Help with HSS wiring - 250K/ 500K pots

CasperCaster

Hi there, I'm usually good with wiring, but today my tired brain can't figure this one out, so I hope someone on here can help - I'm certain there must be a diagram for this out there somewhere! 

I'm wiring a HSS pickguard, with a single volume and tone (tone paralleled off the input of the volume pot, like a Tele). The pickup selections will be standard, except that I intend to use the second wafer of the switch to run an auto coil split in position two (bridge humbucker split, and in parallel with the middle pickup).

That's all fairly straightforward, but I'm struggling with how I get the bridge humbucker to see 500K whilst the single coils see 250K. I know there's a trick for this, but it's eluding me. 

I've got plenty of components available, so whether I need 500K pots, or 250K pots, or even a 4-pole superswitch, I should have it to hand.

Thanks in advance for your input. 

ICBM

If you're using the second side of the switch for coil splitting you can only do it with a superswitch. You need to wire it so there's a 470K resistor in parallel with the volume pot to ground when the single coils are selected - including in position 2. (And to be very thorough, another 470K in series with a .047uF cap to simulate the lower tone control value.)

Personally I wouldn't bother - Superstrats tend to be brighter than Les Pauls anyway, so unless the bridge humbucker is *really* dark-sounding, you're better just using 250K pots and not making things more complicated than they need to be.

I don't like using superswitches unless they're absolutely necessary - unlike a conventional 5-way which is actually a make-before-break 3-way with two extra notches, a superswitch is a true 5-way and is break-before-make, so you get more switching noise and a drop-out in between positions... or if you're unlucky and the switch sticks there, silence.

CasperCaster

@ICBM thanks for your input. I've plenty of experience of Seymour Duncan JB humbuckers in Strats with 250K pots and quite like them in that context. However, on this occasion I decided to try something different and I've gone with a Seymour Duncan Custom Custom, for a little more warmth (it's replacing Fender/Duncan Pearly Gates Plus). Given I haven't actually tried it yet I'm not sure if the Custom Custom will prove to be too dark or not when used with 250K pots - have you had any experience with the Custom Custom in a Strat?

I guess to start with it may be more useful to use 250K pots and keep the coil split on a separate switch. That way I can hear the split sound in isolation and if necessary try a partial split. And if it is too dark with 250K pots I can swap them out and try the 470K resistor trick without too much effort. I was hoping to go straight to the final wiring, but as I don't yet have experience with this particular pickup the iterative approach may be more sensible.