humbucker combinations? uses?

[RuBear]

spent a while recently learning about series/parallel/single coiled humbuckers and switching between them.

I've heard all can sound good in their own way, and some combinations such as series on the bridge plus single coiled on the neck sound very good together.

My question is which of these sorts of combinations are useful? which are total crap? (As it seems like it would be pretty hard to have all combinations in one guitar without a plethora of knobs where you forget where you are and you have to hit three different things to get to where you want.

Also i've heard of phasing humbuckers or something? any use?

thinking of this in a H/H guitar

Cheers

[jeremyb]

I've got a brian may guitar video and he talks about his pickup wiring, heres a quote from a site which explains a little about it:

Brian’s use of pickups is also unusual as is his method of wiring them. The pickup of choice were the quite rare 1960s design Burns Trisonics. Although these pickups are constructed from only one single coil, they have the physical size and almost the power of humbuckers. These were then wired not in parallel, as is the wiring method on the Fender Stratocaster and Gibson Les Paul, but in series. This, along with his six individual switches for adding (or subtracting, with the phase switches) individual pickups to the output signal, allows the construction of humbucker type pickups (which are two single coil pickups, wired in series), giving a greater, fuller signal with more presence than would have been possible using parallel wiring.

[ash]

Within an individual humbucker:
Humbucker in series: 99% of people use this all the time. Full power, full fatness, hum cancelling, most useful.
Humbucker in parallel: very occasionally used as a switchable alternative to series wiring. Lower output, cleaner, sounds more like a single coil, but not quite. Fully hum cancelling too.
Humbucker out of phase: hardly anyone uses this sound. Very low output, thin, nasal and annoying.
Humbucker split to single coil: This would be the second most common switchable alternative to series wiring, although it depends on how good the resulting tone is. Some humbuckers make a passable single coil tone, others don't do that well. Sounds 'better' than parallel, but isn't hum cancelling.

Between a pair of humbuckers:
The usual way is to have both series humbuckers mixed/selected in parallel via a 3-way switch.
If the humbuckers have 4-conductor wiring you can use mini-switches, push-pull pots, 4-pole 5-way switches or other tricks to mix and match coils in any of the above modes.
If you have a volume for each pickup, a phase reversal switch on one of the humbuckers can be handy. It is more useful with two volumes than one because you can then mix the out of phase effect in and out to suit. Still not very popular option though.

[RuBear]

Might have to check out that site, sounds interesting.

Thanks Ash, when are you not on the forums ha?

Yep I thought that the phase idea might be pretty useless, and thanks for confirming the basic stuff. So are all the various combinations of using both of the pickups useful in certain applications?

Is it possible to get all the options of series/parallel/SC using 2 HBs, with only one switch (can be five way) and 3 push/pull pots? (Keeping in mind that you might be the one dealing with the wiring later)

Essentially there would be 15 different settings that I would want to achieve, which should be possible with the switch and 3 push/pulls, (Theoretically you can get 40 different possible settings with a 5 way switch and 3 push/pulls, but that would be one hell of a wiring job and probably not all that intuitive to use on the guitar once complete).

Also I went and had a chat to my course co-ordinator at uni, and he says i'm a pretty sure bet for a 5k scholarship this year (They pretty much hand out money to electrical engineers, looks like a chose the right degree), so expect me to be ordering a heilo some point in the first half of this year.

cheers

[ash]

So are all the various combinations of using both of the pickups useful in certain applications?

Depends on what you want them to do. Single coil and parallel are of limited use to death metallers, generally.

Is it possible to get all the options of series/parallel/SC using 2 HBs, with only one switch (can be five way) and 3 push/pull pots? (Keeping in mind that you might be the one dealing with the wiring later)

The easiest way to get all the combos might be to have a 3-way switch to select the pickups and for each pickup to have an on-on-on miniswitch to set it to series-split-parallel.

Using a 5-way switch gives you the option of three or four different H-H combos, but it usually means having master volume and master tone and no other miniswitches or push-pulls. You just have to choose the five most useful coil combinations and make do with that. There are exceptions, but they have to be worked out case by case.

A slightly insane alternative is the Dan Armstrong Miniswitch system which replaces the pickup selector with three miniswitches. You can get all kinds of things going on with that, but you need a map to drive it. Unless you're Tsuken. I think that might need a third pickup though.

You could have a three-way switch and three push-pulls, one series/parallel for each pickup and the third doing coil splitting for both pickups (but it would probably only work with the others set to series).

Essentially there would be 15 different settings that I would want to achieve, which should be possible with the switch and 3 push/pulls, (Theoretically you can get 40 different possible settings with a 5 way switch and 3 push/pulls, but that would be one hell of a wiring job and probably not all that intuitive to use on the guitar once complete).

Two positions on a 5-way switch are only doing what a push-pull does, so it isn't really 40 possible settings)

Also I went and had a chat to my course co-ordinator at uni, and he says i'm a pretty sure bet for a 5k scholarship this year (They pretty much hand out money to electrical engineers, looks like a chose the right degree), so expect me to be ordering a heilo some point in the first half of this year.

