Splitting a Humbucker

M

MattSA

New member
Im working with a parallel-wired humbucker. If I used a push/pull tone pot, can I still get the sound of both coils? The humbucker has the standard (Black, White, Red, Green, and Bare) leads. In your seymour-duncan wiring diagrams you send the black lead to the switch and the red and white leads to the pot. I want to send the black lead to the switch and the red and white to the push/pull pot, hopefully sending the full humbucker sound to the switch and the south coil signal to the pot. Does this sound right?

Thanks,
Matt Armshaw
 
Re: Splitting a Humbucker

Here's the basic way to do parallel/split with a push-pull. Is this what you're asking?
 

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Re: Splitting a Humbucker

ArtieToo said:
Here's the basic way to do parallel/split with a push-pull. Is this what you're asking?
Click to expand...

I am more concerned about getting the sound of both single-coil pickups by sending the north hot lead to the switch (I assume this is the Black lead on Seymour-Duncan humbuckers) and getting the south coil signal alone by sending the other hot lead (red and white leads) to the push/pull pot. I'm not sure if this is possible.

Also, in the picture offered above, it looks as if the top terminals (closest to the pot) are used to ground the pot, the bottom terminals (farthest from the pot) ground the humbucker? (green lead) and the black lead from the humbucker to the input lead for the pot itself (black from pot lug).

Can you explain the purpose of the green, red, and white leads - I know they come from the parallel humbucker.

Thanks,
Matt Armshaw
 
Re: Splitting a Humbucker

Sure Matt. I'll cover this when I get home from work tonight. Some things are hard to deal with from a cellphone.
 
Re: Splitting a Humbucker

Matt, since you have a 4 wire humbucker have you considered wiring it in series (like most humbuckers) to get more output and the standard humbucker tone? Personally I'd wire it for series/split or install a 3-way on/on/on mini-toggle for series/split/parallel.
 
Re: Splitting a Humbucker

MattSA said:
Can you explain the purpose of the green, red, and white leads - I know they come from the parallel humbucker.
Click to expand...

The pot and the switch are independent of each other. I probably shouldn't have drawn those lines. They just confuse the issue. :grumble:

Here's the 4 basic modes of a normal humbucker:

series-split-par-example-01.png


Note that the first three modes are simple. Red and white get soldered together, and then its just a matter of leaving them alone, (for series), or shorting them both to either ground, (normal split mode), or hot, (if you want the screw coil active).
Parallel takes a little more switching action by disconnecting the red and white from each other, and then connecting red-to-black and white-to-green.

Any two of these modes can easily be accomplished with a simple DPDT switch, ie., a push-pull pot. In your case, you want "parallel" to be the "normal" mode. So you'd have this:

series-split-par-example-02.png


The first figure is with the knob down. (The cyan lines are the internal contacts of the switch. You don't connect those.)
Red is shorted to black and white is shorted to green to give you the parallel mode. The top two terminals are shorted together by a jumper that you install.

Then, you can select any one of the other three figures.
No additional jumper gives you series mode.
Add the black jumper to ground to get the split-to-stud-coil mode.
Add the black jumper to the black wire to get the split-to-screw-coil mode.

In any case, you're always left with the two connections coming off the bottom . . . hot and ground. Ground the ground and run the hot to wherever you need, be it your 3-way switch or volume pot or whatever.

Make sense? :)

Artie
 
Re: Splitting a Humbucker

Matt, I think you're going to find the best sounding options with robrob's suggestion to have an on-on-on mini toggle (could replace one of your tone pots, the other tone pot could be a master tone control). If you don't have series in your pup, you're missing the main tone of that pup.

However, if you follow Artie's help, you could just have a push/pull to go from series to parallel (the best option IMO). I find that the split sound is only better than the parallel sound if you plan on running it in parallel with a middle position single coil pup to get some Strat style quack.
 
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Re: Splitting a Humbucker

One final comment...

Have you considered a Triple Shot mounting ring? You can select series, parallel, split to screw coil, and split to slug coil, all from the mounting ring with no need for any other switches or push/pulls. This is by far my favorite solution since you get everything very simply and without having to do any mods to your guitar. It's more simple and quick to use during a performance than a push/pull, you always know where it's set (as opposed to a push/push switch), and you don't need any other switches that may have to replace a tone or volume control.
 
Re: Splitting a Humbucker

Sorry for the delay - I've been busy with school and have been short on time. I have no chance of pulling of some of the modifications suggested. This is a Washburn guitar, two humbuckers, one three-way switch, one push/pull tone pot, one volume pot. After years of use, and esp. cleanings, the connections became very precarious. I decided to re-wire. This is my first guitar repair. Unfortunately, I did not think to make a detailed schematic before removing hardware and connections.

I've been able to determine polarity of neck series-wired pickup (hot and ground leads). Im now working with the bridge humbucker which I thought to utilize the pull/push functionality of the tone pot (originally it did nothing). To my understanding this means I wire the neck humbucker to one lug of the three-way switch, and the north coil lead of the bridge humbucker to the third lug of the three-way switch. The second lug would be the lead "out" to the volume pot sending either one or both signals of the humbuckers.

I'd like to send the hot lead of the south coil to the pull terminals of the p/p tone pot. The rest of the wiring seems trivial - send the tone pot to volume, volume to input jack, and ground everything.

