So I just wired my SG exactly like this, series/parallel pull pots, independent volume, vintage tone wiring and I am completely happy with the results. So much variety with no noise...thanks buddy!
I've got a Strat style custom build with a bridge P90 and a neck double/double rail, custom wound (yep, 4 coils so I can split the splits), p/p Bourne 500k pots with pull for parallel and slap for series, a 5 way switch with judicious use of treble and tone bleeds for different positions and I wind up with 20 (count them if you can) different and unique tonal variations at the flip of a switch and a knob pop! I can go from 50's Do-Wop to B. B. King to ELP to Zepplin to Gwar without changing guitars or set up! The variations with effects pedals is almost unlimited! Not trying to brag just saying that the understanding of WHY things work is basic to understanding HOW things work! Thanks for sharing DM keep up the good work! PEACE!!!!
Fundamental video for me this one! I'm about to build a double humbucker superstrat but wanted to have also a single-coil sound on position 2 and 4 of the 5way switch. Hard choice to make but thanks of this video I decided to go with coils wired in parallel for strat sound. Not much different from a real single-coil pickup and still humbucking. Thanks!
I've watched probably a hundred videos on pickups/tone/wiring options/ideas/parallel/series/pot configurations and mods, yada yada yada. This is by far the most informative, enlightening, and truly revolutionary video I've EVER seen on it!!! Bar none. Thanks bro. Fantastic. By the way, what kind of knuckle dragger watches a video this informative and hits the 'unlike' button???
Thank you. I really appreciate your kind words. I try to be as informative as I can so people have all the options available to them. As for your question about knuckle draggers, haters gonna hate. lol.
I had my guitars wired for independent volumes for years. I always felt like they were missing something. Then I rewired one of my jb/59 guitars and accidentally had the volumes wired dependent and it was like the blanket had been lifted and all the tone was back. Turns out independent volumes suck tone, it's a fact. I really missed the middle positions ability to blend at first but I gained so much tone back that it was worth keeping them dependent. Independent wiring makes your taper roll of highs REALLY REALLY fast. Anyways there certainly pros and cons to both but at the end of the day independent volume pots suck too much time to be worth it. Id love independent wiring if that wasn't the case though, but sadly it just is.
@@guitartapEDIT: Missed the part about the volume pedal, until after I commented. But if you haven't I still recommend trying a no load volume an tone pot. I just modify my existing ones that way I can set the exact cut off point. Origional comment: I just make my my volume and tone pots no load now so at 10 it's the same as not having them there at all. The amount of time versatility you lose by not having a volume and tone is on my opinion way too dramatic to just not have any. The way my volume an tone control are dialed in is what gets me to the literal sweet spot. It's cool if that's what you prefer, there's nothing wrong with that but I just hope you've experienced what using volume and tones correctly can do for your tone before you decoded to do away with them. Again, my way isn't the only way or the best sane as yours just different. I just truly wanted to know if you ever experimented with dialing in your tone eith the guitars pots. I'm sure you have but I have to recommend you do if you havent.
I use 2 lollar imperial humbuckers and only one has 4 leads so it was too troublesome to split and I was able to do parallel. These are on an Amer Standard tele from a year where they releaaed a double humbucker tele. It was a satisfactory mod. Since then i've looked into it more and my conclusion is that a good parallel wiring job is a unique sound, and only vaguely similar to a factory single coil. Same with a split (a tap is a different story)......the split double coil of a humbucker is usually smaller then a factory single coil, and to my ear sounds thinner. I think the best bet is to buy a Tele or Strat for a single coil sound and some sort of Gibson for humbucker...I really like the ES-335. I enjoy the versatility of my modified Tele though....especially running the neck parallel and the bridge series. It has it's own distinctive sound when I try different combinations, not really humbucker or single coil....but the thing is, if it sounds good, then it's a success. Finally, I prefer the sound of parallel to split...it's cleaner to my ear.
Look at vintage Les Paul wiring and compare 50s vs 60s wiring and that's one of the things they changed, IIRC, which also affected how the sound changes when you turn down vol & tone
nice video... the bonus of me was how easy it is to rewire the lugs on the volume pot so both pickups stay on with selector switch in the middle regardless of volume pot settings. Turning on my soldering iron next! Thanks.
Hey DM, thanx for giving me the direction on how to have my rewired Les Paul....rewired. I want to now have it with the series/parallel set up and get rid of the coil splitter function. I bought this guitar set up that way and the single coil splits didn't sound all that great anyway. I want it to sound more like a true LP.
One wiring mod I've used but not seen elsewhere is to connect each pickup's tone control directly to the pickup, but then have the signal pass through a 100K resistor before reaching the selector switch. This somewhat reduces the top volume, but allows each tone knob to act more independently on its own coil. In my own particular case, I use four steel bars as "mutes" connecting the upper four pairs of pole pieces on the bridge pickup, since I often play a bass-strum pattern using one of the bottom two strings plus the top four, and I like some extra punch on the bass strings (obtained by turning down the tone control on the guitar while turning up the treble EQ on the amp). I think the wiring technique might be useful even when using a more conventional tuning, since the character of the upper harmonics is rather different on the bridge and neck pickups, and it may be helpful to adjust them separately.
Nice! I checked this video to see about what to do; I've got some new pickups for my Epi SG. I wasn't specifically looking for 4-lead pickups but the ones I got do have them anyway. I usually favour humbuckers but it seems a shame to lock them in one mode when I have options, so I also got some push/pulls. I was considering doing series/parallel at the bridge and coil split at the neck so I wanted to check if there was any point to that - as you've demonstrated I may as well do series/parallel for both. Thanks!
That's cool that you're willing to share your knowledge of this stuff. I'm getting ready to do a les Paul type build for myself. I was already gonna do the 50s wiring. I think I'll just go all out do mine like you did this one. Thanks for sharing.
This is a great mod on something like a Firebird where you have a really overwound bridge and want to go from a metal monster ice pick to a screaming tele style tone. It really works and if you go crazy and throw on a third push pull pot for phase reversal, you have an astonishing amount of tones in one guitar. Great if you're the kind of person who likes to record at home and/or hates taking 3 guitars to a venue ..
Late to the show. I have a 2 humbucker 2v 1t 3 way toggle guitar. I wired all 3 dpdt with one series/parallel one in and out of phase and tone is coil split (has to be both pups simultaneously 😥) but the tones are out of this world.
@abbaby68 yes. Seymour Duncan make humbucker surrounds with micro switches which allow you to do 4 settings per pickup. Humbucker series, humbucker parallel, single South coil only, single North coil only.
Even cooler mod, bass cut filter. No loss of volume, no hum, the treble still sounds as round as ever, but the bass tapers off giving a really convincing single coil without getting piercing, or dropping volume.
could you post the actual wiring diagram of this setup? Would love to have this on my lespaul studio. Was about to get push push pots to split the coils but your system is better but man...without a diagram (and even so) i'm so srewed. Ah just read you don't share diagrams of your wiring!!!!! Just bloody great.
