Wiring mods for Humbuckers (Pad and Bright)

[MattGuitarRoberts]

Wondering if anyone has experience with any simple wiring mods I could try on a PRS SE with two Humbuckers. I'm interested in brightening my neck pickup, and also if there are any ways that you can slightly reduce the overall output level without killing tone. (Please no responses like "why would you want to do that?"). If anyone has had success with a "partial unbucker" type mod adding resistors to coils or pots, or applying a passive pad to a guitar circuit then let me know and share circuit diagrams if you can. Basically I like a nice bell like quality in the neck, and more strident classic rock bridge, for blues and 60s rock PLUS it would be great if the guitar is not much/any hotter than my Strats and Teles so that I can swap over during a set and not need to alter gain settings on pedals and amp. I've got the guitar so the balance between the pickups is good and the overall output similar to my other guitars, but the neck pickup is set right down at the mounting ring and is a bit muddy right now.
Thanks for your valuable responses
P.S. I know I could just retrofit some low wind PAFs and may still do that, but other simple options would be nice.

 

[Clint 55]

Re: Wiring mods for Humbuckers (Pad and Bright)

You can do a spin o split or partial split.

 

[Blille]

Re: Wiring mods for Humbuckers (Pad and Bright)

Wire in parallel.

Both brighter/clearer and lower output.

And sometimes awesome. IMHO.

 

[Mincer]

Re: Wiring mods for Humbuckers (Pad and Bright)

Welcome to the forum! This blog is about the Spin-a-split mod. Here are a bunch of articles about parallel wiring. Here is some info about splitting humbuckers.

 

[MattGuitarRoberts]

Re: Wiring mods for Humbuckers (Pad and Bright)

Thanks for the ideas and links! Appreciate it

 

[Gstring]

Re: Wiring mods for Humbuckers (Pad and Bright)

I have played around with several SEs. Parallel wiring is not an option with the stock Humbuckers as they are 3 wire. As a basic first mod I would try fitting a single 500k push pull giving partial coil cut to both pups . Many SE s have this as stock..I presume yours does not. Resistor values of 8.8 k ohms for the neck and 4.7k ohms for the bridge might work though if you have a couple of spare mini pots from a previous project ,wire those in as the resistors so you can dial in a resistance that gives a sound you like. Once you have found the sound tape up the pots and leave them in the cavity. Hope this helps

'

 

[Bowtomecha]

Re: Wiring mods for Humbuckers (Pad and Bright)

I use trimpots for partial splits. Small and won’t get knock around.

 

[MattGuitarRoberts]

Re: Wiring mods for Humbuckers (Pad and Bright)

Thanks! Parallel sounds worth a try and not too hard. I can see the green and white wires from the neck pickup (245S pickups in a Zach Myers Semi-Hollow) and I gather one of these will go to ground and the other to where the hot (red) wire goes to the volume pot. Any ideas which to where?

 

[freefrog]

Re: Wiring mods for Humbuckers (Pad and Bright)

Other ideas:

-a cap in series with the pickups or a G&L kind of PTB system:
https://www.seymourduncan.com/tonefiend/guitar/two-band-ptb-tone-control-useful-easy-cheap-awesome/

[NOTE: a series cap must be wired AFTER the tone control, unless we want the tone pot to act like a volume... and the cap value must be carefully selected because it will sound honky tight if it's overdone. ]

-pickup(s) in parallel with a LR filter (formed with an inductor OR a guitar pickup deprived of its magnet(s) + a resistor to tame its action): it lowers the inductance and makes the pickup(s) less loud / brigther, in a subtle but effective and natural way.

The Bill Lawrence "Q filter" cubic inductor is a ready made version of this principle but its inductance is a bit low : I would mount several Q filters in series between themselves and a resistor in series with the whole if I wanted to achieve what I describe (and that I've often mounted in guitars because it works well when done properly).

FWIW. Good luck in your mods.

 

[MattGuitarRoberts]

Re: Wiring mods for Humbuckers (Pad and Bright)

Thanks Gstring. The pickups in this SE Zach Myers semi are 245S and they do each have a green and white wire which are connected and heat shrunk in the wiring cavity, so I think this means they can be wired parallel?

