad, isn't it?

Thanks for the suggestions. :)
 
Re: 2 humbuckers, Superswitch

Sporky McGuffin said:
Maybe outer coils in series then - that's yer coil swapping doodad, isn't it?

Thanks for the suggestions. :)
Click to expand...

close! it's always an inner coil in series with an outer coil, so just like a regular humbucker, you've still got a screw coil and slug coil active.
 
Re: 2 humbuckers, Superswitch

hello...

You can do inner coils in series. This is the PRS middle position on their rotary switch. To do this with non-PRS pickups you need to flip the magnet to reverse the polarity of each coil and swap the leads in pairs on one of the pickups. For Duncans it would be white=hot, red=ground, green+black=series link. This will keep the pickup hum-canceling and in phase with itself and with the other pickup. This will have the added benefit of making the outer coils in parallel hum-canceling, which would not otherwise be possible without flipping the magnet of one pickup.
 
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Re: 2 humbuckers, Superswitch

super rad stuff said:
close! it's always an inner coil in series with an outer coil, so just like a regular humbucker, you've still got a screw coil and slug coil active.
Click to expand...

Ah, I getcha. :)

Maybe, then, I will do a coil-swapping thing in series for position 4 and in parallel for position 3. And keep 1, 2 and 5 as in my original post. That should give a nice range of sounds without too much jiggery-pokery.

Thanks again!
 
Re: 2 humbuckers, Superswitch

Coolio.

I've just finished mine too (though I need to recut the scratchplate - got the switch at an angle where it fouls the body cavity, plus I scuffed it cutting the switch slot).

It works though. Positions 2 & 4 are pretty similar.
 
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