Sile HSH with Series/Parallel switch.

[Wahoonc]

Hello all. New here. I'm curious if anyone has ever done this. I am awaiting delivery of my first silo (had an axis prior). I know it is already a very versatile guitar, but it seems like you could just about any tone you want with a S/P switch--except, of course, the super-metal active humbucker sound.

Nice to meet everyone.

 

[beej]

I've set up a lot of guitars with series/parallel. It's cool if you have high output middy pickups- the parallel positions end up being quite bright by contrast. It's not quite a single-coil sound, but can be convincing depending on how your amp is set up.

 

[Wahoonc]

How would you route the signal on the Silo HSH? I'm not sure this is something I would be comfortable doing. Frets, neck, fine. Haven't played with electronics yet.

 

[beej]

The simplest way to get single-coil sounds from bridge & neck would be to add a push/pull switch to the volume or tone control. A single push/pull could split both humbuckers and would require the least amount of soldering- you wouldn't need to unsolder anything from the lever switch. (You'd have the usual noise from the split coils on their own, though, not a problem with clean sounds.)

Series/parallel would give you a similar effect, but with humbucking combinations of coils. That would require more thought, though, since you could do a few different things, and would require more wiring changes.

 

[Wahoonc]

Could you wire a push/pull series/parallel switch into the tone knob instead of use it to split the coils?

 

[Firesource]

You can't do serial/parallel switching on both pickups with one push-pull pot, you will need to have one push-pull for each pickup

 

[beej]

That's right, you'd need one push/pull switch (6 lugs) for each pickup. An easier option is a 4PDT toggle (12 lugs) to switch both pickups at once. With the on/on/on variety you could have a series/split/parallel toggle switch.

You'd also have to consider what to do with the lever. Right now, the 2 & 4 positions use one coil from each humbucker along with the single. That's not exactly compatible with a series/parallel toggle switch- rather, you'd have to make the 2 & 4 positions use whatever the toggle selects (e.g. bridge in series in parallel with the middle singe, neck in parallel in parallel with the middle single, etc.).

Having done this a bunch of times, I'd probably say the coil split is the better bang-for-the-buck.

 

[Wahoonc]

Hmm. Thanks guys. I'll play it a while and then sort it out. Just received it yesterday. Very impressed so far. Need to drop the action a little bit, but love that it arrived with an almost no neck relief. (prefer it that way.) Like the compensating nut also. It makes a clear difference in the sustain of the cowboy chords.

 

[Wahoonc]

Actually, MM beat me to the punch. I was looking at the wiring schematic and the five-way lever already acts like a s/p switch.

Positions 1 and 5 are series--for the hbs. Positions 2 and 4 are parallel for use with the single coil.