These are my questions (I hope stated a little clearer!):

1. Knowing the leads of the parallel seymour-duncan pickups (Black and White being the north coil leads) and (Green and Red being the south coil leads), do they work like regular leads for a single-coil? As in - Black is live lead and White is ground lead for the north coil and Red is live lead and Green ground lead for the south coil?

2. In a parallel setup, are the two coils still connected in series physically, within the humbucker? If I sent the north leads to the output would I be receiving the signal from the south coil as well as the north coil?

3. Can someone tell me how the terminals work on the p/p tone pot (not the lugs!)? I see three sets of two terminals - are the top two for the pull state and the middle two for the push state and the third set for ground? Or is it some other configuration? Can you please be clear and precise?

Thanks for everything!
Matt
 
Re: Splitting a Humbucker

Answers to your questions:

1. yes
2. They can be anyway you want to wire them (see Artie's diagrams in post #4).
3. Did you not look at Artie's diagrams in post #4? A push/pull is like two separate switches side-by-side, each switch having three terminals (thus: two sets of three terminals, not three sets of two terminals). When the switch is up, the top and middle terminals are connected on each side. When down, the middle and bottom terminals are connected. Remember that the right and ledt sides are separate. If you want them to be connected together you need a jumper wire (like in Artie's diagram on the top terminals of each side).
 
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Re: Splitting a Humbucker

I think what you need to do is break the desired coil's circuit with push/pull or an on/on (an on/off is good too) toggle wiring it like this picture (assuming you strongly don't want the 'bucker option)

Untithddhled.jpg

This way, you won't receive any output from one coil when the switch is off or the pot is pulled.
 
Re: Splitting a Humbucker

Hermetico,

You da man. Way to go. I love all of your articles and your reference videos. Makes everything so clear and understandable.
 
Re: Splitting a Humbucker

GuitarDoc said:
Answers to your questions:

1. yes
2. They can be anyway you want to wire them (see Artie's diagrams in post #4).
3. Did you not look at Artie's diagrams in post #4? A push/pull is like two separate switches side-by-side, each switch having three terminals (thus: two sets of three terminals, not three sets of two terminals). When the switch is up, the top and middle terminals are connected on each side. When down, the middle and bottom terminals are connected. Remember that the right and ledt sides are separate. If you want them to be connected together you need a jumper wire (like in Artie's diagram on the top terminals of each side).
Click to expand...

When you say the terminals are split - left and right - does this mean their purpose? Are the left three terminals for the top or bottom position and the right three terminals for the other? This would make sense to mean - both the left set and the right set provide lead in, lead out, and ground for one of the positions. However, when I look at the diagrams and what is said above, it seems their purpose is still top to bottom rather than left to right.
 
Re: Splitting a Humbucker

The left, ON-ON switch shows the connections in red. The push-pull pot switch works the same way:

The upper is knob down, lower is knob up.

dpdtsw.jpg
 
Re: Splitting a Humbucker

GuitarDoc said:
Hermetico,

You da man. Way to go. I love all of your articles and your reference videos. Makes everything so clear and understandable.
Click to expand...

Thanks Doc, very kind. I highly appreciate your input, since I am never confident of my writing skills in English.
 
Re: Splitting a Humbucker

Back for more. These diagrams are doing very little for me - I need the wires that are used for input and output to the push/pull pot labeled as too where they come from. I found the following schemetic in Bing images and although it helps I still have questions:

View attachment 38781

In this particular diagram it refers to the push/pull pot as a volume, I am hopng to use it as a tone.

What seems like a good idea here is sending the lead from the three way switch to one set of the terminals and then the south coil of the bridge pickup to the other terminals, and a single out hot lead from the terminals to the in-lug of the tone pot

In this configuration I hope to have the signal from the three-way switch active when the push/pull is PUSHED and the south coil active when the pot is PULLED. I would then send the output to the tone lug, and then from the tone lug to the volume, etc.

Even in the schematic included, I have a hard time deciphering the wiring of the terminals.

- Obviously a lead from the neck humbucker goes to the left terminal, but why crossed to the right terminal?

- It appears as if a hot lead from the bridge humbucker goes to the second group of terminals, however in this instance there is no cross connection to the right terminal. I also believe that the lead from the right terminal goes to the input of the tone lug, correct?

- Are the third group of terminals cross-connected to ground the terminals? Should there be a ground lead from one of these terminals to a plate?

- Finally, when I look at my pot, with the push/pull rod pointing up, should the closest terminals be used for ground, the middle terminals for pull, and the bottom terminals for push? Or some other configuration?


Thanks,
Matt
 
Re: Splitting a Humbucker

a p/p pot is just a pot. you can use it for vol and/or tone. for tone, just put the cap where it needs to be.


sometimes you gotta take multiple schematics and piece it together.


here is the breakdown of how to look at the switching lugs of that p/p pot to wire it for parallel:
http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/wiring-diagrams/schematics.php?schematic=ssp


here is one that shows how to use a p/p to go from total-full-series mode to parallel mode:
http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/wiring-diagrams/schematics.php?schematic=1h_1v_1t_sp


and here is one of 2 hums, a p/p vol and a p/p tone with a 3-way LP-style toggle:
http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/wiring-diagrams/schematics.php?schematic=2h_1v_1t_3w_2pp
since that one is for splitting, just apply the parallel wiring to it.


if you need to find more options or to get a better idea, just start going through the drop-down-menus here: http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/wiring-diagrams/
 
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