Series wired tele, BUT USING ONLY ONE PICKUPS SOUND?

[333]

I have a set of noiseless pickups, but I bet/know there must be a way to wire this.

The goal? a series wired tele with no noise, using the sound from just one pickup at a time while using the other coil to keep the overall sound in series and without noise.

I am currently researching this myself but I know there are people that can help, my first question is, how is a coil split humbucker wired? because I feel that may be close to what I am trying to do.

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: Series wired tele, BUT USING ONLY ONE PICKUPS SOUND?

Welcome to the forum.

It is possible to connect the North coil from one rails pickup to the South coil from the second rails pickup, in series, electrically in phase and, hence, fully hum-cancelling. (For a full explanation, use the forum search engine to find "ArtieToo virtual humbucker".)

What you seem to be describing is the use of one coil of a dual coil pickup to act as a hum-cancelling dummy coil for the another coil. The normal practice is to have the dummy coil considerably further from the strings than the coil sensing the string vibrations. Obviously, this will not be possible with side-by-side coils.

 

[333]

Re: Series wired tele, BUT USING ONLY ONE PICKUPS SOUND?

Hello and thank you! sorry I made a mistake with what I said and have since edited it, I have a set of noiseless tele pickups NOT installed in the guitar, what you said was great too I will look up the artietoo virtual humbucker.. I am seeing if I can get away with wiring alone and not using the noiseless pickups.

 

[Myaccount876]

Re: Series wired tele, BUT USING ONLY ONE PICKUPS SOUND?

Are you asking for a dummy coil? Those are redundant if you already have noiseless pickups (are the pickups noiseless when only one pickup is on, or are they hum-cancelling when combined because one is RWRP?). If you're trying to wire two pickups in series, but only hear one pickup (and it isn't a dummy coil setup), then that's impossible. To have a series connection, you need two components to connect. One pickup (acting as a single inductor - for the sake of argument, ignore the internal coil connections that make the single pickup noiseless), cannot be in series with itself. When you split a humbucker, only one coil from the pickup is left in the circuit, the other coil is completely shunted to ground - it is removed from the circuit. That's why you lose hum-cancelling when the pickup is split.

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: Series wired tele, BUT USING ONLY ONE PICKUPS SOUND?

With stacked coil, noise-cancelling Fender style pickups that employ four conductor + shield output cable, it should be possible to interconnect both upper coils in series to get your desired sound and, then, also interconnect the two lower coils in series to cancel any interference.

 

[333]

Re: Series wired tele, BUT USING ONLY ONE PICKUPS SOUND?

Hey everyone, seeing as though you both seem fairly knowledgable let me clarify my objective.

To use the bridge pickup alone with no noise.

Rules:

- No external hardware may be added, imagine it's a stock 52' tele and it is the year 1952.

Note, the middle and neck position, I never use and are of zero importance to myself.


So from summerizing your information I feel the "dummy coil" configuration may be something I should look into?

 

[333]

Re: Series wired tele, BUT USING ONLY ONE PICKUPS SOUND?

Update: Ok I have looked into the dummy coil option, the great thing about this, is it would not show any visual difference since a tele's neck pup has a cover.

HOWEVER.

I still think it's too much of an overall and have a better idea, what if I used one of those clicking no load pots, and had it JUST clicked on, to blend an unoticable amount of neck pickup, while keeping the bridge pickup volume open and in turn bucking the hum.

All the while when I clicked over the no load pot it would cut the neck pickup fully and become a TRUE single coil with ease.

What do you think people? any faults in this theory?

 

[Myaccount876]

Re: Series wired tele, BUT USING ONLY ONE PICKUPS SOUND?

Just slightly blending a dummy coil won't give you amywhere near full him cancelling - because not enough of the noise at an inverted phase is introduced into the circuit against the in-phase noise.

If we're assuming it is a stock single coil, and you want just the bridge to be noiseless. You don't have many options.

- Shield all electronics from interference. This won't be as effective as on a strat, because the tele bridge plate already acts as a bit of a shield, but some more shielding would still help.

- Turn down the gain/don't use compressors. These introduce noise, but have obvious drawbacks depending on the sound you're going for.

- Noise gate pedal (Decimator G String)

- Noise cancelling pickups

Otherwise you'd just have to deal with it.

 

[333]

Re: Series wired tele, BUT USING ONLY ONE PICKUPS SOUND?

Thank you I was suspecting this would be the case with my idea and was awaiting an informed person to clarify, I do however posses another idea..

What if instead of altering the neck pup as a dummy coil, I wound my own dummy coil and installed it under the control plate? a few questions on this..


- Would this idea actually work?

- Could I not make it so that coil was wound together like a barrel and cover it in duct tape similar to the low profile form of a barrel capacitor rather than a pickup?


Thanks again.

 

[thanaton]

Re: Series wired tele, BUT USING ONLY ONE PICKUPS SOUND?

I think you might be taking the wrong approach to the problem. What is it that you like about the series tone? If you like that it's fat and loud, then you really have one option: get hot pickups.

