Triple Humbucker - what's the deal?

[RevJToad]

Ok, out with a friend of mine today, and we went by this weird little guitar shop above a motorcycle dealership - old guy, has all kinds of frankenguitars, old amps, old parts, etc... Kind of a museum of dated stuff in some ways.

Anyways, we asked him about this set of Strat pups he had under the counter, and when he pulled it out, it turned out to be a triple coil pickup. I saw a picture of one of these once before, installed in a Hagstrom Swede, and thought it mighty strange at the time. I also don't see how such a thing could really work, given what happens when, for instance, you have a humbucker in the bridge of a strat and a single coil in the middle - the notch position brings the hum back.

So, anyone ever played with one of these? I was considering grabbing it, cause he doesn't want too too much for it, and it might be fun to throw into one of my bathtub-routed guitars...

 

[Benjy_26]

Re: Triple Humbucker - what's the deal?

I think Hamer had it in one of their guitars and Andy Summers played one for a while. Aside from that, I don't know much else.


P.S. I think Mighty Mite had their own version of it as well.

 

[CCC]

Re: Triple Humbucker - what's the deal?

I think Hamer had it in one of their guitars and Andy Summers played one for a while. Aside from that, I don't know much else.


P.S. I think Mighty Mite had their own version of it as well.

just picked up a Hamer Prototype with them :
'81 originally Dimarzio - Hum was changed with Gibson Paf

I tought Phantoms were with SD's Tri-coils - Hamer labeled.

 

[jony]

Re: Triple Humbucker - what's the deal?

How do they sound?

 

[Zhangliqun]

Re: Triple Humbucker - what's the deal?

Back before it was fashionable, way back in the early 80's, I had a guy make me a 27" scale neck for my Strat. One of the things I did was carve out the middle so I could do all kinds of sick pickup experiments, one of which was effectively a triple-coil pu.

It was a DiMarzio Super Distortion in the bridge with a partially unwound Invader crammed up next to it, wired to a coil split switch that went from the SD by itself to the SD in series with the adjacent coil of the Invader.

It was about 20k altogether but it actually sounded really good. Probably this was at least in part due to it being such a long scale.

For that reason I think a triple-coil pickup would actually work very well on some of these new long-scale baritone guitars, like the Fender Subsonic.

 

[idsnowdog]

Re: Triple Humbucker - what's the deal?

Mighty Mite made one during the 70's & 80's called the motherbucker. The problem is now a days they are hard to find and these crappy quad rail humbuckers are being called by that same name. If all three coils were of calibrated strength and could be switched series/parallel/phase I think it could be a very interesting pickup.

 

[Fusion1]

Re: Triple Humbucker - what's the deal?

I have one in my Ibanez RG540 Power. Basically it is an Ibanez humbucker with an added Ibanez C2 Single coil. There are 2 switches I remember that I never quite figured out what they did completely. I think one switch turned off whatever coil the switch was set to. The other switch I think split the humbucker or did a phase thing. Can't really remember it was a while ago since I've played that thing.

 

[idsnowdog]

Re: Triple Humbucker - what's the deal?

With one on/off/on toggle for each coil you should be able to get parallel, series,single and out of phase for all three coils right? That would be pretty interesting.

 

[Zhangliqun]

Re: Triple Humbucker - what's the deal?

With one on/off/on toggle for each coil you should be able to get parallel, series,single and out of phase for all three coils right? That would be pretty interesting.

How do you mean for all three coils?

 

[Kosh Naranek]

Re: Triple Humbucker - what's the deal?

I thought the pickup arrangment on Hamer guitars was actually a bridge humbucker and a middle position single coil, shoved right up next to each other. It's not one pickup, since the single isn't wired in series with the humbucker. It's really a H-S-S pickup configuration, and their pickup selector switch allowed you all the standard H-S-S pickup combinations. They just positioned the bridge and middle pickups a little differently than other guitar makers.

However, as idsnowdog pointed out, Mighty Mite made a true triple coil pickup in the late 70's. I remember seeing ads in guitar mags for that one. The purpose of their Motherbucker, as the name probably suggests, was pure, simple high output and maximum distortion.

 

[idsnowdog]

Re: Triple Humbucker - what's the deal?

How do you mean for all three coils?

Each coil would have a on/off/on switch that would phase/off/phase. That way all three coils could be parallel, series and phase. You could also use three concentric pots for volume and tone so you could blend the coils.

 

[Zhangliqun]

Re: Triple Humbucker - what's the deal?

Phase/off/phase on all three switches wouldn't get you parallel and series.

I'm not raining on your parade because I like innovative wiring ideas. What might be really interesting is to have the third (farthest from bridge) in parallel with the first two in series.

 

[idsnowdog]

Re: Triple Humbucker - what's the deal?

Phase/off/phase on all three switches wouldn't get you parallel and series.

I'm not raining on your parade because I like innovative wiring ideas. What might be really interesting is to have the third (farthest from bridge) in parallel with the first two in series.

Care to draw a schematic?

 

[Zhangliqun]

Re: Triple Humbucker - what's the deal?

If you're familiar with how to wire a parallel/series switch for a regular humbucker, it wouldn't be any different. You would just treat the first two coils as "one" coil and the third coil as the "other" coil.