Intuitive three-pickup all-options switching regime

[cernael]

I have a dream.

A dream about a wiring schematic, to be precise. At its most basic, it's about an intuitive way to get all the possible series/parallel/phase possibilities out of a simple three-pickup configuration (for instance, a Stratocaster, though the concept is, of course, equally apppliable to a three-pickup bass, even if those are rarer).

If you for a moment ignore phase issues, and the possibility to kill either pickup, there are eight different series/parallel configurations of three pickups, as follows.

 < < <
-n-m-b-

 < > >
  /m--\
-n     -
  \--b/

  > < >
  n----\
-  \    -
 \--m-b/


  > > <
 /--m\
-     b-
 \n--/

  > < <
 /n----\
-       -
 \--m-b/

  < > <
 /--m--\
-       -
 \n---b/

  < < >
 /----b\
-       -
 \n-m--/

  > > >
 /n----\
----m----
 \----b/

Now, eight being two to the power of three, the idea that switching between these eight options using three two-position toggle switches naturally emerges. The tagmarks above each configuration schematic represents one attempt at that, an attempt that - should it be designable - I would find pretty intuitive. Here's how it works.

Each pickup has a designated switch. n, m, and b represents the neck, middle, and bridge pickups, respectively, of course. > means that the pickup under it is in "parallel" mode, < means "series". When all three switches are in the same mode, all three pickups are in series, or parallel. (Aside; with all in series, is the sound affected by which pickup is in the middle?) When the modes differ, the two pickups that have the same are in that mode with each other, while the third pickup is in the other mode with this pair. (The diagrams explain it better.)

There will be three more switches, again with one tied to each pickup. These will be three'position switches, and will designate "in phase"/"offline"/"out of phase".

Is this at all possible? My local electronics store does supply 4PDT and 3PDT mini toggle switches, as well as the more common DPDTs and SPDTs.


One way of getting to grips with this might be to use Photoshop in ways never intended - show/hide layer would me a useful feature for thinking this through. I'll look into doing that when I have time.



I'll cross-post this to the forums at talkbass.com, basschat.co.uk, and DIYaudio.com, just so you know in case you frequent more than one of these and get confused.

[Jarno]

You might want to wire it up elaborately, or have three different outputs, and make a shortlist of sounds you like. Because I can't imagine each and every one of those sounds being useful, let alone you remembering which setting does what, a few years down the line.
I have a Vigier Arpege bass, and it's got 2x 6 preset eq settings on a rotary switch, figuring out which is which is mindboggling and there are a few settings that are either nasty or too bright and hiss like crazy, so rather then end up in one of those, I just don't use the EQ.
I am guessing having to many pickup choices will be the same experience.

And, IMHO, the beauty of DIY is not to build something that does everything, but build something that does one thing splendidly. Else, you would never need more than one amp and one guitar, and what fun would that be? :-D

[cernael]

Pfft. The true beauty of DIY is to get something that matches your own specs. These are mine.

And further, I've seen a strat mod that gets all these configs, but it uses 5 on-off-on SPDTs, plus two DPDTs for phase. That switching is NOT intuitive, plus it has a lot of doubles, dead configs, etc. (All in all, that has 3^5*2^2=243*4=972 different settings, and 47 sounds (8 with three pickups, times 4 phase settings (all in phase, and either pickup out-of-phase with the other two)=32; three possible pickup pairs, each with four settings (series or parallel, and in or out of phase)=12, and three single pickup settings; 32+12+3=47). Mine, OTOH, has 3^3*2^3=27*8=216 settings, and the doublings and dead settings are intuitive - you're not that likely to forget how to set the sound you want a few years down the line.

And anyway, I plan to do this on my junk strat first, to try and see which sounds I like the best.

[Test Electrix]

Would standard strat single coils sound good in series? I'd put a toggle on for neck + mid, neck + bridge and bridge + mid if it does

[dotfret]

Originally Posted by Test Electrix

Would standard strat single coils sound good in series? I'd put a toggle on for neck + mid, neck + bridge and bridge + mid if it does

You get something similar with the Nashville Telecaster wiring - the intermediate settings give you 2+1 in series and 2+3 in series, giving a humbucker sound.

You need the magnets on the centre pickup the "other way round" for it to work - so N up on the front, S up on the middle, N up on the back, or vice versa, if you get my meaning .

[PeteMcK]

Brian May's wiring is probably the simplest 'intuitive' way to use 3 pickups; I agree with Jarno, figure out what you will use and the simplest way to get to that.

[Test Electrix]

Originally Posted by dotfret

You get something similar with the Nashville Telecaster wiring - the intermediate settings give you 2+1 in series and 2+3 in series, giving a humbucker sound.

You need the magnets on the centre pickup the "other way round" for it to work - so N up on the front, S up on the middle, N up on the back, or vice versa, if you get my meaning .

Yeah I get ya, reverse polarity needed between pairs but that's just made me realise that one of the combinations couldn't have this because one of the three pickups needs to be reverse to the other two meaning the two that have identical polarity 'couldn't' be combined (more like 'shouldn't' due to increase in noise).
Is there a way to reverse the polarity of a pickup just with the way it's wired, like one setting swapping the wires round?

[Jarno]

I was browsing through Bassplayer magazines, and I came across a review of the Musicman anniversary bass and the Musicman Big Al bass. They both have three pickups, and they have pushbuttons to select individual pickups that could work, with three pushbuttons for the individual pickups and one to select series/parallel, that wouldn't help you for the phase selection. "center-off" toggle switches could work for this, but that's not as nice as pushbuttons (IMHO).