Cool, more engineers and Heilos is what the world needs!

[RuBear]

I've also heard that if you set up the bridge humbucker in the usual position, that when you swap to single coil the one coil is either too far or too close to the bridge to get the tone you would want (It also isn't angled, like i've seen on alot of the usual guitars, but I don't know if that matters).

If this is the case then I would only have series/parallel on the bridge and all three on the neck. So two push/pulls could control what setting the neck is in, and the other could control the bridge, and a 3 way to control what pickups are active?

[ash]

I've also heard that if you set up the bridge humbucker in the usual position, that when you swap to single coil the one coil is either too far or too close to the bridge to get the tone you would want (It also isn't angled, like i've seen on alot of the usual guitars, but I don't know if that matters).

Thats sounds a bit like TGP cork sniffing. Yeah its true, but if you're that fussy you should be playing a stock strat to get that tone.

Certainly I prefer to make the coil farthest from the bridge the active one. It minimises the volume drop when cutting one coil out and utilises the usually more powerful slug coil.

If this is the case then I would only have series/parallel on the bridge and all three on the neck. So two push/pulls could control what setting the neck is in, and the other could control the bridge, and a 3 way to control what pickups are active?

Yep, that would work. Bags not to be doing all the pushing and pulling during a gig

[Ears]

Thanks Ash, for the excellent explanation of various options and their usefulness/popularity. Nice and succinct.

[RuBear]

Yeah thanks a lot Ash, I think I'll end up slightly sacrificing the look of the guitar and add two mini 3 ways like you suggested, guess tone and versatility are more important. And not having to do all the push pulls like you said.

My next (and hopefully last for a while) questions is whether to use a vintage style or hotter pickup, which will work best for using the different setups?

I'm playing kinda blues/funk/jazz/dub/classic rock/whatever, and probably looking at suhr pickups, due to the comments around this forum and elsewhere online about them, even though you have to pay through your nose, what would be your pick from their list? Probably looking at different ones for neck/bridge, for versatility, but would probably want them pretty evenly matched in terms of output, although that's not overly important.

That Bich is crazy!

[Tsuken]

The easiest way to get all the combos might be to have a 3-way switch to select the pickups and for each pickup to have an on-on-on miniswitch to set it to series-split-parallel.

That's my plan (atm at least) for a 2 humbucker guitar - except I might just go for series | off | parallel. Most split humbuckers I haven't really liked. The Evo actually splits quite well, I have to say - I'm guessing because the output is so high that one coil still has sufficient output to actually sound like a pickup.

A slightly insane alternative is the Dan Armstrong Miniswitch system which replaces the pickup selector with three miniswitches. You can get all kinds of things going on with that, but you need a map to drive it. Unless you're Tsuken. I think that might need a third pickup though.

Dan Armstrong's wiring schemes are strat-oriented, so yes: 3 pickups.

And here's the map: http://www.dominocs.com/AshBassGuitar/a ... strat.html

[Ironbird13]

And here's the map: http://www.dominocs.com/AshBassGuitar/a ... strat.html

[ash]

Yeah thanks a lot Ash, I think I'll end up slightly sacrificing the look of the guitar and add two mini 3 ways like you suggested, guess tone and versatility are more important. And not having to do all the push pulls like you said.

My next (and hopefully last for a while) questions is whether to use a vintage style or hotter pickup, which will work best for using the different setups?

I'm playing kinda blues/funk/jazz/dub/classic rock/whatever, and probably looking at suhr pickups, due to the comments around this forum and elsewhere online about them, even though you have to pay through your nose, what would be your pick from their list? Probably looking at different ones for neck/bridge, for versatility, but would probably want them pretty evenly matched in terms of output, although that's not overly important.

I prefer miniswitches to push-pulls for a few reasons, but mostly because push-pulls are only available in one style and they're no nearly as good quality as proper guitar pots. On top of that, the pushing and pulling wears them out much quicker too. And knobs fall off, shafts get broken, blah de blah.

From your genre list I would pick a vintage style neck pickup and a slightly hotter vintage style bridge pickup. Something with assymetric coils suits coiltapping, but no manufacturer gives away that kind of info. The exact choice depends on all the other aspects of the guitar, so we'd need to work all that out first.

[hellblazer]

All the dimazio's are asymmetrical. I think most of the gibson's also.
Seymour Duncans are all symmetrical except for the Pearly Gates and that all in one P90 thing.

this is just going on what I've read on the SD forums though.

I've got a les paul with some of the old dirty fingers and it coil taps beautifully.

[ash]

The way I hear it, the '59 is symmetrical, the Alnico 2 Pro is biased one way and the PG is biased the other way for the three basic PAF variants. You can tell which DiMarzios are which by looking at the patent numbers on each one. They do some other freaky biasing tricks other than wind numbers.

[hamo]

Didn't think this was worth a new thread, but are F-Spaced humbuckers usable in a Les Paul? I've heard differing opinions.