Forever guitar - for now

[Plentine]

Good morning all.  After a long search I just took delivery of a 2002 Mahogany 575 with a spruce top, an HRW pickup and an ebony fretboard.  It is my forever guitar - for now!  I am replacing the wiring harness and will install a push/pull pot to gain an extra tone.  Was considering a coil split but leaning towards a series/parallel wiring.  My understanding is that a Coil split drops volume and loses the humbucker properties (more hum) to give a somewhat single coil sound.  Parallel wiring keeps humbucker properties (no hum) with more volume and a somewhat single coil sound.  What wiring would you recommend?  Looking to add a little jazz tone versatility to this special guitar.  I have a Bourns 500K push/pull pot for the tone pot and a regular Bourns 500K pot for the volume.  For series/parallel wiring I will need to identify the north finish and south finish colors from the green and yellow wires from the HRW pickup.  Thanks in advance for any insights into this!

[skydog52]

That's a beauty. Enjoy!

[zdzislaw]

Yowza!!!

[Spectrum13]

Excellent classic beautiful!!!

 

Swell Done sir!

[big bob]

Wowza!

[hinesarchtop]

Gorgeous 

[Gitfiddler]

Yessir!!

[Plentine]

Thanks everyone for the kind remarks!  It is a very unique 575.  I've come to love the sound of the single set-in pickup with the cedar top and mahogany sides/back.  

The guitar is stripped down, cleaned up, buffed out and read for a new wiring harness!  I am leaning towards the coil split wiring.  Ren Wall suggested adding a piezo pickup like the Heritage David Becker model.  It would supply very nice tones but I'm looking to keep it simple with maybe a simple push/pull pot. Any other suggestions are always appreciated! 

[Spectrum13]

I'm only able to view the striped down image is safe search mode

 

Very hot

[TalismanRich]

It looks sort of funny without the bridge and tailpiece.   

Sorry, but I have no experience with coil taps or series/parallel switching.   I wish I could at least offer a comment.

 

[DawgBone]

Nice guitar!

I had factory coil taps on a couple semi hollow ES style instruments. Honestly never bothered with them much other than playing around at home a few times and at a gig once where I inadvertently had pulled the tap and was wondering where the beef had went. You can get real good sounds splitting a humbucker without a ton of volume loss, and your volume control can always compensate if you have the amp turned up. The Sheraton with Probuckers had a great split neck sound but I didn't. have a lot of use for it in a blues setting. You do only have one pickup to work with so maybe you're on to something. If you were playing rhythm in some funky fusion type stuff it could sound real good or were gigging with a big band and wanted a little extra cut for comping. If you were looking for strat or tele-like single coil tones you might be disappointed. Good luck with it!

 

[Plentine]

4 hours ago, DawgBone said:

Nice guitar!

I had factory coil taps on a couple semi hollow ES style instruments. Honestly never bothered with them much other than playing around at home a few times and at a gig once where I inadvertently had pulled the tap and was wondering where the beef had went. You can get real good sounds splitting a humbucker without a ton of volume loss, and your volume control can always compensate if you have the amp turned up. The Sheraton with Probuckers had a great split neck sound but I didn't. have a lot of use for it in a blues setting. You do only have one pickup to work with so maybe you're on to something. If you were playing rhythm in some funky fusion type stuff it could sound real good or were gigging with a big band and wanted a little extra cut for comping. If you were looking for strat or tele-like single coil tones you might be disappointed. Good luck with it!

 

Thanks Dawgbone!  I am somewhat limited with only a single pickup.  The split coil option is probably just something to play with once in a while.  I'm replacing the wiring harness and its easy to do with a push/pull pot.  

 

On 8/26/2022 at 6:23 AM, Kap said:

Pete, sorry just saw my mistake, meant to ask for AUD550. so sorry.

 

On 9/5/2022 at 8:08 AM, skydog52 said:

Thank you. Those are fine looking specimens.  

I have a line on a local H-575 Custom that I'm looking at this week. Hopefully it works out.

 

 

[Genericmusic]

[DetroitBlues]

For the series/parallel switching methods... I was under the impression that is for use with guitars with more than one pickup, so when splitting the humbuckers the two pickups act like a humbucker in series mode and then like 2/4 position quack of a Stratocaster.  I swear almost every video I've seen has been a two pickup thing.  I believe this is the basis for the Peter Greene/Gary Moore/Kirk Hammett Greenie Les Paul.

Does this switch change how the two internal bobbins of a single humbucker interact?

[Plentine]

Thanks for your message, Detroit Blues.  A single humbucker pickup has 2 coils.  They are typically connected in series.  You can modify a single pickup in a number of different ways using a push/pull pot. Here is an explanation of a split-coil method and a parallel wiring method.  Your mileage may vary!

