pickup wiring need help!

[Deleted]

Hey there all you guitar monsters!

Hey, I want to put in HSS pickups in my next build. I have never set up a guitar this way. Most of the time I use two Humbcukers or 3 single coils. But every time I build a new guitar I try something different.
So how do you wire up A humbucker and 2 singles coils? What pots do you use? how many pots? (3 or 4) What kind of tone cap? Do I wire the Humbucker up by it's self ? Is there a way to use a 5 way switch to control how the Humbucker is used with the single coils? I see Fenders with HSS pickups but never seen how they are wired up. I would like to get the best tone I can out of all the pickups.
Well, let me hear from all guitar people... And No I haven't checked with Fender yet. I want to see what some of you might have come up with. Thanks!

[kcjewel]

I always look at the fender and emg site wiring diagrams for first impressions. The 5 way switch will give you each pickup seperate and also pair up the H with middle S, S with S, and everyone together. If your H has 4 wires you can also add a seperate swithc to coil tap it and run it as an S also. I"ve messed with different combos and find that I use the tones on 10 always, and have settled on one vol and one tone, 5 way switch, splitters as needed. I also like to add in aux circuits for overdrive.
John and the crew

[dnic]

Hi Eddie, Check out the S.D. site they have tons of diagrams.

Hvae fun with it.

dane

[Deleted]

Hey thanks for the info...
I for got about S.D.

[shattered]

Talk about serendipity! I modded one of mine 2 years ago, and set it up for HSS. I've been tweaking with the wiring ever since. I use three on/off switches instead of the usual 5-position. I have 2 volumes - a 250k for the singles, and a 500K for the humbucker. No tone knob. I keep getting a really thin, nasally, phase-cancelling thing going on whenever I use the humbucker with either of the singles, and I can't figure out why. I'll work on posting my wiring diagram in the next few days...

[Deleted]

Yes I have been looking at all kinds of ways of hooking up the HSS pickups. WOW! so many ways to do this. On a Fender Strat I learned is that they use a super switch 5 way and they hook up one tone for the humbucker and one for the single coils. They use a treble bleed on the volume pot and tone cap for the single coil and one for the humbucker.
So I went to SD web site and found out they wire it up much like a Strat with three single coils They just change the tone cap.
So Now I don't know where to start. Do I spend the money and do it like Fender or do I just take the easy way out ant do it SD? Hummm...
Oh I have looked at the min switch like you did I was looking at that mod on eBay. But please do post the way you did yours. More info! ;D

[shattered]

Ok, I was able to hack my way through a Paint version of the wiring I started with, and the tangled mess that is what I have now. Any constructive input from the forum is welcome!

For both diagrams, red=hot, black=common, green=gruond. The whole mess is grounded to the trem claw.

Original wiring:

This is what I cobbled together from looking at various websites - mainly guitarnuts, vintage kramers, and SD. I had some phase cancelling problems with the single coils, as well as issues with both volume knobs controlling all three pickups, so I came up with this:

This fixed the problem with the single coils, but the 500K pot still controls the volume on all three pickups, and I still have a volume drop/phase problem when I use the humbucker with either of the singles.

I'm considering a more conventional 1 vol/1 tone setup, but I get a good brown sound from the humbucker with the 500K pot. I also get a nice 4th position tone between the middle and neck pickups.

Also, I should mention the humbucker is a two-lead pickup. I think it came from a friend's late 80's Squier strat. No coil tapping option, unfortunately.

I don't know if this is especially helpful to you, but maybe it's a start?

[Deleted]

Yeah I think I would go with the vol/tone. I'm thinking for now I am going to use the wiring like SD shows on there website. It easy to do and I just don't have the money at the moment to put in to it like I Want. I may just get the guitar routed out and get the Finnish done and let it set till I can get what I want. I have a bunch of left over parts I was going to use but now I'm thing why? I would like to set this build up kind of like the Fender Fat strat that I saw on line but it will take some to get the parts I need.
This is the part of guitar building I too am still learning. Wiring. So many ways to get different tones. I had one of my guitars doing what yours is doing But I can't remember what I did to fix it. Hummmm.... Oh I know it was on my Saga LP build. It has 4 pots in it. I wound up changing all the pots and the tone caps. That guitar now sounds like a Less Paul (Gold Top)
Thanks so much for the input. I'll keep thinking on what you have done with yours. But I think you might be on the right track with the tone pot and maybe a tone cap would help. You might think of putting a treble bleed cap on the volume to see if that would help level out your sound with the single coils and the humbucker. Someone told me you need to do that with this combo. I don't know just a thought.

[kcjewel]

Feel free to post any parts you are missing, I have a lot of stuff sitting around, new tuners, pots, jacks, switches, pickups, pickguards. I'd rather it be put to good use than sit around.
John and the crew

[Deleted]

Apr 8, 2009 19:17:38 GMT -6 kcjewel said:

Feel free to post any parts you are missing, I have a lot of stuff sitting around, new tuners, pots, jacks, switches, pickups, pickguards. I'd rather it be put to good use than sit around.
John and the crew

Hey that would be so cool!

Hear is what I need. 5 way switch, I would like the kind that is an open switch. I have a real cheap set of single coils and a Humbucker form my Saga LP. If you have anything better than that...that would be real cool. I have 500k pots but was told that I need 1meg pots (2) for the setup I am after. A treble bleed cap, a tone cap for the single coils and I have a paper in oil cap for the humbucker. I think that's all I need. If you have at least some of the parts just send me an email at [e-mail]
Thanks so much!!!!