Guitar Pickups - Series vs Parallel Explored 

Awesome us usual. I've researched this before but never found a good "portrayal" of tonal difference, this shows it perfectly man, you do an incredible job of making things relevant. Appreciate the time you take to do this, in a little pocket of the guitarist world you have made my little brain very satisfied!

That 4 way switch is a must have mod for all Teles! I love mine!

Wow great info and if anything gives me a door to look more into this. Thank you so much for the video!

I did not have to watch 10 different videos to decide how I'll wire up my guitar. Better so, it helped me to understand better without having to do extensive research to get a basic understanding. Thanks so much!

Great video and one of the better that exist on the differences between the wiring methodologies. I have a Strandberg that I've set up both humbuckers for push/pull series/parallel switching. I love parallel on the neck as it tames the low end and gives sparkle to the highs but I've had l less success with using parallel on the bridge. I haven't really explored tones with it much, yet, but I'm going to do that soon.

I was reading the one page manual that came with my PRS and was wondering about outside, inside, series, and parallel. Now because of you I know! Thanks for making this and for keeping the playing relevant to the discussion and for the crisp editing.

phenomenal video, you are a great teacher I can tell just by the way you explain things. thank you!

Great demonstration for the differences!!!

Great video man. Made a ton of sense and stellar playing

Thank you for showing so many different sounds. Thanks!

I modded one of my guitars with a Full - Split - Parallell switch. I almost always use the neck in parallell and bridge in series. This was informative. Thanks Leon.

Leon Todd, you teaching God! The first rapid fire, tonal changing, able to compare riffs at settings video. EXTREMELY useful! One of the best explanations followed by a flawless demonstration that I have seen. You helped simplify and reinforce my decision. Thank you! Some guys seem like it's an audition. I know you can play, please answer the question. We'll, you did the best job I've seen!

Great video! This helps me understand my hsh guitar! I was wondering why the two in between positions on my 5 way switch gave me that really clean non humbucking tone. Now I know that they are parallel positions. Its a really versatile guitar.

Leon laying down the String Theory! MOAR TELECASTER!

This was such a well explained video, for me at least. I loved your closing statement about learning what you can do with your ACTUAL guitar, rather than buying more equipment. Nice work. 👍🤘

Great vid man!

That was brilliant! Thanks so much for that

great job, thanks!

Great Video!!

Great video. Learned something new today

That's Great Leon! Very helpful to many! Thank you so much for using the Tele, That was so Sweet and Lovely! Be Well Brother! Be Well All!

Best explanation because seeing it and hearing it is all you need really.

Awesome explanation!

great video!

Now this was something cool & different. I never really put much focus on the connection method of the pickup for tone shaping but more on the pickup choice itself. Interesting! 👍

Dang, the PRS sounds wicked and the parallel configuration is fiya.

Pretty good explanation there Leon. I'd probably just add that the reason series/parallel sound different is in parallel, the frequencies are actually cancelling themselves out and in series, they're adding frequencies together so you get a relatively higher output. When I first started playing guitar in the early 90's, I mucked around with guitar wiring. I was fascinated with the way Brian May wired his guitar (3 singles in series with on off's) so I wired my first strat similarly. I modified mine even further with a DP3T slider switch to basically turn pickups on/off in/out of phase and added a 4PDT switch to put all pickups in series or parallel. Fun times. I think the traditional pickup wiring's are best suited for rhythm and the extra setting are more suited for lead tone's.

Amazing thank you so much for the video

I never knew about any of this even after playing 30 years. Thanks for a great explanation, brotha!

thats a beautiful hamer, you dont see too many, I found a V used in a GC and had to pick it up

Different resonant peaks for sure! Even with both pots on 10 and no other variations in capacitance . Great vid

Great simple explanation Leon, I just picked up a used Charvel DK 24 HH , Chlorine Bleach ,( Very impressive guitar for a MIM ) with a 5 way switch that has a toggle that switches between series and parallel , 10 tones,, I don’t like gimmicks nor do I need all those tones, I never use more than a few but they’re all pretty useable without HUM ! I’ve been looking around for a PRS 24, and that rotary model really is impressive , maybe that’s the model for me ,take care my friend 🙏

Just started learning about this, so still generally a little confused by it, but I love the examples. Thanks so much. This sounds like some really good stuff to know for modding a couple of single-humbucker guitars that I have. Adding a couple of push-pull knobs to get series/parallel and coil-split would add quite a bit of versatility to these guys. I bought them as cheap mod learning guitars. $75 each after shipping, so I'm not too worried if my learning goes sideways. ;) The physical stuff like fret work doesn't worry me nearly as much as all this wiring stuff. I've never soldered before, but it's the kind of knowledge that piques my interest.

