New pickups and coil splitting hambackers in my jaguar

[astro]

Although they’re great pickups, I’ve gotten a bit bored of the stock Duncan Designed hambackers in my jaguar.



So, I ended up purchasing new pickups for it. I ordered a Dimarzio Super Distortion for the bridge and a Super-2 for the neck. I plan on adding coil split switches. Since the new pickups have not arrived yet and the stock ones have 4 conductor wiring, I will start by adding the coil split switches and I’ll add the new pickups later after I get them delivered here.

Thankfully the body already has routing for traditional Jaguar wiring, as you can see from this photo I found on the webz of someone else’s guitar:


So my plan is to drill two holes on the pickguard in the place above the body route where the 3 slider switch plate goes on a traditional jag. There I will place mini toggle switches to coil tap the hambackers.

Wiring the switches for coil tapping seems pretty straightforward:


However, having zero knowledge of how electronics actually function, I have a question about how to wire the ground on the mini toggle switches (SPDT on/on). Do I have to solder the ground to the metal body of the switch as well as to lug 3? I’ve encountered some switches on other guitars where this was the case but I don’t actually know why or if it’s needed in this case. I’ve found several coil tapping wiring diagrams on the webz and none of them seem to indicate that I need to do this, but I figured it’d ask before I potentially mess things up.

[kim]

cool, i've been planning the same on my kc jag which also has a SD in the bridge.
You may want to experiment with resistors to up them when in coil split modus (making it a partial coil split).

he used :
4.7k resistor per humbucker (so two for this video's mod)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiG7jEAVAGs
[youtube][/youtube]

[plopswagon]

I was thinking on my next mustang pickup layout I’d still use the two switches but to wire one bridge:both:neck and the other as the in phase: out of phase

[astro]

Aaaaaaaaand once again I have fucked something up with my soldering.

I wired the two switches to the stock humbuckers this evening. The bridge coil split works great! Distinctly different sounds in each switch position, with the typical hum in single coil mode. The neck pickup, however, gives me the same humbucker sound in both positions. No hum in either position, either, so I know I’m getting both coils all the time. I have no idea how I fucked this up... maybe a cold solder joint somewhere? I am assuming the problem is the ground connection between the switch and ground, but I have no idea how to trouble shoot this except to just resolder all the connections between the neck pickup, the switch and ground...

cool, i've been planning the same on my kc jag which also has a SD in the bridge.
You may want to experiment with resistors to up them when in coil split modus (making it a partial coil split).

he used :
4.7k resistor per humbucker (so two for this video's mod)

Thanks Kim, that’s a very interesting mod. Never knew something like this existed! I might try this out if I can do it without screwing up!

I was thinking on my next mustang pickup layout I’d still use the two switches but to wire one bridge:both:neck and the other as the in phase: out of phase

I did something similar with my mustang, where one switch is a 3 way pickup selector and the second switch gives you either both pickups in series or the standard pickups in parallel:



I never really cared for the stock mustang wiring: out of phase sounds don’t appeal to me and there are way too many redundant switch settings.

[astro]

So I tested all my solder joints on the switch with a multimeter, and they all seem fine. However, when I tested the switch itself, the connection to ground does not seem to happen when I flip the switch. I tested both switch position, and neither works.

Could this be a dud switch? Or could I have cooked the switch by having the soldering iron on it too long by mistake?

[kim]

did you figure out wat it was yet ? I'm a total noob at guitar electronics (or any electronics), something like this would drive me nuts

have a spare switch to compare and see if somethings's up with the one not doing what it should ?

[astro]

did you figure out wat it was yet ? I'm a total noob at guitar electronics (or any electronics), something like this would drive me nuts

have a spare switch to compare and see if somethings's up with the one not doing what it should ?

I finally had time to redo the switch tonight. I replaced it with a new switch and it works perfectly now! I must have damaged the first switch somehow, I suspect when soldering. This time I used a heat sink on the switch when soldering the connections to it and I suspect that is why it didn't crap out.

[kim]

damn must be quite sensitive, i never bother unless it's capacitors but might do the same on switches and pots in the future

how is the volume difference between humbuckers and split coils ?

[astro]

damn must be quite sensitive, i never bother unless it's capacitors but might do the same on switches and pots in the future

how is the volume difference between humbuckers and split coils ?

I think the switches I used had cheap plastic internal parts that might have melted and warped from the heat of the soldering iron. It's the first time it's ever happened to me, but it's also the first time I've used cheap no-name switches (could not find quality "name brand" switches in the size and configuration I needed). The switches are cheap enough that I suspect in a couple of years they'll fall apart and I'll have to replace them.

I've only had time to play guitar after my kids are in bed this past week, so I've only played through headphones. Through headphones I can't hear a volume difference between single coil and humbucker, but I'll check when I have a chance to play through a loud amplifier.