Here you go I believe the Seymour Duncan diagram is correct. forum.seymourduncan.com/showthread.php?321551-LP-Series-Parallel-Tone-w-50-s-Wiring-and-Independent-Volume
Thanks Doron, super helpful! I've got a SD hotrails that I'm about to put into my frankenstrat, and was going to put in an on/on/on mini toggle to use the two "blades" of the pickup as single coil near bridge/both (humbucking)/other single coil--I just saw a video demo of a guy that did this and was surprised at the tonal difference just between the separate single coils. BUT, now you've got me thinking about the parallel idea and keeping it humbucking. Ugh. Too many choices! Haha. I'm sure there must be a way to get all four: Series/Parallel/front coil/back coil. Ever done something like this? Thanks again for an awesome post!
Thanks for another great video. I have one push pull pot guitar that splits each coil, but like you said with parallel you get more of a single coil sound. I like the parallel wiring better. I have some P90 4 conductor humbuckers that I can run in parallel. It's a 50's tribute Les Paul. I am getting tele and strat sounds!
Doron Markowitz No problem. I use a simple trick to run humbuckers in parallel on any guitar with 4 conductor wiring. I take the coil link wires and run them to the unused leg of each tone pot respectively, so with tone on max I get parallel mode, slightly roll off the tone to get full humbucking (series) mode. No push pull necessary
Great video. I'm a beginner and wanting to change my Donner dlp124 guitar that has two humbuckers. I have only one volume and one tone. I would like to wire them separately each to their own push pull potentiometer 500k. Not sure about how to wire them? It has a three way switch.
The wiring you mention for the tone control acting like a treble bleed. I don't notice the treble dropping off when I lower the volume. My guitar is wired weird looking and I can't understand it yet, but it sounds like it gets muddy when I raise the volume. If you wire the guitar as you describe here, would that happen? The other thing is the volume pot is a 'A500' and the tone is 'B500' is the tone a linear pot?
This is awesome. I think I may try this. I just got a high output bridge humbucker for my SG and it sounds too muddy with high gain and parallel might cut the mids and bring out the treble.
I have 2-humbuckers, 2-volume push-pulls, no tone, and a 3-way toggle. Is it possible to have series/parallel and then go to in/out of phase as well? Will I still have full humbucking when not in/out of phase?
thank you,parallel it is for my SG, just need to figure out how to do the wiring, wish my push pots and new humbuckers came with at least a color code.
I wish I could but that costs money, Stupid cancer has made sure that I never have money, But on the good side since I am stuck in bed most of the time my 20 year old son and I decided to get a couple cheap guitars and learn how to play together. Great way to spend our remaining time together. Thanks again. I may have a question for you after I get all the parts though.
so very kind of you, I just might, I would like to know if you have any info about Irongear Tesla Shark pickups. and tonerider. these are the two that I can afford and I think they are still good and trustworthy.
Brian Knickerbocker from what I have found on the internet, they appear to be clones of the Seymour Duncan alnico 2 which is good. I think they are a good choice.
Great info. I'm particularly interested in the rewiring of the tone pots that enables volume roll-down without tone loss. Will this work on a single coil like a strat? And why isn't this the standard way for wiring tone? Seems counterintuitive to have tone decrease along with volume...
this wiring is primarily for humbuckers with 4 conductor lead, which give a multitude of options, such as coil splitting, series/parallel, and phase switching. You can wire single coils in series, but that wiring would be a bit different than seen here. As for tone pot wiring, the industry standard is to have the tone pot wired to the input stage of the volume and not the output stage. I agree it should be the other way around.
So in short: which is the difference, if any, between a humbucker with both coils wired in parallel or a split humbucker with a coil shorted to ground and so working as a single coil?
The two main reasons for choosing parallel over split coils are noise (parallel is still humbucking) and tone. The individual coils from a humbucker tend to (in general, there are exceptions) weaker then true single coils. Giving a weak split coil tone. Neither will sound exactly like a single coil and which sounds best is subjective.
He is NOT going to show or give you a wiring diagram for the simple reason that IF he does, then no one would have any need for him doing it for a price.
You can find the wiring all over the internet. Just break it down into single mods. Parallel/series wiring and full volume control. Then 50s wiring that keeps the treble up as you roll the volume off. Here's independent volume control. The rest is easy to find. www.premierguitar.com/articles/21106-mod-garage-decouple-your-les-pauls-volume-controls
@@guylainecollett7943 except these diagrams are available free on the internet if you know how to use a search engine. It's not that if he provides them, no one will need his services. They're already provided by other sources. Seymour Duncan Wil gladly give you whatever you need, for example. So will plenty of others. He's not doing anything new or groundbreaking so he's not hiding anything or keeping anything secret. Still, there are people out there who can't do their own work or can but just prefer not to. They still need someone like him to work on their guitars. Giving away wiring diagrams wouldn't hurt his business. Especially when the people asking are 1600 miles away. They were never potential customers of his to begin with. Not for that, anyway.
As a matter of fact, here's someone asking about the exact same combination of mods with wiring diagrams. forum.seymourduncan.com/showthread.php?321551-LP-Series-Parallel-Tone-w-50-s-Wiring-and-Independent-Volume
Great job explaining a really cool mod! When wiring a humbucker with a metal pickup cover in the series-parallel config. do you need to worry about the grounding/ polarity of the pickup cover? Thanks
Jerome Schwartz as long as the wiring of the pickup is four conductor lead with a separate shield or ground then you don't have to worry about the cover. the cover is already soldered to the base plate. the bare shield or ground is directly soldered to the base plate as well internally usually.
Dear Doron, thank you for sharing this great idea! I've been trying to find good quality (e.g. CTS) push pull linear pots, without success. All I can find are audio (log) pots. Would you have any hint where to find linear push pull pots and/or good brands? Thank you!
I use WD pots, which I find to have a very smooth taper, and looseness that feels worn in nicely right out of the package, unlike the stiffer feel of CTS pots. WD does make a linear taper push/pull as well as audio taper push/pulls. I hope that helped.
I wonder how this compares to a coil tap. I'd imagine that if you had a humbucker with a coil tap that you could get some neat tones if you set it to parallel while it was tapped too.
Good job! That´s exactly what im planning to do in my guitar. Since im really far awar to and it would be kind a difficult to send my guitar to you... I would thank a little advice on which pots i must use and where i can find a wiring diagram. Thanks for the video!
Rodrigo Garza the pots used were Dimarzio 500k push/pull volume pots. depending on which brand of pickups you plan to use, you can find wiring diagrams for series/parallel online at the various companies' websites.
Important Detail: A paf style pickup like these "Whole Lotta Humbuckers" have weak indifidual coils, much weaker than a strat. Something like a JB in parallell sound closer to a strat.
Can you help please? I have a Telecaster with 2 Seymour Duncan Little 59 pickups fitted with 2 DiMarzio 250k push-pull pots and would like to get a versatile wiring setup with an appropriate switch either 3, 4, 5 or super 5. Can you please advise? Many thanks!
Hey Daron I have a small question. I play on Les Paul Custom with 496R/498T pups mostly Punk Rock kind of music. What wiring would be better in your opinion? I want that bright high output trebley and sparkly kind of sound you generally see in a punk guitar.
I don't like the truly independent volume knobs. You have the pickup select switch for doing that, and you can't shut up the guitar fast as you can with the traditional wiring.
The problem with the traditional approach to wiring the volume controls as Gibson does, is that if you have the pickup selector switch in the middle, and you roll off one volume the entire output is shut off. Having truly independent volume controls eliminate that problem. Conversely if you have the volume control rolled off on one pickup, you can still do the same stutter effect that I think you are referring to with the pickup toggle switch. In other words there really is no disadvantage to having truly independent volume control wiring but there are major disadvantages to the traditional wiring approach.
