A wiring trick to get the most out of Humbuckers and Single Coils when you run them in the same guitar. Works in HSS Strats and HSH Ibanez RG-style guitars, as well as Teles with a humbucker in the neck and single in the bridge.
I wired my HSS Strat with two volumes and a master tone. It solves two problems. You can now balance the volume of the single coils with with humbucker if you are a switch-pickups-a-lot-guy and it allows you to have the proper pots for each kind of pickup. You can also split the humbucker at its volume pot, which you can't do with standard Strat wiring. I also used a push/pull on the tone pot and used two different caps: a .15uf and a .047uf, which gives me more options. I also add treble bleeds. The only downside to that is what happens in your resistor mod: It changes the taper of your pots but you have bright, usable tones at any volume. Lower the volume on your humbucker, with the treble bleed, you'd swear it's a Tele pickup.
Nice idea. I finally understand what the resistor is doing and where to place each end of it but how does adding a resistor intereact with the capacitors ? Do I need capacitors after using the resistor ?
First of all, thanks for contributing your expertise to the guitar community! For an HSS strat with 1 volume and 2 tones (all pots are 500k) would you simply use two resistors for the middle and neck pick up from the switch to ground?
a) this will make the sound darker when you run HB and SC in parallel b) the resistor will change the taper of the pot drastically c) many guitar builders aren't stupid. They simply use singlecoils that are wired a little bit hotter in a HSS or HSH guitar, to make them sound right with 500k pots.
@@aleksandrnestrato a) when you're using middle positions you're actually connecting the pickups in parallel. Since the HB is parallel to the resistor you'll have three single coil parallel to the resistor as well
@@piermariamontalto6563 Sounds like nonsense to me. The Hot from one humbucker coil goes into the Ground of the other humbucker coil. How in hell do you get parallel humbucker coils reconnected without reconnecting them? What three coils in parallel are you talking about?
I have used a parallel resistor on non-logarithmic pots to make them more logarithmic. I just realized that, in essence, that is what a treble bleed does as well. Another thing you can do is start with a 1M Vol pot like the Fender Jazzmasters have. That would give you a larger range of outcomes.
Very helpful man. Thank you so much for this information you explained it clear as day for me. Now I can add a single coil to my Ibanez GRX 20. I lifted the pickguard for the first time and found out I have a space in the body for a single coil, (whereas before it only had a pickguard made for double humbuckers... Very deceptive indeed) So I've ordered some EMG style humbuckers and I'm gonna put a lace sensor between them to match the look. However the EMG style pickups require 25k pots I believe. Now I'm confused about how that will add up as far as the hotness goes but I'll figure it out. If worse comes to worst I'll just put standard humbuckers with a standard single coil. I have the 500k pots. Anyways great video and I'm off to do some serious solder work
Did you end up finishing the project? I know people think active pickups are hot but, if I am not mistaken I thought they are actually relatively weak and the active circuit is what boasts it to that type of sound. So I am curious how pot value is affected
Great video? But a question. What cap(s) size did you use & did you solder back to tone or from tone to volume on the cap(s)?? I am building a tele with neck humbucker & single coil bridge.
I was wondering if possible could you please sketch out a drawing for this entire wiring diagram? Im putting together an HSH and looking to use the resistor on the the 5 way but I dont really understand the video. Thanks!
So that extra resistor you put on the hot neck pickup wire is in addition to what you already have on tone and volume pots? And that extra works only for the neck pickup right
The resistor formula for tones was well described, but it got muddy for me when you were going thru the soldering of the wires from switch to pot. Thanks.
Thats because he said it all wrong. He didnt wire it to the neck pickup he wired it to his middle pickup which is the single coil on his guitar. Basically whatever pickup you want to see only 250k on wire one end of the resistor to the switch where that pickup is wired and the other end goes to ground wherever you want that to be.
What if you have a humbler full size pup on bridge and a single coil size humbuker in the neck position with a single volume control and single tone control with a 3 way switch?
So I am about to do a Jackson 1 humbucker and 2 single coils. All ver hot. This seems like a good way to find better tones out of the center and neck pick ups. Any suggestions.
Very nice trick ! But the issue is how can you do coil tap and have your single coils (from your humbuckers) see aprox 250k pots when actually you have 500k pots ??
Hi...if humbucker on bridge and single coil at the neck (passive pickup), 1 volume, 1 tone, 3 way lever switch, potensio 500K for vol and tone its possible? Which resistor better use and connection ? Please advise thank you...GBu
So, if I have a treble bleed circuit in addition to this, should this pickup be isolated from it? Will the extra resistor in the treble bleed circuit negatively impact my sound?
So im fairly new to wiring my own guitars i have a hss set up on a fender prodigy. I am using 500k pots, should i use the resistors on the single pickups? Only have a tone and volume pot do i need to add any resistors or any thing else on the pots?
How about this? EVH Frankie 500K volume Pot with no selector, no tone control. I want to hookup the dummy neck pickup. Where does he resistor go? Volume pot will be a push/push to switch from humbucker to single coil. Without the selector switch, I am wondering how it will play out. Does the resistor go straight in-line or would it be neck P/U hot lead split to hot input and ground and ground wire to ground?
Say i had a fender squier with ceramic magnet single coils and the standard 500k mini pots that come in an affinity model strat. Could i add a resistor that would affect all 3 pups so they would “see” 250k or whatever resistance?
Is there a way to make a 250k pot act like a 500k for just the humbucker on a bridge ? HH (mid and neck are SP, 3 pots 250 Is it possible to make the pot servicing the HH appear to be500k the sp's as normal 250k (Great tip by the way )
Because of size and space limitations look for 1/4 watt because they're physically smaller. Any will work, but you're dealing with such infinitesimal voltage in a guitar circuit that even 1/4 watt is overkill.
I'm just trying to understand guitar circuits a little better. I'm guessing the both the volume and tones are wired as variable resisters to ground. more ground that's introduced the lower the volume and or more rolled off the highs are? how does the tone pot let some sound through while the volume kills all flow?
@@caseykittel ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-CTDdVs5GW-c.html this video will explain it better than I could. Basically the volume pot sends signal to ground, and the tone pot just adjusts how much is filtered through a capacitor
Right. Or you could use one and run it to the 500k pot and turn the 250k into a tone pot. Or use a dual 500k pot volume control, 250k volume and tone pot.
Is there any way you can draw me a diagram of an HS setup so the bridge humbucker reads 500k and a neck single coil reads 250k using 1 volume pot & 1 tone pot and a 3 way toggle switch? I can't find a diagram nor have I found anybody willing to draw me a diagram. This is the closest video I've found to what I need. It's going into a customized epiphone Les Paul Junior I did. I would be most grateful if you can draw me a diagram so I can visually see it and learn. Cheers.
NOTE: The above formula works well when you’re on your Neck pickup and Bridge Pickup only. However, when you get in the Middle Position, you’re adding yet another resistor. Your Neck Pickup (500K) Your Bridge Pickup (500K) and the Parallel Resistor (~470K). When you combine your neck and bridge using this resistor trick, the middle position will see a 163K pot, making it darker than usual.
There's only one volume control. In the 2 or 4 position on the switch the load would be 500k + (in your example)470k in parallel, which would be 240k - well within the range of most factory 250k pots with 10-15% tolerance.
Great video but while you were doing all of that math you shouldve considered the fact that there is no such thing as a 500k pot. Theyre all different values and ive literally never seen one that was accurate
sorry, but a formula is impossible to understand for a lot of people. Just show what to do and forget a formula... Notice the lack of answers to clarify what to do...
