JapanAxe Posted April 10, 2016 Share Posted April 10, 2016 I've had my Pawn Shop Mustang a couple of years now, and I haven't gigged it that much. The humbucker has a DC resistance in excess of 22k(!) - shedloads of volume, but needs some fierce EQ to bring out any top at all, especially with flats (ahem). I was looking into getting a new scratchplate and pickups, to convert it to standard reissue spec, but then I thought, why not try converting the humbucker from series connection to parallel. I knew it had 4-conductor wiring, so I looked up the existing threads on t'interweb and gave it a go. As supplied, the green wire is hot (goes to the 'top' of the volume pot), the black is ground (via volume pot case), and the red and white wires are joined together inside a length of heat-shrink: I removed the heat-shrink and disconnected the red and white wires. Using my test meter I worked out that the red and green wires came from one coil, and the white and black from the other. I soldered the red wire to the pot case, and the white wire to where the green connected to the pot, and the job was done. The output is still quite pokey, but much better balanced, with some usable treble content. As a bonus, the tone pot has a much more useful range, whereas previously it started ditching mids when rolled right off. Cost: less than 1p (I used a bit of solder and some electricity) Value: very worthwhile Result! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ahpook Posted April 10, 2016 Share Posted April 10, 2016 Hey, good work. Sounds like a lot more fun now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grangur Posted April 11, 2016 Share Posted April 11, 2016 Good post. Sounds like you'll have more use for it now. Interesting to hear about the change in the tone control response. Thanks for that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pfretrock Posted April 11, 2016 Share Posted April 11, 2016 Nice result. It was not the 22k that was killing the tone, but the inductance of the two coils are added together when in series. By putting then in parallel, you have halved the inductance and thereby increased treble response. They are now wired 'out of phase' in parallel, so maintaining the conditions for humbuck. Never understood why these are wired in series ever. I think you've given me a clue why my Telebass with a neck pickup sounds dreadful - I need to investigate the wiring in there, I bet they are in series. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JapanAxe Posted April 11, 2016 Author Share Posted April 11, 2016 [quote name='pfretrock' timestamp='1460359917' post='3024858'] Nice result. It was not the 22k that was killing the tone, but the inductance of the two coils are added together when in series. By putting then in parallel, you have halved the inductance and thereby increased treble response. They are now wired 'out of phase' in parallel, so maintaining the conditions for humbuck. Never understood why these are wired in series ever. I think you've given me a clue why my Telebass with a neck pickup sounds dreadful - I need to investigate the wiring in there, I bet they are in series. [/quote] They are indeed in series on a Tele Bass. There was a thread about this, either on Talkbass or the Gear Page. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pfretrock Posted April 11, 2016 Share Posted April 11, 2016 [quote name='JapanAxe' timestamp='1460361503' post='3024867'] They are indeed in series on a Tele Bass. There was a thread about this, either on Talkbass or the Gear Page. [/quote] Right my soldering iron is coming out. For some nerdy reason I've measured the inductance of all my bass pickups, but not this one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pfretrock Posted April 11, 2016 Share Posted April 11, 2016 Has anyone tried rewiring a standard split coil P bass pickup to parallel? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JapanAxe Posted April 11, 2016 Author Share Posted April 11, 2016 [quote name='pfretrock' timestamp='1460376235' post='3025073'] Has anyone tried rewiring a standard split coil P bass pickup to parallel? [/quote] You would have to break the wire connecting the 2 coils, but it would give you a 'lite' option. Can't really think why you would want to do this though - you can't improve on perfection! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Nada Posted April 11, 2016 Share Posted April 11, 2016 This thread gives some further options/opinions, including wiring a switch in. It's about humbucker Telebasses but the same principles will apply. https://www.talkbass.com/threads/squier-vm-tb-tele-bass-mod-how-to-fix-your-mudbucker.555919/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pfretrock Posted April 11, 2016 Share Posted April 11, 2016 [quote name='James Nada' timestamp='1460397126' post='3025398'] This thread gives some further options/opinions, including wiring a switch in. It's about humbucker Telebasses but the same principles will apply. [url="https://www.talkbass.com/threads/squier-vm-tb-tele-bass-mod-how-to-fix-your-mudbucker.555919/"]https://www.talkbass...dbucker.555919/[/url] [/quote] Thanks for the link. I've just re-wired it, it a good mod, less mud. There is a ground wire in there also (bare braid) which I left on ground. I had also added a second pot a few months back so I have 2 volumes and one tone, which made the 3 way switch redundant. so I put a hi-pass cap (4n7) in there on the switch (Ric style). The pickup inductance must be huge, if each coil is 11.8k (it measures the same as JapanAxe's Mustang). For reference a Gibson Thunderbird pickup is around 9.6K and 10 henries, so I guess these are already in parallel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pfretrock Posted April 11, 2016 Share Posted April 11, 2016 [quote name='JapanAxe' timestamp='1460395059' post='3025363'] You would have to break the wire connecting the 2 coils, but it would give you a 'lite' option. Can't really think why you would want to do this though - you can't improve on perfection! [/quote] I'm glad we both agree on perfection! I have a short scale P with flats that sounds way too thumpy, so I might try the mod on this see if it puts some life into it. Don't want to use rounds Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Nada Posted April 16, 2016 Share Posted April 16, 2016 I've finally got round to doing this mod on my Squire Telebass. It does indeed tame the tone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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