If you had to pick one of these three pickups in a Strats neck, which and why

[Landau]

I believe the old classic stacks have white, red, black and bare wires, no? At least on the old Duncan diagrams it shows the red alone being used for split, with black/bare going to ground and white going to hot. If you aren't doing splits on the stack, then the red doesn't get used, you'd just tape it off, and put white to hot and black to ground.

Black, Red, white, green and bare. I've tried using this diagram which says it's for Duncan stacks, and Humbucker which the Arcane says it's same code as Duncan, but I get no change with switch and tone control isn't working. Do you know anything about the switches themselves and how to run them to the 5 way? Does this look correct?

 

[beaubrummels]

With 4-conductors, you would wire the stacks like this diagram to run them as noiseless Strat "single coils" (4-conductor humbucker would be the same as the stacks in this case)

Black - hot
Red + White - SOLDERED together and taped off so they don't touch anything
Green + bare - ground

4-conductor stacks are done like this:

Why are you splitting all the pickups on individual switches? IMHO the only reason to split a stack is if you need to combine one stack coil with one of the coils of an actual humbucker for noise cancelling. That would be better done automatically for position 2 in an HSS guitar using a super switch. It sounds like what you are trying to do is something like this diagram. Note you'll have to translate the wire colors from Stack Plus to the 4-conductor Stacks you have, so

Diagram >> Your Stack
White = Black
Red = Red + White
Black = Green + bare

Note, do not translate the humbucker colors, those are already correct for the bridge position.

If anyone has a correction, or a better method, feel free to jump in.

 

[Landau]

With 4-conductors, you would wire the stacks like this diagram to run them as noiseless Strat "single coils" (4-conductor humbucker would be the same as the stacks in this case)

Black - hot
Red + White - SOLDERED together and taped off so they don't touch anything
Green + bare - ground

4-conductor stacks are done like this:

Why are you splitting all the pickups on individual switches? IMHO the only reason to split a stack is if you need to combine one stack coil with one of the coils of an actual humbucker for noise cancelling. That would be better done automatically for position 2 in an HSS guitar using a super switch. It sounds like what you are trying to do is something like this diagram. Note you'll have to translate the wire colors from Stack Plus to the 4-conductor Stacks you have, so

Diagram >> Your Stack
White = Black
Red = Red + White
Black = Green + bare

Note, do not translate the humbucker colors, those are already correct for the bridge position.

If anyone has a correction, or a better method, feel free to jump in.

Thanks for the reply, I'm not using the super switch, I'm using a 5 way and 3 mini on/on switches for series/parallel of the pickups in a HSS setup.
1 Arcane humbucker 4 conductor (Duncan code) and the 2 Classic stacks. I want to be able to combine the pickups in either series or parallel depending on the the position of the mini switches.

 

[Landau]

Thanks for the reply and trying to help! I'm not splitting the pickups just for S/P.
I'm not using the super switch, I'm using a standard 5 way and 3 mini on/on switches for series/parallel of the pickups in a HSS setup.
1 Arcane humbucker 4 conductor (Duncan code) and the 2 Classic stacks. I want to be able to combine the pickups in either series or parallel depending on the the position of the mini switches.

 

[Securb]

For the best representation of a HH Strat, the Little '59.

I was thinking the same thing but full disclosure I am not a single-coil guy. I have one HSS guitar.

 

[beaubrummels]

Thanks for the reply and trying to help! I'm not splitting the pickups just for S/P.
I'm not using the super switch, I'm using a standard 5 way and 3 mini on/on switches for series/parallel of the pickups in a HSS setup.
1 Arcane humbucker 4 conductor (Duncan code) and the 2 Classic stacks. I want to be able to combine the pickups in either series or parallel depending on the the position of the mini switches.

Series/parallel is done like this (the jumper can go across the two end lugs, it doesn't have to connect to white directly, which makes it a bit easier to solder). Note the green+bare needs to connect to ground (this diagram has a defect in not showing that)

 

[jeremy]

why would you want series/parallel for a stack? parallel usually doesnt sound good

 

[Landau]

why would you want series/parallel for a stack? parallel usually doesnt sound good

not true, if you're familiar with James Tyler guitars and the whole studio guitar scene of the 80-till now they used combinations of pickups with one in series, another in parallel for some of the best clean sounds in recorded music. One of the most used is a hum is series, middle in p, and adding neck in series all together. Michael Landau used this all the time.

 

[jeremy]

ive used a stack in parallel before, but didnt find that a useful sound. series is good, split is good, parallel is weak and thin

 

[beaubrummels]

Ok, well, Jame Tyler uses his own pickups, not Duncan Stacks, so not sure how well it will work with Duncans, and Michael Landau's Coma Strat doesn't do that, and I'm not finding Suhr wiring that does it, so I'm not sure what other guitars he was using with those options to look up that wiring (maybe old Valley Arts?). But I showed you what the switch for parallel looks like and Duncan 4-conductor stack wiring, just combine the two diagrams, make your toggles follow that and follow the color codes in the Duncan diagrams.

 

[Synapsys]

I was thinking the same thing but full disclosure I am not a single-coil guy. I have one HSS guitar.

Currently in my stable I have two HSS (Ibanez SEW761FM, with a TB-16in the bridge and two STK-S7in the middle and neck, and a Charvel DK22 with a Hot Rails in the bridge and two SSL-6 in the middle and neck) and a HS (ESP LTD MH-1000HS with a TB-14 in the bridge and a Lil59 in the neck).

The DK22 will probably have the SSL-6s swapped for Custom Stacks, since I really hate 60-cycle hum.

Out of the three, although I like them all, the ESP has the most balanced tone, EQ and output-wise.