3 Humbucker Wiring

D

dc_mally

New member
Hey, im looking to swap out the pickups on my SG, currently its just standard 3 way switching going from Bridge, Bridge+Middle, Neck. I am getting some new humbuckers for it and i am wondering how with the use of one or more push pull pots i could wire it up to be more versitile.. I would like to beable to get the middle pickup on its own.

any ideas?? im not particully looking for getting a massive amount of combiations, but a little more would be nice.

Cheers, Dave.
 
Re: 3 Humbucker Wiring

I've rewired a number of HHH guitars, let me help. As you know, the stock wiring is slow & clumsy to get the middle PU in & out of action, & with 6 coils you have surprisingly few options to choose from tonally. No imagination in the stock configuration, even after 50 years.

First, middle HB's don't sound anything like they do in the bridge or neck position, something to do with magnetic fileds, too many coils in a small space, or string harmonics in that area, etc. Something messes up the tone. So the preferred PU for the neck or neck & middle are Phat Cats, or other single coils that fit a HB slot. This gives you an HSH or HSS guitar. As you know, those PU combinations hugely successful. On the other hand, besides Gibson & Epiphone no one else does HHH guitars, and these guys only do it for "historical" reasons, not for tone quality. This tells you that the HHH concept really didn't work. But you can change any HB to a single coil, so it's not a big deal. Triple HB guitars are beautiful instruments and you can take advantage of their full potential.

I've tried many wiring versions for SG & LP Customs, and here's what I've found to work best for me:

Bridge PU: HB (C5, '59B, etc). Wired with it's own volume & tone controls, 250K push-pulls (to take off some of the upper treble). One PP is a coil cut, the other phase. This also switches which coil is active in coil cut mode. You get both coils (HB), screw coil, or slug coil.

Neck/Middle PU's: Share a 500K 'blend pot' volume control, so I can dial any degree of neck or middle PU. The tone is a 500K PP to coil cut the neck HB. You get neck HB, neck screw coil, middle, middle plus neck HB, or middle plus neck screw coil. Plus all the in between blendings.

This way I can flip a switch and go from bridge to middle, or bridge to neck, or bridge with middle and neck. In any of this, the bridge & neck can be HB or single coil. Plus anytime I have two or more PU's on, I can put them out of phase. Lots of combinations, and you can get them into play quickly, which is important on stage.

PM me if I can help.
 
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