Guitar wiring with push/pulls?

[SOAWM]

Dear Fractals,

Lately my Jackson KE2 has been dropping it's neck pickup signal and therefore I decided to redo all the electronics. Since I have a PRS Custom 24 I've been in love with it's switching capabilities. I really like being able to go from full blown metal distortion to beautiful crystal cleans with the same pickups.

I bought two brand new push/pull pots for my Jackson and I was wondering what would be the best splitting options for this setup? At first I thought simply making both pickups splittable. That way I could leave my neck pickup split for cleans and go to full bridge pup with a flick of my toggle switch.

But lately I've also read that taking the pickups out of phase can be really cool for cleans... So I'm not sure what to do! All input would be more than welcome.

Thanks in advance!!

 

[Sixstring]

Good candite for coil tapping and phase splitting. Coil tap with one pot and phase split with the other. I like the PRS configuration as well and adopted it to my Carvin CT. You could do the same and phase tap with the other pot. I just don't know how that works when you toggle from neck to bridge while in split mode with phasing.

Edit: Though I do like the push/push style pots better, way easer to a coil split on the fly not having to worry about the knob slipping off your fingers.

 

[SOAWM]

Thanks for the quick reply! I'm only afraid that when I use one pot to split both pickups, it will be way too slow to switch from the split neck to full bridge. On the other hand I don't know whether being able to split both pickups separately provides a tonal advantage.

 

[MisterE]

I like the following:
reverse the neck pickup
Wire the five way switch so you have
Bridge HB
Bridge & Neck outer coils
Both HB
Bridge & Neck inner coils
Neck HB

When reversing the neck pickup you get humbucking on all combinations.
Even neater is using the triple shots.
If you ever come to the seaside, I can show you some of these nifty combinations

 

[SOAWM]

I like the following:
reverse the neck pickup
Wire the five way switch so you have
Bridge HB
Bridge & Neck outer coils
Both HB
Bridge & Neck inner coils
Neck HB

When reversing the neck pickup you get humbucking on all combinations.
Even neater is using the triple shots.
If you ever come to the seaside, I can show you some of these nifty combinations

Unfortunately I only have a 3 way switch. I've been thinking about getting the triple shots, but all my hardware is chrome. I don't whether it would look good with plack pickup rings... I already have two good push pull pots, but I'll look into those triple shots again!

I'll let you know when I'm going to the seaside again! Meeting fellow Axe users is always fun. Weren't you also active on Offstage and Gearspot?

 

[MisterE]

I've made some other combinations using a rotating switch.
Or in combination with push/pulls
I was only active on the Gear Page and Sevenstring.organisms, Line6 a long time ago...
I also like meeting fellow Axemen :eagerness:

 

[Rex]

Give out-of-phase a listen before comitting to solder. It's a thin, weak sound that, for me at least, has limited applications. If out-of-phase doesn't float your boat, you can just individually split the pickups.

 

[Sixstring]

Thanks for the quick reply! I'm only afraid that when I use one pot to split both pickups, it will be way too slow to switch from the split neck to full bridge. On the other hand I don't know whether being able to split both pickups separately provides a tonal advantage.

I do this now and it happens really fast, you just need to get used to the fact that you can push or pull the knob. If your only going to use one pot then I would elect to go for the volume as it is closer and easer to deal with on the fly. I your case the toggle is right their between the volume and tone knobs, so on a down strum you can push the pot in and flick the toggle back to bridge position and come back on the up stroke and never miss a beat.

 

[DNW]

While I like options, I wire up my guitars with live playing in mind. So basically as you're saying, I need to be able to make switches seamlessly without any hesitations while I flip three different switches for the next part.

So my main two are humbucker in the bridge and neck, three way selector, and then a separate push-pull to coil split each one. Well, actually, the backup is parallel switching, and my main guitar has one push-pull and one push-push pot. But with either guitar if I need to go from bridge HB to neck split, I can get the split ready and then when it comes time to flick to the neck it's just one quick switch. Another thing is that I like the combination of the bridge humbucker and the neck split/parallel, so that's another reason for having the two switched separately.

Not a fan of 5-way switches as I find those in between positions can be a bit fiddly when I'm trying to switch quickly.

 

[winger]

Instead of phase switching consider series/parallel switching between both pickups.

 

[DNW]

Instead of phase switching consider series/parallel switching between both pickups.

Parallel and coil split don't sound quite the same, but then you may actually prefer the sound of parallel. One big benefit of course being that it's still hum cancelling, whereas coil splitting you get that single coil noise. In my experience it's a bit fuller sounding and not quite as bright as coil splitting. Maybe the results can vary a lot between different pickups though, I dunno. My main is coil splitting, but I'm thinking of changing it over to parallel like the back-up.

When I finally get around to re-wiring the UV, it'll have both. The cavity isn't deep enough for a push-pull pot on the vol, so I figure if I have to use mini-toggles I might as well use 3-way switches so I can have HB/SC/parallel all available. Just put the two most commonly used on the outer positions for ease of use.