Another Breja ToneWorks (DIY) video - this time we'll go over wiring up a HSH guitar with the ability to add 2 more pickup combinations, dual capacitors and independent coil splitting.
Thanks very much for your DIY video!❤ Very well thought out step-by-step instructions and drawings. I wired my Seymour Duncan Everything Axe pickups. The mod works extremely well. What a step up! For the first time, my Strat is sounding like one. I also like your choice of capacitors for this mod. The change of tones are just right for me.
Awesome video! Thanks for this great info. I have built 4 Strats, all with Lindy Fralin's "Blender Pot" which allows for the extra 2 pickup combos. But I am now re-configuring one of my Strats for a hum-bucker arrangement (H-S-H). This information is perfect, because it will allow me to set things up with the same options as my PRS Brent Mason model (and then some!).
I used this wiring scheme with spdt switches rather than push pulls and added a piezo pickup + preamp which then went to the middle pickup position along with the normal magnetic single coil. Another spdt switch selects between the piezo and the middle pickup, giving me the option of blending a piezo with the bridge or neck or both as well. Excellent wiring scheme, extremely grateful for your work!
Hi I'm trying to wire up this exact configuration but using 3Double pool switches instead or I have 3 on on on switches have any idea how I would wire that? Please and thank you
Thank you for such a detailed diagram and explanation! I was originally planning on reconfiguring my Ibanez HSH (replacing all the pickups with DiMarzio PAF Pros and an Evolution along with all new hardware) with standard 500K pots but this makes it look rather easy to switch out to a push/pull config. Just gotta wait for the parts to arrive.
Hey Don, I was able to get the wiring done following your diagram yesterday (my first time). Your video made it very easy, thanks. One question though, when I have the either of the tone pots in the pulled position, both humbuckers seem louder with more gain than it is in the pushed (down) position. Does this mean the coil split is in the pushed position? I don't think I missed any wiring so I'm confused as to why it seems to be flipped. I am using DiMarizio pickups (using red for hot), if that makes a difference.
@@jamesk1619 Hi James, just wondering if you had figured out if the coil split is in the push or pull ? I am about to follow the video to build a super HSH strat. thank in advance.
Just did this on my strat project. My first option was to use hot rails (generic) to have an easy mod, but after watching some sound comparisons, I decided to use regular humbuckers. Pickups came from a replaced alnico humbuckers of my ibanez which then I planned to upgrade its pickup just for this strat project. I only used strat's orig mid pickup and then wired them just like ibanez's standard wiring diagram. Then I replaced the neck tone pot with an 'on on' dpdt switch to split both neck and bridge coils so I'll have the option to go back to its orig strat sound. At first I thought it will sound like my Ibanez due to same setup, but strat's difference in body and pickup positioning made significant distinction. And I loved this mod, it made another variety of sound for me. One distinct sound i noticed is on my multi effect processor, all the mix I tuned for my Ibanez differed a lot on my modded strat.
Great info,very clear....one question,there is continuity between the tang on top of the switch and the side of the pot.( no access to the top of the pot ) so on the volume pot it would seem to be a good place for all the ground wires to go?? yes or no ??
Breja Tone Works In the diagram am I looking through the pickguard(left hand) or is the inside of pickguard showing for servicing? Sorry I'm just trying to get oriented for wiring. thanks
Perfection! I posted a request on r/Guitar and on a different forum asking for guidance on exactly this configuration and got absolute crickets... now I know exactly what I need! One oddball question I do have is whether this would work with a grease bucket mod or if that might be overkill with caps... that said, thanks again!
Hi Don, for the 7 way mod, what position(s) on the 5 way switch activates all 3 pickups, and what position(s) activate the Bridge/Neck? What happens in the other 3 positions with the volume coil up??
Hey great stuff. Do you have a video on 2 humbuckers, 1 single coil, 1 volume, 1 Tone and a three way switch?? I’m trying a kit build and need some clearer directions. Part of the issue is that some is pre wired.
