Another wacky idea...

Totally doable. Would be an interesting experiment. I predict it won’t be terribly practical in a live context, but it might illuminate subtleties useful in the studio.

 

Could be quite hummy. There'll be switch positions where you have two north coils or two south coils. Plus, the combos will all be in parallel.

Interesting idea though.

I saw an old PRS bass form the 90's that had three singles plus a dummy coil. IIRC, the 5-way rotary switch always had hum-cancelling combos.

Perhaps you could do something similar, but with a splitable HB in the centre...?

 

I'm trying to picture the utility/practical significance, but it might be interesting...

Just out of curiosity, I mapped out all the combinations. The numbers correspond to switch positions for the two switches, which create the 5x5 matrix. Colors represent active coils, with blue N oriented coils, and yellow S oriented coils. Funny, all the hum-cancelling combinations are on the diagonals. Assuming I did it right, it looks like this:


That's even without blending options... you could also add a series/parallel switch

Actually, the fact the hum-cancelling combinations are on diagonals would facilitate the usefulness in practice/live. If the two switches were next to each-other, hum-cancelling options could be chosen by selecting identical settings (e.g., both in position 1), or the opposite settings (e.g., one in position 1, the other in position 5).

 

I think itd be amazing

 

So the pickup options would be three splitable parallel-coil humbuckers or six single coil pickups? And you're thinking of using jass pickups? Holy moly, it's going to be a tight squeeze.

I have a three-pickup jazz (custom order from Warmoth). I pulled it out and measured. The pickups are about 1.25" wide at the mounting ears. Those mounting ears are 1.5" apart between pickups on my bass, so there's room (barely) for two pickups between my three existing pickups. There's not enough room between the bridge pickup and the bridge for a sixth, but there's enough room (barely) toward the neck to crowd everything in that direction about 1/2" which would leave you room (barely) at the bridge for a sixth pickup.

 

Series-parallel wiring was more of a joke. I like the simplicity of your basic scheme - two switches, three knobs. I'd maybe even go without the blend knob, just volume-tone. Or maybe just volume.

I think dual-coil humbuckers designed for parallel/splittable operation would work. For one, Nordstrand makes them like that, and I'm sure they'd consider combining their jazz coils in the same housing (thought it might cost some extra $$). That would also facilitate string spacing considerations, though at that point we'd be at cost of a custom job.

For a proof-of-concept model, I think three sets of cheap jazz pickups would work, gluing them together like MovinTarget suggested.

 

To get your desired effect, you'd have to have alternating neck and bridge pickups, which would create a bit of a zippered look, unless you got sets of J pickups that are all the same length.

 

I actually think the zippered effect would look pretty cool. But I agree about the prototype. I had an idea of my own that I had to prototype -- I learned a lot of lessons in doing the proof of concept, including what I would do differently next time, but I found that the main idea worked, and that was the important thing.

 

One thing the different lengths would do for you is eliminate the possibility of confusion. If you have six identically sized cheap pickups from China, and let's say they have the same color of wires and they're identified as "bridge" or "neck" with a piece of tape or something, it might be possible to confuse them. And then if you get a couple of them mixed up in the making of your prototype, your whole experiment could be maddeningly chaotic.

 

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