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Post subject: need help with hss wiring diagram
Posted: Wed Oct 01, 2014 8:01 am
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I am in the midst of planning a new warmoth stratocaster build, and I've decided I'd like to put a humbucker in the bridge for the option of a thicker lead tone. I'd still like the option of a single coil bridge tone so that means the humbucker would have to have coil-splitting capabilities. I want the middle and neck pickups to be quiet unlike my other vintage style strat pickups, so that means some kind of stacked or split blade pickup. So here is my question, what does a wiring diagram look like for this?

With a 5 way switch (I'm assuming 5 way is still the way to go) I'd like to have all the normal stratocaster positions available, plus the humbucker available in the bridge. So would this be possible with a 5 way switch and a push pull volume pot to split the bridge pickup or something like that? I'm new to coil splitting and hum canceling single coils.

Additional questions: Is a reverse wound middle pickup at all necessary/useful in this scenario... I don't know, for hum canceling/split blade single coils do they ever even reverse wind the middle?
Also, would my tone knobs be wired pretty much the same or do they change too? (I like to wire one tone to the bridge pickup and the other to the neck and middle)

I know this is a lot of questions so hopefully some wiring expert can come to my rescue. The whole hum canceling single coil thing is still complicated to me but if I can get rid of hum and keep the single coil chime and vibe I definitely think they would be worth it.


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Post subject: Re: need help with hss wiring diagram
Posted: Wed Oct 01, 2014 9:48 am
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The humbucker must have a 4-conductor cable allowing coil tap and split.

You'll also need a super 4-megapole 5-way selector to achieve such operation.

Though I'm not a wiring expert I can provide you a schematic for HSS-equipped guitars.

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Post subject: Re: need help with hss wiring diagram
Posted: Wed Oct 01, 2014 5:21 pm
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Have a look thru the fender HSS diagrams here to get some ideas.
As chromeface mentioned 4 wires are essential.

http://www.fender.com/en-NZ/support/art ... e-diagrams

Splitting the humbucker is possible with a normal 5 way with tone control limitations but a lot use the super switch 5 way for even more options.
Fender do make noiseless pickups and these come mainly on the deluxe series.
They offer a variety of options and on the HSS are wound hotter to match the bucker.
The convenience is the S1 switch which is hidden in the vol control.
The SCN and I possibly N3 mid are not reverse wound reverse polarity since there is no point ... they are noiseless anyway so very little hum to eliminate, some like them others do not.
I know this probably does not answer your questions directly but may help. :D


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Post subject: Re: need help with hss wiring diagram
Posted: Wed Oct 01, 2014 7:05 pm
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A lot of modern HSS Strats make use of the 5-way switch to automatically split the humbucker in position 2 to get more of a classic Strat inbetween sound with the added benefit that it can be made noise-cancelling with an RWRP middle pickup. Position 1 is the humbucker as you would expect.

Uncle Seymour is the man for all wiring diagrams ...

http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/wiring-diagrams/

This is the one I'd use. It shows a rails type pickup but the wiring is exactly the same for any 4-conductor humbucker ...

http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/wi ... v_2t_5w_as

... with the additional caveat that different manufacturers' pickup wires may be any colour they choose, there is absolutely no accepted standard colour code for those leads.

http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/wi ... olor_codes

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Post subject: Re: need help with hss wiring diagram
Posted: Wed Oct 01, 2014 11:48 pm
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Another alternative is to make an HHH configuration using the existing HSS layout with a full-sized humbucking pickup in the bridge and two single coil-sized rails in the neck & middle.

James Tyler's unique "lead-rhythm" circuitry features three mini toggle switches which allow the pickups to be wired in series, parallel and out-of-phase in addition to the super 5-way selector.

The big advantage of the circuit is the versatile on-board Demeter mid boost preamp; though not as powerful as the Fender Clapton circuit it fattens up the single coils and supercharges the lead sound from the humbucker with killer mids. You can choose between the complete bypass of the mid boost and the gain preset.

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Post subject: Re: need help with hss wiring diagram
Posted: Thu Oct 02, 2014 4:24 am
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8)
djsuperdock wrote:
Additional questions: Is a reverse wound middle pickup at all necessary/useful in this scenario... I don't know, for hum canceling/split blade single coils do they ever even reverse wind the middle?

I know this is a lot of questions so hopefully some wiring expert can come to my rescue. The whole hum canceling single coil thing is still complicated to me but if I can get rid of hum and keep the single coil chime and vibe I definitely think they would be worth it.


