Series vs. Parallel wiring???

[Bluedawg]

Can someone explain to me the difference/advantages of each on a Tele??

Thank you,

[teledogg]

parallel is what most middle positions are=both p/ups through the switch
series=one through the other then to the switch

I think of parallel as a blues tone, single coil all the way.

The series position I think of as a "sorta humbucker" sound--FAT, thick, rock sounding.

I'd hate to have a Tele without both ever again. The versatility that they give me is wonderful. The advantage
of the 4 way switch wiring is a whole new and different sound.

I hope this is useful for you. My wine tasting terminology might not be too good, but I hope my enthusiasm for the series position comes through. Dogg

[Bluedawg]

I'll try it and see what happens.

[Deaf Eddie]

Yeah, and SERIES/out of phase has the BITE!

Gotta get yerself a super Switch and do the 5-Tone-Tele mod...

[SIB]

if I had a tele with a hotrail in the bridge and the normal stock PU in the neck.

could I replace the 3 way switch with a 5 way switch and wire it like this:

1. hotrail
2. one coil of the hotrail
3. one coil of the hotrail and the neck PU in series
4. one coil of the hotrail and the neck PU parrallel
5.neck PU

does that make sense?

I heard of a guitar with 2 hubuckers which had both humbuckers sired in series. and that would give a extra hi gain lead sound.

could I also wire the hotrail and the neck SC of the tele in series? how would that sound? would it make sense?

sorry if those questins are bull****, but I´m still quite new to teles and guitar electronics.

[SIB]

or maybe installing the 5 way switch:

neck,
bridge and neck in series (in phase),
bridge and neck in parallel,
bridge and neck in series (out of phase),
and bridge.

and then adding a miniswitch for splitting the humbucker makes nmore sense, but I don´t like the idea of drilling a hole for the miniswitch.

[Deaf Eddie]

The push/pull pot is another common option for doing a coil-shunt (split). No new holes...

BTW, your ideas sound OK to me - get out that soldering iron and have at it!

[Steel Oyster]

Hi all,
New here, so nice to meet you.
OK, I'm coming at the series/parallel issue from a different angle. Back in '81 I wired my Strat with a pull switch on the volume to put all three pickups in parallel. Sweet as honey - people said it sounded like the "out of phase" sound (misnomer!), when you put the treble and middle pickups in parallel (hence the popularity of the then relatively new Strat 5 way switch).
Being an idle git, I whiled away my hours between social security cheques with some experiments on combinations. When I get a moment free I'll work out how many unique combinations there are for a Strat, at a guess I'd say PLENTY, certainly more than you could instrument on a single guitar. So, I made a mini patchbay (seriously) and changed the combinations over and over again. Now the thing you have to be aware of is phase: get them in phase and you get constructive interference, the signals always add but in phase you get a high on both so you get more amplitude (voltage for series and current for parallel, but we can come back to that, there are filtering effects associated with this). Out of phase - well, the signals still add, but you're adding a low to a high so you have to put your neck right nearer the speakers to hear it. Think of it as adding "1" to "1" for in phase and "1" to "-1" for out of phase. In phase result =2, out of phase = 0.
Well, not completely zero for out of phase.The vibrations of the string are not the same - obviously - at each pickup /string intersection, that's the main reason why why pickups sound different (see note at end). So you're adding roughly "1" to roughly "-1" the result is roughly kinda a bit near nothing but still there. Here, you will end up with the difference between the harmonic amplitudes at the string/pickup intersections.
OK, I can see all the (other) physicists out there having a basketload of kittens because I haven't mentioned cos(theta), sin(phi) and the square root of -1. If you're still reading you're a musician, and either waiting for a social security cheque or you're really interested.
The theory of non-linear waves quickly becomes intractable. The best thing to do is experiment, but I'd recommend you try to do this without changing your guitar irreversibly. Especially if it's an old one. (Anyone want to continue the theoretical discussion, I'd be pleased to talk!)
I'll conclude with the experimental issue: for two pickups you can have series or parallel, switchable. For a three pickup guitar you can have three in series, three in parallel, or what's called series/parallel, two in parallel and a third in series with these two. THAT is where the fun started - try this with one out of phase and you get a real wild sound, although our engineer said something about it sounding like a squirrel in a food blender. Another nice one is three in series with the middle one out of phase. For the stock 2 pickup Tele, the possible unique combinations are:-

(1) Treble only
(2) Neck only
(3) Treble + Neck in parallel, in phase
(4) Treble + Neck in parallel, out of phase
(5) Treble + Neck in series, in phase
(6) Treble + Neck in series, out of phase

I say unique because, for example, a Treble + Neck out of phase will sound exactly the same whether you reverse the Treble or the Neck pickups. Equally, reversing a single pickup on its own will make no change.
For a Strat, this list would be seriously substantial.
Note also that there is a much more localised string/pickup intersection on a single coil pickup than on a humbucker. Hence there are more distinct harmonics.

