Question about S/S/HB Strat...

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Lewguitar

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A customer wants two Duncan APS-1 single coils and a JB trembucker.

He wants to be able to split the JB so the slug coil is ON and the screw coil is OFF. That's standard black hot and green ground wiring...right?

He wants humcancelling when the JB Slug coil is combined with the middle APS-1 and he also wants humcancelling when the two APS-1 pickups are combined.

So: I figure the magnetic polepieces of the middle APS-1 should be attracted to the slug pole pieces of the JB...that would indicate that they are reverse polarity for humcancelling. If they were repeled that would indicate they are the same polarity and we would not have humcancelling.

The RW/RP APS-1 is repeled by the slug poles of the JB...the stock APS-1 is attracted to the slug poles of the JB.

To me, this inducates:

1. the RW/RP single coil needs to be the NECK pickup.
2. the standard single coil needs to be the MIDDLE pickup.

Am I correct?

Thanks! Lew
 
Re: Question about S/S/HB Strat...

Thats pretty wild but I think thats right...it sounds right to me anyway. Let me know what you end up doing...now I have to know!

good luck
 
Re: Question about S/S/HB Strat...

you know, I believe that's correct. With regular SSS the middle needs to be rwrp. I believe in a humbucker strat the neck has to be rwrp. I talked to my tech about it a couple of days ago and he said that and it didn't make sense to me, now it does.
 
Re: Question about S/S/HB Strat...

Thanks Guys! Hey admins...is this vault worthy? Thanks, Lew
 
Re: Question about S/S/HB Strat...

Lewguitar said:
He wants to be able to split the JB so the slug coil is ON and the screw coil is OFF. That's standard black hot and green ground wiring...right?

Thanks! Lew

Just for the sake of clarity, black and green will get you full humbucker operation. Shorting the red/white combo to ground, gives you the stud coil active. Red/white to black, gives you screw coil active. :)
 
Re: Question about S/S/HB Strat...

So Artie confirm this:

RWRP neck, normal middle single and humbucker

1. full bridge bucker
2. split bridge and middle, no hum, nice quack
3. middle single
4. middle and neck single, no hum, good quack
5. neck single

of course I'm omitting the wiring, but in order to do that with a HB bridge the neck has to be RWRP and not the middle?
 
Re: Question about S/S/HB Strat...

This is the one area where I'm not sure enough to confirm this. That is, the area of how singles and splits combine to cause hum-cancelling or not.

This is really more Kent's area. I'm trying to learn it, but I'm not sure right now. ;)
 
Re: Question about S/S/HB Strat...

Just a bump-ski.

Are we on the right track with this?

I really don't have much experience with this Super Strat stuff and I want to get it right the first time for this guy.

Thanks!
 
Re: Question about S/S/HB Strat...

Lewguitar said:
Just a bump-ski.

Are we on the right track with this?

Hi Lew, I've worked on many super strats before and I'm most familiar with the polarities of duncan pups. Your initial hunch is the right one. The RW/RP pickup goes to the neck and to split the bridge pickup, you just need to ground the series link (white+red). Let us know how the project sounds
 
Re: Question about S/S/HB Strat...

I'm a wiring retard, but I always thought that a split humbucker kept the screw coils on. Is that right?
 
Re: Question about S/S/HB Strat...

Gearjoneser said:
I'm a wiring retard, but I always thought that a split humbucker kept the screw coils on. Is that right?

No. :laugh2: Not on my guitar anyway. :)
 
Re: Question about S/S/HB Strat...

Gearjoneser said:
I'm a wiring retard, but I always thought that a split humbucker kept the screw coils on. Is that right?

It all depends on how you wire it. I think.
So you can have either the slug active or the adjustable. Right Lew?
 
Re: Question about S/S/HB Strat...

skh515 said:
It all depends on how you wire it. I think.
So you can have either the slug active or the adjustable. Right Lew?

I just did a Les Paul last week with a Jazz neck and JB bridge. I put push/pull tone pots in it so we could split the coils. With green to ground and black to hot and the red & white to the coil splitter switches, the SLUG COILS remained on when the coils were split.

Making the black ground and the green hot would leave the SCREW COILS on.

Most people seem to think the slug coil sounds best as a single coil, so that's how I do it.

