Pete Academy Posted January 26, 2011 Share Posted January 26, 2011 I've been on Harmony Central looking at reviews of my Roscoe SKB5, and someone mentions buying one that the original owner had wired 'parallel instead of series'. He said it sounded better. I don't understand this sort of thing, but I'm intrigued. How would this affect the sound? Anyone out there that can offer an explanation? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hamster Posted January 26, 2011 Share Posted January 26, 2011 Generally series wiring will have a fuller and fatter midrange with a subdued high end than a pickup wired in parallel, which will typically have more highs and a deeper low end with a cleaner midrange. edit to add: If the original pickups have been rewired it might mean that a pickup that's made to sound good wired parallel might be too hot and dark sounding if wired in series - and vice versa for a series wired to parallel, perhaps too thin. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Bass Doc Posted January 26, 2011 Share Posted January 26, 2011 It's the same principal as an S1 switch on the Fender Jazz of late - press in for series, press again for parallel (the normal Jazz configuration). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
icastle Posted January 26, 2011 Share Posted January 26, 2011 (edited) [quote name='Pete Academy' post='1104190' date='Jan 26 2011, 07:04 PM']I've been on Harmony Central looking at reviews of my Roscoe SKB5, and someone mentions buying one that the original owner had wired 'parallel instead of series'. He said it sounded better. I don't understand this sort of thing, but I'm intrigued. How would this affect the sound? Anyone out there that can offer an explanation?[/quote] It's a bit of a subjective thing. If you wire the pickups in parallel then each pickup is essentially acting as a filter for it's partner. The tone is therefore a little 'tinnier' than before but the output is reduced. It's a little bit like having a coil tap... but not quite... If you want to play around with this then it's probably best to install a little switch (or change an existing pot to one with a pull switch built in if you don't want to drill the bass). Edited January 26, 2011 by icastle Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Academy Posted January 26, 2011 Author Share Posted January 26, 2011 Interesting stuff. In layman's terms I find the Roscoe tone is great, as I love a deeper midrange fingerstyle sound, which sounds amazing in a band situation, and really cuts through. However, I've always thought the slap tone is lacking in high end 'zing'. How would the rewire affect this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kiwi Posted January 26, 2011 Share Posted January 26, 2011 Series is having the coils in a line so they share a path. Parallel is where the coils each have their own path. Series has higher resistance so sounds a little warmer and less clean. Parallel is a little brighter and punchier sounding but lacks weight. There is also a volume difference. Series is a louder setting because of changes in voltage that happen. Depending on whether you're running a passive or active bass, or whether there's a buffer preamp between the pickups and the amp in an active bass, other impedance related changes to the sound can happen too. This means you may not get the same results using the bass with different amps or same amp but different pedals. All of the above can be compensated for with a decent onboard eq, but it does involve more knob twiddling on your part. I don't bother with switching into series because of the volume changes. I just switch between parallel and single coil settings. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bottle Posted January 26, 2011 Share Posted January 26, 2011 I've modded my passive Ibanez to switch between series and parallel wiring at the flick of a switch (just check out the build thread in my sig). There's a copy of the diagram I used posted in there somewhere - that may help things along HTH, Ian Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Academy Posted January 27, 2011 Author Share Posted January 27, 2011 [quote name='Bottle' post='1104386' date='Jan 26 2011, 09:10 PM']I've modded my passive Ibanez to switch between series and parallel wiring at the flick of a switch (just check out the build thread in my sig). There's a copy of the diagram I used posted in there somewhere - that may help things along HTH, Ian[/quote] Thanks Ian, I'll take a look. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.