Series-parallel or bridge kill switch?

[White Crown]

Im reviving an old dean edge 1 passive HH (VVT) with stock pickups, and i want to install a push/pull switch for some tonal variation and flexibility. My first inclination after 2 days research is to install a master series/parallel setup just like they do on SS j basses. However i havent found much about results of this on an HH. I found ONE poster in a music man thread claiming the "growl" is even more increased on dual humbuckers, is this true

Also, I mostly play with the bridge volume all the way down and [usually] prefer a warmer/deeper tone. I found a couple folks mildly indicate that cutting out the bridge pickup from the circuit accentuates this deeper tone even more, but each time several people also post to just turn the brodge down and it does the same thing (im assuming they mean percievably). What are your opinions and/or experiences?

I have a roll of copper shielding with conductive adhesive and a 500k push-pull pot shipped and on its way, should I wire the pot in as a master series/parallel or a bridge cutout?

Also... im new to guitar wiring but i am an electrician. I found it exceedingly frustrating reading through many posts that folks unknowingly interchanged and shifted between talking about both pickups with series-parallel switches, and EACH pickup's two coils with series-parallel switches. Very confusing. Is "master" the term i should be using in the bass world to eliminate confusion? To clarify im talking about both pickups in series with eachother. My pickups have only 2 leads and cannot individually be wired in parallel, they are each in series individually, but parallel to each other from the factory wiring.

 

[kgbeast]

500k pot volume down should be the same as bridge cut switch. I would be surprised if that is noticeable.
So to my mind, series/parallel is a better use for the switch. At least you will actually immediately notice the difference. I can not say, you will like that difference though. But if you do not try that, you will not know.

 

[White Crown]

500k pot volume down should be the same as bridge cut switch. I would be surprised if that is noticeable.
So to my mind, series/parallel is a better use for the switch. At least you will actually immediately notice the difference. I can not say, you will like that difference though. But if you do not try that, you will not know.

Thats what i was leaning towards... thanks! Yeah Im not sure i will like it either, but if thats true no one is going to make me pull the pot when i dont want to worse case is i wire it up and rarely use it

 

[White Crown]

Master series switch is installed, ill have to wait until tomorrow to crank up the amp but so far i like the sound, although at low volume both pickups in series sounds very similar to neck pu only. I did have trouble getting solder to stick to the copper foil, maybe its too thin to get hot enough for a good solder joint? Are there any solutions?

Also funny note, the plate came with aluminum foil from the factory but not grounded to anything... why bother?

 

[kgbeast]

Master series switch is installed, ill have to wait until tomorrow to crank up the amp but so far i like the sound, although at low volume both pickups in series sounds very similar to neck pu only. I did have trouble getting solder to stick to the copper foil, maybe its too thin to get hot enough for a good solder joint? Are there any solutions?
View attachment 5413648
Also funny note, the plate came with aluminum foil from the factory but not grounded to anything... why bother?

You can use a patch of foil to glue in the wire. You did say that the foil has conductive adhesive....

 

[sikamikanico]

If you prefer deeper tones, turning down the bridge pickup works well. I’d only suggest cutting it out via a switch if you were looking to get a brighter neck pickup sound. The extra loading from the bridge pickup and its pot kills some highs.

I think wiring two pickups in series with each other is indeed often called “master” but the more common references to series/parallel are how the two coils within pickups are wired. Very few basses have a “master series” option, especially HH basses (and especially if the two humbuckers are already wired in series individually).

try how you like it, but two series-wired humbuckers in series with each other (master series) may be too dark/muddy. If that’s the case, or you don’t like the volume jump, you can re-purpose the switch to a cap selector role. the switch could change out the cap on the tone pot, or even better it could engage a loading cap of your choice. A loading cap allows you to dial in the sound you like by selecting the cap with just the right capacitance. One of the cap values should give you the “master series” sound. The cool thing is that loading caps, like tone pots, can be applied regardless of what pickup combination you have, and it will sound different with both pickups on vs neck only (= more tones). I find it best to ‘trial and error’ loading caps of different capacitance, and pick the one you like most…

 

[White Crown]

I spent a couple hours with it yesterday and heres a few things I noticed:
-With bridge 0/neck 100/tone 0, the tone does go ever slightly muddy when switched to series but otherwise i cant tell much of a difference. This is weird to me because the series switch cuts the bridge pot out and increases use of bridge pup now runnning off the neck pot at 100. This is the opposite of what happens when you normally add the bridge at 100 in parallel.
-Bridge 100/neck 100/ tone 0, the tone gets deeper and more defined and punchy.
-Bridge 100/neck 100/tone 100, wow, not the sound i usually use but has a bite to it thats hard for me to describe but with less string noise. This sound motivates me to play the bridge pickup more often.

Overall im happy with it, but now youre gonna have me adding new caps too lol. Ive got to try it.

 

[J Posega]

Typical series wiring disables the control of one of your pickups and has them both mixed equal volume and the one volume control that remains becomes a master volume.