Also, the slug coils are always inside and closer to each other...more like the distance apart of a middle and neck Strat pickup or middle and bridge Strat pickup. So if you're looking for that kind of Strat tone, the two Slug coils do it a little more convincingly.

Lew
 
Re: Question about S/S/HB Strat...

Lewguitar said:
Making the black ground and the green hot would leave the SCREW COILS on.

Lew

Thats one way to do it, but I've always assumed that you'ld do it like this:

coil_stud_split.jpg


You would connect A, (blue dotted line), for screw coil, and B, (violet dotted line), for stud coil.

Or, you could use an on/off/on switch, as in Fig. 2, to select either.

Doesn't make my way correct, its just the way I assumed you'ld do it.
btw - Most SD drawings use the stud coil when selected. (Like Lew said.) ;)
 
Re: Question about S/S/HB Strat...

this thread confuses me, i dont know anything about coil splitting but im currently making a strat with 2 aps-1s and a pearlygates trembucker in the bridge, and the middle aps-1 is rw/rp, so should i be putting the rw pickup in the neck? or is that just for when youre splitting the bucker?
 
Re: Question about S/S/HB Strat...

Az. said:
this thread confuses me, i dont know anything about coil splitting but im currently making a strat with 2 aps-1s and a pearlygates trembucker in the bridge, and the middle aps-1 is rw/rp, so should i be putting the rw pickup in the neck? or is that just for when youre splitting the bucker?

If you're not splitting the HB, it doesn't matter where you put the RW/RP. You will not get hum-cancelling when combining the full HB (both coils) with either one of the SCs.
 
Re: Question about S/S/HB Strat...

I'm going to say that for humcancelling when the PG is split and the slug coil in the PG is chosen and combined with the pickup in the middle, you'd want the APS-2 pickup that is NOT RW/RP in the middle and the RW/RP APS-2 in the neck position.

I just held a RW/RP APS-2 against the slug poles of both a PG and 59N and it was repeled. That means the RW/RP APS-2 is the same polarity as the slug coils in the PG and %9n and it would probably NOT BE HUMCANCELLING if combined with them.

So, IMO, you probably want a standard APS-2 in the middle...and the RW/RP APS-2 in the neck for this particular application.

If you're never going to split the PG then it doesn't matter and the Arkitkt is right!

Lew
 
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Re: Question about S/S/HB Strat...

Lewguitar said:
I just did a Les Paul last week with a Jazz neck and JB bridge. I put push/pull tone pots in it so we could split the coils. With green to ground and black to hot and the red & white to the coil splitter switches, the SLUG COILS remained on when the coils were split.

Making the black ground and the green hot would leave the SCREW COILS on.

Most people seem to think the slug coil sounds best as a single coil, so that's how I do it.

Also, the slug coils are always inside and closer to each other...more like the distance apart of a middle and neck Strat pickup or middle and bridge Strat pickup. So if you're looking for that kind of Strat tone, the two Slug coils do it a little more convincingly.

Lew



When I built my guitar, I actually thought that the distance from the Middle - SC to the outer coil (screw) was closer to the PU-distance in a SSS. With the Bridge PU it would be a little harder to determine because of the angled installation of the Bridge SC.

Anyway, I'm using the outer (screw) coils on my HBs when split and I like what I get. Especially the combination JB (split) with the SSL-1 in the middle sounds very similar to the No.2 position in my SSS strat.
 
Re: Question about S/S/HB Strat...

Arkitkt said:
When I built my guitar, I actually thought that the distance from the Middle - SC to the outer coil (screw) was closer to the PU-distance in a SSS. With the Bridge PU it would be a little harder to determine because of the angled installation of the Bridge SC.

Anyway, I'm using the outer (screw) coils on my HBs when split and I like what I get. Especially the combination JB (split) with the SSL-1 in the middle sounds very similar to the No.2 position in my SSS strat.

Truthfully, I like the coil closest to the neck too, but it's because that's where the second octave harmonics are. I think it gives a little deeper tone.

But that's not the what most of my customers want. They want that slug coil left on.

I don't see any reason why a player couldn't do what Peter Green and Wes Montgomery did with thier neck humbuckers though: Just turn them around so the slug coil is closer to the neck.

Lew
 
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