Dummy coil in a Jaguar?

markarkark

I was thinking of putting a dummy coil in the middle position of a Jaguar, under the pickguard.

Does anyone know if it would be possible to wire the dummy coil to the 'strangle' switch (i.e. the 'extra' slider switch in the panel of three switches -- the other two are neck and bridge pickup on/off), so that I have all of these options?:

one of the two pickups without the dummy engaged (i.e. with mains hum but no treble loss); one of the two pickups the dummy engaged (less hum but some treble loss); both pickups (not sure how the dummy coil would affect this option as my understanding of electronics is poor).

Teyeplayer

Would you be routing for the dummy coil? If you are, just to throw another possibility in the works what about doing the hidden pickup thing like the Brad Paisley Esquire?

markarkark

I would be, yeah. Didn't know about this. Presumably the pickup would have to be quite high output to get a strong enough signal from so far beneath the strings?

Teyeplayer

markarkark said:

I would be, yeah. Didn't know about this. Presumably the pickup would have to be quite high output to get a strong enough signal from so far beneath the strings?

They are, but it works -it’s a clever concept. I’ve one here somewhere in the spares that I might be able to dig out and measure.

Funkfingers

markarkark said:

both pickups (not sure how the dummy coil would affect this option as my understanding of electronics is poor).

Jaguar pickup pairs are usually made with reversed coil wind and magnetic polarity to the other. When both are selected, hum should be cancelled. (This never gives 100% cancellation.) Thus, when both pickups are selected, a dummy coil is redundant.

markarkark

Funkfingers said:

markarkark said:

both pickups (not sure how the dummy coil would affect this option as my understanding of electronics is poor).

Jaguar pickup pairs are usually made with reversed coil wind and magnetic polarity to the other. When both are selected, hum should be cancelled. (This never gives 100% cancellation.) Thus, when both pickups are selected, a dummy coil is redundant.

That makes sense, thank you.

If, for the sake of argument, neither was RWRP, do you think the dummy coil could be wired as above to cancel some of the hum when only one pickup is selected? 

Funkfingers

Yes, I think it can be easily done.
Just take everything down to Highway 61.


As a Jaguar owner and occasional user of gnarly distortion effects, my solution is to use a noise gate.

markarkark

Thanks again!

ICBM

As a former Jaguar player, I only ever used three sounds with any distortion… both pickups in parallel, both pickups in series (with a mod to the stock switching, which needs DPDT switches if they aren’t already fitted) and the rhythm circuit with the tone control all the way down (used with a fuzz pedal only). That gave me enough useful options without any more drastic solutions.

Seziertisch

I have dabbled in dummy coils and found them disappointing, giving a sound not anywhere close to either a good single coil or a good humbucker.

 If you want noiseless Kinman do Jag pickups of various sorts, sound wise they should be fairly close to a single coil but feel wise they are much more like a humbucker