This has to do with how a humbucking pickup is wired in the guitar's circuitry. A humbucking pickup has two sets of windings (coils) that are normally wired in series. The signals traveling through the coils are out of phase with one another - cancelling out hum.

Split coil means that the windings have been split so that the pickup can operate both as a humbucking pickup (by having both coils active) or as a single coil (by only using one of the coils and bypassing the other). A switch is usually installed to toggle between the two options (either a standalone switch or a push/pull switch on a volume or tone pot). If you operate in split coil mode, you lose the humbucking properties (so will experience some level of hum) but gain the bright spanky quality of a single coil pickup.

Parallel wiring is when both coils of the humbucker are used - but they are wired in parallel to one another. This wiring combination still retains the hum cancelling properties but sounds brighter than a normal humbucker. It is a sort of "pseudo single coil" sound.

 

[GuitarsGuitarsGuitars]

"Forever Guitar - For now"

That is Spectacular. 

[StephenK]

Sweat!

[bobmeyrick]

On 12/1/2022 at 4:10 PM, Plentine said:

Parallel wiring keeps humbucker properties (no hum) with more volume and a somewhat single coil sound.

Nice guitar! Actually it gives slightly less volume while keeping the humbucking property. I've used the Seymour Duncan Triple Shot rings with their P-Rails, which give four options - coils in series, each coil separately, coils in parallel.

[Plentine]

Good morning Bob.  Thanks for your message.  I appreciate your time and suggestion about the Seymour Duncan Triple Shot ring.  I've seen them before and like the 3 options they present.  Thought they were only for Seymour Duncan P-Rails.   Wondering how it would be with the HRW pickup?  I'll look into it some more.  Thank you!

[MartyGrass]

I agree with the triple shot approach.

The HRW in the neck position is a good choice in an archtop.  The cherry Golden Eagle in this video has one.  Kenny Burrell has recorded with one.  The coil split works okay.  Parallel wiring gives a pleasing yet odd hollow sound.

For serious coil splitting you would do better with unbalanced coils like in the Unbucker or the P Rails.  There isn't as much volume drop in the single coil mode and it's phonically bolder (whatever that means).

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5NJpja83WQ

 

 

[skydog52]

Great video. Love Rich's videos. 

All guitars sound different of the same model.................  You know you have knobs on the guitar and amp.....................

We all forget sometimes.

[kennyv4]

I like the idea of the coil split, but I really like the idea of adding a piezo pickup. Either way you have a beautiful guitar.

[Plentine]

22 hours ago, MartyGrass said:

I agree with the triple shot approach.

The HRW in the neck position is a good choice in an archtop.  The cherry Golden Eagle in this video has one.  Kenny Burrell has recorded with one.  The coil split works okay.  Parallel wiring gives a pleasing yet odd hollow sound.

For serious coil splitting you would do better with unbalanced coils like in the Unbucker or the P Rails.  There isn't as much volume drop in the single coil mode and it's phonically bolder (whatever that means).

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5NJpja83WQ

 

 

Thanks Mark!  I really appreciate your opinion and the video that you sent.  Will give serious consideration to the triple shot ring.  I do like the single pickup configuration for the 575 that I have.  It was something you recommended to me a while go.  If I had listened to you back then I might have been the proud owner of a certain Golden Eagle from your wonderful collection!  Thanks!

[bobmeyrick]

On 12/3/2022 at 1:19 PM, Plentine said:

 Wondering how it would be with the HRW pickup?

It should be relatively straightforward - just solder the wires to the appropriate contacts on the little circuit board. Also, since the guitar is fully hollow you wouldn't have to shorten the cable from the pickup. I had to do this with the P-Rails for the pickup to fit into the cavity on a solidbody. The circuit board can be stuck to the bottom of the pickup. I wasn't too concerned about shortening the pickup lead as if I ever sold them, they'd come with the triple shots.

[Plentine]

Good morning Bob!  Thanks for your message.  I'm going with the Triple Shot Ring for my HRW pickup.  The wire color code for the HRW pickups are Brown is hot, White is ground,   Green and Yellow are tied together for use with a push pull pot. 

For the circuit board on the Triple Shot ring pictured below, the HRW pickup brown wire (hot) probably goes to the R (hot) on the circuit board, the White (ground) would go to G (gound) on the circuit board, the bare wire goes to the GND (Ground) spot to the right of the W spot.  I'm not sure where the green and yellow wires go on the Triple Shot ring circuit board in the picture below.  Any thoughts on that would be greatly appreciated.  Thank you.