fender vi series/parallel wiring

[SneakyT]

A few people have sent me PM's on how to wire the "strangle switch" to a push/pull so I thought I'd post it for those not electrically inclined.

[Lewis]

Thanks for sharing!

[Shadoweclipse13]

This sounds awesome, especially since I'm gonna be starting a Bass VI of my own next year! For some reason, the link only shows advertisement videos and I can't actually see the picture of your wiring schematic. I even signed up for imageshack and everything... Any help?

[SneakyT]

I reposted the picture on a previous post.

[FightingPlankton]

okay, I may be missing something, but in the previous pictures... wont there be no sound if you turn on just the neck and just the bridge? meaning you have to use middle+something otherwise there is no sound.

also, I'm trying to figure out how to use this setup on the bass vi. I imagine all i have to do is link in 1 more switch exactly the same as the other 2 right?

[FightingPlankton]

basically, what i'm really wanting is to leave the bridge and strangle switches alone and just make it so i can series/parallel the neck and middle pickups.
so...in theory, this would work right?

[FightingPlankton]

so i realized my previous design was all kinds of not what I wanted. This is the effect I was trying to achieve. Basically, the on/off switches work as normal but the strangle switch is moved to a push/pull on the tone pot(which makes more sense than putting it on volume pot). and the switch that was formally the strangle switch will now put the neck and middle in either series or parallel.

[Sid Nitzerglobin]

Thanks for that diagram Plankton! Nice and easy to read.

Gonna give this a whirl on my Squier VI tonight

[JES]

Thanks to @Barn and @SneakyT for the wiring diagrams. I tried to do this on my BassVI Sunday night but ran into a couple issues. I'm ok at soldering but a circuit diagram n00b.

For SneakyT's diagram on the previous page, does the red wire running from the 2nd terminal of the neck pickup switch go straight to the 2nd terminal on the output switch? Or is it supposed to be wired to the 2nd terminal of the bridge pickup and then to the 2nd terminal on the output? I can't tell from the diagram. I did it neck pickup--middle--output but I'm not sure I did it right. I get sound on the middle pickup by itself, which probably shouldn't happen. With front and middle on in the "series" position, I get a sound not audibly different from the middle pickup. I know what series and parallel switching sounds like on my G&L L2000 so I'm pretty sure I'm not getting series sound here.

Also, none of my ground wires are connected to the grounds on the switches. Instead, they appear to be all grounded together to a single point not on the switches. Is this a problem? I can post a picture if it'll help.

Thank you.

[captdusty]

Also, none of my ground wires are connected to the grounds on the switches. Instead, they appear to be all grounded together to a single point not on the switches. Is this a problem? I can post a picture if it'll help.

Thank you.

Yes, that matters quite a bit. In this mod, the ground wire gets switched into being a series link from one pickup to the next. You will definitely need to separate them and wire them to the switches as shown.

For that same reason, the claws needed to be grounded separately, and the little wire connecting them to the pickup's ground has to be cut/removed.

[JES]

Super helpful. I will get to work on it!

[Embenny]

Super helpful. I will get to work on it!

Thanks for bumping this old thread! I had never thought about trying a series mod on a Bass VI, but it makes total sense that it would give a beefy tone - will be trying this mod myself next time I work on my VI!