@@doronm63 thank you SO MUCH for this tip. i have a bass that has been giving me fits because of this and no one (so called experts) had been able to figure this out.
Could you do phase switching with a 2 wire hb? Just run it to an on/on switch that's in phase on one side and the other has the leads reversed for out of phase?
So, if you have 50's style wiring on a LP guitar and do the independent wiring, do you still lose the treble when lowering one of the volumes when in the middle switch position?
Well there's no treble bleed circuit on the volume controls. So they would still function as normal, including cutting trouble as your lowering volume. To avoid that, install a treble bleed circuit on your volume controls.
@@doronm63 Not sure if you've seen this guy, but he claims the treble bleed won't make a difference? I may have to install one and see for myself. th-cam.com/video/NzYwuYG1Ls0/w-d-xo.html
I'm only at 1:15, but want to ask this before I forget. I think I heard you say that when you switch to parallel, you still cancel hum because the coils are wrapped the same way. Reverse winding cancels hum, so do you mean 'same way' as in still reverse wound, only now in parallel?
No, I never said they are wrapped the same way. I said that, in parallel, both coils go in the same direction, which cuts the impedance in half, producing a sound similar to a single coil. But since both coils are still on, it still functions as a humbucker, i.e.- no hum.
The main problem I see with independent wiring is that wiring the guitar this way, even if your volumes are both turned all the way down, the circuit is still open and makes a bunch of noise when you let go of the guitar strings. Not a big deal if you play clean most of the time but if he lays on the gain in a big way, that guitar is going to squeal like crazy if he let's go of the strings even with both volumes down
Moshe Alvarez nope. That doesn't happen. I don't know if you've ever actually had a guitar with truly independent volumes for each pickup but in my experience that sort of noise does not happen when you roll them off.
Perhaps the covers on the pickups eliminate the problem but every single Gibson guitar I've ever wired up with independent volumes have had that same problem but then again, all those guitars had pickups with no covers.
Hey really informative and very insightful video! I am in New York, by any chance do you have the wiring specs on how to do this? I would like to get an Epi Les Paul Custom or get this diagram so I customize my Flying V guitar. Thanks.
Hey man, I was wandering if you could help me out with wiring options. Basically I'm having my own guitar built and the options are: Two pots for volume Two push/pull tone pots where in the up position their in parallel wiring A cap on each of the tone pots A reversed jazz bass wiring on the volume 3 way toggle twitch And if possible, a 50's style wiring on the push pull pot Would it be possible, and if so, would it be worth it?
Doron Markowitz I was kind of referring to the Jazz bass wiring in the video, cut couldn't find any diagrams on it. Do you think that you could maybe show me a diagram with all of the things that I had mentioned on the first comment except with standard jazz bass wiring for the volume pots? :)
***** well, Jazz Bass wiring is 2 volumes and a single tone. this is 2 volumes and 2 tones. basically, the pickup is wired to the center lug of the volume pot and the output is wired to the first lug. then the tone pot input is wired to the same first lug of the volume pot. take a look at the wiring of your Les Paul. you'll notice that the pickup is wired to the first lug of the volume pot, and the output wired to the second, or middle lug. that's no good if you want independent volume control for each pickup. just reverse those 2 connections and that's it.
I have what's left of a roll of copper shielding tape I use on my Strats... wouldn't this solve the single coil (if humbucker coil split) 60-cycle hum issue as it does in my Strats? I was thinking I'd do the pickup cavities, the switch cavity, and the control pot cavity...
Shielding tape does not eliminate the hum that comes from single coil pickups. It reduces the amount of hum that you can pick up from extraneous sources such as bad lighting and so forth.
+Doron Markowitz Update, the tech himself said that it really wouldn't work so he advised against it. The fact that a Guitar Center employee was trying to get me NOT to spend money told me that at least he was sincere. Now I don't know if he was just ignorant lol.
+El Manimal He told you that because he doesn't know how to do it, which isn't surprising. Obviously it works. I did it. If you want the job done right, by someone qualified, don't go to Guitar Center.
Hey, Doron I have a question, with this series/parallel vs coil splitting, this is great, but I want to ask have you ever tried the Triple Shot Rings from Seymour Duncan. If I get the Duncan Whole Lotta Humbucker pickups, will I be able to setup the triple shot rings with it?
Parallel or series has nothing to do with negating hum. It has to do with how pickup coils are combined. For the most part, electric guitars with multiple pickups have them wired in parallel. Very rarely do you have production instruments with the pickups wired in series, the most common being danelectro.
I guess what I mean is if you has the choice and hum was not a factor, would you prefer a humbucker to be coil-split or parallel? It seems people sometimes default to parallel because of the hum-bucking. Purely speaking one pickup here, not a combination of pickups. Sorry, I should have given context. One pickup and you are choosing whether to split the coils or have a series/parallel switch to go between humbucker and single-coil sounds and hum is taken out of the equation already by an outboard device like the SSCII.
Parallel and split coil are two different options that offer tonal differences. Taking the hum factor out of the equation, parallel is still a viable option for tonal variation. again as I mentioned in the video, parallel is brighter and similar to a single coil, however it is not the same as a true coil split sound. so having the option to go from series, to split, to parallel, is worthwhile.
Thank's man, I've learned a lot from your Video and I think I will try some of these ideas. But there is still another question. What do you think tonaly about wiring a Les Paul with only one Tone and One Volume and using the remaining wholes for the series/parallel switch. For an old Fenderplayer 4 Potis are still a bit tricky to handle because I use them constantly to balance out my sound.
This is by far the most informative video I've seen about this topic. BUT! I do not have a lot of knowledge about guitar wiring in general and I have no clue if the following scenario is possible: I got two vol pots, two push/pull tone pots and two orange drop caps. What I want to do is a series/parallel wiring with the 50s style tone and volume control (like you showed in the video). Since I am so clueless about which pot log does what and since you've used the push/pull pots as vol controls, I don't know if it is even possible to do it as I imagine. Could you help me out?
+contact1araya I wired one on-on-on toggle switch (for my tele with a seymour duncan JB pickup) to switch between series humbucking, coil split (north) and parallel hum bucking and I am so happy with having those 3 options. if you learn to use the tone and volume on your guitar to change the 3 sounds, then each can be very useful in its own way if you only have one guitar to mess with
Hi Doron, I am getting ready to Mod my ESP LTD-300, Flying V guitar. I have purchased the Whole Lotta Humbucker pickup set and the push pull pots. Is there anything else I need to buy so that my guitar can sound similar to the one you used in the "Humbuckers series/Parallel vs coil splitting" video? Thanks.
i agree that it is annoying when you turn down one of the volumes all the way and it brings down the volume of the entire guitar. i wire my guitars the same way you do, such that when you turn the volume all the way down, it doesn't bring down the volume of the overall guitar. basically the way to accomplish this in layman's terms is you wire it so that when the pot is turned all the way down, it effective shorts out the individual pickup rather than shorting out the guitar output
Is there a page on the internet where I can find a diagram for this kind of wiring? I like to change the settings on my semi acc to this.... Sounds great.
