That’s a pretty easy one. You could use 2 DPDT switches as two halves of the 4PDT switch I use. I would wire one of them (call it switch A) as the top half of SW2 and the other switch (call it switch B) as the bottom half of SW2 as shown on the schematic. Switch A would control the coil taps to switch the humbuckers between humbucker and ssingle coil operation. Switch B would control which pickup is used when the 5-way selector switch is in the middle positions. You could switch both A and B at the same time to operate as per my design or use them independently but you might have something strange going on in the “2” and “4” positions when the humbuckers are active. Hope that helps.
I did this with two push/pull DPDT switches on my Freeway Classic (also HSH). Thinking of the DPDT as two halves of the 4PDT made it pretty straightforward to follow. One switch splits the humbuckers, while the other one changes the operation of the position selector switch.
I now have HSH, HH, SSS and SS all in one guitar! Have not noticed anything strange from phase or otherwise in positions 2 and 4 with the HH or SS. May just be my luck with the stock pickups.
Thanks Andy for this. Had been meaning to get to this mod for years but this finally got me in gear!
hi
i have a yamaha pacifica 812w hss configuration .
and i want to upgrade with andy timmons set cruiser neck (it’s a humbucker in a single size)and at1 on bridge.
th eprobleme is my switch is 2X12 pins written 54321001245
i have 1 pot volume and 1 pot tone
i want to keep the same conf like(neck,split neck and middle,middle,middle split bridge and bridge.
i lookin for all the site and post all the forum in the world lol!!but i still to look my pickup on my desk:(
my main problem is to connecte the cruiser on this switch to have split..
OK, it sounds like you just need to wire in this neck pickup to mirror what you already have on the bridge? The best advice I can give is to check these diagrams from the Seymour Duncan website. You probably have something like this right now:
Study the first diagram carefully and see how your current wiring relates to it. Then study the second diagram and notice how the neck pickup wiring mirrors the bridge pickup wiring. That’s how you want to wire in your neck pickup BUT don’t forget to adapt it for the difference in colour schemes on Seymour Duncan and DiMarzio pickups shown here:
Have a look at these diagrams and if that doesn’t make sense to you, don’t do it. Any half decent guitar tech at a good local shop should be able to do that for you for a low price.
Andy, I’ve decided to use Seymour Duncan Pickups for my H-S-H. Since I am building it for my 20 year old grandson, I want to give him as many tone options as possible. I’ve been thinking about splitting the coils or using a blender pot that I got from Lindy Fralin. I’m just not sure about the wiring. Also, since my pickguard is cut for three pots, I thought I might as well go with blender; or, I guess I could go with a master tone and two volume controls. I’d like your suggestions. Also, about the pots: I’ve purchased some ATC 500 and a couple of ATC 250. Any thoughts about which I should use and in what configuration or combinations? Many thanks, Jim Curtis
Hi Jim, sorry for not replying sooner. Pot-wise I think 500k is the way to go – for volume control it should make no difference and for tone control a 500k gives you all the tone range of a 250k plus a bit more. In terms of wiring I can only suggest trawling the web for a scheme you like the look of. Personally I think there are a lot of schemes out there that are quite confusing to the user, that’s why I tried to do something that mirrored two switching schemes we all know and love. Good luck!
Hi Andy, great site and this is an excellent mod. However I was wondering if you could have more choices in the humbucking mode? For instance could you have neck, neck+bridge (series), neck+bridge (parallel), neck+bridge (tapped) and bridge for instance?
Currently I have my HSH set with normal strat 5-way switching, with a coil tap on each humbucker. But I would like to be able to get N+B humbuckers together and add a phase switch. I think your system may be a better way.
Hi, thanks for the comments. Yes, there are plenty of schemes out there for lots of pickup combinations but I was going specifically for simplicity with this one. Have a browse around the guitar wiring forums and you should find something that takes your fancy. The Seymour Duncan website also has tons of wiring schemes on it. Hope that helps!
Hi, thanks for the comments Matthew. It could be possible if you can find a push/pull knob that has a 4PDT switch on it (most I’ve seen are DPDT switches) but I couldn’t find one when I was designing this so I had to go with a separate toggle switch.