The reason the neck + bridge in series is fat and loud is because you have nearly twice the overall inductance, and twice the induced AC current from the moving strings. The inductance makes the tone fat, while the doubled up current makes it loud. If you use a dummy coil, or any other inductor in series with a typical low output pickup, the inductance goes up, but the generated current is still as low as it was before, so the output is not louder, it just becomes muddier.

The only way to recreate the increased current and voltage scenario you seem to want, in just the bridge or just the neck, is with a hot pickup, such as a Hot Stack. AFAIK there is no noiseless Tele hot neck on the market that also looks vintage in appearance. If you can tolerate noise, the Quarter Pound Tele neck pickup is pretty hot and vintage in appearance. The cool thing about the Quarter Pound neck and bridge for Tele is that they have tap wires, so you can install a push pull pot and get a more traditional low output tone if you want that also. But... you get noise when the pickups are used one at a time.

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: Series wired tele, BUT USING ONLY ONE PICKUPS SOUND?

awaiting an informed person to clarify

Pardon me for being uninformed. I have only been modifying electric guitar wiring for thirty five years. Clearly, I have no idea WTF I am talking about. Permit me to cease trolling yo' thread.

 

[333]

Re: Series wired tele, BUT USING ONLY ONE PICKUPS SOUND?

Pardon me for being uninformed. I have only been modifying electric guitar wiring for thirty five years. Clearly, I have no idea WTF I am talking about. Permit me to cease trolling yo' thread.

Are you serious, I asked a question then in the next post that person answered it, then I said thanks, I was waiting for an informed person to clarify, it could of been you or him it would of made no difference, I have given two thumbs up of your posts on this thread, however non real life information can become misunderstood so I understand.

I think you might be taking the wrong approach to the problem. What is it that you like about the series tone? If you like that it's fat and loud, then you really have one option: get hot pickups.

The reason the neck + bridge in series is fat and loud is because you have nearly twice the overall inductance, and twice the induced AC current from the moving strings. The inductance makes the tone fat, while the doubled up current makes it loud. If you use a dummy coil, or any other inductor in series with a typical low output pickup, the inductance goes up, but the generated current is still as low as it was before, so the output is not louder, it just becomes muddier.

The only way to recreate the increased current and voltage scenario you seem to want, in just the bridge or just the neck, is with a hot pickup, such as a Hot Stack. AFAIK there is no noiseless Tele hot neck on the market that also looks vintage in appearance. If you can tolerate noise, the Quarter Pound Tele neck pickup is pretty hot and vintage in appearance. The cool thing about the Quarter Pound neck and bridge for Tele is that they have tap wires, so you can install a push pull pot and get a more traditional low output tone if you want that also. But... you get noise when the pickups are used one at a time.

Great suggestions although I don't particularly need that, a stock tele sounds great to me, I just want to eliminate the hum without replacing or altering too much but thanks..

However I think I have found the solution stated in my previous post, there is still a question or two in that last post which I am still curious of, concerning the task of rendering my own dummy coil.

 

[thanaton]

Re: Series wired tele, BUT USING ONLY ONE PICKUPS SOUND?

Great suggestions although I don't particularly need that, a stock tele sounds great to me, I just want to eliminate the hum without replacing or altering too much but thanks..

However I think I have found the solution stated in my previous post, there is still a question or two in that last post which I am still curious of, concerning the task of rendering my own dummy coil.

You can have humbucking with parallel wiring also. On a typical Tele, the middle position is actually parallel, not series.

This is totally impractical, but just as a thought experiment, what you asked for in the original post would work in if you pulled all the magnets out of one pickup or the other, because then it would humbuck, but the lack of magnets in one pickup or the other would cause that pickup to ignore the string movement.

 

[333]

Re: Series wired tele, BUT USING ONLY ONE PICKUPS SOUND?

You can have humbucking with parallel wiring also. On a typical Tele, the middle position is actually parallel, not series.

This is totally impractical, but just as a thought experiment, what you asked for in the original post would work in if you pulled all the magnets out of one pickup or the other, because then it would humbuck, but the lack of magnets in one pickup or the other would cause that pickup to ignore the string movement.

haha you don't say? this is why I am asking the question: can you wrap the copperwire into the shape of a barrel, tape it and wire it into the control cavity.. like this..

 

[leevc5]

Re: Series wired tele, BUT USING ONLY ONE PICKUPS SOUND?

Hey everyone, seeing as though you both seem fairly knowledgable let me clarify my objective.

To use the bridge pickup alone with no noise.

Rules:

- No external hardware may be added, imagine it's a stock 52' tele and it is the year 1952.

Note, the middle and neck position, I never use and are of zero importance to myself.


So from summerizing your information I feel the "dummy coil" configuration may be something I should look into?

If it is 1952 or 2016 there is no middle pickup or Humbucker on a Telecaster. If you want a wiring diagram showing you how to wire a Telecaster for bridge or neck or bridge+neck in series or bridge+neck in parallel I can post one. It is how I have my Tele set up and no noise.

 

[GuitarDoc]

Re: Series wired tele, BUT USING ONLY ONE PICKUPS SOUND?

OK, I think it's time to get a life.