Everything Axe (sort of) Wiring Q

[Nite5hade]

Okay, so first off, hi, and thanks. First post here, but I've been reading over threads I've stumbled on here for a while which have helped me forward in my latest project and gotten me to the phase where I'm ready to plan the wiring.

I'm not very experienced, having only wired up a guitar once- and not a very complicated one at that. So I was hoping I can get a little guidance from someone who's done this or direction to a diagram if possible. I'm sure others have done what I'm looking to, I just haven't yet been able to find it.

Okay, so what is it? Well, I placed an order for the JB 'bucker, the duckbucker and the little 59 (it's an HSS guitar, so I needed the full size JB).

I have a 5-way switch and two pots, a master volume and master tone, to work with. What I want to achieve, with both of them being push/pull, is this:

Volume up: Neck or Bridge pickup on, thus allowing the N+B/all 3 pup combos.

Tone up: Neck and Bridge split to single coil mode.

With both knobs down, it would operate exactly as the EA set is designed to.

That's it! No other out-of-phase or serial/parallel split craziness (at least not yet). I just want to be able to split the two full humbuckers, and combine the neck and bridge to get those nice, LP-ish double 'bucker tones. I guess I'm curious what the 59 and JB are like together when they're both split, too, but I'm not too concerned about it. Obviously, I'd like to avoid hum as much as possible.

From what I've seen, you're a very knowledgeable and helpful bunch so hopefully somebody can point me in the right direction. Standard noob disclaimer* applies! Thanks for your time!

*- ie, Sorry if I suck at searching and am requesting something that's been done to death. I'm going to talk to a tech I know and hopefully have some hands-on supervision and help with it, but I'd like to learn what I can beforehand and, if possible, go in (somewhat) prepared.

[Zhaggy]

http://www.seymourduncan.com/support...ngaxe_1v_1t_5w

http://www.seymourduncan.com/support...h_1v_1t_3w_1pp

http://www.seymourduncan.com/support...ic=switch_f_bp

The first is the normal EA diagram, no magic there. There the details in the following two.

So You basically wire everything up like in the first diagram. Then you add the splits, which mean you take the red and white wires from both neck and bridge hum and wire them like in the second diagram. Red and white wires to the center lugs of the p/p switch and the the bottom lugs together (bottopm meanign the ones that are closer to the actual pot) and then either of the bottom lugs (which are now together) to the back of the pot or to the "extra" lug that most push-pull have on the top of the switch. Ignore the rest of the diagram.

Then you'll add the switch for the bridge pickup to be added. You see the third diagram. You just add the wiring shown in the push-pull. You must be carefull as the wires are different color. In your case you connect the black wire from you bridge hum to the center lug of your p/p and the same center lug connects to the 5-way switch (as in the diagrams) The you add the wire from the bottom lug of the p/p to the lug in the actual pot.

Now you should be done. Good luck.

[Nite5hade]

Hm, that seems pretty reasonable. Thanks for the links and walkthrough; seems do-able... hopefully I'll get the parts and be able to do it during the week! I'm sure it'll be a bit easier to visualize once I'm looking at everything, too. Thanks again.

[ParameterMan]

I was thinking about this last night. You'll have to decide which coil of the neck pickup you want - splitting both humbuckers normally means you won't get hum-canceling operation between neck and bridge but will with the middle pickup. Except your middle pickup is silent so your 2 and 4 positions won't be humcanceling either. Unless you were to split the duckbucker in positions 2 and 4.

Since you're using a master tone, you could actually use the other half of the 5-way to split the neck and bridge automatically in pos 2 & 4. I can't think of a way to automatically split the middle as well.

So then one might want to give up on that and split the neck so that it's humcanceling when combined with the bridge.

What would be really cool, though, is if you went and got a 5-way with more lugs so that you could have all humcanceling positions.

None of this probably made any sense.

[Nite5hade]

Sorry if it seems like I wandered off- I've been waiting for the parts to come in, and today they showed up!

I think I followed most of that, regarding the hum-canceling- but for starters am probably going to stick with the default, at least until I hear it- I imagine most of the time I will be running it full HB, but I like options, so wanted to install the split.

My understanding is that the middle duckbucker can't be split effectively- when split it will only be functional for 3 strings, so that's no good. But I'm okay with that- I didn't intend to split the duck, since the only advantage it would give is hum-canceling properties, given that it's built to emulate strat tone anyway.

So I was resigned to 2&4 having the hum in split mode. What I do want is for the bridge+neck split to be hum-canceling. I know that the rule is generally slug from one pup + screw from the other = hum canceling split... however the 59 is ALL screws. So I'm not sure which coil to use- not to mention how exactly the wires translate. I was planning on the slug coil from the JB bridge, since it's known as a bright pickup and people generally say the slug side is warmer.

I've seen this image, but am still a bit confused about this specific case. Don't know if the rule is to wire them both the same on that diagram, or opposites. Still looking, though, and I know the answer's around here somewhere.

EDIT: After taking a look at the pickups, the same color coding and wires seem to be used on both (makes sense, considering all are humbuckers, but I'm new to single coil HBs). Am I correct in assuming that I want the inner coil from one pickup, and the outer from the other to keep them hum-canceling? If so, I should use the upper example on that image I linked to for one of them (the bridge) and the bottom example on the other (the neck)?

[Zhaggy]

Sorry if it seems like I wandered off- I've been waiting for the parts to come in, and today they showed up!

I think I followed most of that, regarding the hum-canceling- but for starters am probably going to stick with the default, at least until I hear it- I imagine most of the time I will be running it full HB, but I like options, so wanted to install the split.

My understanding is that the middle duckbucker can't be split effectively- when split it will only be functional for 3 strings, so that's no good. But I'm okay with that- I didn't intend to split the duck, since the only advantage it would give is hum-canceling properties, given that it's built to emulate strat tone anyway.

So I was resigned to 2&4 having the hum in split mode. What I do want is for the bridge+neck split to be hum-canceling. I know that the rule is generally slug from one pup + screw from the other = hum canceling split... however the 59 is ALL screws. So I'm not sure which coil to use- not to mention how exactly the wires translate. I was planning on the slug coil from the JB bridge, since it's known as a bright pickup and people generally say the slug side is warmer.

I've seen this image, but am still a bit confused about this specific case. Don't know if the rule is to wire them both the same on that diagram, or opposites. Still looking, though, and I know the answer's around here somewhere.

EDIT: After taking a look at the pickups, the same color coding and wires seem to be used on both (makes sense, considering all are humbuckers, but I'm new to single coil HBs). Am I correct in assuming that I want the inner coil from one pickup, and the outer from the other to keep them hum-canceling? If so, I should use the upper example on that image I linked to for one of them (the bridge) and the bottom example on the other (the neck)?

I've been under the impression that if you split the coils the same way (i.e. screw coils from both) it would be hum-cancelling. If they are designed for different positions, one for bridge and one for neck. At least for full humbuckers but it may not be for singlecoil-sized hums cause there is usually three. You should e-mail duncan and they 'll probably tell which way is it.

And btw "the image" you linked only works for one humbucker guitars or if the two hum are never used together, because the lower way changes the pickups phase. There is a better way of changing which coil is split.