Series/single/parallel switching using blend pot

Hi everybody,

First time having a go at this and I need some help here.

My guitar has just a humbucker. How can I wire it to have a vol, tone, and series/single/parallel switching using a blend pot?

Anyone have any ideas on how to go about doing it? A wiring diagram would be a great help too!

Cheers

Raymond

I'm not sure if this sounds good to you, but you should check out Seymour Duncan's twist-a-tap. It taps the coils, but its on a potentiometer. So you can do full humbucker, to true single coil, and everywhere in between. That could be cool with the series wiring for a mismatched coil type sound.

Hi everybody,

First time having a go at this and I need some help here.

My guitar has just a humbucker. How can I wire it to have a vol, tone, and series/single/parallel switching using a blend pot?

Anyone have any ideas on how to go about doing it? A wiring diagram would be a great help too!

Cheers

Raymond

You can't get from series to parallel with a pot.
Series humbucker to single would be easy enough, just wire a pot across the coil you want to eliminate. Might be fun to try, especially with something like a P-rail.
Parallel to single is easy too, but probably not worth doing as it would not sound very different, at least from my experience.

bo 402: Pretty sure it's possible, just don't know how to do it

Check out this vid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkxXdaIWgro

Baphomark: Did gave the spin-a-split wiring some thought but at the end of the day,being so used to humbuckers, I just couldn't live with the hum.

At first I didn't think it could be done, but after thinking about it some, I am pretty sure you can do series/parallel with it, but I haven't figured out how to make it do single coil also, that is the tricky bit. I will think about it some more and see what I can come up with, or see if any one else figures it out first.

You can use a push/pull pot for the series/parallel between 2 pickups. I've done it on my Les Paul. I placed a push/pull pot on my neck tone pot, the only problem is that you have to make sure your pickup selector switch is in the neck position in order for this to work. Incidentally, I have the SD P-Rails in my LP, and have 2 mini toggles for both pickup to engage which type of sound I want: Single, P90, hum bucker.

I have an idea, but I have never tried it and have no idea if it would work. It involves a dual ganged pot.

These cryptic threads show a member seems to have figured it out, you can try to contact him about it or decipher the threads..

http://www.tdpri.com/forum/tele-technical/42851-dual-ganged-pots-i-got-what-i-needed-thanks.html

http://www.tdpri.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-48068.html

You can get a push-pull pot and use the switch for series/parallel and use the knob to dial a coil-tap.

Check this page (about 2/3 way down):http://www.smitspickups.com/coiltapping.htm

Cool idea you got. I would like to try this. hb fade to sc.

I've been thinking about this and realized that the series to parallel on a blend pot just might get something sort of like a single coil in the middle, but it won't be a true single coil signal. I doubt that anyone is getting a true single coil in the middle position, but they could be getting close. I will see if I can post a shematic later today of what I have so far.

waparker4: Thanks alot for the links. It was a great help.

spook777, jnepo1: I know a switch will work, but I would love to have the gray areas as well, the area between series and parallel. It would make my one humbucker so much more versatile than having a switch.

I have attempted to draw a diagram based on what I have gathered on the net.

Please help me check if this will actually work. I drew the blend pot wiring along with the Gibson 50s wiring..


Some questions though..

Would I need a blend pot or a true pan pot (zero resistance at the middle) to get single coil in the centre?

Does it matter if I put the blend pot before or after the volume pot? If so, which is better?

Is my 50s wiring correct?

Will this work as it is meant too?



Cheers

Raymond

I am not familiar with a true pan pot, but what you have drawn up is what I drew up as well. The issue with a blend pot is that you will have something that is not quite a single coil sound in the center.

Definitely report if this works because it seems like an awesome idea. I drew the same blend pot up myself but I was nervous posting it because I've never tried :oops:.

I think you would need what you are calling a true pan pot. And I don't see how you could put the volume before the blend.