OT tri-coil guitar

[Somicide]

Hi all,
well, as i stated WAAAAAAAAAY back when, i am going to smash my strat copy, and i wired it up in parallel (all 3 pups).  The output is a bit low, and i think i wired my tone wrong, it works in reverse.  any ideas?  I'd like a way to make the volume louder, passive if possible.  if not oh well, i can add a small box in the trem rout.

[Peter Snowberg]

Wire up all the pickups in series.

Ditch the volume control and tone controls and just wire the ground of the input jack to the ground of the bridge pickup and then the tip of the jack to the + side of the neck pickup. Make sure that all the pickups are in series and in phase for maximum volume.

You could also add a minibooster to it.

Take care,
-Peter

[Somicide]

cool. thanks.  that wont darken the tone any will it?

[Peter Snowberg]

I would think it would be brighter if anything because the treble cut would be eliminated and the impedance would be raised.

Three pickups in series can be quite powerful, even if they're not powerful pickups.

Take care,
-Peter

[Somicide]

Thanks again, Mr. Snowberg.  I'll let you know how this POS turns out.  then, I'll send some pics of the aftermath.

[Tim Escobedo]

All three pickups on a strat sound pretty good. However, if one is out of phase, it'll be kinda weak and thin sounding.

Three in series is pretty cool, too. Generally louder and bassier. And you can put one pickup out of phase with less of a volume cut penalty. And the series-wired out-of-phase sound is more agressive and ballsy than parallel.

I saw one interesting wiring scheme with three single coils in which the three pickups were wired in series, and each pickup had a pot wired in parallel, like a variable resistance. Each pot functioned as a volume/mix control. I'm sure the "mixing" was a bit lo-fi, but it's a cool idea. I've transferred it to a two-pickup guitar so that the "mixing" is done via a single linear taper pot.

[aaronkessman]

did that to my strat  - but i've got HB pups in the neck and  bridge. my "blow" switch - ie, all 3 in series - is crazy high output. the duncan 59 in single coil mode in the neck in series with just the stock middle pickup is STILL quite powerful. big bold single coil sound. it's cool. you'll get a lot of umph out of all 3 in series there.

[lvs]

I saw one interesting wiring scheme with three single coils in which the three pickups were wired in series

Bill M. made a guitar wired up like this, his Formicaster. A while ago, Bill started a discussion at a board about the feasability of it and I claimed it was not possible since I tried it before with bad results regarding hum. But I started experimenting again the same day to make sure about what I had said and got something usable this time, which I posted
and Bill used to develop his Formicaster electronics.

It's actually simple. A number of pickups (or coils if you want) are in series and each one is shunted with a log pot, acting as a variable resistor. But pot resistance is a tradeoff :

- The bigger it is, the shorter the pot range within which you hear the volume changing
- The smaller it is, the more it loads down the pickup

Bill used slide pots with resistance as small as possible, to get good taper over almost the entire slide range; I searched for a solution for a Strat without drilling extra pickguard holes, and that would tackle the load problem. I found one that works with original Strat parts, but it's still better to replace the 5-way blade switch with a 3-way like found on early Strats. The way it works reflects well how I like to dial in a tone : one pickup is selected with the blade switch and works without being loaded by a pot, while the 2 other pickups each are controlled with a pot. The third pot is always master volume.

I have a guitar wired up like this, it sounds very nice.

[Somicide]

the middle pickup is made to cancel hum in pos 2 & 4, so would it affect how i would have to wire it in series?  almost done here, thanks guys...

[Peter Snowberg]

If the middle coil is out of phase then you get hum canceling in positions 2 + 4. Just swap the hot and ground connections for the middle pickup.

Wire the ground of the neck to the ground of the middle and then the hot from the middle to the hot from the bridge. The bridge ground is still grounded, and the output goes to the hot of the neck. That should give you three coils in series with the middle one phase reversed (or in your case normalized).

Take care,
-Peter