Killswitches and coil shunts. . .

[thearabianmage]

Right, first off - in lamens - what is a coil shunt and what are its effects?

Next off, I want to re-wire Poop with one of these two configurations (depending on what a coil shunt is)

http://www.deaf-eddie.net/drawings/dbl-fat-5tt.jpg

http://www.deaf-eddie.net/drawings/dbl-5tt-cs.jpg

But I was also wanting to wire a killswitch into this as well (I know extra holes will have to be drilled etc. but assuming all work has been done to the body and all electrics are in place. . .)

How would I go about this?

And another thing - before I get started with some complicated wiring like this, I should ask first: I recently got some extra electric wiring, and it comes in two colors. I was wondering if these colors are used for specific purposes or if they are two colors just for organizational purposes?

Cheers y'all!

[ted s]

Coil shunt ? careful not to be dyslexic with those two..
Don't know dude, I just wanted to say coil shunt.

[thearabianmage]

I know what a coil shunt is now, but at the time of posting I didn't. . . . coil shunt. . .

[marnold]

There's various terms for that. Here's what my Fender sounded like (http://telebotomy.blogspot.com/2007/04/clippage.html) after I added a push-pull pot to tap/shunt a coil on the bridge humbucker.

[thearabianmage]

There's various terms for that. Here's what my Fender sounded like (http://telebotomy.blogspot.com/2007/04/clippage.html) after I added a push-pull pot to tap/shunt a coil on the bridge humbucker.

Whoa. . . . That's a bit of a change! Very interesting. I'm fully getting into the idea of modifying the wiring configurations in my guitars, and it seems it's a worthy effort with the sheer amount of tonal variation that can be achieved.

[marnold]

Whoa. . . . That's a bit of a change! Very interesting. I'm fully getting into the idea of modifying the wiring configurations in my guitars, and it seems it's a worthy effort with the sheer amount of tonal variation that can be achieved.
Yep. For me it was a no-brainer because my Fender only has the bridge humbucker and a volume control. Nothing else. The humbucker (an Atomic II) is awesome with lots of gain, but it's way hot for playing clean. The tap solved that problem. I thought about wiring it series/parallel and still may revisit that idea at some point.

Of course, you can end up adding so many switches and knobs that your guitar looks like this (http://www.premierguitar.com/Magazine/Issue/2008/Jun/Rich_Bich.aspx). Actually, I think it's cool looking in an odd sort of way, but you'd need to consult a manual to see what everything does.

[thearabianmage]

Yep. For me it was a no-brainer because my Fender only has the bridge humbucker and a volume control. Nothing else. The humbucker (an Atomic II) is awesome with lots of gain, but it's way hot for playing clean. The tap solved that problem. I thought about wiring it series/parallel and still may revisit that idea at some point.

Of course, you can end up adding so many switches and knobs that your guitar looks like this (http://www.premierguitar.com/Magazine/Issue/2008/Jun/Rich_Bich.aspx). Actually, I think it's cool looking in an odd sort of way, but you'd need to consult a manual to see what everything does.

Dude, that is pretty sweet. I've always hated Bich's, but I'd buy that. I wonder exactly how difficult all of that would be. . .

And talk about learning something new everyday, I never realized hotter pups inhibits the clean sound of the pup! I'll definitely have to see what I can screw around with now. . . .

[marnold]

I never realized hotter pups inhibits the clean sound of the pup! I'll definitely have to see what I can screw around with now. . . .
It inhibits it inasmuch as this: 1) Hotter pickups generally mean more windings. More windings = more mids and less top end. 2) Hotter pickups have more output (duh) and will tend to overdrive an amp that would otherwise be clean with, say, a vintage single coil.

My Atomic II "fails" in both respects. Thus rolling off the volume to cut some of the output doesn't help because that too rolls off highs. At 8K, even half that pickup is still pretty hot for a single coil. No "shimmer" there, but there's nothing nice and shimmery about that guitar anyway. With that one, that's the way I like it.

[thearabianmage]

That's food for thought, cheers!

There's so much to learn with guitar. . .technique, theory, philosophical banter (heart/mind/body etc.), electronics, sonic production, the guitar itself (fret-work, woods, etc.). . . There can actually be a bonafide degree course just on all the aspects of the guitar. It's lush!

[thearabianmage]

Right, I've rooted around a few (rubbish) forums and managed, somehow, to leave with a slight gem of advice. I understand now why so many people say thefret is the best forum. . . Anyways:

you can just simply get a on/off SPST mini toggle switch from radioshack or someplace and just wire the hot lead to the center pin and then the lead to jack on the outer pin and that would cut off the connection when you flip it.

Can somebody help me make a bit of sense of this? I *sort of* understand it, but need it solidified. Cheers. . .

[marnold]

you can just simply get a on/off SPST mini toggle switch from radioshack or someplace and just wire the hot lead to the center pin and then the lead to jack on the outer pin and that would cut off the connection when you flip it.
Have you seen this? This looks like a great (and easy) idea to me.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Guitar-Killswitch-Strat.-design/

[marnold]

It inhibits it inasmuch as this: 1) Hotter pickups generally mean more windings. More windings = more mids and less top end. 2) Hotter pickups have more output (duh) and will tend to overdrive an amp that would otherwise be clean with, say, a vintage single coil.
Upon reading some things in another forum, I should more accurately say that more windings = more inductance = fewer highs. Or to quote directly from this thread (http://www.fenderforum.com/forum.html?db=&topic_number=674182):

More windings or thicker wire means higher inductance, which means less high frequencies are captured from the strings.

[thearabianmage]

Upon reading some things in another forum, I should more accurately say that more windings = more inductance = fewer highs. Or to quote directly from this thread (http://www.fenderforum.com/forum.html?db=&topic_number=674182):

Ahh! Interesting. . .

I'm looking into custom pick-ups (wrapping wires by hand, baby!) so this is very good to know! Cheers, dude!