[Chuckles]

So, I'm getting Bardens installed and the tech lets me know that the Bardens have 6-way wiring - which is awesomely flexible... but, he says that the parellel wiring (according to the Barden folks) is wanted by most folks because they want to switch to a single coil sound while negating the hum - which the Bardens already do by design.

I can understand this, but am wondering... the question is, is there some strange "parallel universe" to be played in... or would I be better trying to see if he can wire for single/hum/out-of-phase (at least the bridge a la Bobby late '70s, and which the Ibanez actually has and Dozin' has posted about) or should I go more conventional... because the single coil sounds of the Bardens are already strat-like w/no hum? The issue is that wiring the parallel circuit will cut output by about half when switched to that - which is what a normal split coil will do, but the Bardens will not in that position.

I read here that Bobby had the middle coil on his Ibanez axes to cancel the hum from when he had the bridge in the "out-of-phase" setting. It's all so confusing...

Frank at Barden wants to know if this is something they should include a schematic for, and I have no idea what to report back...

Am I missing something? Is a 'bucker wired parallel the same as out of phase?

Sorry to be so ignorant of the electronics - I'm just a humble guitar player...

[XxRouninxX]

well i know very little about bobby's guitars and gears, but ill share what i know about the electronics. I gather that you are talking about three separate functions, so i will help you clarify and ddefine them, series/parallell, phase-switching and coil-tap.

[edited, terrible asci drawing was a failure, see post below for image]

... when components ina circuit are in series, the current flows through them consecutively, one after the other... when the components of a circuit are parallel the current flows through them simultaneously...
from my experience (modded epiphone custom studio) series/parallel acts as a bright/warm switch.


as far as coil tapping, well take a look at a humbucker, it looks alot like two single coil pickups side by side, so (basically) all the coil tap does is shutoff half of the humbucker, and in effect turns it into a single coil.

and phase switching.. well.. the sound/electricity coming through your guitar is in waves, or pulses, and typically the humbuckers are set to output simultaneously, so the beats of every note coming out of each line up.. this is alot like a note and its octave beign so well in tune it sounds like one note... a phase switch sets the timing of the pulses to be out-of-phase, so that when one is pulsing the other is not, which creates much more interfierence with the waves, and takes away from the cleaness of the sound (makes it sound subtly phased, like a phaser, but not quite)


so to answer one question, a humbucker wired parllell is not the same as out of phase.. there are three seperate "mods", the coiltapping, series/parallel switch and the phase-switch.


now i dont know about the workings of your specific guitar, but if it woudl work, i'd say get them all, no need to limit yourself. I modded my epiphone les paul with push-pull knobs so that the volume knobs were coil taps for thier respective humbuckers, and then one tone knob switched series/parallel and one toneknob was a phase switch.

So yes my advice is to get both coiltaps, a phase switch and a series/parallell switch (at the least), this will provide you with a massave range in sounds and tone, and then you can experiment with what works and what doesn't.

http://www.guitarelectronics.com/ has some good schematics for various combos of the above on various guitars

i'm sorry i couldn't be more help with the tech specs of your new buckers, or bobby's rig, but hope you understand more about what youa re trying to do

[XxRouninxX]

wow, its been so long i forgot that i cant draw pictures with spaces here

http://www.harmony-central.com/Effects/ ... lel-f1.gif

[Chuckles]

Thx for the reply -

I was confused by a late-night email from the tech who's gonna do my work...

I think we're straight now!