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Hey guys.. I've noticed that everyone seems to dig the sound of two high output pickups like the Dimarzio or Duncan Super Distortions wired in Parallel, but I'm wondering if one can do the same thing with two different pickups? I mean if I have let's say a Distortion in the bridge and a Jazz in the neck would it work and sound ok? Just curious.. What does Parallel wiring do for me anyway, and how much harder is it to wire? Does it require two pickups?

Thanks
Tim

Hey Tim; Parallel wiring can refer to either of two different things. The wiring of the two coils of a single humbucker, and the wiring of two different pickups.

Almost all guitars, that have more than one pickup, connect them in parallel. With a few exceptions, thats just the normal sound of the neck and bridge on at the same time. So its also normal to have mixed pups, and its a good sound.

The quot;normalquot; way to connect the two coils of a single humbucker is series. So, with a 4-wire humbucker, you can add a switch to use it in parallel mode. Vintage Rails and Duckbuckers come prewired that way.

I'll have to leave the sound of that mod to someone else, because I haven't tried it yet. (Perhaps, tomorrow.)

Thanks so much Artie? I take it that's your name? Thanks man. I really appreciate it..
Tim

The sound of parallel wire is sort of similar to the sound of spliting the coils on a humbucker. (i.e. a single coilish sound). But with less output. And less highend than a single coil, but more high end than a humbucker wired normal (series).
I personally prefer to simply split the coils, cause parallel just never sounded to great to me. But thats just a personal preference. Try it yourself. You might love it, ya never know.

If ya wanna trysumthing very quot;differentquot; try wireing the humbuckers in your guitar in series (i.e. one humbucker wired straight into the other). It'll give you an unbelieveably fat sound. Although it will also be really really high output (depending on the pickups). And probably not sound very good.
But its sumthing different. Haha

ed