wiring on 3 duncan pickups

R

ragestar

New member
Hi people,

I've got a quite difficult wiring question, but I found out that wiring@seymourduncan.com doesn't work anymore, so I thought maybe some of you could help me out.

I've got a PRS SE EG guitar (strat-alike) in which I'm going to replace the pickups with Seymour Duncans. I've bought a JB humbucker for the bridge, a Duckbucker for middle and an stk-s4 for the neck pickup. I want to use them in the usual way with a 5 way switch (1: bridge, 2: bridge+middle, 3: middle, 4 middle+neck, 5: neck), but with the addition of a push/push tone pot (for single-coil switching) and a killswitch volume pot (the guitar only has 2 pots). I can't find wiring instructions for this on this website. Note that I don't really need the bridge pickup to be able to switch to single coil, and I don't really need a tone knob for that pickup (I use it for Distortion/overdrive only). Single coil switching is what I want to use for the neck and middle pickup (if possible). Could someone give me a wiring guide and/or other possible options for this configuration. I should add that I want these options to be able to switch from the bridge humbucker (for hardrock/bluesrock) to the neck singlecoil (for clean/blues), and that I could add another pot if needed. I am planning to use 250k pots, but I also have some 500k's. I'm a bit in dubio about this, since I think 250k sounds best for singlecoil, and 500k sound best for the bridge humbucker, but I think combing this would be troublesome... I'd like to hear your experience with this. Your help will be greatly appreciated,

Robin
 
Re: wiring on 3 duncan pickups

Hey Robin. Welcome to the forum. If I could make a couple suggestions, I would do my splitting the exact opposite, (if at all), from what you're suggesting. The STK-S4 is really only designed to be split when used with another RWRP STK-S4 in the middle, to get that classic Strat "notch" tone. There wouldn't be much point in splitting it on its own, or in conjunction with the Duckbucker. If you look at the Duckbucker design closely, you'll see that it has three poles on one coil, and three on the other. I imagine it doesn't split well either.

The Duckbucker though, does sound good either in series or parallel, so I'd use the push-pull for that. That will make the rest of the wiring fairly straightforward.

However, it is your guitar and I don't want to talk you out of something you have your mind set on. Let me know what you think, and we can come up with an appropriate diagram.

Artie
 
Re: wiring on 3 duncan pickups

Hey Artie, thanks for your reply. I like the parallel suggestion, although I'm not sure what it would sound like. What I'm really after is versatility in my neck and middle pickups (so extra switching options next to the usual 5 way). I don't feel a need to change the wiring/switching on the bridge pickup since I've used JB's for my rock sound for years, and I'm really satisfied about it, however alternative switching options/sounds next to the standard 5 way that I want could be interesting. I found an interesting youtube video of a guy using a super 5 way switch in an HSH configuration (my configuration would also be HSH if I understand the descriptions on the site right): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IKdRA-gTgY&feature=player_embedded
The push/push switch I talked about is merely a suggestion (I like your idea to use it for parellel switching, I'd like to use it to get more sound than one extra sound option though), the killswitch I do really want, and I believe it only works on the master volume right? Anyway I liked your suggestions, if you have more suggestions or wiring instructions to increase the versatility of the pickups sound I'd like to hear them.

Gr. Robin
 
Re: wiring on 3 duncan pickups

Ok, cool. Let me chew on this a bit. I've got a couple of ideas, but I want to scribble them up on paper first. I'll get back to you soon. ;)
 
Re: wiring on 3 duncan pickups

Allright, I got the pickups today. I am considering the standard 5 way option with the duckbucker in the middle connected to the push/push for parallel wiring, but I'd like to increase the guitars versatility a little by being able to spilt the humbuckers (I read that the stk-4 single coil sounded good combined with the duckbucker parallel on #4, and the jb singlecoil sounded good with the duckbucker on #2), maybe it could be possible to add a switch or another push/push for coil splitting? If you've got some good ideas or a finished wiring shedule I would very much like to hear it. I'm really exited about trying to connect these pickups.

Gr. Robin
 
Re: wiring on 3 duncan pickups

Sorry. I did forget. :guilty:

I'll draw something up before the day is over.
 
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