Great Video! I plan on doing this scheme along with a fishman powerbridge and preamp. Is there anything to know about combining this setup with an active piezo bridge PU?
Hi Don I was wondering how much different the wiring would be if there were two volume controls one for the bridge and the other for the neck and one master tone. I heard that Suhr Guitars uses this configuration but I am not sure if they use a single coil for noise suppression. And thanks for sharing your expertise.
What if a want to do that with regular or passive humbuckers? What I need to change on this diagram to make it work? Do I need another type of pickups and a selector way?
I followed along for my first ever Strat mod. I realized after wiring the grounds and getting the neck and middle wired that the bridge pickup I bought was only a 2 wire, so I had to skip on the bridge coil split. Well, I also didn't feel a need for the individual tones, so I used a single capacitor. Long story short, the only thing that actually ended up working was the 7-Way mod. Lmao Three push/pull knobs and only one of them does anything, other than that it turned out a normal HSH Strat. Better than I thought it would go for my first ever mod.
Hi Don. I'm trying to test out this mod, but I am using CTS push/pull pots where the soldering points are placed a little differently. Can you by any chance clarify which ones of your A1-3 and B1-3 corresponds with the 1, 2, 3, 4, C1 and C2 on the CTS pots?
Thanks Don. I enjoy trying out your mods. I was wondering about this one. I noticed the single coils are the inside coil of the Humbucker. Is there a way to wire the pickups so the outer coils, the ones closer to the neck and bridge, are active by themselves without turning the pickup around? I could try to figure it out but that might take a long time. Thanks again for your helpful work putting this stuff up for us. Donald
Sorry for resurrecting this post but it depends on whether the humbucker is tapped or actually split. I believe the more common is tapped, which is attaching a wire somewhere in the middle of the winding. A split would be two coils together with a toggle for bypassing one coil. I think that is uncommon so it’s likely that there is no “turning the pickup around” per se. I could be wrong (?)... did you investigate and work this out eventually? I’m curious to know your results!
thanks for the diagram ( i know long ago) only thing I did notice is that when you are running the neck pickup option it looks like it will use both tone pots settings and sort of blend them together across all 2/3 pickups, something to be aware of i guess when switching to that mode :P
Can you explain exactly what the volume push-pull is activating? I assume its a bridge-on switch meaning the bridge is always on allowing then the 5-way lever to then access: 1) bridge-neck when the lever is in the bridge position (position 5) and neck-middle-bridge when the lever is in position 4? Thanks in advance.
i have been looking for this for so long! an online source that does this sort of thing was going to charge me $80 to do this, now I can do it myself for a fraction of that! thanks! btw, have any of the slides available for download?
Holy crap this is amazing, haven't thought of that 7-way switch mod yet. Wanted to mod my current SSS Strat style guitar to an HSH with split coil. But that 7-way switch idea made me rethink that. Also I like how easy this video is explained and takes it all step by step, very easy to follow and get results that way. Also I take it this would also work with the SD Hot Rail style humbuckers as long as they have the 4 wires coming from them?
Works like a charm. The only thing I did differently is, I put humbucker in the middle and used 1 dpdt switch so I can have humbucker in the middle and when I split the coil using dpdt I also have single coil in the middle
I don't know much about circuitry. But don't you have a diagram of how you did it? I would also like to put a humbucker rail in the middle instead of the single.
I unite everything exactly as shown in the diagram but I have a problem, the neck pickup and bridge do not work (no sound) the only one that works is the middle pickup, does anyone know what I'm doing wrong? I put the land of the pads in the position selector but apparently it does not work. Please someone help me!
I just finished this awesome mod thanks a lot! The only question I have is: I have a lot of volume drop between position 2 and 4 when is on single coil, as we as very bright. Is this normal?
George Leahu the north end of the humbucker will be engaged when split. The north start will be on the 5 way switch and the north finish and south start will be to ground once you pull the pot switch.
Hi there, I've done this and its 3 single coils and you have to use the push/pull pot to get the humbucker? Is this right. I thought it would be humbucker as standard and use the switch to split them. Love it apart from that, cheers.
