Pickup Wiring Question - Les Paul, 4 push/pull pots

[GreatGreen]

Hey guys, I'm trying to come up with a really versatile push / pull setup for my Les Paul. I've never cared for out of phase wiring, so I'm wondering if I can take the options in a different direction, but I'm not sure if it's possible. To find out, I need to know if it's possible to wire the push / pull setting of one pot such that it changes the function of another push / pull pot.

In other words, (and let's just deal with 1 humbucker with a devoted volume and tone pot for simplicity here) I'd like to setup the pots so that:

- when the volume pot is down, the tone push / pull controls act as a humbucker series / parallel switch
- when the volume pot is up, the coil is split, and the tone push / pull control selects which one of the humbucker's two coils are active


Basically, the idea is that when all 4 pots are pushed down, it's a normal Les Paul. But pull the tone knobs up and you have humbuckers wired in parallel. Pull the volume knobs and the humbuckers are now single coils, and the tone push / pulls knobs now select whether each pickup's inner or outer coil is active.

The idea is that this setup combined with the 3-way pickup selector would allow for all possible on/off combinations of the 4 single coils in parallel, and either humbucker can be on by itself or combined with the other humbucker, the other humbucker's coils in parallel, or the other humbucker's inner or outer coils.

Is this possible?

 

[doctadre]

Re: Pickup Wiring Question - Les Paul, 4 push/pull pots

I'm not quite sure that specific configuration would be workable with just 4 push pulls, but perhaps a wiring and electronic pro could help design it.

I would say you need 1 push pull each to do the series parallel hb, and then you can use the third for coil splitting both pickups at the same time. The 4th pus pull can change he split to the other coil. Can't have as much versatility as individual coil cuts and combos but it's still pretty awesome.

Dre

 

[beaubrummels]

Pickup Wiring Question - Les Paul, 4 push/pull pots

- when the volume pot is down, the tone push / pull controls act as a humbucker series / parallel switch
- when the volume pot is up, the coil is split, and the tone push / pull control selects which one of the humbucker's two coils are active


Basically, the idea is that when all 4 pots are pushed down, it's a normal Les Paul. But pull the tone knobs up and you have humbuckers wired in parallel. Pull the volume knobs and the humbuckers are now single coils, and the tone push / pulls knobs now select whether each pickup's inner or outer coil is active.

The idea is that this setup combined with the 3-way pickup selector would allow for all possible on/off combinations of the 4 single coils in parallel, and either humbucker can be on by itself or combined with the other humbucker, the other humbucker's coils in parallel, or the other humbucker's inner or outer coils.

Is this possible?

No it won’t work like that. You could have one pot switch series/parallel coils and the other split to one coil, but it would have artifacts where it wouldn’t work in certain positions. Another possibility is wiring the two push pulls like a triple shot, then you could choose coils and series/parallel. Push pulls don’t have enough lugs to change modes like your original description.

 

[Mincer]

Re: Pickup Wiring Question - Les Paul, 4 push/pull pots

Yeah, even I don't think this sort of thing is possible with 'normal' guitar switches, and there are people who know a lot more about wiring than I do.

 

[GreatGreen]

Re: Pickup Wiring Question - Les Paul, 4 push/pull pots

Thanks for the info, guys.

If this kind of wiring isn't possible, I'll probably settle for the volume knobs acting as coil splits and the tone knobs acting as series / parallel switches.

I would assume that in this configuration, compared to the original idea, I'd lose the ability to select the "other" single coil per pickup, and that instead I'd need to pick which coil will be the active one in single coil mode during wiring and that will be that. Also, in this configuration, the tone control push pulls should have no effect when the volumes are pulled for coil tapping, right? As long as there are no scenarios where I'll accidentally cut all the signal, I'll be fine.

 

[beaubrummels]

Re: Pickup Wiring Question - Les Paul, 4 push/pull pots

Like I said, you can wire the two switches per pickup like a triple shot, then you can choose which coil. The P-Rail diagrams on this site show two ways to do this.

 

[SkyMonkey]

Re: Pickup Wiring Question - Les Paul, 4 push/pull pots

How about this?


Then on each tone a push/pull to reverse the phase of either neck or bridge. i.e. use the phase reversal from this diagram wired before the s/p and splits?


I have never tried this. Is there a reason it would not work?

 

[SkyMonkey]

Re: Pickup Wiring Question - Les Paul, 4 push/pull pots

After reading this current thread (https://forum.seymourduncan.com/sho...p-before-I-cut-twice-and-it-s-still-too-short) it seems that the master series/parallel switching is a fairly poor compromise compared to dedicated push/pulls for each pickup.

 

[blueman335]

Re: Pickup Wiring Question - Les Paul, 4 push/pull pots

Have you looked at the 4 push-pull Jimmy Page system? It does a lot: coil split, series/parallel, & phase.

 

[Artie]

Re: Pickup Wiring Question - Les Paul, 4 push/pull pots

The wiring scheme in your 1st post is both do-able, and simple. The only difference is, the push-pull pot will only split when the other pot is in the series connection. Then, the ser/par p-p overrides the split p-p. I'll do a quik-'n-dirty diagram in just a sec. Like this:



The 1st p-p does series/parallel. The 2nd one does split. The parallel one will override the split one. And remember, that drawing is a quickie. You need to continue the black wire onto the volume pot. (The terminal straight above.) Make sense?