HSS wiring help request with pics (470k resistor to make single coils see about 250k)

[Nagisa]

I have an Ibanez AZ hss. I put some Fender CS 69s in the single slots. The pots are the stock 500k ones. I'm hoping to have the humbucker use 500k pots, and then do the resistor trick (like in the below wiring diagram) to have the singles "see" only 250k. I just can't wrap my head around how to do it with this switching system.

Concept wiring diagram using resistors (from https://guitarmodology.wordpress.co...cker-sees-500k-and-the-single-coils-see-250k/) :



Ibanez AZ HSS wiring (*this diagram shows a megaswitch but the Ibanez one is an enclosed pcb-like system. I can't really change the wiring on the switch itself):


Do you think it's possible with the system I'm using?

I also read about using 250k pots and just having the humbucker not be connected to the tone pot - but again, I'm not sure how to do that. It's not like there's a wire going from the bridge humbucker directly to the tone pot that I could just disconnect.

Thank you!

 

[Nagisa]

Re: HSS wiring help request with pics (470k resistor to make single coils see about 2

Bump..

 

[freefrog]

Re: HSS wiring help request with pics (470k resistor to make single coils see about 2

Wouldn"t it be simpler to solder a 470k resistor between the hot and ground of each single coil? So, each of them would "see" 123k with the 500k volume and 250k tone control, while the two single coils activated together would "see" a lower resistance (97k in this case), a bit like two SC's do in a vintage style Strat when they're connected to their respective 250k pots + the 250k volume (3 times 250k in parallel = 83.33k)...

Furthermore, it would allow to decide if you prefer the sound with the two resistors or without it for the mid PU (which is the recipe used in some recent Strats) if not for the neck one - after all, some of my guitars have Strat SC's with 500k volume and tone without sounding too bright...

FWIW. Good luck in your experiments.

BTW, here is a handy tool: https://www.digikey.fr/fr/resources...rsion-calculator-parallel-and-series-resistor

 

[Nagisa]

Re: HSS wiring help request with pics (470k resistor to make single coils see about 2

Thanks for you reply! I'm not sure where the hot and ground of the sc would be since they go to slots in the pcb switch. Are you saying to put the resistor somewhere within the switch slots, before the sc goes to the switch, or afterward? Would it work to have the wires go from the sc, to resistors, to the switch?

On the Ibanez switch there is only this:
HB side - N hot N cold S hot S cold
SC middle hot, cold
SC necck hot, cold.
After that the outputs come from another side where I can't see what's what, and go to the 2-way switch or the vol pot

 

[freefrog]

Re: HSS wiring help request with pics (470k resistor to make single coils see about 2

Would it work to have the wires go from the sc, to resistors, to the switch?

Hello,

Yes, it would work as long as the legs of the resistors don't touch anything else.

IOW, you can solder each resistor between the naked tips of the black and white wires of each CS69, just before their "arrival" in the slots of the switch.

In fact, it would even be possible to put a resistor between the two blobs of solder below the baseplate of each pickup. If I don't recommend this last solution, it's only because a bad solder on these eyelets might cause troubles (although it's doable; actually, my own main strat has some components soldered directly to the eyelets of its pickups and is still working normally. LOL).

Hope it's clear. Good luck in your mods!

 

[Nagisa]

Re: HSS wiring help request with pics (470k resistor to make single coils see about 2

Thank you! That's what I'll do then - put the resistors right before the switch. Sounds like the most foolproof solution.

 

[Nagisa]

Re: HSS wiring help request with pics (470k resistor to make single coils see about 2

Just an update: I wired it with the resistors and it just cut the output in half (I assume half). Like super quiet.
I removed the resistors and put a .022 orange cap in, and just roll down the tone knob a bit. The .033 I had killed too much when rolled down. Oh well though!

 

[freefrog]

Re: HSS wiring help request with pics (470k resistor to make single coils see about 2

Just an update: I wired it with the resistors and it just cut the output in half (I assume half). Like super quiet.

I've mounted similar resistors dozen of times. AFAIK, what you describe shoudn't happen... unless the resistors are 47k (or 4.7k) and not 470k... Have you measured these resistors @ 470k?

For the record, I've assembled once a fuzz kit which didn't work: when I've finally measured with a multimeter all the components and checked the schematic, I've realized that a resistor had 1/100 of the value mentioned on its sticker (!)... I should have inspected its color strips instead of following blindly the numbers wrote on its package... Hence my question.