59/Custom Hybrid splitting the “wrong” side

[tonefordayz]

Hello guys. First time poster here. Hope you’re all doing alright.

So, I’ve bought a Fender Player Plus HSS Strat and decided to swap the bridge HB for a 59/Custom Hybrid, since the original sounds like garbage and is microphonic like hell.

I sent it to the guy who usually does this kind of thing for me (small town, only guy around) and told to configure the pu such as that when split, the “custom” side would come out (around 7k), but after installation, the reading is about 4,14 k, which shows that the 59 is the side being split.

I have searched a lot and sent him several forum threads about splitting this pick-up correctly, but it seems nothing is getting through his hard head.

Would there be any way for me to tell him on an easy step by step way what he should be doing to get the split working correctly? Like, the order of the soldering and which wire goes where?

I have no experience swapping pickups, but if it comes to that, guess I’ll have to learn, just curious to know if there is something I can do while my guitar is still with him to receive it correctly configured.

Btw, the electric/Electronic components are all stock on the Fender Player Plus Strat.

 

[Clint 55]

Welcome to tha forum!

Go in and do it yourself. Black goes to signal, green and bare goes to ground, and red and white goes to the push pull like in the diagram.

 

[ThreeChordWonder]

You will have to check carefully that the pickups remain, or are wired in, in phase with each other.

You can check pickup polarity with a map reading compass and go from there:

 

[ThreeChordWonder]

That is a Seymour Duncan SSL-1 "south up" pickup, so the "points close to geographic North arrow" on the compass points towards it.*

The pickups you plan to keep may be "north ups", in which case the arrow would points AWAY from the pickup*.

* The Earth's magnetic south pole is actually, currently, nearest to its geographic north pole.

 

[ThreeChordWonder]

Questions:

The Player Plus has noiseless single coils, yes?

Do you know if the middle pickup is reverse wired reverse polarity (RWRP)?

It also has a push pull tone for coil splitting the humbucker, yes?

Does it have a regular 5-way blade or a Superswitch?

Do you want to use the push-pull or auto coil split in P2 using the Superswitch that's there (or one you add)?

 

[tonefordayz]

Hey people. Thanks for the quick replies.

ThreeChordWonder: Yes, noiseless single coils. I don't know if the middle is RWP since they cancel noise in positions 2, 3, 4 and 5. The bridge tone control also acts as a push pull for splitting the bridge HB. I would love to be able to have auto split on position 2, but surely can live without it, so either way works.

The real big problem seems to be getting the bridge to split on the "Custom" (slug) side.

I'm not sure I get the compass thingie. Wouldn't a scheme as suggested by Clint 55 just work "universally"?

 

[beaubrummels]

Fender pickups are out of phase from Duncan pickups, so you have to wire the Duncan reverse phase (black to ground, green to hot) but split using red/white (to ground when pulled up) as in Clint's first diagram.

 

[ThreeChordWonder]

^ What BB said. If you do get phase issues afterwards you can reverse the wiring on the "single" coils (blacks become hots, whites or yellows go to ground) to solve it.

 

[tonefordayz]

Guys, thank you very much for the support. Once my guitar tech applied Clint's schematics it worked like a charm.

She's back home, safe and sound.

BTW, this "59/Custom" pickup pairs perfectly with noiseless pickups and the splitted sound is killer. The guitar is a monster now.

Here's wishing an amazing rest of weekend for all of you!

 

[ThreeChordWonder]

My MIM has a 59/Custom and two SSL-1s. Couldn't be happier.

A 5-way superswitch does an auto coil split in P2. It's wired with 1 volume, 1 tone, a neck blender, and a push push (nor a push pull) to invert the middle.

 

[Wound_Up]

You will have to check carefully that the pickups remain, or are wired in, in phase with each other.

You can check pickup polarity with a map reading compass and go from there:

I normally just use this little $6 polarity tester from Amazon. Or you can spend another $5 and get the Schatten polarity tester, shown in the last pic.

 

[Wound_Up]

So it looks like the forum is still screwed up and I can't edit my post to add images. Still getting the stupid 503 error. So, here they are. I wouldn't buy it from those f-ing scam artists at Stewmac, though.

<off-topic>

And especially not through their Amazon store unless you like paying $10 in shipping charges on every item you order. Instead of charging $10 in shipping for the entire order like their website, they've just added $10 in shipping to the price of EVERYTHING they sell on Amazon. So if you buy 6 things, you'll pay an extra $60 over buying it through their website. For example, you'd pay, $110 at their website after shipping costs. But with their BS "free shipping" at Amazon, you'll pay $160 +tax for those same exact products. Smfh
​​​​​​

And it's crap, like that which shows they're out to screw us over. On purpose. I mean, they chose to rip people off even more by adding $10 in shipping costs to the price of everything on their Amazon store when they could've EASILY just chosen to charge $10 per order like their website. But they didn't. They CHOSE to rip this community off even more than they already do. God I can't stand that POS business

So, if you buy one of these, don't buy it from those f-ing thieves.

Schatten Polarity Checker

 

[ThreeChordWonder]

I normally just use this little $6 polarity tester from Amazon. Or you can spend another $5 and get the Schatten polarity tester, shown in the last pic.

In the 70s Clark's shoes made bots shoes with compasses in the heels...

I used a compass because I happened to have one.

Next time I'm out in the middle of The Permian trying to find an old oil well, I'll be sure to take my polarity tester along though...

 

[tonefordayz]

IMPORTANT !!!

Guys, while we're at it, I'd like to ask for one more advice.

I only managed to properly test the guitar today and noticed something very strange.

After supposedly aplying the diagram provided by Clint - that's what my guitar tech said he done at least, THE 2ND TONE CONTROL (BRIDGE) IS NOW ACTING AS A VOLUME CONTROL..

The master volume works as usual, the middle tone still acts as a tone control for neck/middle pickups, but the bridge tone control now is a volume control for that pickup.

Anyone has got any idea about what he may have done wrong or how to revert to the usual functionality?

 

[beaubrummels]

Did the tech accidentally ground the third lug of the tone control?

Would have to see the wiring otherwise to tell what might be not right.

 

[tonefordayz]

That would be it (and there goes a fresh set of Elixirs):

 

[Teleplayer]

To me the problem appears to be the placement of the black wire from the SH-16. The "tech" probably intended to solder the black wire directly to the yellow wire on the tone pot at lug #2. Instead it was solded to lug #1, just like it would be used for a volume control. Basically the black wire should be moved to Lug #2. You should probably get someone else to work on the soldering as the quality in the pics seems questionable.

Also check if position #2 sound is what you expected. If they are genuine Fender pickups they could be out-of-phase when combined with the humbucker.

 

[playas]

Seems like it would be well worth your while learning how to do this yourself.
A decent tech shouldn't have had any problem getting it done to your satisfaction.

He certainly shouldn't leave you looking for solutions to a mistake he made. That is absolutely not professional.

 

[playas]

In fact I'd be looking for my money back and wouldn't let him touch any of my gear in the future.

 

[Teleplayer]

^^ Exactly. I was trying not to be harsh, but honestly the soldering looks like someone's first attempt. It's a concern because equipment failure can be more than embarrassing.