Toggle switch for parallel or series with a pickup ?

[jibreel]

I have a custom Worp bass [ German ] that has both piezo and magnetic pickups. The LeFay magnetic pickup [ also German ] can be a little noisy. It seems to operate most quietly in parallel.

I want to instal a 2 position toggle switch so that I can switch between parallel and series. There are 4 wires coming out of the pickup. I know which wires connections are parallel and series. So...

What type of toggle switch do I buy and how do I wire it. I know that the wires from the pickup would go to the switch and then the chosen signal would go to my preamp.

Thanks for any advice.

[ibz]

A DPDT mini toggle should do the trick.

[jibreel]

Thanks for that.

Any advice on how to wire it? There are four wires coming out of the pickup. Blue White Yellow Red

Series : Red + Blue - Yellow and White joined
Parallel: Red + White - Yellow and Blue joined.

Thanks again

[ibz]

Diagram:
Wiring Diagram for Jazz Parallel/Series Config

Treat the two coils as if they were two jazz pickups and you'll have you're wiring.

[DavidRavenMoon]

Originally Posted by jibreel

Thanks for that.

Any advice on how to wire it? There are four wires coming out of the pickup. Blue White Yellow Red

Series : Red + Blue - Yellow and White joined
Parallel: Red + White - Yellow and Blue joined.

Thanks again

That's a cool bass!

OK, I'm assuming Red is hot and Blue is common?

If so, try this:

[ehque]

Originally Posted by DavidRavenMoon

That's a cool bass!

OK, I'm assuming Red is hot and Blue is common?

If so, try this:

I think what he's trying to say is

- RED - coil1 - YELLOW -
- BLUE - coil2 - WHITE -

but that's a weird wiring for a bass. Why would you want to reverse the polarity of the second coil in the other mode?

[jibreel]

Firstly, thanks to all for any info.

When I contacted Rudi in Germany who builds the Bassline basses [ but not the LeFay pickup ] he emailed me this:

Back coil : Blue is - White is +
neck coil : yellow - red +

Thanks again

[DavidRavenMoon]

Originally Posted by jibreel

Firstly, thanks to all for any info.

When I contacted Rudi in Germany who builds the Bassline basses [ but not the LeFay pickup ] he emailed me this:

Back coil : Blue is - White is +
neck coil : yellow - red +

Thanks again

I think you need to swap the white and blue in my illustration then.

I have to sit and draw it out, but I can't at the moment...

[jibreel]

Again, thanks for any help. I am getting this wired tomorrow hopefully. I have played for 30 years but never done any real wiring.

Here is the switch I got from Radio Shack. DPDT mini switch.
On/On
On one side there is 1 2 3
On the other it says 6 amps @ 125VAC/3 amps @ 250VAC
The two lugs in the center are higher than the other four.

Per Davids diagram, does it matter which end of the switch when soldering the wires ? I take it that the + and - leads come off of the end lugs and then to the preamp ?

[midopa]

Originally Posted by DavidRavenMoon

That's a cool bass!

OK, I'm assuming Red is hot and Blue is common?

If so, try this:

The wiring looks a bit odd on that diagram. Here's one I thought up for a DPDT on/on switch:

[jibreel]

Thanks for this diagram and please excuse my ignorance.
Is this right ?

Red wire from neck pikcup + to upper right terminal
Yellow wire from neck pickup - to center left terminal
White wire from bridge pickup + to center right terminal
Connect lower two terminals together.
Blue wire from bridge pickup - out to preamp
Upper left terminal out to preamp

If so, is the upper left terminal hot and the blue - ?

Thanks much

[midopa]

If you put the red wire to the upper right lug, remember to connect that lug to the preamp. The blue wire from the bridge coil should go to ground. Also remember to ground the upper left lug as well.

The orientation of the DPDT switch doesn't matter as well - as long as you're consistent with the diagram. It'll only affect which position is series/parallel.

Glad to help! I'm just a noob when it comes to electronics, so perhaps it'd be best to get a confirmation from someone more experienced before doing anything drastic.

[DavidRavenMoon]

Originally Posted by midopa

The wiring looks a bit odd on that diagram. Here's one I thought up for a DPDT on/on switch:

That's not correct. A series/parallel switch is wired up as I showed you. I've been wiring them that way since about 1976 when DiMarzio introduced the Dual Sound Humbucker.

That's probably why you are getting hum on series.. you have it wired wrong. You don't wire (+) of one coil to (-) of the other. You wire them out of phase... (-) to (-). Humbuuckers cancel hum because the coils are out of phase, but each has an opposite magnet polarity. So the out of phase coils put the signal back in phase, but not the hum, which doesn't use the magnets to get induced into the coils.

I used a standard diagram from Stew-Mac.. you can also look at DiMarzio and Seymour Duncan's sites for the exact same diagram I showed you.

Try this then. Maybe you can visualize the coils better and see that I posted the correct diagram.

http://www.seymourduncan.com/support..._parallel.html

Here' the Stew-Mac image I used. Just change the wire colors for the colors of your pickup's wires.

[jibreel]

Thank David. I am now good to go. The bass is in the shop going under the solder gun right now.

[midopa]

D'oh! I stand corrected. Sorry about that David and jibreel.

[TrooperFarva]

Would this work?

[lug]

Bartolini site wiring options for 4 conductor pups:

http://www.bartolini.net/instruction...kups4_cond.pdf