Hi, Andy. What about the Fender S-1 volume pots? Looks like they have a 4PDT push-push built in, and come in 250k and 500k flavours. I was looking to mod my Ibanez S470DXQM by replacing the stock INF1/2 HBs with some 4-wire HBs, and to add coil taps. I prefer your idea for SSS and HH switching, but don’t fancy drilling holes in the quilted maple!! The S-1 pots are for Start and Tele, and so have a shortish shaft to suit a pickguard, but they also do a long shaft version that will hopefully be long enough to fit through the body of my S470 (controls loaded through the back). The push-push button is contained within the top of the knob, and the Tele chrome knurled nut is similar to the ones on my guitar (like your Godin).
Hi Mel. I have a USA Deluxe Strat with an S1 switch and I think I had a look at the wiring once. I’m not sure about the push-button being a 4PDT but I don’t believe the 5-way switch is anything like the standard 5-way so I don’t think it’s a good basis for this mod.
Thanks for your reply, Andy. I had my hopes up and it looks like I’ll have to research a bit more. When I googled for ‘S-1 fender’, there were lots of references to it being 4pdt (e.g. http://www.premierguitar.com/Magazine/Issue/2011/Apr/Mod_Garage_The_Fenders_1_Switching_System.aspx). And the 5-way switch in my guitar is the ‘import’ type you mention in your other article, and has 8 contacts, which I would have thought are the 2 poles?
Ahhhh, yes, actually I think you’re right. My memory was hazy and I was probably thinking of the 5-way switch in my AmDlx Strat, some kind of Fender “Super Switch” which made my head spin. I can never figure out which pickups are meant to be on when I use that S1 thing…! Yes, re-reading your posts you sound like you’ve got it sorted, 4PDT plus a standard 5-way switch (import or Fender) will do the business. Good luck! 🙂
The Fender S1 switch works a treat. Very happy with the H-H and S-S-S options, thanks to your diagrams.
Hi, Andy. I was reading that wiring a resistor in series with the tapped coil helps to beef up the ‘weak sound’ to make it more representative of a real single coil (PRS do it on some models, 1.1k on the neck, 2.2k on the bridge). Looking at your wiring diagram, am I right to think that the resistors would need to be inserted where the red/white wires join SW2? What do you reckon?
Interesting… but that wouldn’t quite work here. Placing a resistor in that location would indeed place it in series between the top coil and ground in the “tapped” mode… but the bottom coil would actually still be in play because it won’t have been shorted to ground, it will be in parallel with the new resistor. Not sure what it would sound like? I like your style Mel, you’re clearly able to follow the schematic!
Having googled a little bit more about this, it seems that I need to put the resistors on the ground side of the SW2 switch so that it only comes into play when the HBs are tapped. Putting it the other side of the switch would be in the humbucker mode circuit (Doh!). As you correctly point out, this mod would indeed bring the untapped coil into play (but only a little bit), which some people say makes the tapped coil sound more like a ‘real’ single coil (??). The resistor values affect how much of the other coil is added, and the values given above are the ones PRS use on some of their custom guitars. I am going to give it a try, and compare with/without resistors and perhaps with some different value resistors. I read somewhere that you can use those small variable resistors (4.7k ohm variable resistor, sub-miniature fully enclosed carbon preset potentiometers, about 70p each) and then you can adjust it until it sounds best to your ears. p.s. Your schematics are easy to follow ;o)
I know there’s no such thing as a stupid question, just stupid people…. But does this configuration give you the option of shs,hh,sss or just hh and sss?
Hi Jeff. If you did it this way you would also lose the taps which are normal on positions 2 and 4 so it would kind of work but you’d be paralleling your middle Single with either Humbucker… If you has a single coil pickup that had a high output that had a similar punch to a humbucker it might sound OK…?
I like the sound of the full humbuckers with the middle pickup better anyway. I never coil tap a humbucker anyway. I have a seymour duncan jazz neck, fender texas special middle, and a seymour duncan pearly gates trembucker bridge. The full HBs sound so good with the middle pu in positions 2 & 4. I just want to be able to eliminate the middle pickup at certain times so I’ll have a les paul too. gig with one guitar instead of 2. plus I have those same pickups in a les paul and the middle position sounds more like a gretsch than the typical les paul mid postion. I think I figured it out with a 3pdt switch. I also have the clapton mid boost circuit in there modified to sambora strat specs and a battery kill with an LED in there to tell me when the pickups are active or passive. If I could upload a pic on here I’d show you what I’ve came up with. I think it’ll work, but I’m not sure. Dont have the 3pdt switch to try it yet.
