Wiring coil splits for either coil choice.

[kyleivanblake]

Is there a way to use an On Off On 3 way switch to wire a humbucker so that the player can choose which of the two coils on a humbucker is active?

I’m no pro, and I couldn’t find any diagrams demonstrating this.

Thanks!

 

[Bowtomecha]

Re: Wiring coil splits for either coil choice.

It would be something like this. In the top on position, the coil before the series junction is active. In the bottom on position, the coil after the junction is active. The middle position that is an off setting doesn’t do anything, allowing the series junction to function as it should, making it a full humbucker. Just flip it around to suit your needs.

 

[kyleivanblake]

Re: Wiring coil splits for either coil choice.

It would be something like this. In the top on position, the coil before the series junction is active. In the bottom on position, the coil after the junction is active. The middle position that is an off setting doesn’t do anything, allowing the series junction to function as it should, making it a full humbucker. Just flip it around to suit your needs. View attachment 100288

Thank you very much for the reply, I actually can understand what you said!

Does your proposed solution require On On On switch?

 

[Bowtomecha]

Re: Wiring coil splits for either coil choice.

I drew up a terribly crude picture of an on/on/on dpdt switch with the proper wiring. Some on on on switches are reversed in the middle so just flip the wiring over if you get one of those. This setup allows you to wire all the leads from one pickup straight to the switch. Might want to solder the ground to the switch metal as well. That way, the pickup conductor shielding ground, the south coil start, and the “chassis ground” which is the cavity shielding and the backs of the pots and other switches inside, all connect. Great time to copper shield your controls inside if it hasn’t been done or done well.

 

[Bowtomecha]

Re: Wiring coil splits for either coil choice.

I think the redundancy of the north and south coils will have you using just series and maybe one coil. You should consider using that real estate for more varied sounds, unless the coils are very different sounding. They are so close together that even with pole piece or winding differences, you probably would get away with one of them. Instead you should put the switch to better use like this.

 

[kyleivanblake]

Re: Wiring coil splits for either coil choice.

I think the redundancy of the north and south coils will have you using just series and maybe one coil. You should consider using that real estate for more varied sounds, unless the coils are very different sounding. They are so close together that even with pole piece or winding differences, you probably would get away with one of them. Instead you should put the switch to better use like this.View attachment 100297

I’m doing the job for a friend who would like to try being able to select which coil to turn off. He is quite the toneologist, and a wonderful player. I’ll try to setup this for him and see if we can discern a difference. If not, I suspect he will have me switching the second switch to parallel/series.