HSS Wiring Preferences

BillDL

OK, I finished the wiring of my guitar and I finally have it sounding exactly as I wanted it to after a lot of experimentation and swapping of pickups and components.

• Bridge: Alnico II humbucker with DC Resistance 8.53K.
• Middle: Alnico V single coil with DC Resistance 7.5K.
• Neck: Alnico V single coil with DC Resistance 7.5K.
• Master Volume and Tone: Log taper A500K Bourns pots.
• Standard 5-way wafer switch wired for standard "strat" type pickup combinations.
• 2 x 470K Carbon Film Resistors connected to neck and middle pickup lugs of switch to ground so each of the single coils sees about 240K resistance but humbucker still sees about 500K (pots were each a bit under 500K).
• 0.033uF orange drop capacitor on tone pot worked out as the best compromise from 0.022 and 0.047K but only when used along with an unswitched treble pass (0.001uF cap and 150K resistor in parallel) on the volume pot.

I tried switched coil split on the humbucker, auto-split on the 5-way switch, the neck and bridge together selection option, different values of pots and capacitor on the tone pot, with and without resistors to balance the pot values, with and without treble pass, and probably other options I've forgotten I tried.  Using the standard pot lug connections for the wiring and using the normal 5 pickup combinations gives me a good range of tones from biting treble through to fairly mellow, and backing off the volume keeps the jangle.

I wish I had just gone for absolute simplicity at the beginning and left it at that, but the temptation is always there to see how many options are available.  I was a dumbass and worked my way all the way backwards through the complexity scale.

It was interesting to read how everybody has different preferences.

Dave_Mc

^ Yeah definitely. I'm sure I'm not alone, but once I finally got round to learning how to solder, my initial temptation was also "Now I can solder, I can add all these fancy wiring tricks that you don't get off the shelf!". A lot of them you rarely use... though some of them are pretty useful (the resistors to make the single coils see 250k especially).

prowla

I'm reading that as the middle & neck pickups have a 470k resistor across their terminals; presumably that means they see about 160k in switch position 4 (neck + middle).

Then there's the 150k resistor in parallel on the Vol pot - I don't understand that?

Funkfingers

Dave_Mc said:

once I finally got round to learning how to solder, my initial temptation was also "Now I can solder, I can add all these fancy wiring tricks that you don't get off the shelf!". A lot of them you rarely use.

Got that out of my system in my teens. 

"Yay! Loads of possibilities from my one and only budget copy guitar," closely followed by, "bugger, I have to shift several mode switches to get the three sounds that I regularly use."

ICBM

prowla said:

I'm reading that as the middle & neck pickups have a 470k resistor across their terminals; presumably that means they see about 160k in switch position 4 (neck + middle).

Yes - but this also helps emulate the standard Strat setup where both tone controls are engaged in that position, and sounds softer even when both are up full. If you *don't* want that, connect just one resistor to both terminals at the same time.

prowla said:

Then there's the 150k resistor in parallel on the Vol pot - I don't understand that?

That's part of the treble-pass network - it makes the effect less drastic by slightly altering the taper of the pot, so the mids and bass don't roll off as fast.

You can also wire the resistor in series with the cap instead, which simply reduces the amount of treble which is passed, but I prefer the parallel method usually.

Dave_Mc

Funkfingers said:

Dave_Mc said:

once I finally got round to learning how to solder, my initial temptation was also "Now I can solder, I can add all these fancy wiring tricks that you don't get off the shelf!". A lot of them you rarely use.

Got that out of my system in my teens. 

"Yay! Loads of possibilities from my one and only budget copy guitar," closely followed by, "bugger, I have to shift several mode switches to get the three sounds that I regularly use."

LOL yeah. At least... I've kind of done it in such a way that the standard tones are still pretty much the same. As long as I don't go near the push-pushes, it's basically the same as ever...

BillDL

Damn.  I've just had the chance to try out the guitar through a larger amp than the practice amp I tested it on, and with a bit of gain it's just too shrill.  These pickups are actually so responsive and have so much clarity that they are picking up and accentuating the trebly "ring" that you normally don't hear when you slide up frets, accidentally touch a vibrating string with your fingernail, and such other accidental brushes.  You know the kind of "mechanical" sounds you get from the actual guitar when you play an electric guitar unamplified, but you never hear when you plug it in?  Those are all being picked up and amplified along with the normal pickup sounds.  Through a distortion or overdrive pedal, even with the tone backed off to try and compensate, the "accidental" noises are too ice-picky.  I tried lowering the pickups and removed the treble pass to see whether knocking down the volume by a notch would dull the ringiness enshrouding everything, but it's not the answer.  It sounded great on my practice amp as it was, but it would slice your head off played through a larger amp at volume with a bit of gain.

I've just knocked together an alternative loom using A250K pots for volume and tone.  My first one failed because I accidentally picked out a B250K and all I got on the tone was a Wah-wah between the 8 and 10.  Should have tested it OUTSIDE the control cavity but I was rushing before dinner time.  I currently have a 0.047uF and 0.033uF tone capacitor temporarily soldered by one leg each to the tone pot so I can quickly switch them back and forward while playing as I test, but so far the 0.047 one seems to be working the best on my larger amps, and the tone pot allows more usable scope with that capacitor connected.  Before i went back to the drawing board I tried the circuit as it was with the 500K pots and just swapped the tone capacitor from the 0.033 to 0.047, but I didn't like it.  I think I'm just going to keep it as it is with 250K Log pots and 0.047uF tone cap.  Absolute simplicity.  In theory, and going on past experience and general consensus of opinion, that combination shouldn't really work well for a humbucker at all, but it does with these pickups.  All the pickup combinations were quite meaty before, but the sound was being spoiled by the upper frequencies shimmering and ringing and sitting right on top of everything like a halo.  Now it is still meaty as before but without all the overpowering ringing hanging over it all.  All pickups are still pretty articulate now and I'm liking this most basic combination.

Dave_Mc

Yeah 250k pots and 47nF cap should tone the treble down a little. It's possible 47nF doesn't work so well with 500k pots... I'm sure I had at least one guitar with those values stock, and it was a bit on the darker side, but I suspect its pickups were on the darker side of things anyway...