I wasn't sure whether to post this here in Making & Modding or in the Guitars topic area, but seeing as this covers playing and modding preferences, and that most luthiers and repair technicians also play guitar, I've decided to post it here. I'm just picking peoples' brains here before I rewire an HSS guitar.
I'm not really wanting to get into using a "superswitch" or push-pull coil split pot switching. I will just be using a good quality 5-position wafer switch and the guitar will have unswitched master volume and tone pots. Assume Position 1 on the blade switch to be the humbucker in the bridge only, and Position 2 to be Bridge and Middle single coil. The guitar had a switched coil split on the tone pot, but I felt it just gave a nasally sound on its own and I never used it other than when flipping to position 2 where I wanted just two single coil pickups working in combination, but that's a nuisance having to remember to pull the tone pot as well as flip the pickup switch.
I can wire the guitar so that when I switch to position 2 it automatically splits the humbucker to one coil without the need for a separate coil split switch. I have always felt that when a humbucker and single coil are working together, the humbucker drowns out the single coil, so this will probably be what I do, but I'm curious about how others use a HSS guitar or like to wire them. Do you like the sound of a bridge humbucker with both coils and a single coil middle pickup, or do you prefer splitting the humbucker down to one coil in that position.
There is the issue of what pot values to use in an HSS guitar. I believe I can use a 500k pot and solder a resistor at the switch to reduce it to 250K when single coils are selected and bypass the resistor to work as a 500K pot when only the humbucker is selected in position 1.
How does everybody else wire an HSS guitar?
Comments
I don’t like to split low output humbuckers in pos 2, but do like to split high output pickups in pos 2
For low output humbuckers a partial split via resistor can sound better in the bridge position, but I still find I prefer the full humbucker in position 2.
For a stratty setup I wire pos 1-5 like a strat
Otherwise I prefer to not use middle only and wire pos 3 as bridge screw coil and neck pickup, like on Charvel DK24s
Automated coil split via the second pole of the selector switch is simple enough to do but does not suit every pickup combination. Some bridge and middle pairings genuinely work better with no split.
My Cort G200 guitar is HSS by dint of having a "rails" type bridge position pickup. As mentioned in another thread on this general topic, my Cort is wired via a Schaller Megaswitch E, diagram HSS4.
1) Bridge rails, full output
2) Bridge neck side coil + middle
3) Bridge bridge side coil + neck in parallel (faux Telecaster middle sound)
4) Middle + neck
5) Neck
The Schaller switch is as easy to wire up as a CRL five-way. It is possible to configure the controls to have individual tone controls for the neck and bridge pickups but I wouldn't bother.
I have separate switching for the coil split on my PRS - admittedly with a very odd, unusually low-impedance middle pickup - and the *full* humbucker actually sounds more 'Stratty' in the bridge/middle position than the split does, although there's not a lot in it.
If so I would definitely try it without splitting - unless hum cancellation in that position is important.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1117/5838/files/SSH_Strat.pdf?v=1590594837
I need my Rob Williams HSS to play to its respective pickup strengths and I'm looking at a 500K value for the pots as that's what's worked on my previous guitar, a HSS Tyler and I now have Tyler single coils coming in to match my Trembucker (very similar to the Tyler Secret Humbucker). Funnily enough, all are Alnico 5s and I've found that Alnico 2s just don't work for me and sound middly or brittle.
As my mate has my old Tyler, we'll take a look at how that's wired up to gauge where I go with it
The guitar also has a switch on it which I 'think' gives me the Gilmour switching (neck and bridge on and very similar to a Telecaster’s middle position and/or all three pickups on in parallel) but not sure. I'm toying what to do with that and whether to making it a coil-tap for the bridge humbucker or have it work as a Blower switch but in the past, I haven't minded Position 2 or 4 (middle pickup and humbucker) being an automatically tapped position without the need for a switch and it worked well.
In addition, the guitar goes from nothing to full on the volume knob with no graduation or clean up and so that needs addressing, too. Capicitor? Treble Bleed?
Regarding the original question about favourite HSS wiring... I usually wire in the coil split on a push-push these days as that gives access to a few more tones. It also means you don't need a superswitch to do the resistor trick to make the singles "see" 250k pots (with a single resistor for the two pickups, I mean)- I actually use ICBM's suggested circuit of another 470k resistor and 47nF cap in series to ground as well to sort of simulate the different tone pot resistance as well- I hope I've got that right! The resistor by itself does get you most of the way there, though- it's hard to be sure but I think the extra resistor and cap gets you slightly closer, but it's very subtle and hard to be sure when you're not directly A-Bing it. I usually use a 33nF tone cap, too. Oh and I use a resistor for a partial split on the humbucker (or even better, a trimpot if the guitar is rear-routed so it can be adjusted while playing). Finally, when I can be bothered (and assuming a standard volume and tone knob setup) I use the other pot as a push-push to add in the bridge pickup so I can get bridge and neck together, and all three pickups together.
Needless to say 99.999% of the time I'm just using the standard 5-way switching and never go near the push-push pots. I could almost certainly get by with a regular 5 way switch and the resistors/cap to make the singles "see" 250k pots. But I guess they're there if I decide I need them...
Or that weird taper (reverse log I think) that I managed to buy by accident once!