Series Wiring Ideas... Help?

[StevenO]

I have wired up my Strat with two old DeArmond pickups, one in the neck and one in the bridge. They sound fantastic on their own but as some know... They are out of phase when both are on. This is also incredibly quiet in this guitar, which just won't do.

So I was thinking about having the middle position be in series. I'm using no knobs or pots, just the pickups and a three-way switch Jazzmaster-style switch. Anyone have any ideas on how to approach this? Maybe even a handy-dandy wiring diagram?

[jvin248]

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One of your pickups is reverse wound from the other so you'll need to swap hot and ground wire on one of them to get the true parallel tone back from the out of phase issue.

A regular 3-way toggle switch cannot give series options.

You might look into a Tele 4-way blade switch for N, parallel, B, series. this is also used on the J Marr offset.

Or find a toggle switch identified as a 3-way 'on/on/on' and that can be wired parallel, single, series ... but you'll give up one of the two pickups by itself.

Push/pull tone pot might be wired to pull up for series.

If you can find the Teisco Tulip guitar wiring diagram you'll see where they have two slider switches, one for each pickup, that when both pickups are on they are in series.

Last option is a Fender 'super switch' to give you many choices to wire up but they are very complicated and very expensive.

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[StevenO]

Any idea how Danelectros are able to be wired that way, though? They are three-way toggle switch with neck, series, bridge wiring.

As for the reversing the leads, that doesn't work with these because one of the pickups becomes "hot" and is Hum City, USA.

[MechaBulletBill]

Any idea how Danelectros are able to be wired that way, though? They are three-way toggle switch with neck, series, bridge wiring.

I think you can do that with the on/on/on style switch mentioned above

As for the reversing the leads, that doesn't work with these because one of the pickups becomes "hot" and is Hum City, USA.

What kind of pickups are they exactly? I know getting my 3xP90 firebird to be in phase was a bit of a pain, i had to rotate bar magnets very specifically *and* swap wires around.

[lhwarp]

I had a Dano DC59 Lefty Copper for a time (I sold it... )



The schematics were this :

Original LH as is, with separate T and V per PU and its ON/OFF/ON selector :



Modified in RH, with MT + MV, showing the serial pickup arrangement still with a ON/OFF/ON selector more clearly :



As you can see, the 2 PUs are wired in series, and the muted PU is simply shorted by the ON/OFF/ON selector. A ON/ON/ON selector wouldn't work : in center position, all PUs would be muted...

Hope this helps !

[StevenO]

Awesome and very interesting! Thank you!

So really, all I would need is an ON/OFF/ON switch and give it to someone who knows what they are doing and I'd be good to go?

[lhwarp]

Awesome and very interesting! Thank you!

So really, all I would need is an ON/OFF/ON switch and give it to someone who knows what they are doing and I'd be good to go?

Well, IMHO, the best would be to copy my schems and go to a competent tech to explain to him exactly what you expect from your 3 PU Strat wiring configuration.

Here's an example of what I did on my Harley-Benton MS-60LH that I modded to 3PU à la "Cyclone", with the matching explanations :





Hope this helps !

-tbln

[StevenO]

That definitely does help!

My Strat is actually just wired with two pickups, actually.

[mbene085]

That looks super sharp! Love it.

[lhwarp]

That definitely does help!

My Strat is actually just wired with two pickups, actually.

Nice and neat : where did you get those pickups ? Any brand ? Model ref. ?

Thanks to let me know,

-lhwarp

[MechaBulletBill]

That definitely does help!

My Strat is actually just wired with two pickups, actually.

That's dead cool

[StevenO]

That definitely does help!

My Strat is actually just wired with two pickups, actually.

Nice and neat : where did you get those pickups ? Any brand ? Model ref. ?

Thanks to let me know,

-lhwarp

The neck pickup is a Dearmond "Hershey Bar" from '56 that would have been found on Harmony H-44 Stratotones and the bridge is a Dearmond Diamond Grill Silverfoil that I took out of my mid-60s Silvertone Silhouette.

They're great! If I ever build another guitar with these style of pickups, I'll most likely get either Mojo Pickups or Curtis Novaks. Whatever is cheaper, really.

[StevenO]

That definitely does help!

My Strat is actually just wired with two pickups, actually.

That's dead cool

Thanks! It's pretty neat, for sure.

[antisymmetric]

If it hasn't been mentioned already, (I didn't see it but may have missed it) one thing to do with your metal-housed pickups is that if the pickup housing & cover are connected to one side of the coil for grounding, it should be disconnected and grounded separately. It's pretty easy, just a matter of desoldering the end of the coil from the baseplate, and then running two separate hookup wires, one to the coil, the other to the base plate. I have some '60s lipsticks that were done this way, and I have some later cheapo copies with grounded covers that I wanted to run in series, so a few minutes with a soldering iron and I was good to go.

[lhwarp]

If it hasn't been mentioned already, (I didn't see it but may have missed it) one thing to do with your metal-housed pickups is that if the pickup housing & cover are connected to one side of the coil for grounding, it should be disconnected and grounded separately. It's pretty easy, just a matter of desoldering the end of the coil from the baseplate, and then running two separate hookup wires, one to the coil, the other to the base plate. I have some '60s lipsticks that were done this way, and I have some later cheapo copies with grounded covers that I wanted to run in series, so a few minutes with a soldering iron and I was good to go.

Yes, true @antisymmetric : it's an important point to recall ! Otherwise you will front unbearable hum...

fortunately, Lipstick piclups have usually separate ground casing conductor. It's the case on Dano RI PUs, ARTEC, SD...

-lhwarp