2 pickups, 5-way switch options?

Sesh

I'm deciding on what wiring on a 2 HB guitar to do.
It was previously a bit over done with 4 mini switches for coil splitting series, parallel and out of phase. I'm looking to simplify things down to a 5-way (and one switch for coil splitting both HBs at the same time.
Originally I was going for a 4-way with the standard bridge / bridge + neck (parallel)  / bridge + neck (series) / neck.
But then I thought, if I'm replacing the 3-way, I could put a 5-way in and get an extra mode.

So, within a standard 5-way ( not a superswitch) what else could I squeeze in? I don't want any additional coil splitting. Is there something else I can do to vary the way the two pickups play together?

ICBM

Anything other than coil splitting is tricky with a standard 5-way because it isn't really a 5-way, it's a 3-way with extra mechanical stops, so you're limited to parallel combinations.

About the most you can get is:

1 - neck humbucker
2 - neck humbucker + split bridge
3 - both humbuckers
4 - bridge humbucker + split neck
5 - bridge humbucker

To do this you use the standard 'Tele' wiring scheme with the pickup hot (full) outputs connected to the rotors and the volume control connected to the four switch terminals, then connect the two coil splits to the unused contacts so the neck split is selected when the switch is in the bridge position, and vice versa.

TTony

Ignore the Strat scratchplate in the background - these options use StewMac's "megaswitch" to give various combinations of HB coils via a 5-way.

Sesh

Thanks for the suggestions.

A damp cycle home got me thinking. Perhaps something like a jaguar's bass cut would be interesting. It looks like the signal from one of the pickups needs to be fed through a capacitor. I've not worked it out but I think that it should be possible to add both pickups with a capacitor to the fifth position. A jag uses a 0.003um cap. Would HBs need a different value?

normula1

I rewired my PRS 5-way to give:
Bridge, Parallel B&N Partial Out Of Phase (Donahue wiring), B&N Parallel In Phase, Bridge Humbucker & Partial Split Neck, Neck Humbucker.
A push pull on the tone control does partial splits on both pickups. 
I also added a 470k resistor in parallel with a series connected 470k resistor and 0.022uF capacitor on position 3. This (in theory) makes the split positions 3 & 4 subtly different but I can't really hear it.

Funkfingers

The Schaller Megaswitch P does the old PRS selections.

• Bridge HB only
• Inside Coils Parallel (Strattish)
• Inside Coils Series (Brian May-ish)
• Outside Coils Parallel (Meh!)
• Neck HB.

For noise-cancellation reasons, the bar magnet in one of the humbuckers needs to be reversed.



I prefer the Ibanez HH circuit. Various versions of a five-way switch with bespoke PCB tracks offer;

• Bridge HB only
• Inside Coils Parallel
• Bridge & Neck HBs Parallel
• Neck HB in Parallel (Fenderish)
• Neck HB Series

Andyjr1515

ICBM said:

Anything other than coil splitting is tricky with a standard 5-way because it isn't really a 5-way, it's a 3-way with extra mechanical stops, so you're limited to parallel combinations.

About the most you can get is:

1 - neck humbucker
2 - neck humbucker + split bridge
3 - both humbuckers
4 - bridge humbucker + split neck
5 - bridge humbucker

To do this you use the standard 'Tele' wiring scheme with the pickup hot (full) outputs connected to the rotors and the volume control connected to the four switch terminals, then connect the two coil splits to the unused contacts so the neck split is selected when the switch is in the bridge position, and vice versa.

I'm sure @ICBM is right above.  While the multi-switch route gives more options, I have to admit that, as a player, this above happens to be pretty much spot on with pretty much everything I usually use in live gigs!

I have guitars with unbelievable numbers of combinations and permutations of settings - and I spend hours happily messing about with them in home practice.  But I confess that in live situations, I almost always end up with the standard 3 way options plus coil splitting one or other of the humbuckers (and never both, in reality) to add a bit of brightness in the mix if it's a bit PA-bassy. 

ICBM

I should also have mentioned that in the humbucker+split pickup positions, the split pickup dominates the mix - which is counterintuitive, but it's the lower impedance rather than the higher output which matters - so the two split sounds are more different from the both-humbuckers sound (and from each other) than you might expect.

Andyjr1515

ICBM said:

I should also have mentioned that in the humbucker+split pickup positions, the split pickup dominates the mix - which is counterintuitive, but it's the lower impedance rather than the higher output which matters - so the two split sounds are more different from the both-humbuckers sound (and from each other) than you might expect.

I've noticed that but never had a clue why it does it .  I consider myself better informed - thanks @ICBM

Roland

Andyjr1515 said:

I'm sure @ICBM is right above.  While the multi-switch route gives more options, I have to admit that, as a player, this above happens to be pretty much spot on with pretty much everything I usually use in live gigs!

Five options is as much as I can handle when playing live. I once read some psychological research about it. We were looking and product inspection on an inspection line. The research said that inspectors could handle up to five rejection reasons accurately. If we used more than five reasons then results became increasingly spurious.

ICBM

Roland said:

Five options is as much as I can handle when playing live. I once read some psychological research about it. We were looking and product inspection on an inspection line. The research said that inspectors could handle up to five rejection reasons accurately. If we used more than five reasons then results became increasingly spurious.

I can handle six if there's some logic to it - eg a typical humbucker guitar with coil splits, done as a three-way toggle and a single split switch - but I prefer to do it that way rather than a separate split for each pickup, otherwise that does get too complicated.

Roland

Thinking about it, yes ... but. Last night I used a PRS, twin humbuckers with a push/pull tap on the single tone knob. That’s six combinations, but only four switch settings to think about: neck/both/bridge and are they tapped or not? I also played my SA2100, twin humbuckers with separate push/push taps on the the two tone knobs. That’s eight pickup combinations and five settings. In the heat of the moment I still prefer a five way switch.

Sesh

Too many options is definitely a bad thing. Originally, I had this guitar wired so that each pickup had 3 settings (parallel HB, series HB, coil split) and then a standard 3-way, phase reversal and series. I admit this was a case of just because you can, doesn't mean you should.
So, the plan is to try and pick something simpler. The 5 way option @icbm suggest above does appeal to me (if I can work out how to wire the switch). I think that's most likely what I'm going to go for. Better get the order sorted out. Cheers for all the input.