Doron, you mention the volume pots are 500K, do you recall if they were logaritmic? I'd say so but I might be wrong. And what about the tone pots, also 500K? Log? Thank you.
This is exactly the mod I'm looking for with my LP style, duncands with four-conductors. But can it be done without a push pull, just by making the middle toggle switch position go to the parallel setting for the neck pickup?
Ok thanks Kevin. That's the info I was looking for. I still haven't decided whether I want to give up the neck series tone and hard-wire it that way, but at least I know how now. So, one more question. I don't have any tone pots wired in it right now. (I don't use tone knobs) so as of now those are just dummy knobs. Are there rotary toggle switches that could be wired as the series/parallel switches for those, and put in the spots where the tone post normally go?
@@doronm63 This is a big problem for me. I was reading that new Ibanez Az series makes what they call ´´power tap´´. Ibanez tells us that the “Power Tap uses one single coil plus a low signal from the other single coil.” However, the DCR measurement doesn’t change in this mode so it’s not a coil-split, partial-tap or parallel linkage of the two coils: the more ‘single coil-like’ sound appears to be achieved with a passive RC (resistor and capacitor) filter on one single coil that uses small surface mount components placed on a PCB that’s fixed to the five-way switch.
thanks for reply, as my guitar tech (we live in England) had said it was not possible, when I showed him your video he agreed but said " but you loose quite a bit of high end when you roll off the volume" in your opinion is this the case?
you can't lose high-end when you roll off the volume because each volume is completely independent of the other. Therefore no matter what you do your tone will always stay consistent. For example, if you have all three volumes up, all 3 pickups operating, and you roll off the neck pick up volume, the middle and bridge will still function as normal. if you roll off the middle pickup volume and have only the bridge pickup on, it'll still sound as normal.
@@doronm63 Question, When you wired to the middle vol. lugs, did the volume pot rolloff seem to act differently. More drastic and not as smooth so to speak. Just wondering. Thanks again for the helpful info.
I have always been annoyed with the volume knob function. So all i need to do is swap the 2 wires on each..and the rest falls into place as far as the tone knob "mod"?
+McSpankey Well, each humbucker is wired to its own series/parallel switch. You can wire it to a self-phase switch as well, but I don't recommend it, since wiring a humbucker out of phase with itself will give a really weak and nasal tone that is not pleasant to hear.
You really need to have more than one pickup to gain any advantage from having an out of phase sound - makes a pickup sounds nasally and weak, which is useless on its own but when combined with the output of another weak, nasally sounding pickup, interesting, useful tones happen. To make a comparable analogy: if a double pickup guitar was like a car with four-wheel drive and a single pickup guitar was rear-wheel drive, it wouldn't make much sense to limit the functionality to only one wheel operating the car. Need at least two wheels turning to have any fun and it isn't especially useful for outright speed but front and rear "cornering" ability. Enjoy the single pickup for what it is; pure, unadulterated simplicity and the lack of a magnetic neck pickup means there's less string pull and more sustain/less weight and "drag" as it were.
So I just wired my SG exactly like this, series/parallel pull pots, independent volume, vintage tone wiring and I am completely happy with the results. So much variety with no noise...thanks buddy!
Did you happen to found any wiring diagrams showing this same setup?
I’m working on a couple guitars right now and I’d love to use this wiring
@@kevinyounger7854 I found one close and modified it as needed
timbliz@yahoo.com send me an email
Where did you buy the pull pots?
@@timmarkowicz779 Amazon
I've got a Strat style custom build with a bridge P90 and a neck double/double rail, custom wound (yep, 4 coils so I can split the splits), p/p Bourne 500k pots with pull for parallel and slap for series, a 5 way switch with judicious use of treble and tone bleeds for different positions and I wind up with 20 (count them if you can) different and unique tonal variations at the flip of a switch and a knob pop! I can go from 50's Do-Wop to B. B. King to ELP to Zepplin to Gwar without changing guitars or set up! The variations with effects pedals is almost unlimited! Not trying to brag just saying that the understanding of WHY things work is basic to understanding HOW things work! Thanks for sharing DM keep up the good work! PEACE!!!!
Fundamental video for me this one! I'm about to build a double humbucker superstrat but wanted to have also a single-coil sound on position 2 and 4 of the 5way switch. Hard choice to make but thanks of this video I decided to go with coils wired in parallel for strat sound. Not much different from a real single-coil pickup and still humbucking. Thanks!
I've watched probably a hundred videos on pickups/tone/wiring options/ideas/parallel/series/pot configurations and mods, yada yada yada. This is by far the most informative, enlightening, and truly revolutionary video I've EVER seen on it!!! Bar none. Thanks bro. Fantastic.
By the way, what kind of knuckle dragger watches a video this informative and hits the 'unlike' button???
Thank you. I really appreciate your kind words. I try to be as informative as I can so people have all the options available to them. As for your question about knuckle draggers, haters gonna hate. lol.
I had my guitars wired for independent volumes for years. I always felt like they were missing something. Then I rewired one of my jb/59 guitars and accidentally had the volumes wired dependent and it was like the blanket had been lifted and all the tone was back. Turns out independent volumes suck tone, it's a fact. I really missed the middle positions ability to blend at first but I gained so much tone back that it was worth keeping them dependent. Independent wiring makes your taper roll of highs REALLY REALLY fast. Anyways there certainly pros and cons to both but at the end of the day independent volume pots suck too much time to be worth it. Id love independent wiring if that wasn't the case though, but sadly it just is.
Wiring in a treble bleed to the volumes would help retain the highs as you roll off the volumes.
i have 8 electric guitars with no tone or volume controls connected for that reason. I use my pedal for volume control.
@@guitartapEDIT: Missed the part about the volume pedal, until after I commented. But if you haven't I still recommend trying a no load volume an tone pot. I just modify my existing ones that way I can set the exact cut off point.
Origional comment:
I just make my my volume and tone pots no load now so at 10 it's the same as not having them there at all. The amount of time versatility you lose by not having a volume and tone is on my opinion way too dramatic to just not have any. The way my volume an tone control are dialed in is what gets me to the literal sweet spot. It's cool if that's what you prefer, there's nothing wrong with that but I just hope you've experienced what using volume and tones correctly can do for your tone before you decoded to do away with them. Again, my way isn't the only way or the best sane as yours just different. I just truly wanted to know if you ever experimented with dialing in your tone eith the guitars pots. I'm sure you have but I have to recommend you do if you havent.
Doron Markowitz
How did you get modern AND 50’s wiring too?
2:08 Bridge (Series)
2:21 Neck (Series)
2:39 Bridge (Parallel)
3:15 Neck (Parallel)
3:50 Bridge (Parallel) + Neck (Parallel)
4:18 Bridge (Parallel) + Neck (Series)
4:30 Bridge (Series) + Neck (Parallel)
Old video but a great explanation , it shed some light ,just what I was looking for
I use 2 lollar imperial humbuckers and only one has 4 leads so it was too troublesome to split and I was able to do parallel. These are on an Amer Standard tele from a year where they releaaed a double humbucker tele. It was a satisfactory mod. Since then i've looked into it more and my conclusion is that a good parallel wiring job is a unique sound, and only vaguely similar to a factory single coil. Same with a split (a tap is a different story)......the split double coil of a humbucker is usually smaller then a factory single coil, and to my ear sounds thinner. I think the best bet is to buy a Tele or Strat for a single coil sound and some sort of Gibson for humbucker...I really like the ES-335. I enjoy the versatility of my modified Tele though....especially running the neck parallel and the bridge series. It has it's own distinctive sound when I try different combinations, not really humbucker or single coil....but the thing is, if it sounds good, then it's a success. Finally, I prefer the sound of parallel to split...it's cleaner to my ear.
great tip about volume pot wiring. never thought that changing lugs would make any difference
Look at vintage Les Paul wiring and compare 50s vs 60s wiring and that's one of the things they changed, IIRC, which also affected how the sound changes when you turn down vol & tone
Thanks for doing it with clean tones
You're welcome.