This Problem was solved 1981 by Matsumoku (Westone, Aria Pro II, Washburn, custom fab of some famous guitar fabricates…etc.)
from Japan.
For example my Westone Spectrum GT has HSH with 3 way toggle and 3 push-pull-potis.
volume = coil Split, Bass= middle PU on/off, Treble = Phase change.
Thus you get all you want.
schematics are available at westone.info
I do WAY too much pickup switching for just a 3 way toggle and have to worry about pullin up a push pull pot just to add the middle pickup. and all that does is make a way to have all 3 pickups goin at once. If thats what I wanted I’d have done it already cause its easy. I want 2 distinct guitars in one. A 3 pickup guitar made with the woods that a Les Paul is made of, and 2 distinct wiring options. I’ve figured out how to do it with a 5 way switch and the 3 way toggle. all I add in extra is a simple 3 way mini toggle.
Thanks for writing this, I’ve used it for two years now and I’m very satisfied.
I wonder: is it also possible in HB mode to have the HBs in parallel mode in positions 2 and 4 with only two switches, let’s say a super switch like WDE5XL and a 4PDT? I can’t find any schematic on the ‘Net about this. Thanks!
Thanks for the feedback Jostein. Um, you might be able to do something with those superswitches but I just went for the simplest thing that sprang to mind!
sounds good. I am building an electric guitar for my kid. it going to have a 57 classis Gibson humbucker in bridge, mojo clone 59 jazzmaster single in neck, and a “Hotrod” Stratocaster single in mid. what type of switch do I need? 5way? and how should I wire it? Thanks, Eric
Thanks for the comment Eric. If I was you I would head over to the Seymour Duncan website where they have a whole plethora of wiring diagrams for all different arrangements of pickups. Have a look at the Humbucker and Strat sections for anything that’s 1 Hum, 2 Singles and see what takes your fancy! http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/wiring-diagrams/
Hi, thank you for your mod, i’m going to make a similar one…so i’m studying yours :).
Just an aspect i do not get from your schemes: u wire the bridge pickup in the common pin of the second pole in sw1: that way how comes it does not connect on all the switch position in hh mode? I’m missing something….
Thanx alot
Giorgio
Thanks for checking it our Giorgio, sorry for the delay in response. If you follow SW1 through from that bridge pickup connection, you’ll see the common pin on the second pole only connects to the neck pickup in positions 2,3,4 in HH mode and at positions 1 and 5 it is left open.
I´m doing a custom build os a singlecut style guitar.
The specs will be:
mahogany body with maple top and bottom
maple 24 fret 25,5″ neck with stephens extended cutaway
3 way blade switch, master tone and master volume
My original intention was to make it a simple HH guitar, as i tend to flavour LP’s 🙂
But then i’ve started to think about using 2 push/pull pots to switch the humbuckers from series to paralel, witch gives hum free single coil sound, resulting in an allmost tele configuration
And later on i started to think: why not put a singlecoil in the midle and have the best of all worlds?
My intention was to add a simple on/off switch conected to the output of the blade switch (like the Gilmour mod for the bridge pickup) that would add the middle singlecoil at any given moment.
Did you ever tryed this? If so, what problems have you encountered?
Hi Claudio, I haven’t tried it myself. Sounds pretty cool and I can’t see any obvious reasons why it won’t work. Make sure you get the phases right when you do the series/parallel switch on each humbucker and you should be good.
After hours of searching for a combination of Les Paul and Strat, i came across your well made wiring diagram.
Almost perfect for what i want! But, is there an easy way to put in an extra mini toggle (or two) for splitting both humbuckers together (or individialy)?
Hi Andy! And thanx for putting up this blog. I have made your HSH-wiring as to the specs on your drawing on my Godin.
I found some errors – on the drawing at least 3 of the wires are connected wrong (on the 4-pole switch). Once I followed your schematic and made my own drawing everything worked perfectly.
Thanks for the feedback Peter. I’ve checked over the diagram and it still looks good to me although I did swap two of the poles for a better layout on the diagram, this is probably what you’ve spotted. Personally I think you should always work from a schematic to understand what you’re doing, as you’ve just proved! Well done and thanks for dropping me a line 🙂
Hi, thanks for this page and the info on this wiring scheme. I apllied it to my strat and it sounds great. The LesPaul setting is great on both HB as SC setting. Yes, I used to separate switches for LP/Strat and HB/SC switching.
