HSH 1 Volume 2 Push/Pull Tone 5 Way?

[guitarman0309]

What I have is a Warmoth Tele with an HSH pickup rout. What I would like to do is have 2 push/pull tone pots: one for the neck and one for the bridge. When it is in the "up" position I want it to coil split whatever pickup the tone pot is for. When in the "down" position it acts as just a normal humbucker. Can't find wiring diagram for this. Anybody know of a way I can do this? Thanks!

[Richard Irons]

Yeah that can be done no problem. I'll get you a diagram within an hour or two.

EDIT: Some questions.

How many pots are there in total - 3? One volume and two tones?

What switch are you using? A regular 5-way, or a super switch, or a 3-way? And can you please describe which pickups you want active in each position on the switch?

[guitarman0309]

Yes: 1 Vol 2 Tone
Just a standard 5 way from Fender
Thanks so much!

[guitarman0309]

When you say which pickups I want active on the switch, what do you mean? The 5 way or the push/pulls?

[Richard Irons]

The 5-way, like:

1 - bridge only
2- bridge and middle
3 - middle only
4 - middle and neck
5 - neck only

This is the only choice you have if you're using a standard 5-way from Fender, so I'll work with that.

[guitarman0309]

OK. I appreciate it! Thanks!

[Richard Irons]

Here's your diagram. It looks a bit messy...


The colours of the wires from the pickups are as they should be. The blue, yellow and purple wires are just coloured like that to help you trace them through the diagram. Any questions about that or does it look OK?

EDIT: The one thing you need to be sure about is that your black wires on the push/pull pots are connected to the contact that is active when the switch is pulled UP. This will normally be the one that is furthest from the pot.

[guitarman0309]

That is perfect! Thanks!

[Richard Irons]

You're very welcome. Hope it works out for you - any problems, just resurrect the thread.

[guitarman0309]

Quick question: 250k or 500k volume pot? I've heard 250k for single coils and 500k for humbuckers. What do you think?

[Richard Irons]

In this guitar I'd go 500k on all the pots and a .022uF tone cap. There's only one position where there's no single coil active and I bet you hardly use that position.

Oops, I put .047uF on the diagram. Ignore that.

[guitarman0309]

Sorry: I'm just getting into the wiring stuff and still learning. I understand that the higher the uF a capacitor the darker the sound, but how does putting in a .022uF affect the brightness of a single coil compared to a humbucker? I understand that a humbucker will sound thicker, but I'd like for my single coil to sound like its using 250k pots but the humbuckers 500k. How does the .022uF cap help this? Why not just a .047uF?

[Richard Irons]

The value of the tone capacitor only gas an effect when you turn the tone down. Putting in a .047uF cap basically allows you to turn it down further, which most people feel is too far for humbuckers which are already darker than single coils.

I wouldn't worry about the single coil too much. If you wire it as shown then I think you will be happy with the sound in all positions. If not then there is the potential to add a push/pull to the volume to turn it into a 250K pot, and even for that same push/pull to put a different capacitor in the tone circuit. But as I say - try it as shown for now. It's much simpler and you probably won't want to change it.