This guy is one of the best around... period
Jason Rosner- Bass Thanks so much for your support.
Wait. He is claiming coil spilitting gives you a true single coil sound and you think *that* guy is the best around?
Uhhhhm.
Sure.
@@seriseriom8445 he said similar not true single coil sound, pay attention.
Very informative concise video. My first and only stop to understanding all this. Well done
nice video... the bonus of me was how easy it is to rewire the lugs on the volume pot so both pickups stay on with selector switch in the middle regardless of volume pot settings. Turning on my soldering iron next! Thanks.
+Mikee535 yeah man. that's definitely one of the big advantages. you're welcome.
Hey DM, thanx for giving me the direction on how to have my rewired Les Paul....rewired. I want to now have it with the series/parallel set up and get rid of the coil splitter function. I bought this guitar set up that way and the single coil splits didn't sound all that great anyway. I want it to sound more like a true LP.
One wiring mod I've used but not seen elsewhere is to connect each pickup's tone control directly to the pickup, but then have the signal pass through a 100K resistor before reaching the selector switch. This somewhat reduces the top volume, but allows each tone knob to act more independently on its own coil. In my own particular case, I use four steel bars as "mutes" connecting the upper four pairs of pole pieces on the bridge pickup, since I often play a bass-strum pattern using one of the bottom two strings plus the top four, and I like some extra punch on the bass strings (obtained by turning down the tone control on the guitar while turning up the treble EQ on the amp). I think the wiring technique might be useful even when using a more conventional tuning, since the character of the upper harmonics is rather different on the bridge and neck pickups, and it may be helpful to adjust them separately.
Nice! I checked this video to see about what to do; I've got some new pickups for my Epi SG. I wasn't specifically looking for 4-lead pickups but the ones I got do have them anyway. I usually favour humbuckers but it seems a shame to lock them in one mode when I have options, so I also got some push/pulls. I was considering doing series/parallel at the bridge and coil split at the neck so I wanted to check if there was any point to that - as you've demonstrated I may as well do series/parallel for both. Thanks!
Kramer are the only ones I know that use parallel vs splitting the Humbucker. They are so underrated. Also noise canceling.
That's cool that you're willing to share your knowledge of this stuff. I'm getting ready to do a les Paul type build for myself. I was already gonna do the 50s wiring. I think I'll just go all out do mine like you did this one. Thanks for sharing.
TimmyV my pleasure man. let me know how it goes.
No bs and well explained. Answered all my questions about series/parallel, and volume tone control wiring.
Thank you. I appreciate that. It was my pleasure.
This is pretty genius Doron.
Maybe I was just ignorant, but I'm pretty impressed.
+Chris Calverley Thank you very much. I appreciate that.
Very thorough and informative video!!! Thank you so much for taking the time to do this!!!
Thank you. You're very welcome.
This is a great mod on something like a Firebird where you have a really overwound bridge and want to go from a metal monster ice pick to a screaming tele style tone. It really works and if you go crazy and throw on a third push pull pot for phase reversal, you have an astonishing amount of tones in one guitar. Great if you're the kind of person who likes to record at home and/or hates taking 3 guitars to a venue ..
Exactly. I love the versatility that such wiring offers
Squier Super Sonic on order here -- look like this mod will be a perfect complement to the super hot Atomic pickups!!
Late to the show. I have a 2 humbucker 2v 1t 3 way toggle guitar. I wired all 3 dpdt with one series/parallel one in and out of phase and tone is coil split (has to be both pups simultaneously 😥) but the tones are out of this world.
I be interested in the wiring layout ! My 335 could use refreshing of newer sounds !
Learned a lot from this short video, GREAT work!
WOW! You seem to have ‘50s Wiring’ on the Tone Pots BUT Modern Wiring on the Volumes?! HOW? Have you a diagram for this, please?
Thanks. i was debating on a coil tap vs parallel- this was an excellent explanation. i'm going parallel.
You're welcome. Glad I could help.
@abbaby68 yes. Seymour Duncan make humbucker surrounds with micro switches which allow you to do 4 settings per pickup. Humbucker series, humbucker parallel, single South coil only, single North coil only.
Even cooler mod, bass cut filter. No loss of volume, no hum, the treble still sounds as round as ever, but the bass tapers off giving a really convincing single coil without getting piercing, or dropping volume.
could you post the actual wiring diagram of this setup? Would love to have this on my lespaul studio. Was about to get push push pots to split the coils but your system is better but man...without a diagram (and even so) i'm so srewed. Ah just read you don't share diagrams of your wiring!!!!! Just bloody great.
Here you go
I believe the Seymour Duncan diagram is correct.
forum.seymourduncan.com/showthread.php?321551-LP-Series-Parallel-Tone-w-50-s-Wiring-and-Independent-Volume
Thanks Doron, super helpful! I've got a SD hotrails that I'm about to put into my frankenstrat, and was going to put in an on/on/on mini toggle to use the two "blades" of the pickup as single coil near bridge/both (humbucking)/other single coil--I just saw a video demo of a guy that did this and was surprised at the tonal difference just between the separate single coils. BUT, now you've got me thinking about the parallel idea and keeping it humbucking. Ugh. Too many choices! Haha. I'm sure there must be a way to get all four: Series/Parallel/front coil/back coil. Ever done something like this?
Thanks again for an awesome post!
Thanks for another great video. I have one push pull pot guitar that splits each coil, but like you said with parallel you get more of a single coil sound. I like the parallel wiring better. I have some P90 4 conductor humbuckers that I can run in parallel. It's a 50's tribute Les Paul. I am getting tele and strat sounds!
gearmeister hey man, glad I could help. and I appreciate your support.
Doron Markowitz No problem. I use a simple trick to run humbuckers in parallel on any guitar with 4 conductor wiring. I take the coil link wires and run them to the unused leg of each tone pot respectively, so with tone on max I get parallel mode, slightly roll off the tone to get full humbucking (series) mode. No push pull necessary
gearmeister yeah, that's how the Peavey T-60 was wired as well.
Awesome variations.
Very good explanation. No stats and numbers for us layman but that’s kinda nice.
Great video. I'm a beginner and wanting to change my Donner dlp124 guitar that has two humbuckers. I have only one volume and one tone. I would like to wire them separately each to their own push pull potentiometer 500k. Not sure about how to wire them? It has a three way switch.
Nice work, you've given me a lot of new ideas for my LP, Thanks!
Thanks man. Glad to hear it.
Dang what a rhythm lead player!
The wiring you mention for the tone control acting like a treble bleed. I don't notice the treble dropping off when I lower the volume. My guitar is wired weird looking and I can't understand it yet, but it sounds like it gets muddy when I raise the volume. If you wire the guitar as you describe here, would that happen? The other thing is the volume pot is a 'A500' and the tone is 'B500' is the tone a linear pot?
