Can anyone tell me what mod this is

[portablefrank]

Hi all

Can anyone tell me what this mod is please? The pickups are clones of Bill Lawrence circuit board humbuckers from the ‘80s.

There are 3 mini toggle switches added to the circuit, all 3 are on-off.

Please see attached pics, I can create a diagram of the wiring if it isn't a common mod but I'm guessing it is.

Thanks in advance

Tom

 

[BadPenguin]

Hard to tell, but...
Push/pulls, probably coil tap. Series/parallel on 2 of the on/off, phase on the third.
OR again with the coli taps on the push/pulls, series/parallel, phase, master series parallel
there are a LOT of options there, and the pics aren't that defined.

 

[Blues_Verne]

Hi all

Can anyone tell me what this mod is please? The pickups are clones of Bill Lawrence circuit board humbuckers from the ‘80s.

There are 3 mini toggle switches added to the circuit, all 3 are on-off.

Please see attached pics, I can create a diagram of the wiring if it isn't a common mod but I'm guessing it is.

Thanks in advance

Tom

looks like a pretty messy kind of wiring and to more precisely tell you what is what, I for once need more bigger pictures from different angles. BadPenguin already listed some of the many possibilities.
Get smart.

 

[portablefrank]

Hard to tell, but...
Push/pulls, probably coil tap. Series/parallel on 2 of the on/off, phase on the third.
OR again with the coli taps on the push/pulls, series/parallel, phase, master series parallel
there are a LOT of options there, and the pics aren't that defined.

Thanks for the input, it’s such a mess it’s hard to get decent pics of what’s going on - the push pulls aren’t wired in - just being used as pots.

Back of pickups:

Closer pics of this complete mess

Top quality diagram

The orange lines are the caps, the yellow lines are the white wires in the pictures above, and I've missed out the 4th connection from both the pickups which are the grounds to the volume pots.

So I'm guessing the mini toggles are for coil splitting but if you could clarify the purpose of the middle switch and also whether this is actually wired correctly I'd really appreciate it!

Thanks

Tom

 

[ARandall]

Looks like it could be an on/off for each pickup......but perhaps adding in split as one of the options.
Then the bridge has a phase reversal as well.

 

[BadPenguin]

Ok, middle switch is for phase of the bridge pickup.
The other two switches are for coil tap. Are they 3 ways? on/off/on?

 

[Blues_Verne]

Ok, middle switch is for phase of the bridge pickup.
The other two switches are for coil tap. Are they 3 ways? on/off/on?

NO 3 ways! Cannot be. They certainly are on//on and ONLY toggle the single coils of the humbuckers. To get the full humbucker you have to rewire the darn circuit additionally using the Push/Pulls, I reckon.

 

[BadPenguin]

NO 3 ways! Cannot be. They certainly are on//on and ONLY toggle the single coils of the humbuckers. To get the full humbucker you have to rewire the darn circuit additionally using the Push/Pulls, I reckon.

NOOO not true, a 3 way on/off/on would have given a hum/off/single. Ibanez and Kramer did it for decades. Though in this configuration it wouldn't make sense to do that. It seems the monkey who did this mess, originally wanted to use the switches as a single coil tap, and perhaps wired in such a way that the two singles would have been in parallel. Done it myself. It works, but sucks.

Seriously, just rewire the damn thing. But now there are 3 holes in the guitar....

 

[portablefrank]

Thanks both, yes all 3 switches are on/on only.

For the sake of testing these pickups in a "normal" configuration could I add a jumper from green to red on the coil splitting switches? In case it's of any relevance to this question or anything I said earlier, from what I've read online red/white = north start/finish and green/bare = south start/finish on these pickups.

The guitar is just a bit of an odd one in general, MIJ, bolt-on, unbranded open book headstock, plywood body - it's a hollow piece of crap but it plays so nicely I'm going to refinish it. I'll probably fill the holes where the switches are but I don't hate the way they look.

Thanks again for the input!

Tom

 

[Blues_Verne]

Thanks both, yes all 3 switches are on/on only.

For the sake of testing these pickups in a "normal" configuration could I add a jumper from green to red on the coil splitting switches? In case it's of any relevance to this question or anything I said earlier, from what I've read online red/white = north start/finish and green/bare = south start/finish on these pickups.

The guitar is just a bit of an odd one in general, MIJ, bolt-on, unbranded open book headstock, plywood body - it's a hollow piece of crap but it plays so nicely I'm going to refinish it. I'll probably fill the holes where the switches are but I don't hate the way they look.

Thanks again for the input!

Tom

These pickups look like these Maxxon I found when repairing a Fresher LP Std from 1989 =>

unfortunately all my notes and circuit diagrams from that era got lost with a HD headcrash. What I can remember is those pups sounded really good, especially when switched to parallel mode.

 

[Blues_Verne]

NOOO not true, a 3 way on/off/on would have given a hum/off/single. Ibanez and Kramer did it for decades. Though in this configuration it wouldn't make sense to do that. It seems the monkey who did this mess, originally wanted to use the switches as a single coil tap, and perhaps wired in such a way that the two singles would have been in parallel. Done it myself. It works, but sucks.

Seriously, just rewire the damn thing. But now there are 3 holes in the guitar....

Sorry mate, you got it a bit wrong there. Also ...fkkk Ibanez and Kramer

 

[portablefrank]

These pickups look like these Maxxon I found when repairing a Fresher LP Std from 1989 => View attachment 610125
unfortunately all my notes and circuit diagrams from that era got lost with a HD headcrash. What I can remember is those pups sounded really good, especially when switched to parallel mode.

Yep, the very same - they are frequently listed online as being made by Tokai or Double Eagle. I've found a fair few Reverb listings but not much in the way of wiring diagrams.