Parralel pickups and tone

ThomasP

New member
Hello everybody,

When pairing two pickups in parralel, would you use two high output pickups, one high and one vintage or two vintage output pickups?

And do you prefer having two identical EQ pickups or two different tone like one focusing on the mids and the other bass and treble ?

I wonder how they add up in output and how well their respective EQ mix well with each other. I can't try myself different combinations I would like your toughts to guide my journey to toneland!

For now I have the quarter pound in the neck and jb junior in the bridge. I like the combination but I wonder if there is better options. Both pickups have a 500k volume pots.​

Thanks !!​
 

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Hello everybody,

When pairing two pickups in parralel, would you use two high output pickups, one high and one vintage or two vintage output pickups?

And do you prefer having two identical EQ pickups or two different tone like one focusing on the mids and the other bass and treble ?

I wonder how they add up in output and how well their respective EQ mix well with each other. I can't try myself different combinations I would like your toughts to guide my journey to toneland!

For now I have the quarter pound in the neck and jb junior in the bridge. I like the combination but I wonder if there is better options. Both pickups have a 500k volume pots.​

Thanks !!​

Results depend on the pickups and instrument involved, preferences depend on the player.

Now, pickups in parallel don't work as "one focusing on the mids and the other bass and treble"...

Parallel wiring lowers the inductance and always makes the overall EQing brighter (a 8H high output humbucker and a 4H vintage output one measure 2.6H once in parallel with each others. And 2.6H is the inductance of a Strat pickup, for the record).

Their interaction depends not only on their output level but also on their width and positions under the strings. A link about that:

https://till.com/articles/PickupMixing/index.html

There was a very interesting applet on this site. Sadly, it seems no more active.

In the page mentioned above, at least, figure 3 shows what happens when pickups have mismatched output levels. The most complex comb filtering (and therefore the harmonically richest tone) is obtained with pickups of equal output levels like in figure 2 (knowing that a defined pickup sounds louder in neck than in bridge position and must therefore be set lower under the strings when in the neck slot).

If you want a pristine clean parallel position from two high output pickups in parallel, a simple trick is to add to them a third coil, but a dummy one, also wired in parallel and hidden in the electronic cavity ... it will make the output lower and the sound brighter, as if the two pickups were vintage output models.

That's a trick clearly under the radar but that I've applied more than often for me or other players...

FWIW.
 
As freefrog eluded to, one of my favorite aspects of parallel tone is picking up two different nodes under the strings. Much more important, (to me), than the specific pickups used. It's one of the things that makes the #2 & #4 positions of a Stratocaster one my favorite sounds.

I've even thought of wiring one my Squiers up with just a toggle, for B/M or M/N.
 
Thank you for your time,

Where do you find or make a dummy coil ?

You're welcome.

A dummy coil can be obtained easily from a cheap single coil with ceramic magnet(s) glued underneath. Pull off its magnet(s), you'll have a dummy coil...

The coils of some mini audio transformers and various other "chokes" / inductors can also be used for that but they require a way to measure the inductance. The cheap magnet-less single coil trick is safer for a tinkerer without lab gear since it will necessarily have a "usefull" inductance for being initially a pickup.

NOTES - Dummy coils can also be used to reduce the hum coming from hot single coils, if properly wired and positionned. ;-)
 
Hello everybody,

And do you prefer having two identical EQ pickups or two different tone like one focusing on the mids and the other bass and treble ?

I wonder how they add up in output and how well their respective EQ mix well with each other.

Hi the feedback here already will set you on the right track. Just keep in mind, combining passive pickups inside a guitar circuit is not the same as combining inputs in a powered mixing desk. In a mixer (or DAW) adding another input adds to the signal, generally speaking, ignoring phase cancellation. Inside the guitar whether its the more common parallel or less common series connection, there's a more complex interaction. The different vibration patterns each pickup sense as well as inductance and impedance interactions.

The Tillman site does a great job explaining the first part, but he says right at the start his work ignores the electrical interactions which also have an effect.

PS...This applet still runs but not sure if its identical to the original https://till.com/articles/PickupResponseDemo/index.html
 
If you want a pristine clean parallel position from two high output pickups in parallel, a simple trick is to add to them a third coil, but a dummy one, also wired in parallel and hidden in the electronic cavity ... it will make the output lower and the sound brighter, as if the two pickups were vintage output models.

That's a trick clearly under the radar but that I've applied more than often for me or other players....

A dummy coil can be obtained easily from a cheap single coil with ceramic magnet(s) glued underneath. Pull off its magnet(s), you'll have a dummy coil...

Can you elaborate on this or provide a diagram? I think it could use its own thread.

I sort of follow your logic, but the terminology is throwing me off. Dummy coil usually means non-magnetized non string sensing coil for eliminating hum on single coils. You also mentioned chokes or inductors which are usually much smaller and used for manipulating frequency response with LC networks (Old Varitone chokes were huge but not pickup sized)

I think you're saying use a dummy coil with high output pickups the way a purpose built inductor would normally be used... is that right?
 
There are threads on here already about dummy coils, different ways of making them (Illitch vs old pickup coil vs Ernie Ball 'spool' type) and the difference of running them in series with the pickup vs parallel to ground, etc.
 
Can you elaborate on this or provide a diagram? I think it could use its own thread.

I sort of follow your logic, but the terminology is throwing me off. Dummy coil usually means non-magnetized non string sensing coil for eliminating hum on single coils. You also mentioned chokes or inductors which are usually much smaller and used for manipulating frequency response with LC networks (Old Varitone chokes were huge but not pickup sized)

I think you're saying use a dummy coil with high output pickups the way a purpose built inductor would normally be used... is that right?

To answer to your three paragraphs :

1-I've devoted a topic to this question a while back...
https://forum.seymourduncan.com/for...-changing-the-voicing-of-pickups…#post6244220

2-For the record, I'm an already old man whose mother tongue is not English so my communication is not always optimal. :-P

That said, yes, "dummy coil" is the same thing in my answers above than those used to buck the hum, just used differently. And yes, chokes and inductors are often smaller (albeit those used by Gibson in vintage VariTone were actually quite big, with an enormous inductance of 10 to 15H).

3-Yes, I was saying that a dummy coil can be used as a tone shaping tool. I'd not necessarily recommend exactly the same trick for pickups used alone but with parallel wiring, it has done what I wanted in most cases :-)

Thx for the link toward the applet, BTW. That's what I had in my mind but that I've not found a few hours ago ( old + busy and tired = confused. LOL)...
 
Thanks freefrog! ​ I missed your writeup the first time around. I will read it. I tried years ago the Q-Filter and a similar Dan Torres gizmo. The results were underwhelming. I think Wilde changed the instructions since then. I'm glad to think about this again.
 
Personally I like parallel pickups in a 2 pickup guitar. I absolutely don't like positions 2 & 4 on a Strat.
But I have a Strat with neck & bridge (dummy unplugged middle) wired to a 3-way switch and I absolutely love and use the position 2 (parallel). STK-S4 neck and STK-S7 bridge.
Same with my HH (same pickups) Les Paul and HH (a bit hotter bridge but same output level as neck) Ibanez.
 
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