 

[shadowfire90]

Re: Wiring mods for Humbuckers (Pad and Bright)

lets see how I can chime in I skimmed through everything and have a few other ideas.

Adding resistors and or capacitors do work wonders. The Spin-a-split mod does wonders this would be it once you figure out how much resistance you want I can imagine it's just attaching the desired resistor to the red and white wires (Seymour duncan) and then grounding them. Personally I'd stick with the spin a split mod. It can be somewhat of a boost. Better to have at least the option than to boost if you'd ever want them remove it (without soldering) all together right. Here's a fantastic premierguitar article written on the subject. Of course you can exclude the capacitors. I just hate how the diagram uses Shadow pickups. I've seen maybe 3 of them in my life.
https://www.premierguitar.com/articles/28052-mod-garage-the-sound-of-silencerevised-and-expanded

the spin a split wiring and an examples at the bottom

Since you found two wires under the tape they can be wired in parallel if you see 4 wires. Skip this step if you know the brand of pickups or can google them.

So set your multimeter to 20k , plugged into "COM" and "Ohms" so we're all on the same page. Before attempting this make sure you write down which was going to the switch and of course what was soldered with bare wire to ground. Why we're doing this is so you solder everything in right once and that's it. No series out of phase or other issues. Series out of phase I'd describe as a 2 wire bridge pickup on a tele sort of sound which most would hate. The only production model guitar I know intentionally has this is the weird to me squier tele SSH (not HSS) with duncan designed mini humbucker in the neck.

Back to it. Lets figure that color code out.
take any two colored wires, have them all soldered to nothing - make sure the ends are stripped enough to test.
touch two of them, one to each multimeter probe. If you see a resistance write those two down, if you got a resistance you got the two right wires. If you didn't keep at it
then do the other two and there is your color code. Half common sense, half using a multimeter
twist them all together like any other humbucker and see if both resistances add up. Lets say 7k + 7k = 14k would be what you'll expect.

Next lets make the guitar brighter
Some cheap and simple ways not mentioned yet is stainless steel strings. Whatever brand of strings you're using they most likely have steel strings. Avoid dean markley blue steel strings. I've bought them on a few occasions and never had good luck with them. I'm not expecting them to be on a guitar for 3 months either. Graphtech Tusq "Bright" picks actually do make a difference but what I switched to after 15 years was Dunlop flow picks. The 0.88 to 1.5mm depending on the sound I want.

Have you adjusted the neck pickups pole pieces? I hated this invader bridge pickup I had until I brought the poles up and then it became very useful. To do so just loosen the screws and raise the desired string(s) pole pieces up. Don't worry if a bit of wax comes out it's normal. This is what it does to see if it's an extreme enough change. You can adjust the poles with the amp still on doing the same riffs over and over again until you get what you like. This is a really helpful video on the subject.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXIggQxlAhc

Perhaps a Fender no load tone control. I hope they have the right type for your PRS as they are an excellent way to make a guitar pickup brighter. Especially in a 2 volume 2 tone guitar where you want to fine tune stuff. If not perhaps a 1m (1000k) volume and or tone. If not this mod I highly suggest. When you need the guitar brighter use this. This can be done with a mini toggle as well. The main wiring at the bottom of the push pull remains the same.
[View attachment 101248

overkill time
If your PRS SE model has 4 knobs such as the tremonti model if you never use the neck tone control which is rare as most people do. Either disconnect the tone control all together. Your tone would be as if your knob is stuck at 10 (all the way up). Traditionally humbuckers have 0.047uf (47nf). But Jimmy Page in some guitars favored 0.022uf (22nf) for extra brightness. But this is in my little "overkill" portion for a reason as the difference is subtle. Cheap Thai polyester capacitors will do the trick from Tayda2009 on ebay. No sense to spend more than an American dollar on a capacitor. I'm not going to "pick measure" about capacitors. I'm a big fan of tubular capacitors as it makes doing 1950s wiring easier. For tele and similar projects.

Another trick assuming the PRS SE has 4 knobs is to add at least one if not two 1M (1000k) pots. The advantage is if it's 2 volume 2 tone is that when you select just the neck tone by adding more resistance you'll get a brighter tone. It's a subtle bit of extra volume however the more you bump up to 1M. Try some import 1M pots to see if it's worth the trouble. However that push pull schematic does wonders to see if it's worth it.

