Pickup wiring question

Wormwood

I opened up my guitar to see what pots came standard (300k volume and 500 tone) but apart from the crappy solder I see that there seems to be a couple of wires left over.

The pickups are a SD SH1 in the neck and a 59 in the bridge.
I'm wondering if the left over wires mean I can split the coils on one of the humbuckers, can anyone tell if this is the case? ( it looks like there is only one extra set of wires but really have no idea)

If so I will definitely do that while I get new pots

ChrisDanger

Have a look at the wiring diagrams here: http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/wiring-diagrams/

Comparing the two diagrams below you can see the joined wires are to fix parallel wiring in the first diagram, with the second diagram showing how to enable the series/parallel option using push/pull pots .

If you get stuck you can post on the forum there. I had replies to my problem within a day posted by some very experienced (+3k posts) members.

Good luck!

Wormwood

ok, thanks that clears it up a bit

Wormwood

Hmm I see its only the bridge pickup that can be split.
I would be happier if it was the neck.
Im not sure i will have a use for a spikey as hell bridge sound on a les paul....with extra hum

ChrisDanger

I have a Jackson with a series/parallel neck pickup. There's no appreciable hum in parallel. I've seen videos of Les Pauls with push/pull pots on both pickups and all the tones sounded cool to me, although the parallel settings were less like the typical Les Paul full and mid-rich tones. Maybe try find something on YouTube to see for yourself.

...

Just some comments from the web. I actually did not know this for sure myself.

"On a stacked pickup, series and parallel are both hum-free sounds with series being the louder and fuller of the two."
(http://www.andersonguitars.com/support/split.cfm)

"Series is a slightly warm, thick sound. Parallel has a touch of single coil-type attack, clarity and shimmery treble, but it still eliminates hum. Parallel wiring also has slightly lower output than series wiring."
(http://www.seymourduncan.com/forum/showthread.php?227705-Difference-between-Series-Parallel-and-Coil-Split)

beardedmoose

Def for split coils