3 Pick up SG ideas.

C

chasesteele

New member
Okay, so I have an Epiphone G400 custom (Les Paul plates). I dropped a Duncan 59 in the bridge and wired a push/pull to do series parallel switching. I'm planning on swapping out the other pick ups soon, the neck being most imperative as it has a vastly different EQ then the bridge, so its hard to use it when I EQ the amp for the bridge. At the moment I do not use the mid pick up.

Now to the question. It's wired with 3 vols, 1 tone, 3 way switch like a Les Paul. The middle pick up is on in all positions unless you turn it down.

What I think would be best for my style of play would be to have a push/pull that essentially alternates between mid and neck pups, and get rid of the wiring that makes the mid pup always on. So:

Push pull down --> neck pick up on
Push pull up --> mid pick up on

Then the pick up selector would run normal, but in the up or mid position the pick up used would be whatever the position of the push pull is. Alternating neck pick ups, in essence.

Would this work? If so, any help with how?

Thanks in advance!
 
Re: 3 Pick up SG ideas.

Run the pickups to one side of the push-pull, Neck to the outer-most switch terminal and the Middle pickup to the terminal closest to the pot casing.
Run the center tab between those two to the Neck and Middle Volume/Tone (assuming you want to set it up for 2 volume 2 tone where the neck and middle share the same pots).

If you want to keep the separate volumes, run the pickups to their volume pots first, then those to the push-pull terminals, then that to the 3-way.
 
Re: 3 Pick up SG ideas.

I have the same guitar and the stock wiring and pickups came out straight away. How I have it now is like a standard two pickup sg on the 3 way, but with a push/pull to turn the middle pickup on and off along with whatever pickup(s) is selected at the 3 way, much more useable this way I've found.

The pickups I have in there now are 59/c hybrid bridge, phatcat b (A5/A5) middle and 59/jazz hybrid neck. ive tried many humbuckers in the middle slot and finally settled on a p90.

I would recommend another 59 for the neck slot, sounds awesome in a SG! I've had a set of 59's in mine for years.
 
Re: 3 Pick up SG ideas.

I wired my SG Custom like this:

- bridge with it's own vol and tone, both push-pulls: one for coil cut, one for phase.

- neck and middle share a vol pot (blend pot) so I can dial in as much, or as little, of either as I want. They also share a tone pot, which is a push-pull for coil cut.
This lets me use the toggle to quickly flip back and forth between the bridge and neck, or bridge and middle.


A '59 set works well for me in SG's ('59N isn't bassy like in LP's). I put an UOA5 in the '59B to give it a warmer, richer A2 sound.
 
Re: 3 Pick up SG ideas.

chasesteele said:
It's wired with 3 vols, 1 tone, 3 way switch like a Les Paul. The middle pick up is on in all positions unless you turn it down.
Click to expand...

FWIW - that is not a standard 3-pickup Gibson / Les Paul wiring set up. Normally, it's position 1 = neck only, position 2 = bridge+middle, position 3 = bridge only. Bridge and neck have their own volume and tone controls, middle has no volume or tone control, though it's affected by the bridge controls when selected.

http://images.gibson.com/Lifestyle/Support/Files/Schematics/LPCustom3PU.PDF
http://images.gibson.com/Lifestyle/Support/Files/Schematics/solid.gif


blueman335 said:
I wired my SG Custom like this:

- bridge with it's own vol and tone, both push-pulls: one for coil cut, one for phase.

- neck and middle share a vol pot (blend pot) so I can dial in as much, or as little, of either as I want. They also share a tone pot, which is a push-pull for coil cut.
This lets me use the toggle to quickly flip back and forth between the bridge and neck, or bridge and middle.
Click to expand...

That's a very interesting set up.
 
Re: 3 Pick up SG ideas.

Do it strat style with a five way switch, and put a p90 in the middle. They sound much better than a humbucker could in that positon.
 
Re: 3 Pick up SG ideas.

The set up i wound up with on my SG was 3 volumes and one master tone. The 3 way switch was wired normal. 1 volume was push pull and activated the middle pickup. Like this i could get any combo I wanted. If i wanted the middle pickup alone I had to turn the volume off one of the other pickups but I had very little use for that sound so it didnt bother me. Other wise it was easy enough to pull the push pull or flick the switch and get a combo of the pickups I wanted.

Not saying this is the best set up... was just how I did it.
 
Re: 3 Pick up SG ideas.

To me, the drawback to a master tone is that I only actually use a tone pot for the bridge PU. Everytime I go from bridge to neck and middle, I don't want to keep having to adjust the tone pot because the neck's too dark or the bridge too bright.
 
Re: 3 Pick up SG ideas.

blueman335 said:
To me, the drawback to a master tone is that I only actually use a tone pot for the bridge PU. Everytime I go from bridge to neck and middle, I don't want to keep having to adjust the tone pot because the neck's too dark or the bridge too bright.
Click to expand...

Sure was just offering it as one way it can be done... For me I chose pickups that I dont have to preset the tone controls on when flipping positions. Its just another way to do it.
 
Re: 3 Pick up SG ideas.

Edgecrusher said:
The set up i wound up with on my SG was 3 volumes and one master tone. The 3 way switch was wired normal. 1 volume was push pull and activated the middle pickup. Like this i could get any combo I wanted. If i wanted the middle pickup alone I had to turn the volume off one of the other pickups but I had very little use for that sound so it didnt bother me. Other wise it was easy enough to pull the push pull or flick the switch and get a combo of the pickups I wanted.

Not saying this is the best set up... was just how I did it.
Click to expand...

That's exactly my setup too
 
Re: 3 Pick up SG ideas.

Thanks for all the replied! I've thought of the on off for the middle, but my only problem with that is that the mid would always be on with the bridge as opposed to being able to use the middle alone and the bridge alone without messing with too many knobs! Maybe I can wire it with the on off for the mid, but change where the middle goes on the toggle, so its not on in all positions when engaged!

Also, I've thought of a p90 humbucker, if I can find a used one I will go with that, the only issue at the moment is the exchange rate as I'd have to buy it from the states (I'm in Canada). I was thinking of getting one of those single coil conversion rings and throwing a stray style pup in the middle!

Thanks again everyone!
 
Re: 3 Pick up SG ideas.

The middle pickup isn't always on, you can use the bridge and neck on their own as easy as a two pickup guitar ; the 3 way positions are neck, neck and bridge, bridge. I can turn on the Middle pickup in ANY of those positions to have any combination of pickups including all 3 if I wanted. The only drawback as edgecrusher has mentioned is that to get middle alone, you'd have to hit the push pull to engage it and then turn down the bridge or neck pickup (whichever the 3 way toggle is on)

A true single coil in the middle sounds interesting!
 
Re: 3 Pick up SG ideas.

You could get one of the six way switches from Stew Mac and go really crazy with it.
 
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