Works liek a charm! 🙂
Hi Just got an SD , around a 2000 If I understand serial numbering. You say it had a strong humbucker.
I think mine is standard but the HB is pretty weak. (I tried raising it).
With the tone pot turned to bass it is virtually off.
Do you remember if that is normal?
Sounds feasible Stefano, Strat bodies are usually routed with cavities that will support HSH… just treat it as two separate pickup wiring circuits and then switch between the two at the output socket. I quite like that idea 🙂
Don’t know if this is the right place to ask my question.I am trying to find a diagram for a simple standard HSH wiring on my Stratocaster
2 single coil humbuckers, neck and bridge, single coil for middle. An import 5 way switch. I have tried to find a diagram or a simple description on how to wire this configuration. I have wired a les paul without a problem but this strat HSH has me stumped but I would like to do this HSH wiring.
I hope you can help this 72 year old newbee .
Hi Wilson, thanks for stopping by, I seem to remember from when I did this mod that there didn’t really seem to be a “standard” HSH wiring scheme, hence I started to plan how to do one how I thought best! The best place to look for wiring designs for different pickup configurations is the Seymour Duncan website, try here: https://www.seymourduncan.com/wiring-diagrams
Better is even maybe use on-off-on switch…off position is working as kill switch. I will definitely try this mode, thank you. Need to find only right pickups for this projekt
I have a dilemma inside of my cranium that I cant seem to map out on paper, nor can seem to I find it online anywhere.. This post of yours I came across is as close as I could come to in reference to my plans.
I would like to have the HH/HSH/SSS but also with the ability of push pulls to split coils and customize all sorts of tones such as….
( The I’s will represent my coils)
II I II
II II
I I I
II I I
I I II
II I
I II
I I
I I
I I
I
I
I
Make sense?… There are more variations, though they would bee too similar to decipher within my diagram haha
Even if having all of these variations are not able to fit all of that hardware under the guitar, what would be needed to maximize my SUPER GUITAR potential???
Hey, thanks for dropping me a line. Your idea looks pretty complex. Hopefully the info I’ve put on my site on how to understand 5-way selector switches and this page as an example takes you a bit further towards figuring out how to do your own designs… if not, there’s lots more examples out there. Good luck!
Hey man, I just wanted you to know that today I wired my HSH guitar according to your scheme and it worked like a char (as expected).
I only added one thing more: as I already had a push/pull, I changed it to do an on/off on the guitar (wiring the hot output to ground). I tried to make the HH configuration to split the humbuckers so I had a telecaster vibe, but I couldn’t. I guess I need to think a little bit more in order to achieve that.
One last thing: I recently started to mess around with my guitar so that I can depend less on a guitar tech, and the pickups wiring is the thing I like more to learn and do. I can’t thank you enough to help me getting to another level of knowledge.
Could You help with the schematics if i have 2 DPDT switches?
That’s a pretty easy one. You could use 2 DPDT switches as two halves of the 4PDT switch I use. I would wire one of them (call it switch A) as the top half of SW2 and the other switch (call it switch B) as the bottom half of SW2 as shown on the schematic. Switch A would control the coil taps to switch the humbuckers between humbucker and ssingle coil operation. Switch B would control which pickup is used when the 5-way selector switch is in the middle positions. You could switch both A and B at the same time to operate as per my design or use them independently but you might have something strange going on in the “2” and “4” positions when the humbuckers are active. Hope that helps.
I did this with two push/pull DPDT switches on my Freeway Classic (also HSH). Thinking of the DPDT as two halves of the 4PDT made it pretty straightforward to follow. One switch splits the humbuckers, while the other one changes the operation of the position selector switch.
I now have HSH, HH, SSS and SS all in one guitar! Have not noticed anything strange from phase or otherwise in positions 2 and 4 with the HH or SS. May just be my luck with the stock pickups.
Thanks Andy for this. Had been meaning to get to this mod for years but this finally got me in gear!
Cool, glad it worked for you! 🙂
hi
i have a yamaha pacifica 812w hss configuration .
and i want to upgrade with andy timmons set cruiser neck (it’s a humbucker in a single size)and at1 on bridge.
th eprobleme is my switch is 2X12 pins written 54321001245
i have 1 pot volume and 1 pot tone
i want to keep the same conf like(neck,split neck and middle,middle,middle split bridge and bridge.
i lookin for all the site and post all the forum in the world lol!!but i still to look my pickup on my desk:(
my main problem is to connecte the cruiser on this switch to have split..
thanx for your help(last chance….)
