Wiring question..middle pickup in HSH

[Dan186]

I followed a dimarzio diagram for H S H with the S being a single stacked humbucker to split coils in 2 and 4 positions with regular 5 way. It works...I accomplished what I wanted..splitting the neck (duncan distortion neck) coil and bridge (JB) coil in 2 and 4 w the mid ..however the mid is kinda weak. I have middle cool rail white wire to hot..and every other wire on that pickup to ground.

It seems like im only using one coil in the cool rails...correct? If I add the red to the white connection will it be full bucking mode again? Will that cause an issue with my other positions? If im wrong..can i add another wire or use different wire to be in full hb mode? Thanks!

 

[Demanic]

Re: Wiring question..middle pickup in HSH

Maybe it's out of phase. Try reversing the hot and ground. Though since it's a stack, I'm not sure how that would effect it's stand alone performance.
Anyone?

Sent from my MotoE2(4G-LTE) using Tapatalk

 

[Mincer]

Re: Wiring question..middle pickup in HSH

Can you tap on the Rails with a screwdriver to confirm only 1 coil is working when split? I am a little confused...is it a stacked humbucker or a single coil sized humbucker?

 

[Dan186]

Re: Wiring question..middle pickup in HSH

You mean switch black back instead of white. Not sure that will work. My other 2 pickups sound fine in all positions. I was just trying to get a little more out of the cool rails if possible. It doesnt sound the same as when i had standard wiring and used black to hot..red white together etc. And the other two pickups were not split. I can give up the mid strength for the splitting in 2 and 4. Its a tradeoff im more than happy to make. But just wondered if i could use different wire(s) for hot to make it stronger (full hb?) without ruining my other positions...

 

[Dan186]

Re: Wiring question..middle pickup in HSH

Not positive how cool rails is configured..stack or ?

 

[Dan186]

Re: Wiring question..middle pickup in HSH

The cool rails is wired for single coil mode. I tapped and confirmed this. Is it possible to run cools rails in middle in full hb mode AND split neck and brisge in 2 and 4 w full middle hb mode? I did not find wiring for that....just middle to single mode and the split 2 and 4....

 

[gregory]

Re: Wiring question..middle pickup in HSH

South coil active: red is hot, green is ground.
North coil active: black is hot, white is ground.

Alternatively the black and the red can go to ground and the white and the green can go to hot.

If you reverse one pair of wires and connect black to green and white to red the combination will be out of phase. If you don't pair a South and a North you will get hum.

The Cool Rails is a single sized side-by-side humbucker, it is not a stack. A stack is one coil directly over the other one.

If you want position 3 to be humbucking and positions 2 and 4 to be auto-split you will need something like a Super Switch. Expect a significant drop in volume when combining two split coils in parallel compared to running any single pickup in humbucking mode.

 

[Dan186]

Re: Wiring question..middle pickup in HSH

Thanks so much! I figured I probably needed a super switch or a push pull etc. However this is still much better. Im using 2 and 4 clean so the volume drop is fine and I like 2 and 4 much better split.

However..one last question...I currently have only white to hot...all other wires are to ground...so i am out of phase in middle (cool rails)? i dont notice any hum or noise..just kinda weak cool rails....if i connect green to hot with the white...then the 1 coil from middle will not be out of phase anymore, correct ? Thanks again.

 

[gregory]

Re: Wiring question..middle pickup in HSH

You're correct on all counts.

 

[Dan186]

Re: Wiring question..middle pickup in HSH

Thanks much

 

[GuitarDoc]

Re: Wiring question..middle pickup in HSH

Thanks so much! I figured I probably needed a super switch or a push pull etc. However this is still much better. Im using 2 and 4 clean so the volume drop is fine and I like 2 and 4 much better split.

However..one last question...I currently have only white to hot...all other wires are to ground...so i am out of phase in middle (cool rails)? i dont notice any hum or noise..just kinda weak cool rails....if i connect green to hot with the white...then the 1 coil from middle will not be out of phase anymore, correct ? Thanks again.

Actually...no, that is not correct.

If you have white to hot and all others to ground you only have one coil active and that's why it is so quiet. If you connect white and green to hot and leave red and black to ground, you are in parallel, still very quiet.

Connect red and white together and tape them off to prevent shorting to any other contact. Then connect green to hot and black to ground. If it sounds out of phase when in positions 2 and 4 then reverse the green and black wires.

 

[gregory]

Re: Wiring question..middle pickup in HSH

If he's talking about position 3 then yes, of course. It is simply not possible to have one coil of one pickup be active and have anything out of phase.

The issue is when you use white as hot with one coil from one pickup combined with red as hot from one coil from another pickup. If he is having problems with hum and or phase after following the guidelines I provided then his pickups are either defective or have been altered from factory stock configuration.

It appears that he wants to split the middle pickup, so instructing him to run it permanently in series wouldn't be very productive.

 

[Dan186]

Re: Wiring question..middle pickup in HSH

I am aware that in order to split bridge and neck in 2 and 4..I can only use one coil in middle...imcluding in position 3. Im fine w that. I am only using middle clean/maybe bluesy in 2 and 4 with other pups. So one coil in phase is what I want from the cool rails. Thanks.