I've been thinking about guitar wiring for a long while. I think that parallel wiring with a middle pickup is great as they're lower down, decreasing the output already but maxing chime. The parallel wiring is output is 30% less than series. So a rail in the middle in parallel has less power and more chime giving positions 2+4 less out put, more chime retained and a lot clearer on cleans and low gain settings. So I like to go: 1. Bridge humbucker Series 2. Bridge + Middle together 3. Middle Rail Parallel (push pull to out of phase) 4. Neck and Middle together 5. Neck series Then to give extra tones on top of these with different EQ and output on the preamp I have a push pull on the volume pot to put position 3 of the middle pup out of phase affecting positions 2, 3 and 4. This drastically affects tones for clean when going "retro". Then 1meg volume and 500k shadow kill pot for the tone Then choose pickups that love 1meg volume pots and you'll have a guitar with unmatched clarity/body that really is somewhere between a strat and a les paul. As for pups my favourite so far with this are Dimarzio D Activator X, Fast Track 1 and Chopper. Funk, metal, grunge, rock, thrash, neoclassical, jazz etc. One guitar to rule them all...

I put a N series - parallel - S series switch on my Mustang. Love it. Like P90s on tap.

I bought a new Telecaster Ultra recently and it has a push button on the volume knob that takes it between series and Parallel when the toggle is in center position. I enjoy it but the classic tele sounds are hard to beat in my opinion. I thought you explained the difference well, thank you.

a cool sound when using pickups in parallel is rolling back the tone knob, it gives more of a cocked wah kind of sound than it does on series wired pickups, and can get you pretty close to the dire straights money for nothing guitar sound, without even having to dial in a wah to the exact right position

Not the pickup information I was looking for, but informative nonetheless. Really, I just had to say love your Hamer! Don't see a lot of them online.

It would be good to demonstrate how the tone control interacts with series and parallel modes. In general, the tone knob will have a greater effect in series mode than in parallel mode. An aspect of guitar electronics I've not seen discussed as much as it should be is that the passive electronics in a guitar can affect sound in ways that can't be modeled by a pedal, since a pedal only gets a "composite" signal, while the electronics in a guitar can shape the portions of the sound coming from different pickups differently.

Most underappreciated guitar channel on RU-vid. Leon always seems to have answer when I start questioning something

I have a Fender tele with humbuckers and a push/pull love it and an Adrian Smith Jackson with Lukather EMGs cant get enough of either guitar

I am planning on building an Esquire partcaster with a humbucker, so I can make some parallel and in series thing... thanks for this :D

