Changing Humbucker From PARALLEL To SERIES

[kg_fenderbender]

I have a custom Fender Telecaster with two humbucker pickups, one master volume knob, one master tone knob and a 3-way selector switch. The neck has a Seymour Duncan SH-1 and the bridge has a Seymour Duncan Pearly Gates Plus. The neck pickup runs in series, and sound great! But the bridge pickup for some reason is running in parallel. I went to a guitar store and had them open up the back of the guitar, and the confirmed that it's running in parallel. I just wanted to know if there was any way I could rewire the bridge pickup in series? Thanks

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: Changing Humbucker From PARALLEL To SERIES

Welcome to the forum.

Converting from permanent parallel to permanent series wiring is a simple matter of re-ordering the coil conductors.

First, however, I need to ask what type of output cable is on your neck/Rhythm position pickup? Single conductor and braided shield or four-con + shield?

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: Changing Humbucker From PARALLEL To SERIES

If your guitar is this model, http://www.fender.com/series/specia...telecaster-fmt-hh-rosewood-fingerboard-amber/, the tone control should be a push-pull pot to operate a coil split.

Is this item present?

Is it wired up correctly?

If the push-pull pot is present and correct, you could exploit it to select between Series and Parallel modes on the PG+.

 

[GuitarDoc]

Re: Changing Humbucker From PARALLEL To SERIES

If you DO have the p/p tone pot, it may be wired upside down. Just reverse the wiring to how it is in this diagram:

http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/wiring-diagrams/schematics.php?schematic=1h_1v_1t_sp

This will give you series when the switch is in the "down" position and parallel when you pull the switch up.

If you don't have a p/p pot and want the pup in series mode, just solder the red and white wires together and isolate them with tape or shrink wrap. The black wire (hot) goes to the selector switch, the green and bare wires go to ground.
Follow this diagram:

http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/wiring-diagrams/schematics.php?schematic=tele_2hum

 

[kg_fenderbender]

Re: Changing Humbucker From PARALLEL To SERIES

It is almost the same guitar (except in black). But no it doesn't have a push/pull knob.

 

[kg_fenderbender]

Re: Changing Humbucker From PARALLEL To SERIES

The neck pickup (SH-1) is a four conductor

 

[DreX]

Re: Changing Humbucker From PARALLEL To SERIES

I have that same guitar! The black finish / cream binding looks great with zebra pickups.

There something wrong if it didn't come with a push pull though, per the specs: http://www.fender.com/series/specia...telecaster-fmt-hh-rosewood-fingerboard-amber/


Controls: Master Volume, Master Tone (with Push/Pull Coil Select Feature)

Special Electronics: Push/Pull Pot for Coil Tap


...they don't mean coil tap, though.

Mine came with the push / pull, though I rewired it completely anyway. You said yours did not; maybe it's just stuck or requires more force than usual?

Take the back panel off and see if one of the two knobs looks like this underneath:

 

[kg_fenderbender]

Re: Changing Humbucker From PARALLEL To SERIES

Its not actually a special edition tele. It was custom built for me based on that tele. Although the only difference between that tele and mine is that mines in black, has a rosewood fingerboard with no binding and regular white inlays, and of course, the bridge pickup is running in parallel (which is what i want to change)

 

[kg_fenderbender]

Re: Changing Humbucker From PARALLEL To SERIES

i checked and it is wired that way. The red and white are soldered together and taped, the black wire is soldered to the selector switch and the green and white are soldered to the pot. Although, the diagram you posted shows that the green and white should be soldered to the volume pot, along with the green and white from the neck. My neck pickups green and white is soldered to the VOLUME pot (and works fine in series) BUT the green and white from the bridge is soldered to the TONE pot.
Could that be the problem?

 

[GuitarDoc]

Re: Changing Humbucker From PARALLEL To SERIES

i checked and it is wired that way. The red and white are soldered together and taped, the black wire is soldered to the selector switch and the green and white are soldered to the pot. Although, the diagram you posted shows that the green and white should be soldered to the volume pot, along with the green and white from the neck. My neck pickups green and white is soldered to the VOLUME pot (and works fine in series) BUT the green and white from the bridge is soldered to the TONE pot.
Could that be the problem?

Let's make something clear:
The green and white wires are NOT soldered together and to any ground...they are the green and BARE wires that are soldered to ground (back of pot). The red and white wires are soldered together and taped off.

It doesn't matter where you solder the ground wires (green and bare) as long as all the grounds (back of vol pot, back of tone pot, switch, bridge jack) are soldered/wired together. So it's OK if the green and bare wires from your neck pup are soldered to the back of the vol pot , and the green and bare from the bridge pup are soldered to the tone pot as long as there is a wire soldered to the vol and tone pots connecting them.

 

[DreX]

Re: Changing Humbucker From PARALLEL To SERIES

The red and white are soldered together and taped, the black wire is soldered to the selector switch and the green and white are soldered to the pot.

Assuming you meant "green and bare wire" and not "green and white", this is wired correctly for series operation. If you're super certain is both a Seymour Duncan pickup and operating in parallel with correct wiring, it's possible, but amazingly unlikely, that the wires were attached to the pickup wrong.

I went to a guitar store and had them open up the back of the guitar, and the confirmed that it's running in parallel.

How did they make this determination? By listening to it, examining the pickup, peaking under the hood?

 

[Gibson 1964]

Re: Changing Humbucker From PARALLEL To SERIES

I suppose you could put a meter on it to determine if the pickup is in parallel with the pickups wires attached wrong. The numbers would be way out of spec, at roughly 1/4 of the advertised specs of series operation. Personally, if I was taking it apart, I would add a push pull for series/parallel operation myself. I like parallel instead of split on most humbuckers myself.

To me it seems likely that the PGP might just be brighter than you like?