Parallel pups

[deeaa]

So,

I want all my guitars to have the same pickups, and already have Gibson 498Ts in bridge in most of them...but I needed a more single coil weaker cleaner tone for necks.

So now I ordered a bunch of the same no-name 4 conductor black open buckers, $15 a piece, and I will wire them as parallel singles.

The only thing I use the neck pups for is 'cleans' ie I have set my neck volume much lower and also the bass sides lower in pups, so I can just flip to neck pup and play gently and the amp will clean up enough for clean parts.

But the buckers never clean up that well and since they all have different pickups and not all have 4 conductors either, I figured I will just put in new ones wired as double singles.

I use the cleans so seldom that I don't really care that much how good they sound or don't sound, so hopefully those cheap pups will just give a clearly less thick and powerful sound and it should be good. And will sound the same no matter what guitar I use.

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[dabbler]

Your plan is kinda logical but my experience is that everything matters. IOW, the same pickup in different guitars might sound different.

I'm curious how your plan will work out for you, but a good solution, though too expensive for a whole stable of guitars, is a set of SD Prails in a set of triple shot rings. Tha setup will give you P 90 tones, Single Coil tones, HB series tones as well as HB parallel tones.

Another solution that might help with pups that aren't 4 wire would be to see if you can get to where the 2 could are joined. If you can wire another wire right in the joint and take it to a switch that can connect it to either ground or hot you can isolate one of the coils for a single coil sound. Which way you take it will determine which coil you isolate.

OR if you like and your can access that joint, you can turn it into 4 wire by running a wire out from each coil.


Looking forward to hear how your plan goes.

[deeaa]

Yeah I looked into the P rails and they are very interesting. But, they do get pretty pricey and also they don't look like normal pups and I want to keep the looks of the guitars as is.

Bottom line is really don't ever have any use for neck pickups except for cleans, and even those I use quite infrequently,, so I think parallel should suffice. Or if it seems better, I will also try using just either of the coils. That might work too.

My ultimate goal is to have zero pedals and other stuff, just a straight line into the amp with nothing else. Currently I still need an OD pedal though, but we'll see if I can coax more drive out of the plexi somehow and get rid of that too.

I have a push-pull volume pot I could use as well for several options, but it'd be a lot more difficult to solder myself.

AS for sound...they are all similar Flying Vs with same strings and setups...they sound quite the same even now with very dissimilar neck pups, but not quite...and I doubt they can be told apart after the change

I just want one single amp and sound that I can clear up nicely with guitar volume and one guitar to use, that's all....I have several just for backup, looks and the fun of tinkering with them. But otherwise I just want one, just like Malcom Young or such.

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[andrewsrea]

Humbuckers-in-parallel is a cool and rarely used sound, which will be a wider single coil with a little more power and hum. They have a flatter response than the traditional humbucker 'RWRP' mode, due to phase boosting and cancelling that goes on with that design. Be prepared for noise, though.

[deeaa]

Yeah...but, still less noise than just a split, as the coils still act a bit like buckers with slight hum canceling.

I had a '92 LP Standard for about 13 years as my basically only guitar that I used and gigged with, and I had the 490 at neck wired in parallel. Loved it. But I can't remember if it had a 250K pot for it as well. Will have to see and try what works. If it's excessively bright I'll put a 250 in.

In the LP I also had an onboard EMG PA-2 preamp with a push-pull switch.

Playing into a Fender Blues DeVille 2x12" I was able to go from almost spanky clean to rhythm OD to lead melody drive just by flipping one of two switches. Didn't use any pedals or anything, zero FX.

That's what I aim to do with my current axes as well...but I may not even need a separate lead boost, I can use a more driven sound all the time. Just play harder or more gently.

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[deeaa]

http://www.saunalahti.fi/juho/bm/BM_Tah ... e_mies.MP3

That is one of my songs from the 90s where I start playing the Paul with parallel neck pup, and when the chorus hits I simply flip it to bridge humbucker. Using the Deville nothing else.

FWIW the other guitar is a PRS directly to a Fender Hot Rod Deville, and he uses some fx like a Schaller tremolo pedal.

You won't understand the lyrics but it's a pretty sappy ballad called I want to be that man (who drives away your fears etc).

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[Buddha Pickups]

You could try a partial split. It only cuts out some of one coil so it's not weak and noisy. Just wire in a small resistor in the 1k to 7k range to ground instead of just grounding one coil completely.

[deeaa]

You could try a partial split. It only cuts out some of one coil so it's not weak and noisy. Just wire in a small resistor in the 1k to 7k range to ground instead of just grounding one coil completely.

Screenshot_20190424-191250_DuckDuckGo.jpg

That's interesting...but isn't it still weaker than using both coils, only in parallel instead of humbucking?

The most important goal is to get more single- coil type highs and also lows, instead of a midrangey humbucking sound. Volume can be lowered by lowering the pup. That's why I was gonna just wire it as two single-coils of equal volume, to mimic strat 2nd position basically.

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[deeaa]

Well the project was a great success!

It sounds just like I remember my Les Paul with the same neck pup mod sounded. No hum, but a lot cleaner, sparklier and nicer sound that blends in with the bucker perfectly - it feels like switching on OD when changing pups.

Here's how I wired the bucker:

And here is a bad test how it sounds...I don't have a real speaker here, some ratty celestion from a modeling marshall amp that sounds horrid, but it still should convey the difference of the pups real well:

[deeaa]

A better sound example here...I can't believe I didn't do this earlier. I finally have use for my neck pickups and can maybe even ditch an OD pedal having this much control over gain right on the guitar.



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