Super Switch wiring with dual humbuckers

[heminder]

Hello!

I have a question for you guys and would be great if any of you could help me out. So I've decided to upgrade the 3-way lever to a 5-way ultra switch to get more options out of my pair of pickups (JB in the bridge, and I think 59 in the neck).

I've drawn a few pencil diagrams, but I don't think I got anywhere. Are the following options are achievable in one switch?

• Bridge humbucker
• Outside coils series
• Outside coils parallel
• Neck pickup coils in parallel
• Neck humbucker

If the above is not doable I found this diagram which I may go with instead as it's close enough, but on their site they mention the neck pickup needing to be mounted upside down? I've noticed that several of Seymour Duncan's own diagrams like this one has the neck's screw poles on the side closer to the bridge, yet the "Seymour Duncan" logo is the right ride up. A little confusion here.

 

[ÖGERBØØGER]

Re: Super Switch wiring with dual humbuckers

Brandenburge helped me out yesterday by making me this diagram was very nice of him hope this helps you

 

[ÖGERBØØGER]

Re: Super Switch wiring with dual humbuckers

 

[ÖGERBØØGER]

Re: Super Switch wiring with dual humbuckers

Pay it forward in the future of this works

 

[heminder]

Re: Super Switch wiring with dual humbuckers

Thanks for the reply Ögerbøøger, but that's not really the configuration I'm after since I never user both neck and bridge in humbucking mode in series together.

I made a modification of the diagram in the above link to match SD colours. It's more or less what I'd like (except position 4), but the pole pieces polarity still throws me in a loop because of what they mentioned on their site. My neck pickup's screw coil is mounted away from the bridge (SD logo right way up) - will the diagram still be correct?

 

[BriGuy1968]

Re: Super Switch wiring with dual humbuckers

Hello!

I have a question for you guys and would be great if any of you could help me out. So I've decided to upgrade the 3-way lever to a 5-way ultra switch to get more options out of my pair of pickups (JB in the bridge, and I think 59 in the neck).

I've drawn a few pencil diagrams, but I don't think I got anywhere. Are the following options are achievable in one switch?

• Bridge humbucker
• Outside coils series
• Outside coils parallel
• Neck pickup coils in parallel
• Neck humbucker

If the above is not doable I found this diagram which I may go with instead as it's close enough, but on their site they mention the neck pickup needing to be mounted upside down? I've noticed that several of Seymour Duncan's own diagrams like this one has the neck's screw poles on the side closer to the bridge, yet the "Seymour Duncan" logo is the right ride up. A little confusion here.

I can probably help you out, but it'll have to be this evening after I get out of work. A 5-way super can do almost anything, so I'm fairly certain I can figure out a way for you to get what you want.


[emoji450] Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk [emoji441]

 

[BriGuy1968]

Re: Super Switch wiring with dual humbuckers

I made a modification of the diagram in the above link to match SD colours. It's more or less what I'd like (except position 4), but the pole pieces polarity still throws me in a loop because of what they mentioned on their site. My neck pickup's screw coil is mounted away from the bridge (SD logo right way up) - will the diagram still be correct?

View attachment 74596

Try to think of it this way... Seymour Duncan makes their neck pickups reversed from their bridge pickups. The North coil is on top (like on a map) on the bridge pickups, but it's on the BOTTOM on neck pickups. In order to have hum cancellation when running two coils from different pickups together (whether series or parallel), you need to have a north from one and a south from the other. In your request, if we want the outside coils, we have to split the bridge pickup to the south coil (bottom) and the neck to the north (also bottom) in order to be hum-canceling... however that would be both the bottom coils instead of outside. To make them outside, you need to flip the neck pickup over (so the logo is upside down), thus putting the north coil on top. You could also do the reverse and flip the bridge pup if you want to.

Personally, I'd be a little OCD about my logos being the same... despite the fact that hardly anyone ever gets close enough to them to see them! The two different coils will have a slightly different sound from one another in the bridge pickup because of its close proximity to the bridge itself, but the difference between north and south coils is barely (if at all) noticeable in the neck pickup because it's so much further away... has to do with how far the string is actually vibrating. Closer to the bridge the string vibrates very little in comparison to at the neck.

You can certainly do either way, but you wanted an explanation for having to flip the neck pickup over, so...

EDIT: ​DO NOT use the diagram in this post that you found. The switching is all messed up from what it says will happen, and it's using inside coils instead if outside!!

