Phat Cats/P90's: Series or phase?

Do the pickups have the traditional, braided shield style of lead? If they do, you will have to do some minor surgery one one of them before doing either series or out of phase wiring. The braided shield serves two purposes: the ground for the coil and the ground for the metal base. The metal base must be grounded, no matter how the pickup is wired. In either series or out of phase wiring, the coil ground must be seperated from the base ground for at least one of the pickups.

 

SERIES, definately! Yep, there is a grounding requirement but it's no biggie. Download the 4-way switching wiring schematic from the Acme Guitar Works website and it tell you what you need to know.

 

Series. Massive output, thick as heck, kick on a fuzz pedal and instant smooth synthy goodness.

Or have it put them in series and out of phase. That's a Brian May thing, I know.

 

Just curious - is this something that could be done on a tradition P-90 based LP with some new switches? My P-90 Goldtop is a tone monster but the thought of having even more options is a bit facinating.

 

It isn't so much safe as quiet. If you do not modify one of the pickups -- the one whose wires will be reversed (out of phase) or whose ground will be attached the other pickup's hot (series) -- the metal base of the pickup is suddenly placed in the circuit. It becomes an antenna.

You stated you wanted to use the push/pull, and it seemed you did not want to alter anything else. Using that push/pull to select whether a single pickup is in or out of phase, and leaving the toggle switch to determine whether or not the pickup is actually in the circuit, is easy. Using that push/pull to put the pickups in series, while still using the toggle, is an entirely different matter.

The best I can come up with (assuming your toggle switch is a Les Paul style switch) is that if the push/pull is in, the guitar works as normal -- all three toggle positions work, and the middle yields a parallel sound. If the push/pull is out, only the middle toggle position would give you a sound, and it would be series. If the toggle is in either of the other positions, and the push/pull is out, you get no sound. Personally, I would find that unacceptable in the heat of battle, but you may be different.

 

Personally, I tried the series wiring on a soapbar II, and i really liked it... but i sold the axe to pay for a custome 22 soapy!