Install Vintage Stack/Little 59 in Tele

StoutNDN

New member
Howdy...I need to know how to install Vintage Stack (neck) and a Little 59 (bridge) into my tele ... i have a toggle switch and was curious if the Little 59 could be split between coils with this switch? I looked on the SD website and there were no wiring diargrams for this combo of p/u's ... thanks.
 
Re: Install Vintage Stack/Little 59 in Tele

Hi, welcome to the forum!

You can indeed split the Little 59, but I don't recommend it. The split position will sound very thin - not like a split full-size humbucker at all.

One thing you might want to try instead is a series/parallel switch. You will need an on-on DPDT (double pole double throw) toggle switch. They have two switch positions and six pins.

Look at this diagram:
http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/schematics/series_split_par_w_phase.html

Ignore the switch on the right. Connect your 59 as shown to the switch on the left. Connect the bottom right lug to your pickup selector switch, and the bottom left lug to ground.

I have a Tele Hot Stack wired with a series/parallel, and I love it. Series sounds fat and juicy, parallel is bright and snappy. Another good feature is that unlike splitting the humbucker, parallel wiring is hum cancelling.

Good luck!
 
Re: Install Vintage Stack/Little 59 in Tele

How would you recommend I wire the pickups? I am installing them in a Fender Tele Plus ... so the switch was for keeping the bridge pickup on at all times ... it has a 5 way switch ... what is the difference between series and parallel ... and with it having a 5 way switch, how would I wire the two up to give me some cool combinations? Should I just forget the switch or should I keep it wired up along with the 5 way switch ... can I make both pickups go from series to parallel with the switch (like the S-1 system)???
 
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Re: Install Vintage Stack/Little 59 in Tele

I'm not sure what type of switch is in the Plus, so maybe someone else can answer the wiring question better than me. I'll tell you the difference between series and parallel though.

As you probably know, humbucking pickups have two coils. The standard way to wire a humbucker is in series, which means one coil feeds into the next. Imagine each coil as a piece of pipe. Series wiring would be one pipe connected to the end of the other pipe. Parallel wiring means that the signal is split between the two coils so that it passes through both at the same time. It would be like if you laid the pipes beside each other and joined the ends with a T joint. Both wirings cancel hum, but series sounds fat and powerful - the typical humbucker sound. Parallel wiring sounds more like a single coil.
 
Re: Install Vintage Stack/Little 59 in Tele

Doesn't wiring a humbucker in parallel make it sound thinner than split?

Parallel wiring reduces the pickups output to half the output of one of the coils, so it's half of what it would be split. (As far as I was told anyway.)
 
Re: Install Vintage Stack/Little 59 in Tele

Ok so how about this ... I'm going to get a 3-way switch and if the switch is not DPDT on/on I will get one ...

Now, with that said ... how would I wire my tele so that the 3 way works like a normal tele 3 way switch (neck -- neck/bridge -- bridge) and the switch changes from series/parallel.

For example...if the switch is on series, no matter where I move the selector, that p/u will be in series and vice-versa with parallel ...

And just a question for me, when you wire a pickup just normally, is it in series or parallel?
 
Re: Install Vintage Stack/Little 59 in Tele

Doesn't wiring a humbucker in parallel make it sound thinner than split?

Parallel wiring reduces the pickups output to half the output of one of the coils, so it's half of what it would be split. (As far as I was told anyway.)

Welllll ... yes, and no. That makes sense if you think of a pickup as a resistor, which it kind of is - it has a resistive load measurable in Ohms. But a pickup is actually an inductor. I can tell you from experience that a humbucker in parallel is definitely not half the power of one coil. It's actually closer to single coil output.
 
Re: Install Vintage Stack/Little 59 in Tele

Ok so how about this ... I'm going to get a 3-way switch and if the switch is not DPDT on/on I will get one ...

Now, with that said ... how would I wire my tele so that the 3 way works like a normal tele 3 way switch (neck -- neck/bridge -- bridge) and the switch changes from series/parallel.

If you want just standard Tele 3-way wiring, here's a diagram:
http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/schematics/std_tele.html

You can incorporate the series/parallel switch into this design.

For example...if the switch is on series, no matter where I move the selector, that p/u will be in series and vice-versa with parallel ...

Yes, that's exactly what you'd get. The only difference between the diagram above and what you're doing is that you'd wire the bottom right lug of the DPDT switch to the selector switch instead of wiring the pickup lead straight to the selector switch. You'd wire up the DPDT just like in the first post I made.

And just a question for me, when you wire a pickup just normally, is it in series or parallel?

If you're talking about humbuckers, they are normally wired in series. Series/parallel doesn't apply to single coils, because they only have one coil.
 
Re: Install Vintage Stack/Little 59 in Tele

The standard wiring diagram won't work though because both of my pickups (Vintage Stack and Little 59) have like 4 wires coming out of them ... not the normal 2 ... so what do I do with all the other wires?
 
Re: Install Vintage Stack/Little 59 in Tele

Parallel wiring reduces the pickups output to half the output of one of the coils, so it's half of what it would be split. (As far as I was told anyway.)

Not exactly.

I can tell you from experience that a humbucker in parallel is definitely not half the power of one coil. It's actually closer to single coil output.

Exactly. ;)

The correlation between DC resistance and output only works with coils in series. When you go to parallel, the theory goes out the window. Parallel coils have about the same output as coils split. The current capability doubles, however.
 
Re: Install Vintage Stack/Little 59 in Tele

Hey artie;

Would it be safe to say that an 8k single coil has approx. the same output to an 8k humbucker? (assuming same guage wire)
 
Re: Install Vintage Stack/Little 59 in Tele

Hey artie;

Would it be safe to say that an 8k single coil has approx. the same output to an 8k humbucker? (assuming same guage wire)

That, I'm not sure of, but I don't think so. The magnet structure is completely different. I can say for sure that my 59 (7.43k) has considerably more output than my SSL-3 single. (16k)
 
Re: Install Vintage Stack/Little 59 in Tele

The standard wiring diagram won't work though because both of my pickups (Vintage Stack and Little 59) have like 4 wires coming out of them ... not the normal 2 ... so what do I do with all the other wires?

For the Vintage Stack, connect the green wire to ground, connect the black wire to the selector switch, and connect the red and white wires together.

For the 59, wire it to the DPDT like I already described. Referring to the series/parallel diagram, connect the bottom left pin to ground, and the bottom right pin to the selector switch.
 
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