OK, it sounds like you just need to wire in this neck pickup to mirror what you already have on the bridge? The best advice I can give is to check these diagrams from the Seymour Duncan website. You probably have something like this right now:
HSS with auto-split – http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/wiring-diagrams/schematics.php?schematic=1h_2s_1v_1t_5w_as
…you want to get to something like this:
HSH with auto-split – http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/wiring-diagrams/schematics.php?schematic=1h_1s_1h_1v_1t_5w_as
Study the first diagram carefully and see how your current wiring relates to it. Then study the second diagram and notice how the neck pickup wiring mirrors the bridge pickup wiring. That’s how you want to wire in your neck pickup BUT don’t forget to adapt it for the difference in colour schemes on Seymour Duncan and DiMarzio pickups shown here:
http://www.guitarhotrod.com/Duncan%20vs%20dimarzio.graph.JPG
Have a look at these diagrams and if that doesn’t make sense to you, don’t do it. Any half decent guitar tech at a good local shop should be able to do that for you for a low price.
thanx alot i check the diagrams asap:)
Andy, I’ve decided to use Seymour Duncan Pickups for my H-S-H. Since I am building it for my 20 year old grandson, I want to give him as many tone options as possible. I’ve been thinking about splitting the coils or using a blender pot that I got from Lindy Fralin. I’m just not sure about the wiring. Also, since my pickguard is cut for three pots, I thought I might as well go with blender; or, I guess I could go with a master tone and two volume controls. I’d like your suggestions. Also, about the pots: I’ve purchased some ATC 500 and a couple of ATC 250. Any thoughts about which I should use and in what configuration or combinations? Many thanks, Jim Curtis
Hi Jim, sorry for not replying sooner. Pot-wise I think 500k is the way to go – for volume control it should make no difference and for tone control a 500k gives you all the tone range of a 250k plus a bit more. In terms of wiring I can only suggest trawling the web for a scheme you like the look of. Personally I think there are a lot of schemes out there that are quite confusing to the user, that’s why I tried to do something that mirrored two switching schemes we all know and love. Good luck!
Hello Andy! Is it possible to make this change (HSH – HH) using a 3PDT like this one http://acessorios.worten.pt/25932-8258-thickbox/interruptor-de-alavanca-3pdt-on-off-on.jpg ? How??
No, this mod uses a 4PDT switch which shouldn’t be too hard to find…
I’m wondering the same thing
Hi Andy, great site and this is an excellent mod. However I was wondering if you could have more choices in the humbucking mode? For instance could you have neck, neck+bridge (series), neck+bridge (parallel), neck+bridge (tapped) and bridge for instance?
Currently I have my HSH set with normal strat 5-way switching, with a coil tap on each humbucker. But I would like to be able to get N+B humbuckers together and add a phase switch. I think your system may be a better way.
Cheers
Hi, thanks for the comments. Yes, there are plenty of schemes out there for lots of pickup combinations but I was going specifically for simplicity with this one. Have a browse around the guitar wiring forums and you should find something that takes your fancy. The Seymour Duncan website also has tons of wiring schemes on it. Hope that helps!
Hi Andy!
Your work looks and sounds awesome, however I am wondering if it is possible to switch from HH to SSS buy using a push/pull tone knob?
Thank you in advance!
Hi, thanks for the comments Matthew. It could be possible if you can find a push/pull knob that has a 4PDT switch on it (most I’ve seen are DPDT switches) but I couldn’t find one when I was designing this so I had to go with a separate toggle switch.
Ok, thank you!
Hi, Andy. What about the Fender S-1 volume pots? Looks like they have a 4PDT push-push built in, and come in 250k and 500k flavours. I was looking to mod my Ibanez S470DXQM by replacing the stock INF1/2 HBs with some 4-wire HBs, and to add coil taps. I prefer your idea for SSS and HH switching, but don’t fancy drilling holes in the quilted maple!! The S-1 pots are for Start and Tele, and so have a shortish shaft to suit a pickguard, but they also do a long shaft version that will hopefully be long enough to fit through the body of my S470 (controls loaded through the back). The push-push button is contained within the top of the knob, and the Tele chrome knurled nut is similar to the ones on my guitar (like your Godin).