The best way to explain series/parallel is to think of an example of two overdrive pedals. To further explain this, think of two different gain, EQ, or character sound pedals, pedal 1 and 2. Now put the pedal 1 trougt the 2. The sound will be compressed, and can be a little louder. What's going on here? The gain of the first pedal is added to the second pedal and the sound is more compressed. The only function of the first pedal is to add gain to the second, and maybe more body, but you can't hear the character of 1, because this signal is now going through 2, overloading it and the sound is compressed, but the character is still of pedal 2. This is what happens when your humbucker is in series, the sound from the first coil goes to the second, and the signal from the first is lost in a "blender" of sound, and its only mission is to overload the second coil, and you can't hear the sound of the first, the sound is compressed and overloaded. In this case, you're not hearing the best of your guitar, the sound isn't clear, and you start feeding the signal to your pedals and effects with an "overloaded pre-processed signal", and not the real sound of your guitar. In my opinion, the true mission of a coil is to capture and transmit the best and true sound of your guitar, to capture the texture of your playing, the attack of the pick, the dynamics, the resonance of the wood, the pressure of your fingers. , etc. If you capture this sound with one first coil and put it into the other, the signal is not only lost in detail, but the second one is now overloaded and compressed and the signal is not pure. Now in parallel... Now think about the example of 2 pedals for a better understanding. In a parallel context, think of an example now with the same 2 pedals, but I route the signal to a Y conductor (or an A>AB pedal). One signal goes to pedal 1 and runs to one amp (amp 1), and one signal goes to pedal 2 and runs to another amp (amp 2). Now you can here a combination of the two pedals, you can hear the character of both, maybe if one of your pedals is brighter, low gain and sharp sounding, and the other is lower and high gain sounding, now you can here a sound that is low end and high gain, but strangely with brightness and defined sound, and the overall sound is more open and the feel is like your signal was passed for a "mastering process" and pass for a HI-FI amp.. That is the feeling when you put your mics in parallel.. The sound now is open and "hi-fi" feeling.. This happen because you are now whit an individual signal of each coil, and the gain is low but the sound is more true, this is the true sound of your guitar in a "masterized kind proccess" (is not masterized of course, but is the feeling).. The sound is amazing, hi-fi, open and uncompressed, and more senssitive to your playing, more shimmer in the trebble, but less gain and volume.. But now.. WARNING.. You can say ok, clear and open sound, but I need more gain and volume, and/or is too spark to me! The very fail in the trying of the parallel/series thing, is the "put and pull" button experience.. Because when you put a button and instantanly pass of the series to parallel, you will experience a fall into the sound, gain and volume ofcourse, and you can say "the sound now is weak, or trebble, I don't like".. But if you raise this parallel sound with an add in volume and gain, adjusted the eq to you requeriments, you really feel the parallel sound.. To compensate this volume and gain lost witout loss the clarity, may be you can think in a clear boost pedal than not only add volume but gain too, and bost/cut bass and trebble, like the "xotic RC booster" pedal by example, setting to compense the volume, gain and bass, and cut the trebble if you want..

I love the chopper T pickup in a tele , with a push pull for parallel/ series.

I’m about to build an HSS guitar so this is great info. Thanks!

Nice one 👍😀

The tricky part is keeping individual coils or multiple pickups in phase with a superswitch. Between parallel, series, and phases, there's alot of different ways to get the wires mixed up. A recent build of mine proved to be a little more complex than I'd initially thought. Ended up with 2 of the switch positions out of phase and a super thin sound. That's why they make some middle position single coils reverse wound.

I'd like to see a series/parallel comparison where the series is connected to 500K pots and where the parallel is connected to 250K volume and tone pots (or just resistors, without the pots being connected).

Thank you!

If your parallel position sounds a little lifeless a 1000pf cap across the north and south finish lugs (center positions on the dpdt) will make a huge difference and bring the frequency response back to where it should be. You'll end up with a parallel position that sounds as balanced as series but with the sound an feel of parallel.

I spent £20 on my prs se put a couple of alpha push pulls for coil tap and phase reverse plus a couple of micro switches for series/parallel and .22/.47 tone caps. Awesome bang for buck.

Yesss 🤘

Great description of series vs "para-lelle" wiring LT!

I have my Strat humbucker wired with a three way mini toggle giving me series, parallel, and coil split. I never use the parallel because it has frequencies I don't like. I also have a Paul Reed Smith SE Custom 24 with Floyd rose. It has the series parallel and I hate the tone and never use it. I just bought that guitar and will modify it take the push pull out, installing two three way mini toggles and a treble bleed capacitor. This will give me 15 different coil splits. Splitting coils sounds so much better and you have a gate for high gain sound if you get a little hum. One word describes parallel to me, nasally. Coil splits are bright and warm at the same time. I have that wiring diagram if you would like to have it.

I tried a switch from those metal selector boxes used for mechanically selecting BNC, VGA and Parallel ports manually back in the day, and now I got only 2 positions for my 2 humbucker setup. My bridge humbucker having both coils in series in position #1 and in position #2: a neck humbucker alone in a parallel circuit within it's two colis. Those switches inside those things usually are able to be resized and customized. I figured to let anyone else who likes simple use while able to have their entire circuit to become totally "re-wired" with one switch/position, like me, look for those beige metal boxes that sometimes say "data selector".. Just trying to help anyone else out there. there's multiple switches found on Mouser's site and Amazon as well. I got what I wanted wired in parallel and series, but in complete separate circuits on the same guitar.

a good review. As a bass player I wonder why the hell typical jazz basses are not equipped with push pulls. Gonna try it right now, since I preferred series sound all the way in this video. I assume parallel is only good for the second guitar if any.

I put two dpdt switches on a duel humbucker guitar. Along with a three way switch I have a lot of fun combinations. So then I added a phase switch too...

