What should my HSH switching be?

HALENisking

HALENisking

New member
Hey guys, been awhile, hope you have all been well.

Finally got the ball rolling on an HSH Warmoth... need some advice on how to set up the switching.
It's the '59 Custom Hybrid in bridge, trisonic middle, and a Zhangbucker Pagey 2 neck.
I was kind of hoping that I could keep all of my settings on a 5 way blade, or if needed put the less used one on a push/pull.
Both buckers are designed to hold their own when split, so I would want to access their single coil tones alone as well.

General thoughts? What would you guys do? Thanks as always!
 
Re: What should my HSH switching be?

Some might think this is kind of hokey but what we have done in the past is to use 2 on-off toggles on each humbucker so you can control each coil independently and on-off toggle on the single coil as well, thereby eliminating the 5-way lever switch. If you want to see what this might look like with 3 humbuckers, go to www.pickup-tronix.com and click on the link "click here for the custom pickguard page" within the verbiage.
 
Re: What should my HSH switching be?

I'm a bit old school. I run a 5 way with a vol pot that is a push/pull. I like 2 tone pots connected to the middle and bridge pickups. Push pull is used for coil splits on all three pickups (I use a STK-S4 in the middle that is RW/RP when split). I love my HSH.
 
Re: What should my HSH switching be?

I know I recommend this setup a lot but IMO you get the most out of a 3 pickup guitar this way.
if you want to use the bridge and neck pickups together and even all 3, I would wire it how I have my 3 pickup SG and use standard 2 pickup 3 way switch wiring to start off BUT with the Middle pickup hooked up to an on/off switch in the form of a push/pull pot, with 2 other push/pulls for splits. I actually prefer push/push pots as the on/off switch but push/pull pots for splits
 
Re: What should my HSH switching be?

jake_xms3_punk said:
I know I recommend this setup a lot but IMO you get the most out of a 3 pickup guitar this way.
if you want to use the bridge and neck pickups together and even all 3, I would wire it how I have my 3 pickup SG and use standard 2 pickup 3 way switch wiring to start off BUT with the Middle pickup hooked up to an on/off switch in the form of a push/pull pot, with 2 other push/pulls for splits. I actually prefer push/push pots as the on/off switch but push/pull pots for splits
Click to expand...

I think you're on to something there. I like that idea because it's a simple way to add more combinations. So if I got this right, you have the 3 way for bridge/bridge+neck/neck. Then you can turn on the middle to add to any combination. Can you use the middle on its own in this setup?
 
Re: What should my HSH switching be?

HALENisking said:
I think you're on to something there. I like that idea because it's a simple way to add more combinations. So if I got this right, you have the 3 way for bridge/bridge+neck/neck. Then you can turn on the middle to add to any combination. Can you use the middle on its own in this setup?
Click to expand...

If you wire an independent volume to it and then roll off the volume of the other 2 pickups then I think so. Little tedious to do but then you can blend the middle with the other pickups for some cool tones.
 
Re: What should my HSH switching be?

Ye the 3 way is bridge, bridge/neck, neck and you can turn the middle pickup on in any position but like falloffthebonetone said, you would need separate volumes and turn another pickup down to use the middle on its own, it can get fiddly if you want to use it on its own on stage but it's not a big deal for me as I rarely use any middle pickup on its own anyway.
 
Re: What should my HSH switching be?

Alternatively you can set the push/pull to swap one of the existing volumes to the middle pickup when it's activated. However, that means that one of the others won't have volume control, or it would control both pickups equally.

Or replace one or two pots with concentrics so each pickup has its own volume and tone, which would offer the greatest flexibility.

Then there's the Freeway switch.

Mount the 'buckers on TripleShots to handle the splits (and more) and then you can drop down to just one push/pull for the middle in/out.
 
Re: What should my HSH switching be?

I run my HSH warmoth like this

A 5 way super switch wired for standard 5way switching.
2 mini switches, 1 to switch both buckers to single coil, and 1 for bridge on.

The main reasonI use the super switch is the ability to assign the tone controls to individual switch positions.
I run tone 1 to the neck pickup and tone 2 to the middle and bridge. The n/m and m/b have no tone control to them.

The other way I wire up a 5way is similar to a prs.
Neck bucker
Outer coils parallel
Both buckers
Inner coils parallel
Bridge bucker

All positions are hum cancelling with this one. To adapt to an HSH format, an on off switch for the middle pickup could be added.
 
Re: What should my HSH switching be?

pickuptornix said:
Some might think this is kind of hokey but what we have done in the past is to use 2 on-off toggles on each humbucker so you can control each coil independently and on-off toggle on the single coil as well, thereby eliminating the 5-way lever switch. If you want to see what this might look like with 3 humbuckers, go to www.pickup-tronix.com and click on the link "click here for the custom pickguard page" within the verbiage.
Click to expand...

The backs of your pickguards look GORGEOUS!!! Do some experiments with Seymour Duncan Black Winters. You won't be sorry.
 
Re: What should my HSH switching be?

Thanks for all the replies guys. I'll be posting pictures one of these days of the beast this guitar will become!
 
Re: What should my HSH switching be?

jake_xms3_punk said:
Ye the 3 way is bridge, bridge/neck, neck and you can turn the middle pickup on in any position but like falloffthebonetone said, you would need separate volumes and turn another pickup down to use the middle on its own, it can get fiddly if you want to use it on its own on stage but it's not a big deal for me as I rarely use any middle pickup on its own anyway.
Click to expand...

I use the 3-way (bidge/neck) with a middle-pickup-on on a push-pull, just like you are talking about, and I really like it. I also made one of my other push-pulls into a bridge-and-neck-cut switch so that I can play the center pup by itself if I want it... that works really well for me anyway. Not used often, but from time to time it comes in handy!
 
Re: What should my HSH switching be?

BriGuy1968 said:
I use the 3-way (bidge/neck) with a middle-pickup-on on a push-pull, just like you are talking about, and I really like it. I also made one of my other push-pulls into a bridge-and-neck-cut switch so that I can play the center pup by itself if I want it... that works really well for me anyway. Not used often, but from time to time it comes in handy!
Click to expand...

Ah okay! Super helpful. Yeah, this is so close to being perfect, but I'm stuck on how to get the middle by itself and in combinations, since one of my two push/pulls will have to be the master coil split for the HBs. And I'm not keen on adding mini toggles haha.
 
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