2 Humbucker Guitar
Custom Wiring II
Super Seven Switching
To see seven different guitars wired with Super Seven Switching click here.
It might give you some ideas about changing the appearance of a guitar.
That guitar is a Dean Vendetta XM recently purchased for $100 and recently rewired with the circuit
shown here:
The disadvantages of this modifcation are:
• It will definitely change the appearance of the guitar.
• It is a complicated circuit and somewhat difficult to wire.
• If you want to stay with the original pickups, (as I did), you will have to remove both humbuckers
and wire these with 4 conductor wiring as described here.
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As for the advantages:
• The required seven switches (hence the name Super Seven Switching™) are extremely easy
to obtain (six SPDT and one DPDT)
• All of the switching positions have no dead spots.
• It will produce forty distinct tones (72 if you include the phase switch options).
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If you want to know how this switching circuit works, go to the previous wiring page
and scroll down to the "How It Works" section.
Still, you will probably find that learning the switching of this guitar is even more important and
useful.
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Switch Instructions
The top half of the diagram below shows the way the switches are placed on the guitar.
For clarity, the phase switch is not shown and the humbucker coils have been lettered.
Rather than thinking of the wiring as six switches, think of it as three switch pairs:
• neck humbucker coil switches (orange circles)
• neck and bridge pickup selection switches (gray circles)
• bridge humbucker coil switches (yellow circles)
Looking at the bottom half of the diagram, we see that each of the "switch pairs" can have four
switching positions.
For example, the 4 neck humbucker positions are:
1) Coil 'A' is active.
2) Coil 'B' is active.
3) Both coils 'A' and 'B' are wired in parallel.
4) Both coils 'A' and 'B' are wired in series.
The bridge pickup switches work in a similar manner except they switch coils 'C' and 'D'.
The pickup selection switches have a similar switching pattern except that they switch pickups
and not the individual coils.
In
the table below, if you look at the left column, the 3 numbers indicate
the switching arrangement (with the neck/bridge switch pair being the
middle number).
For example, 1 3 2 means both pickups are wired in parallel (in relation to each other) and coils
'A' and 'D' are active.
When just the Neck or just the Bridge pickup is active, we will call the inactive switch pair
'position 0'. This means if just the neck pickup is active, the arrangements of the bridge pickup switches
have no effect whatsoever on the sound.
Here are all 40 switching arrangements:
Number | Relationship of Neck & Bridge Pickups To Each Other | Neck Pickup | Bridge Pickup |
1 1 0 | Neck Pickup Only | Coil A Only | Not Connected |
2 1 0 | Neck Pickup Only | Coil B Only | Not Connected |
3 1 0 | Neck Pickup Only | In Parallel | Not Connected |
4 1 0 | Neck Pickup Only | In Series | Not Connected |
0 2 1 | Bridge Pickup Only | Not Connected | Coil C only |
0 2 2 | Bridge Pickup Only | Not Connected | Coil D only |
0 2 3 | Bridge Pickup Only | Not Connected | In Parallel |
0 2 4 | Bridge Pickup Only | Not Connected | In Series |
Number | Relationship of Neck & Bridge Pickups To Each Other | Neck Pickup | Bridge Pickup |
1 3 1 | Neck & Bridge in Parallel | Coil A only | Coil C only |
1 3 2 | " " | Coil A only | Coil D only |
1 3 3 | " " | Coil A only | Parallel |
1 3 4 | " " | Coil A only | Series |
2 3 1 | " " | Coil B only | Coil C only |
2 3 2 | " " | Coil B only | Coil D only |
2 3 3 | " " | Coil B only | Parallel |
2 3 4 | " " | Coil B only | Series |
3 3 1 | " " | Parallel | Coil C only |
3 3 2 | " " | Parallel | Coil D only |
3 3 3 | " " | Parallel | Parallel |
3 3 4 | " " | Parallel | Series |
4 3 1 | " " | Series | Coil C only |
4 3 2 | " " | Series | Coil D only |
4 3 3 | " " | Series | Parallel |
4 3 4 | " " | Series | Series |
Number | Relationship of Neck & Bridge Pickups To Each Other | Neck Pickup | Bridge Pickup |
1 4 1 | Neck & Bridge in Series | Coil A only | Coil C only |
1 4 2 | " " | Coil A only | Coil D only |
1 4 3 | " " | Coil A only | Parallel |
1 4 4 | " " | Coil A only | Series |
2 4 1 | " " | Coil B only | Coil C only |
2 4 2 | " " | Coil B only | Coil D only |
2 4 3 | " " | Coil B only | Parallel |
2 4 4 | " " | Coil B only | Series |
3 4 1 | " " | Parallel | Coil C only |
3 4 2 | " " | Parallel | Coil D only |
3 4 3 | " " | Parallel | Parallel |
3 4 4 | " " | Parallel | Series |
4 4 1 | " " | Series | Coil C only |
4 4 2 | " " | Series | Coil D only |
4 4 3 | " " | Series | Parallel |
4 4 4 | " " | Series | Series |
This project is an awful lot of work and don't attempt to wire this all in one night. (I sure didn't).
However, when you finally have this all wired up, you will find that all that extra work was worth it.
Some
people, when they rewire a guitar, also like to change other parts as
well (the pickups, the bridge, the tuners, etc). I like to keep
everything original, as is the case with this guitar. (and the OLP
guitar on page 5)
Just think that when you are finished, you kept all the original parts,
you made all the changes and you have made a tremendous difference in
the sound versatility by adding just a few switches.
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