I just completed this and noticed the same. It functions as 3 single coils when all pots are down. Pulling up the bottom tone pot sets the bridge to humbucker. Pulling the middle tone up sets the neck to humbucker. Pulling up the volume pot activates the bridge pickup when in positions 4/5.
Hi, great videos, but obviously somebody has to come up with something you didn't already cover... I play SGs, my main one has simply 2x T-Tops with a 3-way switch, but I do love to keep a hot-rodded Ibanez handy, so I found this RBM1 with 3 rail humbuckers, straight up normal wiring with a 5-way switch. Hot Rails-Vintage Rails (SVR1n)-SH9. Great, so I put in a push-pull tone to split N + B, but I really do not like single coil sounds, so I'm trying to get these combinations, rather unsuccessfully I might add...: - an all-ON, three pups in parallel position, with the SVR1n in 'humbucker-mode', - a N+B combination as pure humbuckers, - the SVR1n in parallel, alone, and maybe even with the Neck split as a single. - the usual N only and B only positions - a phase reversal (either N with B, or Middle with B). I already put in a Lil'59 at the Neck, and will probably put one of my spare Burstbuckers (2 wire original) in the Bridge (so I don't get tempted to split the sucker...), but the SVR1n will definitely stay or at worse get swapped for a Duckbucker. Anyways, sorry to run on, but I really have been racking my brain and just cannot get around this problem. I'm working with a regular 5 way switch a double 3-pole push-pull on the tone knob, but I can source a Superswitch and another push-pull for the Volume if need be. Anyways, I really hope you can help with this as the internet seems to think that nobody would ever want to have three active humbuckers in a superstrat type guitar... Thanks in advance, Rick
I've been searching for a way to do this with 3 DPDT switches (on/on) How much different would the wiring be? Do you have a diagram for what I am talking about? Or would I wire just as it is wired in the video?
Hey. So I already did the 7-way strat mod with single coils. But I now want to put in two humbuckers, one bridge and one mid, keep the neck pickup, but just add one push/pull to split both pickups at the same time. So I was thinking of switching my tone pot for the bridge and mid for the push/pull (500k) and keep the 7-way mod as is. Is that possible?
Hey man how did you go with? I want to do similar but HSH with push pull on both tone knobs for the 7 way mod and coil split and leave the volume nob alone
so the five way goes : 1 neck, 2 neck /middle, 3 middle, 4 middle/bridge, 5 bridge so from 3:58 on it talks about all three together and neck bridge together......how does it work? ....does it add the bridge to positions 1 and 2, or the neck to positions 4 and 5 or is it something else?
I know this is kinda old, but can this be done using using TBX Tone Controls? Do they make push/pull tbx? What's better or close. Dislike toggles. Thanks ahead.
bigbeebrian Technically Yes, but the tone control still affects the middle and neck pickups. So if you are using the middle only and adjust the tone, you'll get a change. If you select the middle/neck or neck only, that same tone change will in place too. Don
Just finished my first attempt of the mod. Well... it doesn't work. Couldn't find my mistake yet. And additionally the volume push/pull pot seems not to work properly...
I am assuming that in this diagram, you are using a rotory type of 5 way switch. How do I use this same procedure using a inline type of 5 way switch such as in a Ibanez rg series, ( hsh with emg hz pickups & a inline 5 way switch)?
Thank you, but I'm working with a 3 wire made by EMG passive called Select with GRND bare with red & white wires of 8.2k and 4.5k on the second wire red. If I cannot split the Select's I'll use a 4 conductor pickup instead. Thanks again
@ 1:09 of your video with your side by side 5 way switch, I have only the straight line economy 5 way switch.. I assuming then it would simply be A1,B1,A2,B2,A3,B3,A4,B4 (LINED UP 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8) and simply continue with your wiring diagram.Sorry if this is a stupid question..
Wow you did all of this without a superswitch? If you use a superswitch could you put in some other options like parallel and series with other miniswitches? If you were to do that, what would you recommend?
