Jagmaster Series/Parallel help!

[felixtheg]

Hi all, really hope someone can help me out!.

I'm changing up my red sparkle Jagmaster and sticking in 3 pickups I had lying around, just needed a bit of help with a wiring diagram if anyone's done this kind of thing before.

My pups will be 2 x Artec mini filtertron (cheap ebay purchase) and a Seymour Duncan Little 59 for Tele in the bridge.

What I really want is MF in neck and middle and 59 in the bridge, each with a 2-way slider switch to change each pickup between series/parallel for each coil. They all have 4 conductors so this should be possible.

Then I'd like a Strat-style 5-way selector with master vol, master tone and blend knob (common mod for strat whereby it blends neck pickup in when in position 1&2 and blends bridge pickup in when in 4&5). Wired like a strat so positions 2&4 are parallel.

Finally a fourth 2-way slider switch to engage either the normal circuit above or to have all pickups together in series (one big pickup I guess?) for an uber dark and hot sound. Is this doable?

Any help or opinions would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
Felix

 

[felixtheg]

Re: Jagmaster Series/Parallel help!

 

[AlexR]

Re: Jagmaster Series/Parallel help!

The individual pickup series parallel is fine.....each pickup goes there first. You should be able to find diagrams for the switches no prob on google images. The rest of the wiring is essentially regular strat 3 pickup wiring with a 5-way.......taking the output of the pickup series/parallel to the switch lugs.

You should decide if you want the blend or just the switching for the 3rd pickup addition......as a master series parallel is not possible.

 

[Chistopher]

Re: Jagmaster Series/Parallel help!

It's doable with the right switches, one of them likely having to be 4P2T, it's not however optimal. You will most likely not like having 6 coils in series as it will sound like a big hot mess with no definition. You probably also won't like the coil split options as well. Because you aren't using very hot pickups you will get a thin, weak, and ice picky tone.

 

[felixtheg]

Re: Jagmaster Series/Parallel help!

Thanks for the replies guys

Alex R thanks for the guidance - are you sure there’s no way to have all three in series, using that 4th switch like the jazzmaster rhythm circuit switch but instead of selecting just the neck pup it has all (or maybe just B+M) in series?

Christopher, thanks for the feedback. Would that switch work if it were 4PDT with pups going to that first, then breaking out to the individual series/parallel switches? I get your point about coil splitting which is why I’ve avoided it and gone for both coils in parallel instead.

Thanks guys

 

[AlexR]

Re: Jagmaster Series/Parallel help!

Its very hard to get 2 pickups in series/parallel, especially as the regular switch has to be defeated in the process.....or you end up with silence when you switch away from the middle position until the selector is back in parallel mode. 3 pickups would require a hell of a lot more contacts for one thing, let alone the routing to somehow take the natural switch parallel wiring and make it series.
Maybe it would be the option of either switch as normal or 'all on in series with no option for pickup selection'. I cannot see any way (with my admittedly amateur electronics brain) to have the 5 way selector choosing between series and parallel operation.

 

[felixtheg]

Re: Jagmaster Series/Parallel help!

Alex R,

That last point is exactly what I’m after, a switch that goes between the regular circuit and an all in series with no pickup selector circuit - even better if it bypasses the pots too.

 

[AlexR]

Re: Jagmaster Series/Parallel help!

Artietoo is the guy to reach out to if he doesn't stop by this thread. You may well be able to use a fairly large matrix switch whereby one throw just bunts the pickups through to the 5 way as normal, and the other selection has them going to a wholly new location and all wired together.

 

[felixtheg]

Re: Jagmaster Series/Parallel help!

Thanks very much!

 

[Artie]

Re: Jagmaster Series/Parallel help!

Artietoo is the guy to reach out to if he doesn't stop by this thread.

Thank you for that vote of confidence. And for creating more work for me.

I'm doodling up something now. It doesn't really look as complicated as it first seems, as long as you understand that the "main" series/parallel switch will need to be a 4PDT. But let me get this drawn up so I can visualize any quirks.

 

[NegativeEase]

Re: Jagmaster Series/Parallel help!

Just want to point out that all that series/parallel and switching/blending versatility is likely to give you all kinds of cool options for tones but also likely to be a slight tone sucker -as the more components and combinations creates degradation in the tonal qualities achieved from the simplicity of the pickups -Some degradation is going to be there when your done but whether you can here the degradation it is the real question.

You can get really great results getting creative, like you are doing -so I wouldn't discourage this creativity -however I might recommend that once you dial up and play all the permutations of tones in your guitar over weeks or months your likely going to find 4-8 settings that you really love and the rest you may find are not that needed -at that point I suggest considering simplifying the design and rewiring to support only those best sounds you've discovered and try to recover some of the tonal advantages of eliminating components in every path that draw down some of the pure pickup tones.

I own a couple of the most complicatedly wired guitars and I love the versatility -but in the studio I can hear where I've given away some of the quality for the versatility. However the right pedals and amps can overcome some of that too. Maybe I'll post some on here that will scare the bjesus out of people. Guitars with 10,000 tonal permutations.. lol ridiculous

Have fun and good luck!