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Leaving out the tone knob/ many humbuckers

All the wiring diagrams I see have a tone pot in the diagram..unless only 1 pickup is used.. Need some help wiring 4 simple humbuckers together. NO TONE pot...
I'm not sure if the diagram exists and I really don't know if it should be parallel or series.
Just trying to come up with a cool electric instrument with about 4-6 humbuckers , volume (ground) and jack. No tone.
Thank you

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Permalink Reply by Paul Craig on December 7, 2016 at 8:24am

I stated that 250k was brighter and 1meg was darker toned. It's really the opposite, 250k for darker and 1meg for brighter. Sorry I got it mixed up.

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Permalink Reply by Paul Craig on December 7, 2016 at 9:43am

I would use a 500k for a P90, but 250k on all the other single coil pups or they sound too bright to me. It's all about what you prefer though.

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Permalink Reply by Paul Craig on December 7, 2016 at 8:44am

If your using 2 volume pots of different values, the higher value pot of the 2 will take over the circuit unless you use isolation diodes.

Isolation diodes allow current/signal to flow in 1 direction only. 1 side of the diode will have a colored band around 1 end, current will flow from the other end and through the banded end, but not the other direction.

So to answer your question, the diodes would need to be wired into the output circuit of the volume/tone circuit. Wire the pickups straight to each volume/tone circuit with isolation diodes to the selector switch(if any) then to the output jack. A.K.A. 50's Wiring with diodes.

Gibson used this layout(50's wiring) for their 2 pickup guitars without the diodes. Sometimes they had different value pots in the circuits, but usually only a 250k difference without issues. So the wiring/circuit direction can make a difference too.

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Permalink Reply by Paul Craig on December 7, 2016 at 9:41am

Not needed. You can wire the pickups straight to the volume and then to the jack or use a switch to the jack. Should work fine.

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Permalink Reply by darryl kernaghan on December 7, 2016 at 4:29pm

Might be worth looking at the stracciatella mod, Badfinger[Eric] posted about it a couple of years ago http://www.strat-talk.com/threads/the-stracciatella-3-volume-w-vari...

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Permalink Reply by Paul Craig on December 8, 2016 at 5:46am

That's what I thought you were talking about doing Way, using separate volumes. You'll be fine.

If you were using a 1meg for one and 250k or 500k for the other, then you might find the need for the diodes.

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Permalink Reply by Fomhorach on December 8, 2016 at 6:23am

I did a piezo through a 500 and a single c through a 250 and it allows me to blend the two (without switches) from either one or the other to a blend of both. Its handy for a dogbowl, as I can subtlety add a little piezo to the pup sound without feedback.

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Permalink Reply by jeff weins on December 9, 2016 at 11:18am

This is how I did it earlier this year, pardon the crude schematic.

https://youtu.be/tXSrSB5zz2g

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Permalink Reply by Paul Craig on December 8, 2016 at 6:49am

The larger value pot in the circuit will win when there's different values, but it depends on the pickups being used and how big the difference in pot values as to whether or not you'll notice the difference.Also personal preferences comes into play.

For example we'll use Fomhoarch's git. A piezo on a 500k and a single coil on a 250k. If you were just used to playing a Strat type guitar, you would notice a 500k pot change because all the pickups are the same. With a high treble sound of a piezo put with a single coil on a higher value pot, you wouldn't notice as much. Afterall, it's only a 250k difference.

If you had a piezo with a 1meg pot and a single coil on a 250k pot, then the overly bright toned single coil would most likely be too much treble for you. Unless you like that of course.

250k difference might be less noticeable for most, but 500k or more would be noticeable to most and would need help. Diodes can be used and major guitar companies have used resistors in the past to fool the pots into "seeing" the same values in other pots in the circuit and keep them from taking over.