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My next guitar build is in the planning, almost starting, which is a ' Pawn shop Strat' tribute. It has a Humbucker in the bridge position and a single pu in the neck, kind of like a Tele. I would like to split the humbucker. I'm thinking something heavier in the bridge and something a bit old school or bluesy in the neck. Am limiting it to Entwistle and Toneriders. Which ones do I choose. I need some opinions. JB
JB...I have a TL-Q1 with a Tonerider Hot Classic in the neck. If you are keeping a single coil in the neck, then you can't go past it. Beautifully clear, great tone, plenty of volume and a good price too.
Tonerider hot classic. will have a read up. thanks IRL. Just need the humbucker now
Pretty cool idea JB. I too have the Tonerider Hot Classic in the neck of my TLA-1R. Its awesome. I'd say if you were tossing up between a tele neck pup and a strat neck pup, I tend to find the teles are a bit smoother in the neck that the strat neck pups. If you want more edge with your single coil, I'd go with Tonerider strat neck pup, probably the classic blues.
Any tonerider in the bridge would work. something overwound like generators, they can be coil split too.
Thanks Andy, sounds like the Hot classics have the neck position. So now its between the Rocksongs and the Generators I'm thinking for the bridge
Extra question has anyone used the Entwistle HDN's and or the Nemesis. Can I mix the 2 brands? Thanks in advance
Quote:
Originally Posted by JB RETRO
I've tried a couple of Zebra Entwistle HDN full-sized Humbuckers, they have a very high output and a lot of high-end to them, the Bridge HDN I got had been wired-up incorrectly when it was manufactured so that both of the coils were in parallel rather than series like they were supposed to be, so the Humbucking effect wasn't working like it was supposed to, I ended up taking the pickup apart in order to correct the wiring mistake so that the pickup functioned correctly, the neck pickup I got worked correctly though.
I dropped Dark Stars in my Son's Strat and kept a single coil for the middle so that it was HSH configuration. Did the 4 wire coil splitting and for the price they were OK but when compared to the Tonerider Alnico IV's installed in my EX-1 they sound much better as they have more mids and warmth which is lacking in the Entwistles. Depends on whether you want a Ballsy or Shrill bridge PUP sound. Tonerider have more options to choose from.
Thanks Waz food for thought. I've steered away from the Dark Stars after listening to some demos and I'm leaning now towards the Octanes or Generators
Wize choice. If on a very tight budget the Entwistles are better than stock Chinese units as you effectively can get a set of 2 for the price of just one Tonerider. They are good for metal where mid range tones are not so prevalent but lacking versatility if you play more than just one genre.
Ok, Rocksongs or Generators.
I haven't tried the generators but the rocksongs sound awesome JB. I'd get whatever is hotter
Ok I'm assuming you can split them. So that they work like a single coil and then in Humbucker mode
That's correct JB. I think all the toneriders will have four wires plus an earth which means you can split them or have many other options
Thanks Wokka, that's it then. All I need now is a wiring diagram. I'm thinking just a 3 way switch so I can have the Humbucker split into a single coil or humbucker mode and then the single neck pick up. 1 volume, 1 tone. If you're listening Weirdy . Have looked on the PBG wiring diagrams but not really sure.
Nope, not listening...
A CRL or Grigsby style 3-way would work, ie. it needs to have two separate poles. One side would have the bridge hot across two lugs, then the neck hot on the third lug and the output on the common. The other side would have the bridge series link on the middle lug and a ground connection on the common. That should give you:
1. bridge humbucker
2. bridge split
3. neck
Or, you could just wire it up like a standard Tele and add a push/pull to split the bridge when needed. Multi-pole 4 and 5-way switches will give you other options, depending on what combos you want.
Hi Scott, are you referring to the usual Oak Grigsby style 4 way that is quite often used in Tele's to get neck & bridge in series? Could one of those be used in reverse so that in one position the Bridge HB is in series with itself and on the next just one of the coils? Or would 5 way be better and also offer up parallel out of phase on the Bridge PUP too?Quote:
Originally Posted by WeirdBits
My first thoughts would have been push/pull for the Bridge split and also do the traditional 4 way switch mod too as that gives so many more options and not that complicated.
Cheers, Waz
Yeah, 2 and 4 pole Grigsby's, usually 5-way allow you to do some alternate combos series/para, inner/outer coil etc with the neck depending on how far down the rabbit hole you want to go.
I think I just remembered a thread...
Found it. This was for a humbucker neck and single coil bridge but the switching options etc still apply, just swapped. 3, 4 & 5 way switches with all sorts of options.
Thanks Weirdy for not listening. Will have a look at the link
Yep have looked, and after the first two diagrams my eye started twitching.
Essentially it comes down to which coil you want to split to on the humbucker. Screw coil first or slug coil first in the order changes how you do your splits. If you set it up so that you have the coil you want to split to in the correct order, which just involves swapping which wires are connected as the series link etc, then you can use any old 3-way or Tele 4-way switch for your splitting/switching
Depending on which pickups you end up getting, both bridge and neck, we can then work out how to configure it so you can use a 3, 4 or even 5-way switch for the split/combo's you want.
Thanks Scott. I'm going to start a scratch build diary soon . Once I get to the right stage I'll pester you again.