I really wouldn't do out of phase split on a single humbucker, far too thin a sound. Mad idea IMO. Even two out of phase humbuckers on a guitar have very limited uses. OK for a few Peter Green tracks but pretty useless for anything else. My Hamer with (until a few days ago) two out-of-phase P90 pickups sounded awful in the mid position. Sounds much better with the new bridge pickup and an in-phase mid position.
Series is always going to give a hotter, fatter signal than parallel, but there are times when you don't need that power. A louder sound almost always sounds better to the human ear, but get them at the same level (as when recording and mixing) and you might prefer the sound of the parallel option in many instances.
The only bass I know of that has out of phase humbuckers is the old Gibson Ripper. One of it's settings was "out of phase-series". It was touted as a setting that could be used for funk. Having heard it I am pretty sure I'd never use it. It's not horrible...it's just super nasal. Interestingly, that bass and it's pups were designed by Bill Lawrence.
My G&L has been modded so that I can get pretty much any combination of in-phase coils. Out of all of the sounds I can get with it, I find that I use just two most of the time (neither of them a factory setting, BTW). Sometimes I like the neck pickup in single coil mode all by its self. Most of the time I like the neck pickup in single coil mode, and the bridge pickup in series. I never used the parallel settings. I think the only time I would is if I really wanted the single coil sound with the neck pickup solo'd, but needed humbucking to get the buzz out. Parallel generally seems like similar but not quite as good SC for the highs.
Of course the pups are in a different place on the bass I am working on... basically mid and neck rather than mid and bridge
I wanted to do a little experimenting with switching before I put the wiring harness in a semi-hollow body. I was thinking of using switching like in the diagram from guitar electronics. Position 1 and Position 2 make sense to me. For both switches this is...
Both up series (position 1)
Both down parallel (position 3)
The middle has me scratching my head, though. The way it's labeled, the upper pickup, with the switch at position 2, should be single coil-North. What I see, however is that the North coil does not go to ground so it should be "off" in position 2. The hot lead seems to go to the South coil finish, and the South coil start is grounded. So, it looks to me like this is single coil-South rather than North.
On the lower pickup position 2 is labeled single coil-South. What I see, however, is that the hot lead goes to the North coil start, and the North coil finish goes to ground. Both South start and finish go to ground so the South coil should be "off."
So, to me, it looks like this switching will work, but that the single coil settings are actually the opposite of the way they are labeled. Do I have that right? Or am I, as usual, missing something. The switches I am using are like the on in the pic.
hi . I am building my first kit and really enjoying myself. the soldering is going well from the wiring diagram.all the pot wiring makes sense. it is a IB -6S. left handed bass. my question is that the diagram seems to show only one wire coming out of each of the humbuckers. what i have is 5 wires. 1 white, and a red and green fused together, and a black and bare fused together. is there another wiring diagram I am missing?
The diagrams were created when the stock pickups were only two-wire, but the factory has recently started shipping 4/5 wire pickups. Normally, the following would be the layout:
Black = hot
Red + white = series link between coils (leave them joined and just insulate the ends if you're not coil splitting)
Green + bare = ground (and shield)
However, from your post it seems things are different again. Your description would suggest: white = hot, red/green = series link, and black/bare = ground. But, just to be certain, can you upload an image of the pickup wires and confirm they are the stock kit pickups.
Red and Green fused together are the two coils of the humbucker. If you wanted to coil tap / coil split, you'd separate these two. If not, insulate them so that they don't touch anything and leave them alone. From your description, white will be hot and black / bare will be the earth. Looking at the diagram - your white wire will be the black from the diagram - your black will be the grey from the diagram. Hope that helps.
So some decisions are made and some are pending...
This bass will have two humbuckers. One in mudbucker position, and one in p-bass position.
Controls will be 2V 2T, The "V" pots will have push-pulls for series/single-coil modes...
At some point I got the idea that I should do standard LP "dependent" wiring. But I have been wondering about that lately... I can't find any Gibson bases that were wired that way. Most that have simple wiring seem to be wired like a Jazz Bass with 2V1T. Some have some really funky circuitry. But am not sure I have found any with LP wiring.
So I am back at the question of whether to wire for independent controls or dependent controls?
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