Hi Mel. I have a USA Deluxe Strat with an S1 switch and I think I had a look at the wiring once. I’m not sure about the push-button being a 4PDT but I don’t believe the 5-way switch is anything like the standard 5-way so I don’t think it’s a good basis for this mod.
Thanks for your reply, Andy. I had my hopes up and it looks like I’ll have to research a bit more. When I googled for ‘S-1 fender’, there were lots of references to it being 4pdt (e.g. http://www.premierguitar.com/Magazine/Issue/2011/Apr/Mod_Garage_The_Fenders_1_Switching_System.aspx). And the 5-way switch in my guitar is the ‘import’ type you mention in your other article, and has 8 contacts, which I would have thought are the 2 poles?
Ahhhh, yes, actually I think you’re right. My memory was hazy and I was probably thinking of the 5-way switch in my AmDlx Strat, some kind of Fender “Super Switch” which made my head spin. I can never figure out which pickups are meant to be on when I use that S1 thing…! Yes, re-reading your posts you sound like you’ve got it sorted, 4PDT plus a standard 5-way switch (import or Fender) will do the business. Good luck! 🙂
The Fender S1 switch works a treat. Very happy with the H-H and S-S-S options, thanks to your diagrams.
Hi, Andy. I was reading that wiring a resistor in series with the tapped coil helps to beef up the ‘weak sound’ to make it more representative of a real single coil (PRS do it on some models, 1.1k on the neck, 2.2k on the bridge). Looking at your wiring diagram, am I right to think that the resistors would need to be inserted where the red/white wires join SW2? What do you reckon?
Interesting… but that wouldn’t quite work here. Placing a resistor in that location would indeed place it in series between the top coil and ground in the “tapped” mode… but the bottom coil would actually still be in play because it won’t have been shorted to ground, it will be in parallel with the new resistor. Not sure what it would sound like? I like your style Mel, you’re clearly able to follow the schematic!
Having googled a little bit more about this, it seems that I need to put the resistors on the ground side of the SW2 switch so that it only comes into play when the HBs are tapped. Putting it the other side of the switch would be in the humbucker mode circuit (Doh!). As you correctly point out, this mod would indeed bring the untapped coil into play (but only a little bit), which some people say makes the tapped coil sound more like a ‘real’ single coil (??). The resistor values affect how much of the other coil is added, and the values given above are the ones PRS use on some of their custom guitars. I am going to give it a try, and compare with/without resistors and perhaps with some different value resistors. I read somewhere that you can use those small variable resistors (4.7k ohm variable resistor, sub-miniature fully enclosed carbon preset potentiometers, about 70p each) and then you can adjust it until it sounds best to your ears. p.s. Your schematics are easy to follow ;o)
I know there’s no such thing as a stupid question, just stupid people…. But does this configuration give you the option of shs,hh,sss or just hh and sss?
Good question David – this results in just SSS and HH.
is there any way to do this WITHOUT going into SSS mode? HSH mode and HH mode? best of both worlds…. start and les paul
can you just leave off the coil taps and it be a full HSH and HH guitar? I’ve never done this before is why I’m wondering
Hi Jeff. If you did it this way you would also lose the taps which are normal on positions 2 and 4 so it would kind of work but you’d be paralleling your middle Single with either Humbucker… If you has a single coil pickup that had a high output that had a similar punch to a humbucker it might sound OK…?
I like the sound of the full humbuckers with the middle pickup better anyway. I never coil tap a humbucker anyway. I have a seymour duncan jazz neck, fender texas special middle, and a seymour duncan pearly gates trembucker bridge. The full HBs sound so good with the middle pu in positions 2 & 4. I just want to be able to eliminate the middle pickup at certain times so I’ll have a les paul too. gig with one guitar instead of 2. plus I have those same pickups in a les paul and the middle position sounds more like a gretsch than the typical les paul mid postion. I think I figured it out with a 3pdt switch. I also have the clapton mid boost circuit in there modified to sambora strat specs and a battery kill with an LED in there to tell me when the pickups are active or passive. If I could upload a pic on here I’d show you what I’ve came up with. I think it’ll work, but I’m not sure. Dont have the 3pdt switch to try it yet.
This Problem was solved 1981 by Matsumoku (Westone, Aria Pro II, Washburn, custom fab of some famous guitar fabricates…etc.)
from Japan.
For example my Westone Spectrum GT has HSH with 3 way toggle and 3 push-pull-potis.
volume = coil Split, Bass= middle PU on/off, Treble = Phase change.