Yo Leon, is this the original parallel axis or the hotter PA distortion? Got the Distortion myself and absolutely love it...and yeah it splits and does parallel absolutely beautifully. I usually have humbuckers on a 4-way switch, in the bridge, it really makes a huge difference whether you split to the south or the north coil

That's a sick Hamer dude.

This beauty is a Chaparral Elite? Fantastic sound and play

great explanation, thanks! Where are you from?

@Leon Todd. I asked the other day on your Q & A if we could here the military plane looking guitar. Thanks!!! I'd love to have that.

Cool nerdy stuff. Love this stuff. Almost as much as I love ballistics, but I'm a geek. 😂😜 I think I read on Dimarzios web site that paul gilbert used to use 3 super distortions in series which would be soooo ballsy.. That tele 4 way switch is too cool.. I really need a super strat with 3 or 4 humbuckers of different flavors in series with the option for parallel.. I'm telling ya my genius brother, you need to try one of the Rio Grande bbq buckers... Killer pups... Love that Hamer. What great guitars. Who ever owned it though, with the communists hamer and cycle has bad logic in that communism would never support such a nicely made guitar..😂 Reminds me of the guys I debate with that believe in Determinism. They tell me there is no freewill, yet the definition of free will is being able to compare two possible outcomes and choosing the best. They try to tell me by their argument determinism is a better argument and belief over free will by using free will. There logic is horrible. Like sending me a letter using the post offuce saying letters via the post office never work..lol.. Sorry. On a role this am with my coffee. 😂😜😋

Have you tried humbuckers in series in each pickup and then in series from both pickups from neck to bridge?

All those PRS sounds are really cool

Help, can someone provide a link on the wiring diagram and the selector switch wiring? Thank you.

Leon, I had a dual hamburger guitar it had 3 weeks I will switch on it and it had a coil tap switch, I replaced the bridge and hook the wires up at least the way I thought exactly the way he went back and all the sudden when the tiger switch was on the bridge position the next pick up sounded exactly the same, but when I put both pickups on with the switch in the middle position I got this funky what I guess is out of phase tone my drummer called it the quack switch it really was awesome for some stuff and I don't know how I did it I'd like to wire my guitars like that again so that they're only out of fees when I put them on together in the middle pick up selector position. Again I don't know what I did because I just ran what wires and it said to run where and I hooked up pick up so a lot of times and never had that, I'm not going to say problem because I licked the end result LOL. Do you have any idea how I did this or tell me how I can do it again the only other thing that I remember possibly doing was taking the coil tap switch off of the bridge pickup and only hooking it up to the neck pickup. Thanks for any help! Rick

6:49 - my SE24 Standard came with a 3-way lever and a pull-up tone pot to get single coil tones. I accidentally pulled out the switch pot's shaft trying to remove the knob to line the knobs up. I replaced it with a regular pot and a pair of DPDT series/parallel switches. Might replace the pull pot for phase some day, but it's an awesome guitar with a nice palette of tones. Both pickups on with neck in parallel but bridge in series gets a similar upper-mid thing to a Tele going on. The output imbalance and loading from the neck pickup is apparently a key part of that sound....

Dude what pedal/s are you using to get that awesome high gain tone. I have to know.

Series wiring sounds so good! I'm upgrading a 1960's Teisco Del-rey ET-200 and have been searching for a wiring diagram to link a lone 18+k 4-conductor "double" dual-rail hot rail pickup (4 bars), with a volume, a tone, and a killswitch. I'll have to do more research, but is it possible to wire a single pickup as either series or parallel without a toggle switch?

A cool idea that I have is having one pickup in parallel and one in series or something

The ultimate combination is two SD Triple Shots on bridge and neck humbuckers PLUS a four way blade switch. Additionally, if it is something as Gibson with 2 volumes and 2 tones, all of this gives you insane versatility from a fairly simple and widespread layout with two humbuckers.

Cool vid. So any pickups with 4wires can be made toggled into series/parallel ? Right? Thnxx brother ❤

Once I heard that a humbucker in parallel wiring would sound like a P90 pickup, but as you said, it's not only a matter of DC resistance comparison... what's your opinion about that statement?