 

[BriGuy1968]

Re: Super Switch wiring with dual humbuckers

Okay heminder, here you go. First one shows how it would work with the neck pickup in the normal position (logo right-side-up):

...and this one has the neck pickup flipped:

Hope that works for you! [emoji2][emoji41]


[emoji450] Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk [emoji441]

 

[heminder]

Re: Super Switch wiring with dual humbuckers

Wow, those diagrams are ace! Thank you so much for drawing those, and explaining the polarity on Duncan pickups - I'd never have known that. My previous experience wiring dual humbuckers a few years ago were of a different brand where north and south coils had the same orientation on both neck and bridge. I'll get this wired up in the next few days probably. Once again thanks for your help!

 

[Mincer]

Re: Super Switch wiring with dual humbuckers

Be sure to come back and let us know how this project turned out!

 

[heminder]

Re: Super Switch wiring with dual humbuckers

OK, I spend the evening wiring this puppy. I had to take a dremel to the route to make room for the bigger switch. By tapping the screw to the magnets and listening through the amp, I think I may have some problems in some of the positions. The neck-only positions seem to be working fine, but the positions involving the bridge seems to be getting bleed from unwanted coils. I recorded a video to demonstrate:

I'm pretty sure I followed the diagram accurately. I double checked all the wire connections before soldering them. Yellow jumpers are signal, green wires are ground. Some pics of the internals:







Don't mind the resistor and capacitor on the volume pot, it's just a treble bleed.

 

[BriGuy1968]

Re: Super Switch wiring with dual humbuckers

I just double and triple checked the diagram and am convinced that it is good... even followed all of the "off" circuits in each setting to verify that there wasn't some unexpected connection throwing a wrench into the works.

You wiring also appears to be correct. The only thing I couldn't see very well was the wire leading to ground from the common on pole D. I can see a little of a different color green wire in the 3rd picture which I assume is the green from one or both of the pickups, but if they were hooked up incorrectly you would probably have dead settings... so I doubt that there's an issue there.

Two things come to mind:

1) You mentioned in your original post that you THINK it's a 59 in the neck. If you're sure it's a Seymour Duncan, then we shouldn't have a problem, as they all use the same colors. If it's some other brand, however, it could create an issue (although it seems doubtful that it would give the results you're seeing).

2) This is the one I suspect to be most likely. When coils are split, the inactive coil will generally still make some noise when tapped on... just not as much noise as the active coil. It's hard to tell from your video if there's any difference in volume between coils, but if the active coil is louder than the inactive one you should be just fine.

Please let me know... I want to make sure everything's okay!


[emoji450] Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk [emoji441]

 

[heminder]

Re: Super Switch wiring with dual humbuckers

Yes, common pole D has bare, green, and ground connections. It's the pole directly above the one with red and white wires together from the bridge pickup. The bare and green wires from both pickups were soldered together as stock, and I just connected it to common pole D.

1) I can't seem to find specs for legacy models on Jackson's site, but according to Wikipedia it's a JB and a 59 in this.

2) That's what I think as well. I did some closer listening and recorded what I heard when tapping the pole pieces:
[table="width: 800"]
[tr]
[td]Neck upper coil[/td]
[td]Off[/td]
[td]Quiet[/td]
[td]Medium[/td]
[td]Loud[/td]
[td]Very loud[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]Neck lower coil[/td]
[td]Quiet[/td]
[td]Loud[/td]
[td]Very loud[/td]
[td]Loud[/td]
[td]Very loud[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]Bridge upper coil[/td]
[td]Very loud[/td]
[td]Medium/loud[/td]
[td]Medium[/td]
[td]Off[/td]
[td]Off[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]Bridge lower coil[/td]
[td]Loud[/td]
[td]Loud[/td]
[td]Medium[/td]
[td]Off[/td]
[td]Off[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]↓ Towards bridge[/td]
[td]1[/td]
[td]2[/td]
[td]3[/td]
[td]4[/td]
[td]5[/td]
[/tr]
[/table]

I guess I'll just string-up, see how it sounds, and report back. Once again thanks for all your input BriGuy1968; you are a legend! Hope this thread is useful for others too.

 

[heminder]

Re: Super Switch wiring with dual humbuckers

Right, I had a quick play on the different settings on clean and filthy channels. It seems to be a very versatile setup. Position 2 with one coil from the bridge and one coil from the neck in series seems to be my favourite new sound, especially on a high gain channel. Position 3 seems to lose a lot of out output on the clean channel. Positions 4 and 5 sound very similar to each other, for the most part just different levels of output. I'll have to play a little more to get accustomed to the sounds, but I'm thinking I may add a permanent capacitor and resistor circuit to ground to create an "always on" treble roll off in position 5 (neck full hum) for the jazzy cleans and lead solo tones. I got rid of the tone knob and moved the volume to its place since I kept hitting it with my picking hand.