Would this bass humbucker setup be possible?

[Graham]

Hello, I'm thinking of starting a new build with the IB-5 model, which has 2 soapbar style bass humbuckers. Is it possible to wire it so that each coil in the humbuckers has its own volume control ie. 4 volumes and then have an overall tone pot for each humbucker, so in total 6 pots. I guess my idea is a bit like the music man stingray HH, but that uses a 4 way switch, I was wondering if it could all be done with more pots instead. Thanks for your help.

[Simon Barden]

It's certainly possible to wire each coil with its own volume control, but you'd have to have all the coils wired in parallel, so you'll never get the thicker sound of the pickups working in a series humbucker mode. It's possible to add in extra switches to give you a series humbucker mode as well, making one of the two volume pots for that pickup redundant when in series mode.

To have two tone controls, you'd also need a 3-way switch. With no switch, there would be no point in having two tone controls, as they would both have to connect to the common output from the pickups. If you don't actually use tone controls, you could leave them out and get your tonal variations from the coil combinations.

Note that some combinations would be fully humbucking, and some wouldn't, so shielding the cavities would be a sensible thing to do.

You'd also need to be prepared to do a bit of routing out in the control cavity in order to fit more pots (and switches). You'd only need to create another thinner, flat area to locate them on, so it's not onerous work and doesn't have to look wonderful as it will be hidden.

[wazkelly]

Hi Graham, I have done a push/pull coil split thread on those Pickups which can be found here... http://www.buildyourownguitar.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=6476

When swapping them out for something better I accidently found out how horrid they can sound if not selecting the 'right' coil to tap. In fact, on my latest Bass build I was using a MM style pickup and ended up using a mini dpdt on-off-on switch that allows front coil-normal Humbucker mode-rear coil and it doesn't sound too bad other than weaker signal once a coil had been split. If you really want those options that is the way I would do it and you can still keep the separate vol & tone for each PUP. Plenty of room in control cavity for a couple of small switches.

Cheers, Waz

[Graham]

Thanks for both of your replies chaps. OK great, so it does seem like it is doable. Perhaps then one tone and 4 volumes seems to be the answer then to avoid having to use switches.

Looking at the thread you linked waz, is the split coil in a humbucker only possible with music man type pickups, or can it be done with the soapbar humbuckers as on the IB-5? Thanks

[wazkelly]

The split coil thread was done on the soap bars that come in EX5, IB5 and some other kits. Stock PBG kit MM pup is also configured the same. I ended up using a GFS one that was 3 wire, not 4 which still works in a similar way.

Sent from my SM-A520F using Tapatalk

[fender3x]

I have a bass set up so I can put each pup in parallel, series, single-coil-bridge or single-coil-neck.

One thing I have learned from this is using the same pup, the two single coil sounds are almost the same.

There are interesting (as well as some that are not that interesting) that you can get by activating 2, 3 or 4 coils, as well as serial sand parallel combos. I sometimes like just 1 coil, always in the neck pup. Doesn't seem to matter which. I never solo the bridge pup--too nasel for me.

I think a volume control could be used to turn the coils on and off, especially if they are no-load pots. If they are not no-load, at full volume the additional pots--I think--are going to add resistance and cut some of the highs. When you turn them down they will add even more resistance and further darken the sound. You can add treble bleeds to the volume pots, but that is only a partial solution. Also if you have different resistance/volume on the two coils of a humbucker it no longer bucks hum. Also true if you turn one coil down in a humbucker circuit.

The other problem I have, and you could end up with, is that you have so many options, and complex controls that in the heat of the moment you can forget what all the combos do. Mine has three three-way switches, four two-way, stacked volume pots, a treble cut pot, and a bass cut pot. Any more options and my head would explode. Fortunately, I have discovered that I really only like about three of the 60+ combinations and I can remember those ;-) But in retrospect I'd have been just as happy with a simpler control setup that gave me just the options I actually use...

You might consider building the control circuit outside the guitar so you can try a few things before you commit to installing it all...

Sent from my ONEPLUS A3000 using Tapatalk