This is a really nice demo! With the Hamer, is the coil split mode activating the inner coil or the outer coil? I’m thinking of doing this with a guitar, which is how I found this video and I’m unsure if I’ll get more usability out of coil splitting with the inner or outer coils, or parallel wiring. It’s a H-H guitar with 1 Vol/1 Tone knob and a 3-way switch. I plan to use push/pull pots to get a few more options. I’m wondering if the neck pickup will sound better for lead guitar playing with coil split or parallel. I’ll probably use parallel for the bridge pickup. With the middle position on the toggle, it should get some interesting sounds!

Thanks, Leon👍🏻 That was quite educational, though I consider myself a wiring enthusiast))) Subbed to you for a while already, didn’t know you were that much into this stuff. Never actually taken in account the resonance frequency change with parallel wiring- definitely checking out the links you shared. I have an HSS with a forced parallel single coil (south coil closer to the bridge) of the humbucker engaging via the push-pull. I see why you enjoy somewhat similar prs’s outer coils sound. My neck single coil is rather high output and a tad dark (bareknuckle cobra) so those outer coils supplement each other really well especially with cleans. I recently been really enjoying another wiring with my lp-styled 2 humbucker (JB+59), 2v2t. Assuming I rarely get any use of tone controls (being low-pass filters), I rewired them to function as high-pass filters per humbucker. That has some nice low freq control. One caveat (which eventually I found really usable) is that with 3-way in middle position, you get 2 hpf circuits in parallel (parallel capacitors) and that messes up with how you’d expect the low rolloff working with each pickup, but is delivering really clear (even more than regular parallel humbuckers do) character. It’s like the neck humbucker has rolled off lows, while bridge isn’t- and that’s with the knobs at initial position (10)). Also recently found JB being a great neck pickup, full of fluidity and dynamics response, with one of the most convincing split (north coil engaged) sounds I’ve ever heard. To save the aesthetics (the darn logo)), the north coil ended up at the south side though, with slugs being oriented the Peter Green way (not the magnet though))

That PRS sounds awesome. What model humbuckers do you have in that?

Hello there, Hope you're doing well and safe in these strange times. I'm currently researching for a guitar upgrade; I want to replace a p90 pickup on a Les Paul for a mini humbucker and want to have it setup to change between series/parallel, so my question (might be silly): Is there a wiring to have the push-pull pot installed in the Tone knob or must it be in the Volume pot?

What amp are you using on the demo. The tomes are really great. I totally agree with the versatility of the PRS rotary wiring.

The 3rd way is an ON-On-ON mini switch

I am modifying a multi-scale guitar (God help me!😵‍💫), about to install 2 guyker brand humbuckers, twin hotrails in each coil (4 hotrails per humbucker), I expect these pickups will have a hot, heavy metal sound...maybe TOO hot👹). Do you think it will have similar effects using series and parallell wiring on hotrail style humbuckers? (Maybe I can tame the beast a little bit when I want to😬).

U should check the Revv g20 😄

Hi, do you need 4-conductor pickups to setup the parallel/serial wiring? Thx.

I got a newbie question, after I did this mod I found out both north coils were split, which is not the middle position tone i was going for. I wanted both outer coils. How do i go about doing it? I did it on the volume put with alligator wires and I just connected the one I wanted to change, to the hot of the volume. I just don't understand how to do the same on the tone pot.

Perhaps if I watch it 3 or 4 more times I'll start to understand 🤔

Which mode has less noise? Parallel vs coil split?? And which one cut through in a live band mix better?

What resistance are in the pots?

I'm getting old and don't care for the sledgehammer metal pickups I have, so I've wired them up parallel, and I'll be damned if that doesn't make for some nice twangy faux P90 type tones. Saved me a LOT of money not going down the boutique PAF road.

Thanks for doing this demo.....well done. EDIT: why don't more guitars come with switching like the PRS has? Wouldn't guitarists want to have as wide of a variety of tone choices as possible on their guitars?

What happened to your locking nut pieces?

I have a hss strat.can I wire my humbucker in parallel without adding any switch or mini toggle.I want it parallel..just parallel not series

Do You Like it? :)

Can you series /parallel switch any Humbucker?

Dude, you're Greek!! I thought your face kinda looked familiar!!! Thanks for all the info!!!

Parallel sounds tinny. Bet you a BLT that Hendrix wired his PUs in series.

so parallel cancels hum?

What is this "I.T. VASSILIOU" wiritten on your guitar? It's a Greek last name!

Hey is your father Greek! Γεια σου ορέ γίγαντα!

Series all day long...and all night.

Forgive me for being ignorant but isn’t this just like a coil split ?