Muddy pickups in series

[ThomasP]

Hello everybody,

I wired the ''hot for strat'' (in the bridge) and the ''vintage staggered'' (in the neck) in series. The result was a bit of a failed experiment : it sound very muddy.

My question is : how do I brighten things up ?

I removed the tone pot from my guitar circuit but beside of that I don't know how to brighten my tone. Should I put a lower capacitor value on my treble bleed?

Thank you !

 

[Supernautilus]

I’m afraid there’s not a whole lot you can do about that. The same thing happens when you wire Telecaster pickups in series, which is a common Tele mod. It gives you a new fatter tone, but it’s going to be dark because of the extra resistance.

If you’re wiring up your Strat pickups to be permanently in series mode, then you definitely want to switch to 500K pots. That’s would make it sound brighter. But if it’s on a switch, then 500K pots will make your Strat very bright when the pickups are in parallel mode. I think that’s about all you can do. Hope that helps.

 

[jeremy]

i find the middle/bridge is a better choice for series on a strat, and i usually only do it with vintage output pups. the hot strat is pretty beefy already so putting it in series with almost anything is gonna be really thick. you could add a bass roll off cap to the circuit to tighten up the bottom end

 

[ThomasP]

Can I add a tone pot with low capacitor value and wire it so it would only be active or in the circuit when the pickups are in series?

If I put a 0.47 capacitor in series with the hot wire of one of the pickups, will it affect the tone only when the switch is engaged to series or it will brighten it also when it's in parallel wiring and by itself?

 

[freefrog]

Same thing with 2 or 3 Strats that I've fitted with a series option. Even the low inductance Tri-Sonic's that I have in a Burns sound muddy when wired in series... Except when I play them through a Treble Booster. That's the reason why Brian May does the same thing, IMHO.

Theoretically, a possible solution would be to wire the two pickups in series through a series capacitor of the same value than in a Treble Booster: 4,7nF (and NOT 0.47µ = 470nF nor 47nF= 0.047µ like a regular tone cap : 4.7nF is ten times lower @ 0.0047µ. It is also the value used by Rickenbacker for series caps back in the days). But series capacitors are temperamental: they must be wired after normal tone controls or they alter their behavior. They also tend to kill the gain of some effects (like fuzz pedals).

If the goal is to fatten a bit the tone and to obtain an humbucking effect, what works is to wire a dummy coil in series. It won't give more output but the tone will be warmer and hum free if the dummy coil has the proper specs and is properly positioned. I've such things in one or two guitars too. An old cheap single coil with ceramic magnet can be used as an hum cancelling / tone fattening dummy coil once its magnet(s) removed, FWIW.

HTH.

 

[Mincer]

Series on a Strat never worked for me, no matter what combination. Even with lower output vintage pickups, it sounds like running in mud with heavy boots. I've never found a solution other than just putting them in parallel.