I don't like middle position. Any mods?

[CarlosG]

Hi!
I have guitar with HH pickups with 3 way blade switch (alpha).
I always didn't like the sound of the middle position (humbucker + humbucker)
Unfortunately pickups in this guitar have single conductor.
Is there any way to change the sound of the middle position? Maybe some resistors, capacitors? Maybe something can be done using the additional pins of the 3-position switch.
Thanks for all the ideas

 

[Chistopher]

You have a few options, I've seen success with setting the middle position on a blade switch to be:

neck pickup with a bass cut
parallel out of phase
throw a middle pickup in there if it's not too much work on the given guitar
cocked wah bridge (second post of this link)
broadcaster blend wiring

 

[CarlosG]

Thanks!
My neck pickup duncan muddy pickup mod 0.047 in series in hot wire, it cleans up the bass a bit.
I definitely liked the combination of humbucker with single more than 2 humbuckers, i thnk extra bass cut neck in middle position it could be interesting (simulating a bit of a single).
How I can do it?
Out of phase isn't god idea, this gives "hot wire" on the pickup cover/shield, which would cause noise.
cocked wah bridge - I've never really liked out of phase sounds
broadcaster blend wiring - unfortunately I only have a volume pot and I don't have room for an additional one.
I was also wondering if it was possible to connect them in series in the middle position?
So it might be interesting to cut the neck bass of the humbucker (to emulate a single coil) to the middle position or wire it in series.
I would be grateful for the diagram
I have Alpha import 3 way switch
My wiring looks like this, but without tone pot and has humbuckers.
ps. sorry for my english,
​

 

[Chistopher]

This should do what you want, minus the tone control. 4.7 nF is a starting value. If you want less bass get a smaller cap, if you want more bass, get a larger cap. With this wiring it is also possible to only use one half of the switch. Just switch the yellow wire from the lug "1" it's attached to to the other "1" lug.

 

[freefrog]

So it might be interesting to cut the neck bass of the humbucker (to emulate a single coil) to the middle position

If you want that, DON'T put the neck pickup in series with a cap : this neck PU being an inductor like any passive PU, a series cap leads it to behave like a VariTone for the other pickup when both are enabled... The response of such a circuit is not AT ALL like with a bridge PU + a weaker neck PU in parallel... [EDIT: not saying nor suggesting that it sounds bad. Just that it has a specific "notched" tone.]

In the absence of 4 conductors cable, the simplest solution IME is to have some resistive inductive component(s) in parallel with both pickups when they are enabled altogether only... it can be done with some old pickup(s) used as dummy coil(s) hidden in the electronic cavity, for the record [EDIT 2: or with a Q filter mounted without capacitor in parallel of pickups, IOW as the virtual "pickup dewinder" that Bill Lawrence wanted it to be.]

Regarding pickups in series with a switch in mid position, the easiest way is to use an ON-OFF-ON switch. Wire the ground wire of the neck PU to ground and to the first external row of lugs of the switch. Put its hot wire on the center lugs of the switch, altogether with the ground wire of the bridge PU. Connect the hot wire of bridge PU to the output and to the second external row of lugs of the switch... it will enable each of the two pickups alone on extreme positions and both in series in center/middle position.

FWIW. HTH.

 

[freefrog]

As a footnote, let's share below the induced response of two pickups in parallel when the neck one only is in series with a cap. In a normal situation, both orange and blue lines should be straight. One can see here how the cap cuts the bass of the neck PU but also how the neck PU + cap scoops the 1khz range for the bridge PU, roughly like a (tamed) Gibson VariTone would do...

 

[donaldr]

Remove the parallel connection and use the middle position as a kill switch.

 

[eclecticsynergy]

On dual hum guitars a great middle position tone (for me) usually involves turning the neck pickup down.
Perhaps just a trimpot on the neck pickup's hot wire?
Dial it back a bit until you have for a good middle tone, and I bet your neck position would still be usable.
Seems the simplest option, but there's no guarantee.