Recommended wiring configs for Stag Mag in Neck and 500T in Bridge

[Jack_TriPpEr]

Hi everybody,

My new parts have arrived (i.e. a 5-way 4 pole switch, wires from Stew Mac) and I figured before I dive in w/ implementing the wiring scheme I have chosen, I would like to get any recommendations you might have for alternate wiring schemes.

The "patient" (lol) is a 2 humbucker Ibanez w floating trem, rosewood fretboard, and basswood body. The new pickups to go in, are a Stag Mag in the neck and a Gibson 500T in the bridge. The Tone Goals I have in mind are to get thrash/metal tones from the 500T , Strat-like tones from the Stag Mag, first and foremost, w any additional tones from splitting either or both pups as side benefits. Here is where I have my biggest dilemma, because I don't have previous personal experience [EDIT] how useful the tones are when one coil of a ceramic pup is put in parallel, or put in series, w one coil of a rod pup. Also, how useful the tone is from putting the two Stag Mag coils in parallel w themselves - is it pretty close to Position 4 on a Strat? [EDIT]

The scheme I am currently considering is:

1) bridge in series w itself
2) bridge South coil split
3) bridge coil + neck coil in series
4) neck South coil split
5) neck in series w itself

If it helps, when I say "strat tones", I mean more of a john frusiante/early Gilmour tone vs. blues/SRV.

Thanks in advance!

 

[SoundAt11]

Re: Recommended wiring configs for Stag Mag in Neck and 500T in Bridge

One thing to remember about the SM is that it is technically a bridge pickup, so you'll need to either reverse the pickup or reverse the wiring. I always found the Stag Mag in the neck with a high output ceramic bridge pickup worked great for me. I tried the series wiring, though, and didn't find a usable town. Split is nice, though, and flip back to full-humbucker for leads.