This is awesome. I think I may try this. I just got a high output bridge humbucker for my SG and it sounds too muddy with high gain and parallel might cut the mids and bring out the treble.
there you go.
Humbuckers in parallel are the way to go
Well, one way to go.
If each coil is 4k a series connected hb would be 8k. Parallel connection would be 2K. A quarter of the series connection not half.
I have 2-humbuckers, 2-volume push-pulls, no tone, and a 3-way toggle. Is it possible to have series/parallel and then go to in/out of phase as well? Will I still have full humbucking when not in/out of phase?
thank you,parallel it is for my SG, just need to figure out how to do the wiring, wish my push pots and new humbuckers came with at least a color code.
I'd be happy to do it for you, if you'd like to ship the guitar to me.
I wish I could but that costs money, Stupid cancer has made sure that I never have money, But on the good side since I am stuck in bed most of the time my 20 year old son and I decided to get a couple cheap guitars and learn how to play together. Great way to spend our remaining time together. Thanks again. I may have a question for you after I get all the parts though.
Brian Knickerbocker I am so sorry. Feel free to call me during the day and we can discuss this better. 305-896-1811.
so very kind of you, I just might, I would like to know if you have any info about Irongear Tesla Shark pickups. and tonerider. these are the two that I can afford and I think they are still good and trustworthy.
Brian Knickerbocker from what I have found on the internet, they appear to be clones of the Seymour Duncan alnico 2 which is good. I think they are a good choice.
I've got a bridge Duncan JB pup that's obviously out of phase. I hate the sound. Hopefully educate and fix.
Great info. I'm particularly interested in the rewiring of the tone pots that enables volume roll-down without tone loss. Will this work on a single coil like a strat? And why isn't this the standard way for wiring tone? Seems counterintuitive to have tone decrease along with volume...
this wiring is primarily for humbuckers with 4 conductor lead, which give a multitude of options, such as coil splitting, series/parallel, and phase switching. You can wire single coils in series, but that wiring would be a bit different than seen here. As for tone pot wiring, the industry standard is to have the tone pot wired to the input stage of the volume and not the output stage. I agree it should be the other way around.
Exceptionally clear and informative. Thank you.
You are very welcome.
So in short: which is the difference, if any, between a humbucker with both coils wired in parallel or a split humbucker with a coil shorted to ground and so working as a single coil?
Which is the advantage of wiring the humbucker coils in paralell vs coil taping, i.e. cancelling one of the two coils? Just killing the hum?
The two main reasons for choosing parallel over split coils are noise (parallel is still humbucking) and tone. The individual coils from a humbucker tend to (in general, there are exceptions) weaker then true single coils. Giving a weak split coil tone.
Neither will sound exactly like a single coil and which sounds best is subjective.
So you would wire both volume pots lugs "switched" to get independent control or just one pot. I find that annoying as well : )
wish I had seen this while I was working in homestead man I would have gotten you to do this to my lp awsome
Well, you can always ship the guitar to me, if you like.
Great video! Do you by chance have a wiring diagram for this with the two parallel/series switches and fully independent volume control?
He is NOT going to show or give you a wiring diagram for the simple reason that IF he does, then no one would have any need for him doing it for a price.
You can find the wiring all over the internet. Just break it down into single mods. Parallel/series wiring and full volume control. Then 50s wiring that keeps the treble up as you roll the volume off.
Here's independent volume control. The rest is easy to find.
www.premierguitar.com/articles/21106-mod-garage-decouple-your-les-pauls-volume-controls
@@guylainecollett7943 except these diagrams are available free on the internet if you know how to use a search engine. It's not that if he provides them, no one will need his services. They're already provided by other sources. Seymour Duncan Wil gladly give you whatever you need, for example. So will plenty of others. He's not doing anything new or groundbreaking so he's not hiding anything or keeping anything secret. Still, there are people out there who can't do their own work or can but just prefer not to. They still need someone like him to work on their guitars.
Giving away wiring diagrams wouldn't hurt his business. Especially when the people asking are 1600 miles away. They were never potential customers of his to begin with. Not for that, anyway.
As a matter of fact, here's someone asking about the exact same combination of mods with wiring diagrams.
forum.seymourduncan.com/showthread.php?321551-LP-Series-Parallel-Tone-w-50-s-Wiring-and-Independent-Volume
Is it possible to have a blend pot also on the bridge pu to go from full hb mode to sc mode and anything betwene?
Great job explaining a really cool mod! When wiring a humbucker with a metal pickup cover in the series-parallel config. do you need to worry about the grounding/ polarity of the pickup cover? Thanks
Jerome Schwartz as long as the wiring of the pickup is four conductor lead with a separate shield or ground then you don't have to worry about the cover. the cover is already soldered to the base plate. the bare shield or ground is directly soldered to the base plate as well internally usually.
Dear Doron, thank you for sharing this great idea!
I've been trying to find good quality (e.g. CTS) push pull linear pots, without success. All I can find are audio (log) pots. Would you have any hint where to find linear push pull pots and/or good brands?
Thank you!
I use WD pots, which I find to have a very smooth taper, and looseness that feels worn in nicely right out of the package, unlike the stiffer feel of CTS pots. WD does make a linear taper push/pull as well as audio taper push/pulls. I hope that helped.
I wonder how this compares to a coil tap. I'd imagine that if you had a humbucker with a coil tap that you could get some neat tones if you set it to parallel while it was tapped too.
You can't set it to parallel if the pickup is tapped, as tapping it would cut one coil, hence making it operate as a single coil.
Would you post a wiring schematic without the push/pull pots instead a straight 5 way switch thanks!
Sorry but I don't share any of my wiring schematics. I would however be more than happy to wire it up for you however you would like.
google it you'll find one
Good job! That´s exactly what im planning to do in my guitar. Since im really far awar to and it would be kind a difficult to send my guitar to you... I would thank a little advice on which pots i must use and where i can find a wiring diagram. Thanks for the video!
Rodrigo Garza the pots used were Dimarzio 500k push/pull volume pots. depending on which brand of pickups you plan to use, you can find wiring diagrams for series/parallel online at the various companies' websites.
Important Detail: A paf style pickup like these "Whole Lotta Humbuckers" have weak indifidual coils, much weaker than a strat. Something like a JB in parallell sound closer to a strat.
awesome. do you have a video were its 2 humbuckers with a dpdt switch one volume one tone
I love the info and your passion my man. Kudos, Subscribed
Thanks so much. I appreciate that.
Can you help please? I have a Telecaster with 2 Seymour Duncan Little 59 pickups fitted with 2 DiMarzio 250k push-pull pots and would like to get a versatile wiring setup with an appropriate switch either 3, 4, 5 or super 5. Can you please advise? Many thanks!
Hey Daron I have a small question. I play on Les Paul Custom with 496R/498T pups mostly Punk Rock kind of music. What wiring would be better in your opinion? I want that bright high output trebley and sparkly kind of sound you generally see in a punk guitar.
It all depends on whether your pickups have standard 2 conductor lead wires for 4 conductor. If 2 conductor, your wiring options are limited.
My neck pickup is 2 conductor but the bridge one which I usually use is 4.
