A series multi switch conundrum

[Warszawa]

So I've got an old Stingray Sub I've modded to hell and back. Its pretty beat up and was bought from a Cashconverters (Pawnshop) for a steal here in the UK many years ago.

Previous mods have included:
- Replacing pickup with Kent Armstrong
- Wiring the pickup passive in series
- Splitting out the separate coils to individual mono jacks
- G&L passive bass and treble cut
- Diode transistor fuzz
- OMG style treble cut on just one coil
- Moving the pickup to the P-Spot
- Neck pickup

Currently the bass is in mono with just a single pickup wired in Parallel with an OMG switch in the P spot. It sounds quite nice, but doesn't sound like a real P.

I was never particularly happy with the preamp and it kind of led me on a weird journey trying different tones and wiring out, learning a lot along the way.

Anyway. Lets get to the point.

One thing I liked about the Kent Armstrong pickup installed is that the pickup coils, or blades, are actually spaced quite far apart, you can test this very quickly with a screwdriver or a magnet tapping them. This got me thinking about installing another neck pickup, and doing some fancy switching to get a Swiss army knife of different sounds kind of like the Peavey T-40 using the spaced out coils to hit different 'sweet' spots.

I also got thinking (I really should stop doing this), I'd prefer to wire each pickup coil in series. I have previously tried robbiek an others Series wiring diagrams with two pickups that worked nicely, but this time afforded two coils in in both pickups it might make for some interesting tones.

So I have another Kent Armstrong here, ready with a Stingray HH pick guard.

Rather than have lots of complex switching to select different coils in series together would it be possible to use a 4 pole 5 way rotary switch?

Each of the turns bridging a different coil in series together from the 4 available like this:

Position 1(Neck humbucker)
|| XX

Position 2: (Front coil of both humbucker, Ric-ish)
|X |X

Position 3: (Middle coils, closest to a P-bass)
X| |X

Position 4: (Rear coils, closest to a Jazz Bass)
X| X|

Position 5: Bridge humbucker (Ala Stingray)
XX ||

I've had a neck pickup in the bass before, and whilst with the Stingray pickup it didn't that blend well (I think I had Stingray pickup in parallel by accident so the output was low), the neck pickup alone sounded quite nice.

 

[Crater]

Rather than have lots of complex switching to select different coils in series together would it be possible to use a 4 pole 5 way rotary switch?

It would be possible to do these combos in parallel (I think Paul Reed Smith guitars have a similar scheme on some models) but I don't think it's possible for all-series wiring. I wrote out a 'truth table' to map out the connections for each switch position and attempted to sketch out a schematic with an online tool. It works fine until the final position, rear humbucker in series...then there are not enough switch contacts to make that last connection between the bridge humbucker's coils. Apparently you'd need a 5 pole, 5 position switch, and if such a thing does exist, it's probably too big to fit in a basses' control cavity.

 

[Warszawa]

Thanks so much for taking the time to check out the possible combos. Bit of a shame its not quite doable, you would end up with a really versatile bass, although I totally get that's not every ones cup of tea, sometimes the simplest solution is best, but I have my fender p for that.

I might try something a little simpler, wire up just a few of the selections from the above once I have the pickup installed and check which I like. I had a really cheap and nasty blade jazz pickup in the neck pickup and it got that raspy Ric growl, so I'll probably lean into that.

My local ever suffering amp dude and handyman Jon Dickinson (who makes some incredible custom guitar amplifiers here in Crystal Palace in London) is probably going to groan when he sees my email address again asking him to cut the last bit of wood out from under the pick guard. I swear Jon this is the last time!

 

[ctmullins]

I love where you’re going with this, and I agree that it would be an incredibly versatile instrument. I just don’t quite understand why you’re set on having the coils in series. Two coils in the Rick positions will probably not sound very Rick-like when wired in series. Two coils in the Jazz positions will probably not sound very Jazz-like when wired in series. And two coils up by the neck and wired in series will probably do a good job mimicking a Gibson mudbucker, which is definitely not universally appealing.

If it were me - and it very well may be me soon! - I would go with the parallel wiring, with an East BTB-01 to fill out the bottom end.

 

[XLunacy]

Not to mention several of those combination are not hum canceling...
If it were me I'd probably do :
- bridge series
- bridge parallel
- inner coils series
- outer coils parallel
- neck parallel

Will try to come up with something using a 4P5T switch

 

[Warszawa]

I love where you’re going with this, and I agree that it would be an incredibly versatile instrument. I just don’t quite understand why you’re set on having the coils in series. Two coils in the Rick positions will probably not sound very Rick-like when wired in series. Two coils in the Jazz positions will probably not sound very Jazz-like when wired in series. And two coils up by the neck and wired in series will probably do a good job mimicking a Gibson mudbucker, which is definitely not universally appealing.

If it were me - and it very well may be me soon! - I would go with the parallel wiring, with an East BTB-01 to fill out the bottom end.

The coils alone aren't particularly beefy, about 6.5Kohm each, and with just the one pickup wired in series its quite articulate and bright so I thought it might be a useful experiment. I've A/B'd the pickup in the precision sweet spot with my p-bass and its definitely much crisper with a quicker attack.

I think the pickups run in parallel like your suggestion with some clever switching would sound great with a real stingray HH, using a rotary switch instead of the Strat style pickup selector currently offered.

I've tret this knackered old Stingray Sub as way to explore different ideas, and I've always been intrigued by some of the unusual Series wiring (you can have independent volume on two pickups in series!) schemes like the Dano and RobbieK suggestions on the site.

 

[XLunacy]

I've made this for the all-series wiring, with a small change : the "jazz" setting would be outer coils in series (for humbucking purposes). The only non-humbucking position would be the "rick" setting (front coils).
"+" would be your overall hot signal, "-" goes to ground.
It seems to me that it should work, but I'm not quite confident in this, so let the wiring wizards of the forum review it @ctmullins @dwizum @Crater @fig

I : bridge coils
II : outer coils
III : inner coils
IV : front coils
V : neck coils