Pick ups wirings..is there any wiring plan for this;

    The plan:
    a seymourduncan hotrail at the bridge
    a single coil in the middle position
    a seymourduncan hotrail at the neck


    What I want to do is the following mess:


    Position 1:Bridge Hotrail humbucker
    Position 2:Splitted bridge hotrail and middle single coil
    Position3:middle single coil and splitted neck Hotrail
    Position4:Splitted neck Hotrail for a classical neck single coil sound.
    Position 5:Neck Hotrail humbucker


    I dont need the middle single coil solo.I dont use this.I want a humbucker sound at position 1 & 5 and single coil sounds in the positions 2,3 & 4


    So is this possible;Is there any schematics for this kind of wiring;


    I have looked into several sites but I cant find anything which helps.. :(

    I'm not superexperienced in guitar wiring, but I am a bit electrical experienced, and I don't think its possible.


    The reason is that a standard 5 way switch does all the magic with the 3 coils for you: itll connect terminal 1 to out in neck position, 1 and 2 on the next position, 2 in the middle, 2 and 3 in the next and 3 in the bridge position. Ibanez (and probably others) then use the second set of switching blades to ground the single coil terminals.


    But I would solve this using a push-pull pot. Use standard HSH wiring, found in Ibanez and others, but then solder the switch of a push-pull pot parallel to the single-coil tap wires, other side to the switch to ground.


    So when the switch is closed, your neck humbucker will allways be single coil, regardless of 5-way switch position, when its open you only have single coil operation when paired with the middle pickup.


    I quickly mocked up some modified schematic to illustrate. Hope you can read it ;)



    Ps: If you desolder the split wires from the 5-way switch you are completely free to decide wether you split coils or not, and could even have the full humbucker together with the middle pickup. And a second push pull for the neck puckup could give you full SSS operation... Thats how Gibson does it in it's les pauls, offcourse with 3 way switches ;)

    From my experience split coils from any humbucker will never sound as good as the worst dedicated single coil pickup. The hot rails split into single coil will not sound as good as single coil. Sorry, for chiming it to try to sway you from what you're trying to do instead of just answering your question, but my intention is to save you time and grief. The Hot rails are very dark pickups. I use the Cool rails pickup and they're much much more versatile. I personally recommend getting three blade pickups if you want the humbucker sound and if you really want typical humbucker sound, you might as well use a full size humbucker.


    My ultimate advice is if you really want a good humbucker sound and a good single coil sound, keep the strat with single coils and get a Less Paul type guitar for humbucker sounds. You can try to get it all in one guitar, but from my experience it really isn't possible.

    Quote from Dean_R

    From my experience split coils from any humbucker will never sound as good as the worst dedicated single coil pickup.

    The man has a point... I once tried hot rails in my strat, humbucker sound was "meh". Ultimatly bought a Les Paul, with split wiring, but also, the split sound on a les paul is "meh"... But hey, there are no rules, in the end it's your sound, and if that sound is humbuckers with split coils, then it's not up to us to decide that this won't work for you! I also don't like the twangy character of a Tele, but there are whole tribes who will hunt me down, boil and eat me for saying this....


    Are there any specific reasons you would like to avoid push pulls? They are a nice way to avoid drilling extra holes for switches in your pickguard...

    You will not get a good stratocaster sound with splitted humbuckers..as you will not get a Les Paul sound with a superstrat..


    Is it not interesting that many superstrats (specially the ones with classical strat specs aka alder/ash body and full maple neck/fretboard and no floyd stuff) with humbuckers dont get get rid of their "stratiness" as long as these are not high output stuff; ;)


    For real single coil madness I have 2 very good "vintage style" stratocasters.For a Les Paul sound I have...well..a Les Paul..I also still have a custom made ESP(made for me in the late 80s) which has written "guitar hero shred shit" all over it..you know..heroes in pants stuff.. <X:/ .Thhis guitar has a fat sounding SD invader PU in the bridge position and an ESP "Powerrail" (some sort of high output single coil sized humbucker) in the neck position.The splitted sounds (together with a low output single coil in the middle position) are not stratocaster at all.But they sound surprisingly good for clean stuff.Picking,chords etc..


    I need now a new "workhorse" to replace this ESP..But something which does not look like the usual "guitar hero" monster..I need a vintage looking guitar with good rocksounds and good clean sounds for chords..thats it.A vintage style looking guitar with flexibel sounds.Some days ago I had the opportunity to get me a fender elite HSS..great guitar..but the look of the humbucker killed it for me.



    Quote

    Are there any specific reasons you would like to avoid push pulls? They are a nice way to avoid drilling extra holes for switches in your pickguard...

    Two reasons I try to avoid anything beyond the 5way switch:First one is that I tend to ruin all kind of little switches and push pull stuff.I hate this.I am not the right player for this kind of stuff.


    Second reason is that many push pull are not easy to see if you have it in the right position.I had many live gigs where I was not sure if I played in the single coil mode or the full humbucker because I was to far away from the guitarcab and the monitor sound was shit.Little things like these..

    Quote from Nikos

    Two reasons I try to avoid anything beyond the 5way switch:First one is that I tend to ruin all kind of little switches and push pull stuff.I hate this.

    https://www.rockinger.com/inde…aswitch-E/c-WG121/a-17008


    With such a switch you can realize this.


    If you need a schematic, I'd need some time.
    One question would have to be clarified in advance.
    Should the rails be connected serially (more power) or in parallel in HB mode (not so much power).
    (The two PU's do not have to be the same)
    An additional switching function for a PU would probably require an additional switch

    Edited 3 times, last by Sharry: Scetch added ().

    Like 1

    @Sharry


    Man,you are such a great guy..thank you very much!! :thumbup:


    But I will not go for anykind of single coil sized humbuckers like the Hotrail or the little59s..I decided after a little testing in a studio that the Dimarzios Injectors are the way to go for me.For Bridge and for Neck..so the wiring will stay "normal".. ;)


    Thanks again for all of you guys for the input and your help.


    Greetings..


    ps


    I will keep the link that you gave here dear @Sharry..maybe I will need it in the future.Again,thanks a lot!

    I'm watching this thread as I haven't seen this wiring done and I'm keen to know how it would be realized. To me Sharry's diagram looks like this:
    Position 1: Bridge + Middle
    Position 3: Bridge Split + Middle
    ...but I could be wrong :/

    My biggest fear is when I die my wife will sell my guitars for what I told her they cost.

    Quote from malleus

    .but I could be wrong

    You could but you are'nt :)


    The plan was:
    Pos 1 Middle + Bridge (via HB Select Pos 1 as HB)
    Pos 2 Middle + Bridge (via Split-Select Pos 2 as Split)
    Pos 3 Middle + Neck (via Split-Select Pos 3 as Split)
    Pos 4 Neck (via Split-Select Pos 4 as Split)
    Pos 5 Neck (via HB-Select Pos 5 as HB)


    So I corrected the diagramm :rolleyes:

    Edited 6 times, last by Sharry ().

    Like 1