PARALLEL vs SERIES(?)

[Lonesomedave]

hey guys, for today's stupid question i would like to ask the following:

what is meant by having pickup's wired in parallel and what is the alternative.

let me give you an example.

1) in the EB-3 my son is currently using the manual says the two pickup's are wired in "parallel". the practical result of this is, when he plays with the selector switch set to both pick ups, there must be SOME amount of volume turned up on each pickup, or both are essentially "off". even if the neck pickup volume is turned wide open, unless the bridge pickup pot is turned just a little bit, the bass will be silent.

2) on his Jazz basses, either volume control can be anywhere from wide open to fully off, and as long as the other pickup pot is not at zero, he will get some sound, so, to blend the multiple pickups on his jazzes, he just has to turn the respective volume knobs to where he likes them and will get sound (his modified geddy lee has two pickup's, his red frankenbass has 3 pickup's with individual volume controls, but they both work the same way)

my question is: what is the difference in the way these two system's are wired? on the eb-3 you must have SOME volume on to each pickup. In the Fender system, you don't.

does this mean that the Fender pickups are wired in series rather than parallel? and more importantly:

what are they implications for the sound of the bass? why did Gibson do that? intuitively, it seems that the Fender system is more versatile, but there has got to be a reason why Gibson chose to have it's pickup's wired in parallel.

any thoughts or knowledge, as always, appreciated.

 

[SurferJoe46]

Before coffee here - but if I understand your question: 'what's the big reason/difference in the two ways of wiring the pickups' - right?

Parallel will allow both signals from the separate p'ups to be blended via either two VOL controls or even a knife switch.

Series, however, means that both p'ups are in the same chain and the signal from one has to be allowed to travel through the other p'ups to get to the amp.

Both have somewhat different qualities and tonal differences and in my opinion the series being a little crunchier and the parallel smoother and less peak-y.

What I don't understand was your No2 part::

2) on his Jazz basses, either volume control can be anywhere from wide open to fully off, and as long as the other pickup pot is not at zero, he will get some sound,

I don't have to have the second p'up at any particular setting for the first to operate. Seems to me that something's wrong there.

Wait - maybe the coffee's kicking in. Never mind. I think. No - I'm right. I'm confused.

 

[JTE]

Both instruments have the pickups wired in parallel. The difference is how the volume controls are wired. The Jazz is wired so that the volume of one doesn't affect the volume of the other (much), while the Gibson has the standard Gibson wiring where the output is grounded via the volume control. Essentially a Jazz bass volume control works by grounding the pickup hot, while the Gibson (and a P bass) works by grounding the hot of the output jack.

Series and parallel has nothing to do with how the volume controls operate in these two stock instruments. Precision bass coils are in series, but hardly anyone would ever solo the coils on a P. Most instruments use parallel wiring because it's easy to do. Series wiring changes the impedance, the way the pickups interact, etc. The Fender Jazz bass with the S-1 switch was a simple (conceptually- the actual mechanical device they used was a complicated special POS) series/parallel switch. With the Jazz coils in series the bass was supposed to have a bit more "beef" to the sound, but it was generally a feature not sought after.

The only time I've ever found series/parallel to be useful was on a P/J bass. Putting the P coils into parallel matched them up a bit better with the Jazz bass coil- a subtle but useful change when using both PUPs.

John

 

[Goatee220]

I have an early 90's P/J with a series/parallel switch. Never knew the difference between the two with respect to wiring, but putting them into parallel always made the bass sound "fuller". Thanks for the explanation.

 

[Lonesomedave]

...What I don't understand was your No2 part::

I don't have to have the second p'up at any particular setting for the first to operate. Seems to me that something's wrong there.

Wait - maybe the coffee's kicking in. Never mind. I think. No - I'm right. I'm confused.

i apologize if i was unclear. i think your response is: either pickup can operate regardless of whether there is any volume at all on the other....r.i.g.h.t?

that is what i was saying. there does not need to be any volume (that is, you can have it set to zero) on the neck pickup for the bridge pick up to have full volume.... maybe i am saying this clumsily, but that is what i meant.

ps- edit- Thanks, JTE! i am still a little confused, but your post explained a lot

 

[SurferJoe46]

i apologize if i was unclear. i think your response is: either pickup can operate regardless of whether there is any volume at all on the other....r.i.g.h.t?

that is what i was saying. there does not need to be any volume (that is, you can have it set to zero) on the neck pickup for the bridge pick up to have full volume.... maybe i am saying this clumsily, but that is what i meant.

ps- edit- Thanks, JTE! i am still a little confused, but your post explained a lot

Kinda what I wuz hoping ya meant. I understand now.

Umm-m! Coffee!

 

[bassbenj]

Series and parallel has nothing to do with how the volume controls operate in these two stock instruments. Precision bass coils are in series, but hardly anyone would ever solo the coils on a P. Most instruments use parallel wiring because it's easy to do. Series wiring changes the impedance, the way the pickups interact, etc. The Fender Jazz bass with the S-1 switch was a simple (conceptually- the actual mechanical device they used was a complicated special POS) series/parallel switch. With the Jazz coils in series the bass was supposed to have a bit more "beef" to the sound, but it was generally a feature not sought after.

The only time I've ever found series/parallel to be useful was on a P/J bass. Putting the P coils into parallel matched them up a bit better with the Jazz bass coil- a subtle but useful change when using both PUPs.

John

The deal with series-parallel is the by changing the wiring it changes your tone. It's basically just a quick way to change EQ (the same effect CAN be done with EQ on the amp). ALso pickups in series are louder than those in parallel (for electrical reasons). The basic effect of the wiring is that inductance of the pickups operates electrically like resistors: Put two in series and the restance will be the sum of the two values. Put them in parallel and the total will be less than the value of the smallest one! Thus, pickups in series have much more inductance which emphasizes deep lows and sort of rolls off highs. Pickups in parallel tend to have more rolled off lows and emphasized mids.

The bottom line is that many players don't go for series because it can tend to sound muddy, while parallel with more mids cuts through the mix better. My personal view is I like to be able to choose to fit the given situation so I usually install al parallel-series switch on many of my basses (usually a push-pull on the volume and never the klooge S1 switch) That's the series parallel story.

Oh wait, last thing is that if you have dual volumes to blend pickups it tends to only work well in the parallel mode. In series it still sort of works but acts more like a switch than blender. So in many cases I just use a switch instead of volumes or blend: Neck only, both series, both parallel, bridge only.

 

[PawleeP]

The deal with series-parallel is the by changing the wiring it changes your tone. It's basically just a quick way to change EQ (the same effect CAN be done with EQ on the amp). ALso pickups in series are louder than those in parallel (for electrical reasons). The basic effect of the wiring is that inductance of the pickups operates electrically like resistors: Put two in series and the restance will be the sum of the two values. Put them in parallel and the total will be less than the value of the smallest one! Thus, pickups in series have much more inductance which emphasizes deep lows and sort of rolls off highs. Pickups in parallel tend to have more rolled off lows and emphasized mids.

The bottom line is that many players don't go for series because it can tend to sound muddy, while parallel with more mids cuts through the mix better. My personal view is I like to be able to choose to fit the given situation so I usually install al parallel-series switch on many of my basses (usually a push-pull on the volume and never the klooge S1 switch) That's the series parallel story.
I think Schecter makes a few basses wired like this now. Never tried or heard one though. p

Oh wait, last thing is that if you have dual volumes to blend pickups it tends to only work well in the parallel mode. In series it still sort of works but acts more like a switch than blender. So in many cases I just use a switch instead of volumes or blend: Neck only, both series, both parallel, bridge only.