All the wiring diagrams I see have a tone pot in the diagram..unless only 1 pickup is used.. Need some help wiring 4 simple humbuckers together. NO TONE pot...
I'm not sure if the diagram exists and I really don't know if it should be parallel or series.
Just trying to come up with a cool electric instrument with about 4-6 humbuckers , volume (ground) and jack. No tone.
Thank you
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The larger value pot in the circuit will win when there's different values, but it depends on the pickups being used and how big the difference in pot values as to whether or not you'll notice the difference.Also personal preferences comes into play.
For example we'll use Fomhoarch's git. A piezo on a 500k and a single coil on a 250k. If you were just used to playing a Strat type guitar, you would notice a 500k pot change because all the pickups are the same. With a high treble sound of a piezo put with a single coil on a higher value pot, you wouldn't notice as much. Afterall, it's only a 250k difference.
If you had a piezo with a 1meg pot and a single coil on a 250k pot, then the overly bright toned single coil would most likely be too much treble for you. Unless you like that of course.
250k difference might be less noticeable for most, but 500k or more would be noticeable to most and would need help. Diodes can be used and major guitar companies have used resistors in the past to fool the pots into "seeing" the same values in other pots in the circuit and keep them from taking over.
may now do a tone pot after all ..never have. Is a capacitor necessary? If so what kind..does the type depend on the pot type 250k, 500k etc? Not sure what capacitor it's used for. Thx
Paul Craig > Jon Leslie/Runaway Veal MusicJune 18, 2016 at 5:33pm
With HB's you'll want a A500k for volume, a B500k for tone and a.022uf cap. This is the norm for HB's. You could use 250k pots for brighter tone of 1meg pots for dark tone. Tone cap is necessary and the values can be changed: lower values for brighter tone - higher values for darker tones. Just depends on your likes.
I would start with the normal 500k pots with a .022 cap and make changes later if you want.
What I would do is wire each pickup(4 pickups) to a DPST on/off/on switch(4 switches). Center turns pickup off, one side would be parallel and the other side would be series. Then straight to a master volume.
It would be a fun task to wire up with 4 - 4 wire humbuckers, but would be a lot of tone options.
But after you do it all, you'll most likely only use half of what's available. I have 4 guitars with 2 humbuckers only that do just fine and I couldn't see why I would need 2 more on my guitar. But to each his own.
Seymour Duncan's website would probably have a wiring layout of what your looking for to make things easier. Seymour Duncan also has Triple Shot rings that enable each coil to be used together in parallel, series or each coil separately. But they have to be wired to a selector switch for choice of pickups.
So figure out exactly what you want/need or will use first.
Use one of these for each HB. Wire all North-Start wires from the switch to the volume pot leg and all grounds to the back or side of volume pot. Then the + and - wire from volume to jack and a ground to the bridge/tail piece and your done.
Paul can we simplify. I have hot and ground wires only from Humbuckers. No other wires. I don't know about north south unless that means just reversing the poles? Or direction of the way the HB face either the neck or bridge ? Thanks and sorry if you've already explained this here.
Paul Craig > Jon Leslie/Runaway Veal MusicJune 18, 2016 at 2:41pm
That was for 4 wire HB's. If you have 2 wire HB's, then you can't do the parallel/series thing because you only have 2 wires(one + and one -), they are in series mode.
All you can do is get 4 SPST switches th
at are ON/OFF.Outside terminal is for hot/+ lead of pickup. Center terminal wire to volume pot. Do the same for all 4 pickup/switch assemblies like this:
Replies
The larger value pot in the circuit will win when there's different values, but it depends on the pickups being used and how big the difference in pot values as to whether or not you'll notice the difference.Also personal preferences comes into play.
For example we'll use Fomhoarch's git. A piezo on a 500k and a single coil on a 250k. If you were just used to playing a Strat type guitar, you would notice a 500k pot change because all the pickups are the same. With a high treble sound of a piezo put with a single coil on a higher value pot, you wouldn't notice as much. Afterall, it's only a 250k difference.
If you had a piezo with a 1meg pot and a single coil on a 250k pot, then the overly bright toned single coil would most likely be too much treble for you. Unless you like that of course.
250k difference might be less noticeable for most, but 500k or more would be noticeable to most and would need help. Diodes can be used and major guitar companies have used resistors in the past to fool the pots into "seeing" the same values in other pots in the circuit and keep them from taking over.
With HB's you'll want a A500k for volume, a B500k for tone and a.022uf cap. This is the norm for HB's. You could use 250k pots for brighter tone of 1meg pots for dark tone. Tone cap is necessary and the values can be changed: lower values for brighter tone - higher values for darker tones. Just depends on your likes.
I would start with the normal 500k pots with a .022 cap and make changes later if you want.
I stated that 250k was brighter and 1meg was darker toned. It's really the opposite, 250k for darker and 1meg for brighter. Sorry I got it mixed up.
no problem.
What I would do is wire each pickup(4 pickups) to a DPST on/off/on switch(4 switches). Center turns pickup off, one side would be parallel and the other side would be series. Then straight to a master volume.
It would be a fun task to wire up with 4 - 4 wire humbuckers, but would be a lot of tone options.
But after you do it all, you'll most likely only use half of what's available. I have 4 guitars with 2 humbuckers only that do just fine and I couldn't see why I would need 2 more on my guitar. But to each his own.
Seymour Duncan's website would probably have a wiring layout of what your looking for to make things easier. Seymour Duncan also has Triple Shot rings that enable each coil to be used together in parallel, series or each coil separately. But they have to be wired to a selector switch for choice of pickups.
So figure out exactly what you want/need or will use first.
Use one of these for each HB. Wire all North-Start wires from the switch to the volume pot leg and all grounds to the back or side of volume pot. Then the + and - wire from volume to jack and a ground to the bridge/tail piece and your done.
That was for 4 wire HB's. If you have 2 wire HB's, then you can't do the parallel/series thing because you only have 2 wires(one + and one -), they are in series mode.
All you can do is get 4 SPST switches th
at are ON/OFF.
Outside terminal is for hot/+ lead of pickup. Center terminal wire to volume pot. Do the same for all 4 pickup/switch assemblies like this:
-
1
-
2
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