That is some ideas I've got off the top of my head so hopefully I could help

View attachment 101246
View attachment 101247

 

[MattGuitarRoberts]

Re: Wiring mods for Humbuckers (Pad and Bright)

Thanks so much shadowfire, really appreciate all the time and knowledge that went into that!

 

[MattGuitarRoberts]

Re: Wiring mods for Humbuckers (Pad and Bright)

Wire in parallel.

Both brighter/clearer and lower output.

And sometimes awesome. IMHO.

Thanks Blille and others. I tried the parallel and on these 245S pickups (PRS SE Zach Myers Semi-Hollow)
The best I could deduce from inspection and a multimeter test is:
The RED is North Start and hence the hot output (goes direct to Vol lug)
The thicker BLACK is South Start and shield together (goes to ground)
The GREEN and WHITE are taped together for series. Multimeter suggests:
GREEN is North Finish (measured 4.15k with the red)
WHITE is South Finish
I wired white to the vol lug where the red hot is also, and green to ground (vol pot casing). The result sounds like correct parallel to me, it's still hum cancelling but has less lows and extended high frequency response, lower output. I did some good reference recordings before mod / after mod / after mod with pickup height and poles adjustment. I'm yet to give it extensive comparison to other guitars thru an amp at decent level but it was definitely worth trying. Main issue I would say is that since the parallel mod reduces the DC resistance of the pickup to around 2k, it tends to dominate over the bridge pickup when both pickups are selected. I may try the bridge parallel also, so that they're equal (although it may end up too thin). Other possibilities are the Spin-o-split (adjustable partial split with mini trimpots in the cavity).
Update. I parallel wired the bridge pickup as well. So far, I dig it! It allows a more balanced and distinct middle position sound (both pickups on) and whilst it thinned the bridge too, some of that comes back when you raise the pickup and lower the pole pieces. I can always back the tone off a little if I want that, but I've been doing all tone comparisons with a clean sound, and in my experience, as you increase gain you usually need more cut so mission accomplished.
To me, before the mod both pickups sounded like they had a low pass filter on, putting a limit on the top end around 3-4kHz. Now they've opened up and breathe more. It might not be the end of the journey with this guitar, but was quick, easy, didn't cost anything or require components, and easily reversible

 

[Blille]

Re: Wiring mods for Humbuckers (Pad and Bright)

Thanks Blille and others. I tried the parallel and on these 245S pickups (PRS SE Zach Myers Semi-Hollow)
The best I could deduce from inspection and a multimeter test is:
The RED is North Start and hence the hot output (goes direct to Vol lug)
The thicker BLACK is South Start and shield together (goes to ground)
The GREEN and WHITE are taped together for series. Multimeter suggests:
GREEN is North Finish (measured 4.15k with the red)
WHITE is South Finish
I wired white to the vol lug where the red hot is also, and green to ground (vol pot casing). The result sounds like correct parallel to me, it's still hum cancelling but has less lows and extended high frequency response, lower output. I did some good reference recordings before mod / after mod / after mod with pickup height and poles adjustment. I'm yet to give it extensive comparison to other guitars thru an amp at decent level but it was definitely worth trying. Main issue I would say is that since the parallel mod reduces the DC resistance of the pickup to around 2k, it tends to dominate over the bridge pickup when both pickups are selected. I may try the bridge parallel also, so that they're equal (although it may end up too thin). Other possibilities are the Spin-o-split (adjustable partial split with mini trimpots in the cavity).
Update. I parallel wired the bridge pickup as well. So far, I dig it! It allows a more balanced and distinct middle position sound (both pickups on) and whilst it thinned the bridge too, some of that comes back when you raise the pickup and lower the pole pieces. I can always back the tone off a little if I want that, but I've been doing all tone comparisons with a clean sound, and in my experience, as you increase gain you usually need more cut so mission accomplished.
To me, before the mod both pickups sounded like they had a low pass filter on, putting a limit on the top end around 3-4kHz. Now they've opened up and breathe more. It might not be the end of the journey with this guitar, but was quick, easy, didn't cost anything or require components, and easily reversible

Really glad you’re digging it! And thanks for reporting back!