Thank you. Great demonstration & explanation
PlanetOfTheAbez you're welcome. It was my pleasure.
I don't like the truly independent volume knobs. You have the pickup select switch for doing that, and you can't shut up the guitar fast as you can with the traditional wiring.
The problem with the traditional approach to wiring the volume controls as Gibson does, is that if you have the pickup selector switch in the middle, and you roll off one volume the entire output is shut off. Having truly independent volume controls eliminate that problem. Conversely if you have the volume control rolled off on one pickup, you can still do the same stutter effect that I think you are referring to with the pickup toggle switch. In other words there really is no disadvantage to having truly independent volume control wiring but there are major disadvantages to the traditional wiring approach.
@@doronm63 thank you SO MUCH for this tip. i have a bass that has been giving me fits because of this and no one (so called experts) had been able to figure this out.
Could you do phase switching with a 2 wire hb? Just run it to an on/on switch that's in phase on one side and the other has the leads reversed for out of phase?
No. You'd have to modify it to 3 wire because a 2 wire has one of the wires as a dedicated ground.
So, if you have 50's style wiring on a LP guitar and do the independent wiring, do you still lose the treble when lowering one of the volumes when in the middle switch position?
Well there's no treble bleed circuit on the volume controls. So they would still function as normal, including cutting trouble as your lowering volume. To avoid that, install a treble bleed circuit on your volume controls.
@@doronm63 Not sure if you've seen this guy, but he claims the treble bleed won't make a difference? I may have to install one and see for myself. th-cam.com/video/NzYwuYG1Ls0/w-d-xo.html
Just stumbled across this today. Do you have any wiring diagrams?
I'm only at 1:15, but want to ask this before I forget. I think I heard you say that when you switch to parallel, you still cancel hum because the coils are wrapped the same way. Reverse winding cancels hum, so do you mean 'same way' as in still reverse wound, only now in parallel?
No, I never said they are wrapped the same way. I said that, in parallel, both coils go in the same direction, which cuts the impedance in half, producing a sound similar to a single coil. But since both coils are still on, it still functions as a humbucker, i.e.- no hum.
Very informative! Do you prefer linear or audio pots, and/or do you mix them for vol and tone? Thanks!
I generally prefer to use audio taper pots in guitars.
How do you check once it's all wired up?
I plug it into the amplifier and listen to all of the settings. I also check with my ohm-meter to make sure all of the settings are correct.
The main problem I see with independent wiring is that wiring the guitar this way, even if your volumes are both turned all the way down, the circuit is still open and makes a bunch of noise when you let go of the guitar strings. Not a big deal if you play clean most of the time but if he lays on the gain in a big way, that guitar is going to squeal like crazy if he let's go of the strings even with both volumes down
Moshe Alvarez nope. That doesn't happen. I don't know if you've ever actually had a guitar with truly independent volumes for each pickup but in my experience that sort of noise does not happen when you roll them off.
Perhaps the covers on the pickups eliminate the problem but every single Gibson guitar I've ever wired up with independent volumes have had that same problem but then again, all those guitars had pickups with no covers.
thanx, very good explanation & pretty obvious sound differences.
I really appreciate. Good playing btw :-)
You're welcome. And thank you for the kind words.
Hey really informative and very insightful video! I am in New York, by any chance do you have the wiring specs on how to do this? I would like to get an Epi Les Paul Custom or get this diagram so I customize my Flying V guitar. Thanks.
this can be done with any guitar that has humbuckers with 4 conductor lead wires.
Hey man, I was wandering if you could help me out with wiring options. Basically I'm having my own guitar built and the options are:
Two pots for volume
Two push/pull tone pots where in the up position their in parallel wiring
A cap on each of the tone pots
A reversed jazz bass wiring on the volume
3 way toggle twitch
And if possible, a 50's style wiring on the push pull pot
Would it be possible, and if so, would it be worth it?
***** what do you mean by a reversed Jazz Bass wiring for the volume? all the other stuff sounds fine. I don't see why not.
Doron Markowitz I was kind of referring to the Jazz bass wiring in the video, cut couldn't find any diagrams on it. Do you think that you could maybe show me a diagram with all of the things that I had mentioned on the first comment except with standard jazz bass wiring for the volume pots? :)
***** well, Jazz Bass wiring is 2 volumes and a single tone. this is 2 volumes and 2 tones. basically, the pickup is wired to the center lug of the volume pot and the output is wired to the first lug. then the tone pot input is wired to the same first lug of the volume pot. take a look at the wiring of your Les Paul. you'll notice that the pickup is wired to the first lug of the volume pot, and the output wired to the second, or middle lug. that's no good if you want independent volume control for each pickup. just reverse those 2 connections and that's it.
I have what's left of a roll of copper shielding tape I use on my Strats... wouldn't this solve the single coil (if humbucker coil split) 60-cycle hum issue as it does in my Strats? I was thinking I'd do the pickup cavities, the switch cavity, and the control pot cavity...
Shielding tape does not eliminate the hum that comes from single coil pickups. It reduces the amount of hum that you can pick up from extraneous sources such as bad lighting and so forth.
Nice...Now that Epi needs jumbo frets and a bone nut!
Can you do one pot coil split and one parallel? Is that possible?
You mean pickup, not pot. Correct? If so, yes you can wire one humbucker to coil split switch and the other pickup to a series/parallel switch.
Guna see if the tech at Guitar Center can do this for me. Thanks for this!
Ok. Good luck.
+Doron Markowitz Update, the tech himself said that it really wouldn't work so he advised against it. The fact that a Guitar Center employee was trying to get me NOT to spend money told me that at least he was sincere. Now I don't know if he was just ignorant lol.
+El Manimal He told you that because he doesn't know how to do it, which isn't surprising. Obviously it works. I did it. If you want the job done right, by someone qualified, don't go to Guitar Center.
+Tex Mex Guitar Center "GC Garage" guys are akin to Best Buy "Geek Squad".
Hey, Doron I have a question, with this series/parallel vs coil splitting, this is great, but I want to ask have you ever tried the Triple Shot Rings from Seymour Duncan. If I get the Duncan Whole Lotta Humbucker pickups, will I be able to setup the triple shot rings with it?
What about something like a Suhr with the SSCII system installed, negating any hum from a soil split. Would you still choose parallel over that?
Parallel or series has nothing to do with negating hum. It has to do with how pickup coils are combined. For the most part, electric guitars with multiple pickups have them wired in parallel. Very rarely do you have production instruments with the pickups wired in series, the most common being danelectro.
I guess what I mean is if you has the choice and hum was not a factor, would you prefer a humbucker to be coil-split or parallel? It seems people sometimes default to parallel because of the hum-bucking.
Purely speaking one pickup here, not a combination of pickups. Sorry, I should have given context. One pickup and you are choosing whether to split the coils or have a series/parallel switch to go between humbucker and single-coil sounds and hum is taken out of the equation already by an outboard device like the SSCII.
Parallel and split coil are two different options that offer tonal differences. Taking the hum factor out of the equation, parallel is still a viable option for tonal variation. again as I mentioned in the video, parallel is brighter and similar to a single coil, however it is not the same as a true coil split sound. so having the option to go from series, to split, to parallel, is worthwhile.
What's the difference between having a 3 positions key and just volume knobs for each pickup?
