Need Advice on HSS wiring mods

[GEC]

So I have an HSS stratocaster that I love but I'm not a fan of regular strat wiring. The bridge pickup has no tone control and I'd love to be able to split it. At the same time, I like how the bridge pickup sounds when it's not going through a tone capacitor, and I like the way the tone knobs react on my neck and middle pickups. (Side note: every pot in the guitar now is 500K. Odd for a strat, I know, but it came that way and I like it.)

I definitely want to wire the neck and middle pickups to tone pot #1, because having them on separate pots feels superfluous. (Any advice or diagramming on just this would be really helpful, as I'm not very experienced with guitar wiring.)

In a perfect world, for tone #2 I'd have a no-load, push pull switch that splits the bridge pickup. But apparently no-load push-pulls can't be bought, only modified from existing push-pulls, and that's a little outside my abilities. So I think I now have two realistic options: make tone 2 a no-load for just the bridge pickup, or put a mini-toggle to coil-split in that spot instead.

I though about having the mini-toggle in the tone 2 spot and just making tone 1 a master tone, but I don't like that idea because I don't want the single coils on a no-load tone pot. I like their tone circuit the way it is, aside from the pointlessness of each having its own pot. I also considered making the master volume a push-pull to split the bridge pickup, but I like the volume taper so I'm reluctant to change the pot. Finally, I don't want to do any new routing on the guitar.

Which do you think is preferable, splitting or tone control? Or is there another option that I'm missing? Advice, opinions, and especially diagrams are all welcome!

 

[drwx]

Re: Need Advice on HSS wiring mods

Spin a split with one of the tone knobs for the bridge

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

 

[sharp]

Re: Need Advice on HSS wiring mods

Why don't you make tone1(neck+middle) with push-pull to split humbucker and tone2 with no-load pot for bridge?

 

[Mincer]

Re: Need Advice on HSS wiring mods

I wrote a blog about my weird wiring scheme for my HSS Warmoth. All positions are hum cancelling, and it sounds wonderful. Maybe there is something there you can use.

 

[GEC]

Re: Need Advice on HSS wiring mods

Thanks for the ideas! drwx: If I'm going to spin-a-split, I'd rather just have a mini-switch there, since I can't really see myself using it anywhere besides full humbucker or full single coil. sharp: Good idea! I didn't know if that was possible, wiring newbie that I am, but it's good to know. I'd be reluctant to put a push-pull in tone #1 for the same reason I don't want to put it in the volume spot -- I like the taper of the existing pots -- but it might still be worth it! Mincer: Sweet project! I definitely can't give up the sound of the middle pickup on its own, and I can deal with hum (have to, since I'm not changing these pickups anytime soon!), but I'm intrigued by a switch that auto-splits when the bridge and middle pickups are both on. Maybe I'll do the no-load thing and also see if I can make the switch auto-split in that one position...

 

[sharp]

Re: Need Advice on HSS wiring mods

I'd be reluctant to put a push-pull in tone #1 for the same reason I don't want to put it in the volume spot -- I like the taper of the existing pots -- but it might still be worth it!

What taper are your existing pots? If it's neither linear nor log, then how did you get them?

 

[Hank-]

Re: Need Advice on HSS wiring mods

You could have a master volume for all three, tone shared by neck & middle, bridge not connected to a tone. Either a pushpull tone for the neck+middle or a mini toggle in place of the second tone control you have in there now, can be used to split the bridge. A superswitch might let you auto split the bridge with middle pickup in the 4(or 2) position. A no load pot wont be needed i think.

I had used that config before, found the wiring on dimarzio site, i could find it if its what you want to accomplish with your new wiring.

 

[Mincer]

Re: Need Advice on HSS wiring mods

I have done auto splits with a super switch before, and another HH guitar uses a Fender S1 switch inside the volume knob to split both humbuckers. If you are not going to use a ton of options (I don't), it is better to wire a guitar with the few options you will use.

