Metropoulos Forum

Anybody tried wiring his bridge humbucker parallel instead of series?

The reason I ask is because Ed's pickup mostly have a lot of single coil sounding tones. Like some sort of single coil on steroids (P90's twang) while preserving that fat humbucker sound. So perhaps he actually used some sort of push-pull volume knob to switch between series / parallel wiring.

Some say a parellel wired humbucker indeed sounds somewhat more single coil like.

Here's what I found on the net:

PARALLEL WIRING
Parallel wiring connects the coils of a humbucker like two independently functioning single coils. The result is a brighter, more single-coil like tone but without losing hum-canceling. A humbucker wired in parallel has about 30% less output of the same pickup wired in series.

I have done it. Depending on the guitar and humbucker it can sound very good. I especially like Duncan P-rail in the parallel mode. I often use a series/parallel swtch instead of splut switch as I find it much more usable than the split humbucker.

I use a series/para switch as well and agree that it's more useful than the split coil mode IMO. In my HSS guitars I use a 5 way switch and find pos 2 ie br and mid to be very good, mostly I use that position with the hummer in series mode, I don't use the para mode much but it's useful to have the switch but more useful I reckon is the hummer in series plus the middle single coil. I often wonder why Ed had the single coil in the neck position yet reckons it wasn't wired up? Hmm, I wonder.

I've done it with the sd little '59s. It sounds pretty good. My 2 cents though, I don't think EVH did.

Stupid question perhaps but is it possible to wire a 1 conductor SD 59 series parallel?

Quess you really need 4 conductor wiring, right?

You'd have to unsolder all four wires to make it a 4 conductor. In other words, yes you can, but it takes some time and effort.


A Dimarzio Super Distortion in parallel is also a great sounding pickup. Listen to Paul Gilbert's early years with Racer X.

Ed was using 2 lead pickups in the early days (PAF's Super 70s) so Parallel wiring is not it IMO and neither is a P-90 because Ed would need to have a P-90 with a Tremolo and a P-90 in a Strat body is not in the early photos and highly unlikely.
In fact there is a photo of Ed with his P-90 Goldtop Les Paul from around 1974/75 or so when they had a Keyboard player and Ed has taken out the stock P-90 in the bridge and replaced it with a Humbucker.

Ed used/uses a thin pick and it gives a slapply feel and the Strat Tremolo has a bit of a twang to it no matter what pickup is used and a Strat body routing and springs give a bit of a twang and the Phase is a bit twangy as well.

Ed's early gear is just humbuckers (Mighty Mite, PAF's, Super 70s) in a Strat or the Destroyer IMO and from what Ed has said and early photos.

And the Ed pickup with one coil not working is from way past the early days and even if one coil doesn't measure properly with DC, the pickup can still function as a normal AC signal Humbucker and I have had a humbucker like this in a Fender Lead 1guitar and one coil didn't measure properly (DC) but the pickup worked normally (AC).

Coils are tightly wrapped wire and they work with induced electromagnetic AC fields and DC current going through a coil wire is a different thing.

leadguy wrote: Ed used/uses a thin pick

I've got a Van Halen pick from the backstage of a concert, year 1980. That pick is a new one and no one has ever played with it, neither Ed. It feels like medium size, but there is not written "medium" on it. It says "Van Halen" there and there is the Van Halen logo on it. This pick is from the backstage and I have no idea if it has been given by Ed or the staff. A friend of mine got it then. So, this thing doesn't have necessarily anything to do what size of picks Ed has used. I just mentioned this for curiosity.

The size of Ed's pick is interesting.

http://www.ceciliasmusic.com/product_p/022-0351-001.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Seems like they are around .60 mm or so and on the first album there is no way that Ed could play the ATBL Am to G with a chuka chuka rhythm using a hard pick IMO.

The ATBL Am to G chuka chuka rhythm is a thing that I've never heard anyone play right because it's a chuka chuka picking rhythm in between more sustaining pick strokes. The ATBL rhythm is in the official VH1 transcription book and it's there on the ATBL Ed iso track, it's really a flamenco like rhythm.

A thin pick is needed to get the slappy chuka chuka rhythm feel and it's a piece of gear that's often overlooked about Ed's style.

Keep in mind though the thickness of a pick can be a little tricky in terms of what it does. The thickness as well as the material combines to give many variances. Every tried one of those stainless steel's?

Brian May plays with a coin but he doesn't get those sweeping sounding chords that Ed and other light pick players can get as the thinner pick tends to brush the strings and as the pick passes over each string in a chord, a thinner pick gets more bent one way by the time the chord is played and then springs back to being straight after the chord is played and this does not happen much with a rigid heavy pick. Same thing goes for notes as well as chords.

Ed's thin pick is also a part of the bloom of the note that some people describe as well as the amp etc.
A thin pick hits the strings in a different more looser way than a rigid pick and plus you can really play hard with a thin pick and really dig in and slap the strings which Ed does.

I once caught a pic from Dimebag at a Pantera show. After the show I met Dimebag and thanked him for the pic. He told me that the pic I had was crap, and he only used them to throw at the audience. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a totally different pic and gave it to me. He said that was the pic he used during the show. Then we drank beer

IOW, who knows which pics he REALLY uses?

Eddie claims to have gotten cancer from the brass pick he used all these years by holding it in his mouth.

The general consensus is that Ed uses thin picks and IMO VH1 has to be a thin pick because of how Ed is getting a boingy bouncy quality to his playing and because of the pick slides as well http://forum.metroamp.com/viewtopic.php ... 4&p=276638" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Some players don't like thin picks and some do.

Check this out, this shows how different sound frequencies can be produced by the attack of the pick.

http://www.amnesta.net/edge_delay/herdim.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

"Eddie claimed that holding a metal pick in his mouth 12–14 hours per day while immersed in the electromagnetic radiation of his music studio caused his tongue cancer."

Wiki taken from an interview he gave to Hoard Stern.