Thank's man, I've learned a lot from your Video and I think I will try some of these ideas. But there is still another question. What do you think tonaly about wiring a Les Paul with only one Tone and One Volume and using the remaining wholes for the series/parallel switch. For an old Fenderplayer 4 Potis are still a bit tricky to handle because I use them constantly to balance out my sound.
I personally prefer single volume and tone. So absolutely do it.
All right, lets do it :) Wondering that I can't find anyone on you tube trying this.
+Tom Stern Yeah man. Go for it.
This is by far the most informative video I've seen about this topic. BUT! I do not have a lot of knowledge about guitar wiring in general and I have no clue if the following scenario is possible:
I got two vol pots, two push/pull tone pots and two orange drop caps. What I want to do is a series/parallel wiring with the 50s style tone and volume control (like you showed in the video). Since I am so clueless about which pot log does what and since you've used the push/pull pots as vol controls, I don't know if it is even possible to do it as I imagine. Could you help me out?
I would have to draw you out a wiring diagram as explaining the process would be too involved.
so if .I am understanding this correctly, it would be sort of redundant to have coil splitting and also parallel mode?
Tonally speaking, they're very similar.
+contact1araya I wired one on-on-on toggle switch (for my tele with a seymour duncan JB pickup) to switch between series humbucking, coil split (north) and parallel hum bucking and I am so happy with having those 3 options. if you learn to use the tone and volume on your guitar to change the 3 sounds, then each can be very useful in its own way if you only have one guitar to mess with
+Robert Dunham where'd you get the info to do this? I really want to do this for my les paul
Hi Doron, I am getting ready to Mod my ESP LTD-300, Flying V guitar. I have purchased the Whole Lotta Humbucker pickup set and the push pull pots. Is there anything else I need to buy so that my guitar can sound similar to the one you used in the "Humbuckers series/Parallel vs coil splitting" video? Thanks.
that should pretty much be everything you need.
i agree that it is annoying when you turn down one of the volumes all the way and it brings down the volume of the entire guitar. i wire my guitars the same way you do, such that when you turn the volume all the way down, it doesn't bring down the volume of the overall guitar. basically the way to accomplish this in layman's terms is you wire it so that when the pot is turned all the way down, it effective shorts out the individual pickup rather than shorting out the guitar output
correct.
great video by the way. what's the resistance of the pots you are using?
Can you wire 2 humbuckers in parallel with only one tone and one volume pot if both pots are push/pull? Like the 4 way switch on the new Fenders.
Yes I can. Feel free to call me to discuss your needs. 305-896-1811. Thanks.
I will call next week when I get back to Florida.
Sounds good. I look forward to it.
Is there a page on the internet where I can find a diagram for this kind of wiring? I like to change the settings on my semi acc to this.... Sounds great.
+Quido vdW I don't know. This wiring is based on a diagram I drew.
Doron, you mention the volume pots are 500K, do you recall if they were logaritmic? I'd say so but I might be wrong. And what about the tone pots, also 500K? Log?
Thank you.
both the volume and tone pots are audio taper.
This is exactly the mod I'm looking for with my LP style, duncands with four-conductors. But can it be done without a push pull, just by making the middle toggle switch position go to the parallel setting for the neck pickup?
no, you need a separate DPDT switch to do series/parallel.
+kevin paul halliday both pickups are wired to their own series/parallel switch.
Ok thanks Kevin. That's the info I was looking for. I still haven't decided whether I want to give up the neck series tone and hard-wire it that way, but at least I know how now.
So, one more question. I don't have any tone pots wired in it right now. (I don't use tone knobs) so as of now those are just dummy knobs. Are there rotary toggle switches that could be wired as the series/parallel switches for those, and put in the spots where the tone post normally go?
Isn´t the parellel mode sound lower than the splitted mod?
Parallel mode has about the same output as single coil mode. In other words the volume level isn't the same. Not lower.
@@doronm63 This is a big problem for me. I was reading that new Ibanez Az series makes what they call ´´power tap´´. Ibanez tells us that the “Power Tap uses one single coil plus a low signal from the other single coil.” However, the DCR measurement doesn’t change in this mode so it’s not a coil-split, partial-tap or parallel linkage of the two coils: the more ‘single coil-like’ sound appears to be achieved with a passive RC (resistor and capacitor) filter on one single coil that uses small surface mount components placed on a PCB that’s fixed to the five-way switch.
hi, is it possible to have "independent volume control" for THREE pickups?
Yes. You can install a volume for each pickup.
thanks for reply, as my guitar tech (we live in England) had said it was not possible, when I showed him your video he agreed but said " but you loose quite a bit of high end when you roll off the volume" in your opinion is this the case?
you can't lose high-end when you roll off the volume because each volume is completely independent of the other. Therefore no matter what you do your tone will always stay consistent. For example, if you have all three volumes up, all 3 pickups operating, and you roll off the neck pick up volume, the middle and bridge will still function as normal. if you roll off the middle pickup volume and have only the bridge pickup on, it'll still sound as normal.
man, this video is great, where were u ages ago, cheers man !!
Thank you very much. I appreciate that.
hi doron. do you have a wiring diagram for these mods? i live in the uk so getting my guitar to you for you to do it is impossible :(
Could i get a copy off the wiring diagram please? thanks
Liam Whelan You can find the series/parallel wiring diagram in the wiring sheet that comes with Seymour Duncan pickups.
Many Thanks and very Helpful. !!!
You're very welcome.
@@doronm63 Question, When you wired to the middle vol. lugs, did the volume pot rolloff seem to act differently. More drastic and not as smooth so to speak. Just wondering. Thanks again for the helpful info.
@@jz6965 not really. The response and taper is the same.
I have always been annoyed with the volume knob function. So all i need to do is swap the 2 wires on each..and the rest falls into place as far as the tone knob "mod"?
yes.
Very good sir...great job!!!
Thanks my friend. I appreciate that.
Hi Doron is the anyway you can wire my Kurt Cobain jazzmaster the same way as the les paul?
Hi there. If the pickups are humbuckers, then yes. If they are single coils, they can't be wired the same way.
Can you wire it so just the outside coils can be turned up or down?
yes, but that would require an additional volume control per coil.
Oh hi again! I forgot to ask will I be able to do this wiring to any guitar maker, say Schecter or ESP? Thanks.
this can be done with any guitar that has humbuckers with 4 conductor lead wires.
How could you do something like this if there is only one humbucker ??
+McSpankey Well, each humbucker is wired to its own series/parallel switch. You can wire it to a self-phase switch as well, but I don't recommend it, since wiring a humbucker out of phase with itself will give a really weak and nasal tone that is not pleasant to hear.
+Doron Markowitz Thankyou
you're welcome.
You really need to have more than one pickup to gain any advantage from having an out of phase sound - makes a pickup sounds nasally and weak, which is useless on its own but when combined with the output of another weak, nasally sounding pickup, interesting, useful tones happen.
To make a comparable analogy: if a double pickup guitar was like a car with four-wheel drive and a single pickup guitar was rear-wheel drive, it wouldn't make much sense to limit the functionality to only one wheel operating the car. Need at least two wheels turning to have any fun and it isn't especially useful for outright speed but front and rear "cornering" ability.
Enjoy the single pickup for what it is; pure, unadulterated simplicity and the lack of a magnetic neck pickup means there's less string pull and more sustain/less weight and "drag" as it were.