 

[GEC]

Re: Need Advice on HSS wiring mods

The pots are stock. And I know I should be able to get the right kind (linear or logarithmic) and have pretty much the same taper, but when I did that for my HH guitar when I changed all the pots for push-pulls I wound up with very different feels. Maybe I was just being dumb and got the wrong kind for that guitar. I agree that you should only have the options you'll use, but the thing is I will use a lot if I have them (for the HH guitar, a Schecter Tempest, I have separate coil-splits and a series-parallel switch and I use all 12 options). I just don't want to give up any of the sounds the strat already has that I like. Hank: the only reason I'd have a no-load would be so I could tone-control the bridge pickup, and I don't want it sharing a pot with the other pickups. Is this the one you were talking about? http://www.dimarzio.com/sites/default/files/diagrams/1h2s_nmtone_1dpdtsplit.pdf

 

[Hank-]

Re: Need Advice on HSS wiring mods

Use this one:http://www.dimarzio.com/sites/default/files/diagrams/1h2vv_4.pdf

Use a no load pot on the bridge tone & a pushpull tone on the neck&middle tone. A super switch would eliminate the need for a pushpull to split the bridge in the 4th(or 2nd) position. I think that should do what you want. The wiring color codes are different for duncan & dimarzio though but the remaining wiring would be the same.

Edit: i like the feel of a regular pot for my volumes, the PP type tend to turn too easily.

 

[drwx]

Re: Need Advice on HSS wiring mods

Thanks for the ideas! drwx: If I'm going to spin-a-split, I'd rather just have a mini-switch there, since I can't really see myself using it anywhere besides full humbucker or full single coil. sharp: Good idea! I didn't know if that was possible, wiring newbie that I am, but it's good to know. I'd be reluctant to put a push-pull in tone #1 for the same reason I don't want to put it in the volume spot -- I like the taper of the existing pots -- but it might still be worth it! Mincer: Sweet project! I definitely can't give up the sound of the middle pickup on its own, and I can deal with hum (have to, since I'm not changing these pickups anytime soon!), but I'm intrigued by a switch that auto-splits when the bridge and middle pickups are both on. Maybe I'll do the no-load thing and also see if I can make the switch auto-split in that one position...

i did a spin a split on my les paul. between 8 and 10 on the tone knob = split. below 8 = full humbucker and tone functionality. the left lug is connected to the same lug as the black wire from the humucker (on the volume knob) with whatever value cap you are using. the red/white are connected to the right lug. the middle lug is bent back and grounded to the back of the pot.

http://postimg.org/image/6rol3miap/ this diagram likely explains it better than i said and of course the wires are different colors for duncans than dimarzios. for duncans, that red wire in the pic will be black and the black/white pair will be red/white. i found it referenced here http://www.andersonforum.com/board/showthread.php?t=9329

 

[GEC]

Re: Need Advice on HSS wiring mods

Thanks everybody! I did decide to go with the push-pull on tone #1 -- I ordered a Bourns pot since I've heard good things about them. For the bridge I decided to go with a fender TBX control (just found out about those), which as I understand it is pretty much no-load at the center detent, and it'll give me a wider spectrum to work with. I'm still waiting on the Bourns pot to arrive, so I haven't wired it yet.

 

[MrFlexx]

Re: Need Advice on HSS wiring mods

I wrote a blog about my weird wiring scheme for my HSS Warmoth. All positions are hum cancelling, and it sounds wonderful. Maybe there is something there you can use.

Your "weird wiring scheme" seems very nice. I wonder if maybe you can help me out and see if I can get my wiring set up as I'd want too? I have a S1 switch and would like to be able to do have my HSS set up like this:

S1 "OFF"
1. Bridge Humbucker
2. Bridge Humbucker (split) with middle
3. Middle
4. Middle & Neck
5. Neck

S1 "ON"
1. Bridge Humbucker (split)
2. Bridge Humbucker (split) with middle
3. Middle
4. Middle & Neck
5. Neck

Can you make a wiring scheme for this?

 

[Mincer]

Re: Need Advice on HSS wiring mods

This is different than what you PM'd me. I'd ask BriGuy or ArtieToo for advice on this.