HSS Auto-Split w/Std. 5-Way Blade Switch vs Added Toggle

[Lazarus1140]

I know just enough about wiring to know that I don't know enough. I like to have a plan and do a tidy wiring job on the first try, but this situation has me baffled. There are plenty of wiring diagrams/resources for auto-splitting a bridge humbucker to combine it with a single coil in parallel, but those diagrams are for 4-conductor humbuckers. Many years ago, I ordered a Zhangbucker O'Bucker with the "Splat Option", and I'm just now getting around to building the guitar it that I planned to use it in. It is designed to provide a beefier single coil tone when split by adding some of the south coil to the north coil. In this case, The two humbucker coils in series (black + white leads) are 10.6k. The split reading for the north coil + partial south coil (black + red leads) is 7.2k. Excluding the bare ground wire, there are only three leads. It looks to me like the simplest method would be to run the black and red leads to an SPDP toggle and from there to the switch. But I'd rather wire it for auto split if possible, and I definitely want to pair the 7.2k split of the humbucker with the middle pup.

Will the attached layout work, or is there another wiring method using a standard 5-way blade switch? Or can it be done with a superswitch, or should I just give up and add a toggle switch?

 

[Artie]

That's interesting. It appears that the red wire on the Zhangbucker, instead of being the coil junction, is a tap at approximately the halfway point of the screw coil. Unless I'm missing something, all the diagrams you posted are the same, except for background color, and appear to do what you want.

But it's late. I'll look at it some more, in the morning.

 

[beaubrummels]

You're overthinking it. The red wire is equivalent to the red+white when using a 4-conductor Duncan. Just put the red on the middle lug with common going to ground on it's own side of the switch and use the other side of the standard 5-way to select the pickups. Done.

 

[Artie]

You're overthinking it. The red wire is equivalent to the red+white when using a 4-conductor Duncan. Just put the red on the middle lug with common going to ground on it's own side of the switch and use the other side of the standard 5-way to select the pickups. Done.

I agree, but isn't that what all of those diagrams show? Not sure why it was posted six times. They appear the same to me.

 

[Lazarus1140]

They are all the same wiring scheme. It was posted multiple times because I was trying to upload an easier-to-read for old eyes size, and couldn't figure out how to delete the ones I didn't want. I didn't notice the REMOVE option until this morning, and I also didn't realize until this morning that even the smallest file enlarges when you click on it. Thank you gentlemen! Now, I get to populate the pickguard!!

 

[Lazarus1140]

That's interesting. It appears that the red wire on the Zhangbucker, instead of being the coil junction, is a tap at approximately the halfway point of the screw coil. Unless I'm missing something, all the diagrams you posted are the same, except for background color, and appear to do what you want.

But it's late. I'll look at it some more, in the morning.

Exactly! So, with the Splat option if someone wants to split the humbucker to run as a stand-alone sing coil, there should be slightly less hum than would be expected from a regular single coil, and David will tap the screw coil anywhere to get the resistance you want. I wanted mine to be slightly unbalanced when combined with the middle pup. I think I will like that ... particularly with the tone control on the bridge pickup. All three pickups for this guitar are pure hand wound.

 

[beaubrummels]

I agree, but isn't that what all of those diagrams show? Not sure why it was posted six times. They appear the same to me.

Except it looks like he has the split ground on one of the position lugs, not common. I guess it would work, just not how I conventionally would handle that.

 

[Chistopher]

Except it looks like he has the split ground on one of the position lugs, not common. I guess it would work, just not how I conventionally would handle that.

This is how I do it, mostly because that's how I do HSH. If you wire it the "normal" way with HSH autosplit, it makes it a bit of a pain to swap out pickups what with 2 red and 2 white wires going to the same terminal.

 

[Artie]

They are all the same wiring scheme. It was posted multiple times because I was trying to upload an easier-to-read for old eyes size, and couldn't figure out how to delete the ones I didn't want.

Yup. A proper webmaster would be nice. But I don't mind if they focus on all these cool pups they make for us. I can live with this.

Except it looks like he has the split ground on one of the position lugs, not common. I guess it would work, just not how I conventionally would handle that.

That's actually pretty common. (No pun intended.) One side of the 5-way uses the #2 & #4 positions as a separate switch, independent of the "common" terminal. That may not make sense in text. But you know what I mean.


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[beaubrummels]

This is how I do it, mostly because that's how I do HSH. If you wire it the "normal" way with HSH autosplit, it makes it a bit of a pain to swap out pickups what with 2 red and 2 white wires going to the same terminal.

I'm not seeing how swapping pickups is affected by which lug is used for ground on the split side of the switch.

 

[Artie]

This is how I do it, mostly because that's how I do HSH. If you wire it the "normal" way with HSH autosplit, it makes it a bit of a pain to swap out pickups what with 2 red and 2 white wires going to the same terminal.

I don't understand why you'd have the red's or white's going to the same terminal. Wouldn't you do it like this:

 

[Artie]

I have the red & white on the neck pup coming out of the wrong coils, but it works the same.

 

[Chistopher]

I don't understand why you'd have the red's or white's going to the same terminal. Wouldn't you do it like this:

Yeah, that's how I would do it. Turn the neck humbucker into a 2 conductor strat pickup and change the humbucker with a zhangbucker and it's the same as the OP wiring. If you were to wire the split grounds to the common as mentioned, with a 4 conductor hsh wiring you have 4 wires going to that one common, which can be a pain to solder. Unless I'm misinterpreting what the post meant.

 

[Artie]

What I posted doesn't use the "common" on the "split" half of the switch. It uses the 2-3 and 3-4 contacts to ground the red/white wires to the #3 lug.

 

[beaubrummels]

But he's doing HSS, not HSH, so that works, but isn't necessary?

 

[Artie]

Yeah, that diagram was more in response to Christophers post #8. I see where the confusion would be.

 

[Lazarus1140]

One more question from the under-knower / over-thinker: Since one side of the blade switch is only being used to send the split coil to ground rather than sending the single coil signals to their respective tone pots, does it make any difference where I connect the tone pots to their respective pickups? For example, the black wire from the bridge pickup to the rear tone pot - does it matter whether I connect the pickup lead and the lead from the center tab on the tone pot both at the switch, or can the pickup lead and a switch lead both be connected at the pot, or can I basically solder up a shielded "Y" connection so that only one wire terminates at each terminal?

This is almost certainly my last question on this subject.

 

[Artie]

No, it doesn't. The tone knob wires can be on either side of the switch. They're normally on the opposite side of from the pups just to make soldering easier.