A strat with single coils that is properly shielded and grounded will produce very little or no hum. I have a 25 year old Harmony strat that hummed like a demon. I shielded it with copper foil and grounded everything and the hum was gone. I also shielded the pickups with copper foil tape, this did change the tone of the pickups for the better, but they were cheap pickups. Stew-Mac sells a sheilding kit that contains everything you need. (buy the large kit, if you don't make any mistakes you will have material left over, but it is always better to have too much than not enough)

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Post subject: Re: need help with hss wiring diagram
Posted: Thu Oct 02, 2014 12:50 pm
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Thanks everyone for the replies!

omar59 wrote:
8)
djsuperdock wrote:
Additional questions: Is a reverse wound middle pickup at all necessary/useful in this scenario... I don't know, for hum canceling/split blade single coils do they ever even reverse wind the middle?

I know this is a lot of questions so hopefully some wiring expert can come to my rescue. The whole hum canceling single coil thing is still complicated to me but if I can get rid of hum and keep the single coil chime and vibe I definitely think they would be worth it.


A strat with single coils that is properly shielded and grounded will produce very little or no hum. I have a 25 year old Harmony strat that hummed like a demon. I shielded it with copper foil and grounded everything and the hum was gone. I also shielded the pickups with copper foil tape, this did change the tone of the pickups for the better, but they were cheap pickups. Stew-Mac sells a sheilding kit that contains everything you need. (buy the large kit, if you don't make any mistakes you will have material left over, but it is always better to have too much than not enough)


I actually shielded my current stratocaster with stew mac's kit but I didn't do the pickups because I was worried about changing the way they sound (I have ssl-1s in the middle and neck and a ssl-5 in the bridge, love them). Shielding the cavity helped somewhat but obviously there is still hum. So I'd rather just go for noise canceling pickups this time.

GilgaFrank wrote:
A lot of modern HSS Strats make use of the 5-way switch to automatically split the humbucker in position 2 to get more of a classic Strat inbetween sound with the added benefit that it can be made noise-cancelling with an RWRP middle pickup. Position 1 is the humbucker as you would expect.

Uncle Seymour is the man for all wiring diagrams ...

http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/wiring-diagrams/

This is the one I'd use. It shows a rails type pickup but the wiring is exactly the same for any 4-conductor humbucker ...

http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/wi ... v_2t_5w_as

... with the additional caveat that different manufacturers' pickup wires may be any colour they choose, there is absolutely no accepted standard colour code for those leads.

http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/wi ... olor_codes


I saw that diagram but I'm a little confused... That one just shows two regular single coils; I'm pretty sure that stacked single coils wire differently. Also, the auto split feature is nice but I'd like to still have access to a straight single coil sound for the bridge pickup. So I'm looking for six pickup selections total I guess.


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Post subject: Re: need help with hss wiring diagram
Posted: Thu Oct 02, 2014 2:17 pm
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djsuperdock wrote:
I saw that diagram but I'm a little confused... That one just shows two regular single coils; I'm pretty sure that stacked single coils wire differently. Also, the auto split feature is nice but I'd like to still have access to a straight single coil sound for the bridge pickup. So I'm looking for six pickup selections total I guess.


If you're using stacked humbuckers in the neck and middle then the schematic will still work. Stacked humbucking "single coil" pickups have the two coils wired together so they cancel hum but the hot and ground leads are just two separate leads. They're wired to the guitar in exactly the same way as ordinary single coils.

If you want the option of splitting the humbucker in position 1 then you need this schematic, shows a switch on a push-pull pot but the wiring would be identical if you decide to have a separate DPDT switch ...

http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/wi ... t_5w_split

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Post subject: Re: need help with hss wiring diagram
Posted: Thu Oct 02, 2014 2:28 pm
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For the tone control on the bridge and one for the two neck and middles, just move one of the wires that goes from the switch to the tone knob onto the empty switch lug next to it and jumper the new empty lug to the other tone knob lead

Easier to edit the pic than describe ...

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EDIT: labelled the tone controls wrong, bottom one is bridge and the other is N+M

EDIT: EDIT: unless I've looked at the switch backwards and done B+M on one contrl and N on another, if that's the case then reverse the wires and jumper on the switch.

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Post subject: Re: need help with hss wiring diagram
Posted: Fri Oct 03, 2014 11:15 am
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Another option you can use is the E-Model Megaswitch by Schaller. It is pretty simple to wire up. What I really liked about it is that in the middle position you get one coil from the humbucker and the neck single coil (so you can't get the middle single coil, a position I never used anyway). I wired up my strat with this thinking I would add a push pull, but I get everything I need without it. Check the Schaller website, however if I recall all of the drawings are in German, but if you have done any wiring in the past it is easy to figure out.


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