Thus you get all you want.
schematics are available at westone.info
Cool, sounds like a great scheme, thanks for sharing!
I do WAY too much pickup switching for just a 3 way toggle and have to worry about pullin up a push pull pot just to add the middle pickup. and all that does is make a way to have all 3 pickups goin at once. If thats what I wanted I’d have done it already cause its easy. I want 2 distinct guitars in one. A 3 pickup guitar made with the woods that a Les Paul is made of, and 2 distinct wiring options. I’ve figured out how to do it with a 5 way switch and the 3 way toggle. all I add in extra is a simple 3 way mini toggle.
Thanks for writing this, I’ve used it for two years now and I’m very satisfied.
I wonder: is it also possible in HB mode to have the HBs in parallel mode in positions 2 and 4 with only two switches, let’s say a super switch like WDE5XL and a 4PDT? I can’t find any schematic on the ‘Net about this. Thanks!
Thanks for the feedback Jostein. Um, you might be able to do something with those superswitches but I just went for the simplest thing that sprang to mind!
sounds good. I am building an electric guitar for my kid. it going to have a 57 classis Gibson humbucker in bridge, mojo clone 59 jazzmaster single in neck, and a “Hotrod” Stratocaster single in mid. what type of switch do I need? 5way? and how should I wire it? Thanks, Eric
Thanks for the comment Eric. If I was you I would head over to the Seymour Duncan website where they have a whole plethora of wiring diagrams for all different arrangements of pickups. Have a look at the Humbucker and Strat sections for anything that’s 1 Hum, 2 Singles and see what takes your fancy! http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/wiring-diagrams/
O.K. Thank You, I will check that website out.
Did you use 250K pots or 500K?
Um good question Jim, whatever the standard Godin pots are… I’m sure I didn’t change them.
Hi, thank you for your mod, i’m going to make a similar one…so i’m studying yours :).
Just an aspect i do not get from your schemes: u wire the bridge pickup in the common pin of the second pole in sw1: that way how comes it does not connect on all the switch position in hh mode? I’m missing something….
Thanx alot
Giorgio
Thanks for checking it our Giorgio, sorry for the delay in response. If you follow SW1 through from that bridge pickup connection, you’ll see the common pin on the second pole only connects to the neck pickup in positions 2,3,4 in HH mode and at positions 1 and 5 it is left open.
Hi,
I´m doing a custom build os a singlecut style guitar.
The specs will be:
mahogany body with maple top and bottom
maple 24 fret 25,5″ neck with stephens extended cutaway
3 way blade switch, master tone and master volume
My original intention was to make it a simple HH guitar, as i tend to flavour LP’s 🙂
But then i’ve started to think about using 2 push/pull pots to switch the humbuckers from series to paralel, witch gives hum free single coil sound, resulting in an allmost tele configuration
And later on i started to think: why not put a singlecoil in the midle and have the best of all worlds?
My intention was to add a simple on/off switch conected to the output of the blade switch (like the Gilmour mod for the bridge pickup) that would add the middle singlecoil at any given moment.
Did you ever tryed this? If so, what problems have you encountered?
Thanks
This way i couls have any combination
Hi Claudio, I haven’t tried it myself. Sounds pretty cool and I can’t see any obvious reasons why it won’t work. Make sure you get the phases right when you do the series/parallel switch on each humbucker and you should be good.
Hi Andy!
After hours of searching for a combination of Les Paul and Strat, i came across your well made wiring diagram.
Almost perfect for what i want! But, is there an easy way to put in an extra mini toggle (or two) for splitting both humbuckers together (or individialy)?
Thanks for sharing your knowledge btw 🙂
Hi Tor, well, yes, it should be pretty easy to insert extra switches to short-circuit the lower coils of the humbuckers, that would do it.
Hi Andy! And thanx for putting up this blog. I have made your HSH-wiring as to the specs on your drawing on my Godin.
I found some errors – on the drawing at least 3 of the wires are connected wrong (on the 4-pole switch). Once I followed your schematic and made my own drawing everything worked perfectly.
Best, Peter:-)
Thanks for the feedback Peter. I’ve checked over the diagram and it still looks good to me although I did swap two of the poles for a better layout on the diagram, this is probably what you’ve spotted. Personally I think you should always work from a schematic to understand what you’re doing, as you’ve just proved! Well done and thanks for dropping me a line 🙂
Hi, Andy
Could you please let me know what tone cap the GODIN SD has originally? Have you changed yours to a different one?