Next week, how to get solder off an anorak.

Jas

[Casey Jones]

i personally would really like to be able to get a humbucker sound for more mellow jazzy moments. single coils just don't do jazz so well. would you get a humbucker sound from having one setting on a 4 or 5 way control where the 2 pickups are wired series and out of phase? (presuming that is what a humbucker is - 2 single coils in series out of phase). I don't need a big HUMBUCKER sound, just a fat mellow sound. Anyone got this combination on their tele that could tell me how it sounds?

Also has anyone tried getting 2 neck pickups, (altering the pickguard and pocket to allow it) and wiring them to make a humbucker? It would look a little wierd, but if it works it could be very cool.

[Deaf Eddie]

Actually the series combo on either the 4-way OR 5-way is just like a humbucker - two coils in series/in phase - if you use modern pups where the neck is RW/RP. The tone is brighter than a humbucker in the neck spot, and mellower than a humbucker in the bridge spot, but I believe you would find it a fine and usable tone for jazz with just a little tone-knob high-end rolloff.

If you use vintage pickups, the TONE is the same, but it's not actually a truely humbucking configuration... see farther down this post...

Your other idea about wiring two neck pups together in series would certainly give you a fat humbucker TONE - but again, would actually NOT be humbucking, if you used two identical pups!

To get the humbucker TONE, you just need to series two pups, IN phase. And, to get the hum-cancelling effect, one of the pups/coils has to be RW/RP.

Your observation that one coil of a humbucker is reverse-wound is correct, but it's also reverse polarity, so it's RW/RP - the two coils are IN phase, not out. That's what makes 'em sound fat.

BTW, James Wagner builds a Strat pickguard that has two bridge pups set up side-by-side like that for humbucker punch out of the bridge spot... I haven't played one, but it looks cool.

[Casey Jones]

i see! Cheers for the info, I hoped that would be the case. My present guitar has humbuckers, but i plan to get a nice traditional kinda tele in the future and hoped I would be able to use it for everything (apart from slide - the one time when a high action is desirable, but i can use my old one for that).

But just to make sure, if one of the pickups isn't reverse wound, so you don't get the hum-bucking effect, it makes no difference to the tone, you just get the hum too?

[Deaf Eddie]

But just to make sure, if one of the pickups isn't reverse wound, so you don't get the hum-bucking effect, it makes no difference to the tone, you just get the hum too?

Let's make that RW/RP, BUT...
Yes, that is correct!

If they're in phase (sonically), they'll be warm and "doinky" when parallel, and FAT when in series.
I know it can get confusing, but you'd know in an instant if the pups aren't in phase - with close-proximity coils, it's gonna be pretty thin.
I build custom rotary switches for Strat players that feature a couple of series tones, and one is about as close as you can get that to sounding like a Gibby without mounting up a humbucker.

BTW, If you'd like to correspond off the board with any questions or other ideas, please don't hesitate to e-mail me. Check out my website, too...

[TeleGeir]

I had this discussion with myself and my luthier over and over when building the Tux. Especially since it had a humbucker at the neck and a "double coil" at the bridge. Lots of fun combinations. I seriously considered doing like Jas and stick the wires into an outside thing that would let me reconnect at will to test them all.

But in the end I decided to do it simple. So I used a 3-way switch and a mini-toggle for splitting the bridge Twangbucker. Could have splitted the humbucker too, through the same toggle, but I decided against it. The main reason for doing it this way is now the PU switch works like on all my other Teles, which also have 3-ways, no switch of mindset when switching guitars.

So now I have single or double coil bridge, for twang or fat rock chords, and the warm humbucker in the other end, with a standard parallell in the middle. The difference between single and double bridge in the middle position is minimal when playing clean, and not noticable when playing the overdrive. I suspect that would have been true for a lot of the other possible combinations too.

Of course, I have other Teles, and even a Strat, So I don't need all sounds in one. If I want another sound I pick another guitar.

Geir :)

[Rob DiStefano]

One main reason I prefer Strat's and Tele's is for their single coil tone. I can stand a fair amount of midrange, and P90's and P94's do deliver the fat goods.

After lots of pup experimentation over the decades, I still prefer a single coil neck and single coil bridge. When an RWRP Tele neck pup combines with a Tele bridge pup, nice single-coil-like parallel humbucker tones usually abound, thanx mostly to physical distance between those coils. Ditto's for a Strat's 2/4 pup position parallel "quack".

All these kinda parallel wired single coil tones are humbucking, yet retain a large single coil quality that's sonically pleasing to most. Series humbucker wiring for Strat's and Tele's is just too large and mid-rangey a tone for my likes, but to each their own - and experimentation is the only way your curiousity will be sated.

[Steel Oyster]

Rob's dead right about the experimentation, you gotta have a listen to see what combinations deliver the goods. I reckon you can get some wild sounds from series/parallel, but they can sound a bit uncomfortable, and Deaf Eddie knows about the humbucker stuff (I don't).
Jas