+contact1araya Some people don't have a Superswitch or don't like them. As always - there are many options for wiring. As far as your question - it all depends on how many switches are we talking about. Independent or dependent coil splitting. Which pickups need to be series and/or parallel. What pickup combinations are wanted. Master Tone or Independent tone...
+Breja ToneWorks I have an HsH strat with a standard 5 Way, one volume two tones standard configiration (ibanez V1 neck, fender middle, Dmarzio Paf bridge) i saw this video and the Jimmy page custom Lp mod video, and was wondering how could Series/parallel and in out of phase could be added to the seven way mod you explain in this video.
I have 2 guitar wiring question and we will see if they are worth answering. The first is for a single rear humbucker strat wiring. Can you use a push/pull pot where not engaged is the volume and the pull becomes tone without effecting volume and vice versa. I figure no but maybe there is some way. Second question come from a guy I have built serveral guitars for. It another 5150 take off but he wants 2 of the single coil size humbucker pickups in the rear route. (It seems to me it and ode to Spinal Tap and the amp that goes to 11) Then he wants every permeation of wiring possiblity. So starting with the 2 humbuckers playing together, then front and rear humbucker, then the 2 single coil sized humbuckers split to single coil which would be another 4 positions and then on to front single coil to front or back rear single coil. Then the back front single to both of the single coils of the rear pick. Seem a little overkill to me but it really hard to say anything because it is probably the one think I have never seen or heard done. Thank you sorry that took so many words I know I can only last so long when reading turn into word word word and I can't go on.
Hello. I just did this on a 00 fender american standard strat using alpha push/pull pots, Seymore Duncan JB Jr (neck), Seymore Duncan Custom Stack (middle), and Seymour Duncan Little 59 (bridge). For some reason my splits are reversed for the neck and bridge, meaning the pickups are split in the down position and normal in the up position. I checked the wireing 3 times and everything looks correct. Any thoughts?
Hey Guys, Don is no longer available to help with issues involving this wiring and he advised to reach out to anyone on the thread who has wired it successfully. Would any of you be able to provide help? I've wired everything up carefully and checked like 4 times and I am still not getting the pups and pots to work the way they should. Would anyone have photos of their wiring that has worked?
Excellent Your Videos! I've seen them all . I'm looking for something that will be hard to make I guess . I have a HSH Ibanez V7 / V8 3-wire humbuckers . And wanted to make a tap and split coil with a push pull tone pot . something like that: neck outer, neck outer & middle neck inner & bridge inner, middle & bridge outer, bridge outer. you can help me? Thank you!
OK, I'm stuck here. I have just completed this mod and checked it 2 additional times. I'm using Seymour Duncan hum buckers with the 4 wire configuration. I used Stew Mac 500K push/pull pots. Everything seems to work fine with one BIG exception. When the push pull pots are in the down position, the hum buckers are spilt. And when they're in the "up" position, that are full hum buckers!?!?!?!?!?! Please help me figure out what I need to do to reverse this!
I have followed the instructions to the T, however, my coils are split in the push, and are humbuckers in the pull position....that's backwards. How do I fix it so they are humbuckers in the push and splits them on the pull position?
i have made this schematic but the volume pot works when in push position and cut the sound in pull position. it's normal? my switch is import 5-way of 8 pins! the 8ht pin don't work when i put the selector in this position! this schematic is good!
I did email Breja Toneworks, and II appreciate he is exceptionally bust=y of late, so I thought I'd throw this out for advice? I have one question , I’m using CTS push pull pots with connections marked 1, C1, 2, 3 C2 & 4 (bit.ly/2ylfHvL). I’m not sure what correlates with the diagrams DPDT A1, A2, A3 and B1, B2, B3? I would really appreciate if anyone could point me in the right direction. A1 = ? A2 = ? A3 = ? B1 = ? B2 = ? B3 = ? Thanks!
Hi. Awesome video. Do you have any video of hsh suhr with superswitch? I would like to mod the 4th position from stock iner neck and midle to a neck parallel only.