Hi Jae, sorry, I don’t know and it’s been a long time since I opened it up. I can certainly say I haven’t changed mine.
Hi, thanks for this page and the info on this wiring scheme. I apllied it to my strat and it sounds great. The LesPaul setting is great on both HB as SC setting. Yes, I used to separate switches for LP/Strat and HB/SC switching.
Works liek a charm! 🙂
Glad you like it Nocki, thanks for dropping me a line!
Hi Just got an SD , around a 2000 If I understand serial numbering. You say it had a strong humbucker.
I think mine is standard but the HB is pretty weak. (I tried raising it).
With the tone pot turned to bass it is virtually off.
Do you remember if that is normal?
Hi Jim. Doesn’t sound right to me, maybe take it in to your nearest guitar store and have their tech give it a set up and see what they think?
Gibson/Epiphone made this in the MIII model (Gibson’s take on the superstrat in the 90’s)
The wiring diagram is here : https://goo.gl/images/5l1oyU
It only uses one dpdt switch to toggle between “Strat” and “LP”modes.
I omitted the inductor, so I got (from position 1 to 5)
Strat :
1 – Bridge split
2- Bridge split + Middle split
3 – Middle split
4 – Middle split + Neck split
5 – Neck split
LP :
1 – Bridge Humbucker
2 – Bridge Humbucker + Neck Humbucker
3 – Neck Humbucker
4 – Neck Humbucker
5 – No signal
Sounds feasible Stefano, Strat bodies are usually routed with cavities that will support HSH… just treat it as two separate pickup wiring circuits and then switch between the two at the output socket. I quite like that idea 🙂
Don’t know if this is the right place to ask my question.I am trying to find a diagram for a simple standard HSH wiring on my Stratocaster
2 single coil humbuckers, neck and bridge, single coil for middle. An import 5 way switch. I have tried to find a diagram or a simple description on how to wire this configuration. I have wired a les paul without a problem but this strat HSH has me stumped but I would like to do this HSH wiring.
I hope you can help this 72 year old newbee .
Hi Wilson, thanks for stopping by, I seem to remember from when I did this mod that there didn’t really seem to be a “standard” HSH wiring scheme, hence I started to plan how to do one how I thought best! The best place to look for wiring designs for different pickup configurations is the Seymour Duncan website, try here: https://www.seymourduncan.com/wiring-diagrams
Good luck! 🙂
Better is even maybe use on-off-on switch…off position is working as kill switch. I will definitely try this mode, thank you. Need to find only right pickups for this projekt
I have a dilemma inside of my cranium that I cant seem to map out on paper, nor can seem to I find it online anywhere.. This post of yours I came across is as close as I could come to in reference to my plans.
I would like to have the HH/HSH/SSS but also with the ability of push pulls to split coils and customize all sorts of tones such as….
( The I’s will represent my coils)
II I II
II II
I I I
II I I
I I II
II I
I II
I I
I I
I I
I
I
I
Make sense?… There are more variations, though they would bee too similar to decipher within my diagram haha
Even if having all of these variations are not able to fit all of that hardware under the guitar, what would be needed to maximize my SUPER GUITAR potential???
Thank you kindly!!!! 🙂
…. the programming here didn’t allow me to express my diagram as intended hahaha… hope you get the idea of what I am trying to get across.
I got it!.. Perfection. 🙂
Hey, thanks for dropping me a line. Your idea looks pretty complex. Hopefully the info I’ve put on my site on how to understand 5-way selector switches and this page as an example takes you a bit further towards figuring out how to do your own designs… if not, there’s lots more examples out there. Good luck!
Hey man, I just wanted you to know that today I wired my HSH guitar according to your scheme and it worked like a char (as expected).
I only added one thing more: as I already had a push/pull, I changed it to do an on/off on the guitar (wiring the hot output to ground). I tried to make the HH configuration to split the humbuckers so I had a telecaster vibe, but I couldn’t. I guess I need to think a little bit more in order to achieve that.
One last thing: I recently started to mess around with my guitar so that I can depend less on a guitar tech, and the pickups wiring is the thing I like more to learn and do. I can’t thank you enough to help me getting to another level of knowledge.
Regards from Brazil!
Thanks for dropping me a line Luiz, glad it helped! 😀