Metropoulos Forum

Ok I just put a pair of hubers in one of my guitars and set it up with 2 volumes and 1 tone with a three way switch. Using this wiring diagram from Duncan.
Anyway with the switch in the middle position one volume affects the other and can completely turn off both pups if turned all the way down. Thinking back I have owned a lot of guitars but none with this exact control setup,, so dose this sound correct???
http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/wi ... h_2v_1t_3w

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That is correct because both pickups are on at the same time in the middle position and therefore both volume controls are on. If you turn one control to zero with the switch in the middle position, then the volume will be OFF.

TONGA wrote:Ok I just put a pair of hubers in one of my guitars and set it up with 2 volumes and 1 tone with a three way switch.
Anyway with the switch in the middle position one volume affects the other and can completely turn off both pups if turned all the way down. Thinking back I have owned a lot of guitars but none with this exact control setup,, so dose this sound correct??

It IS gonna do that, but the tone will be different depending on which volume you turn down. Thats cause when the 3 way is set in the middle, the entire signal is being sent to ground thru the particular pickup being rolled off, BUT whatever sound you're hearing before the selected pot is completely rolled off is the sound coming from the pickup NOT being rolled off (with a slight amount also coming from the pickup that is being rolled off, until it completely shuts down).

So you can achieve some pretty cool tones that way, and if you use a .001 cap on each volume pot between the center lug (common lug), and the left-hand lug (the hot lug that the pup connects to) then it will retain the brightness usually lost during volume roll-down... it'll do that in all three switch positions. You wont get high loss when you roll 'er back no matter where the selector is set, assuming you put the .001 on both volumes.
Some guys like that "bright cap" mod, and some guys dont. I dont, but its all personal taste.
Works great when the volume is rolled back on a Tele, especially for clean fingerpicking.

fillmore nyc wrote:Some guys like that "bright cap" mod, and some guys dont. I dont, but its all personal taste.
Works great when the volume is rolled back on a Tele, especially for clean fingerpicking.

This also depends entirely on the amp. For instance on a bright 2203 or 2204 complete with the bright cap on the pre-amp gain pot of the amp, or a lead circuit with a 5,600pF bright cap, rolling a guitar volume pot back with a bright cap installed (on the guitar volume pot) sounds waaaay brittle and thin. Nasty.!

Thanks for all the replies I think I understand now.. I must say I am really starting to like the variety of tone I can get out of this guitar, getting some great vintage stuff out of her. The pups are duncans but not stock I took a 59 and a custom and made a set of hybrids and they have a little hum from the mismatched coils but they sound fantastic!

The ideal pickup is not the most powerful pickup.

The pups are not overly hot, middle of the road with a nice vintage vibe just a bit of hum from the mismatched coils.

Was just cleaning out the old photo bucket and I came across the pictures that go with this story lol. When I did this I had trouble finding black pickup rings to fit the Ibanez so the first couple picks are the pickup rings I made for her out of black delrin plastic.

thes are the rough cut blanks.

here they are dusted off and milled to the right thickness.

and here they are freshly machined right off the bridgport.

a couple shots of her right before surgery

here she is gutted

and here she is with the new hybrid duncans and wiring


I didn't take any pictures of the coil swap on the pickups, sorry didn't think to take any.

How did you mill those?

yeah...? +1.... what he said.

I milled them on a bridegport manual mill very much like this one. I think I used a 3/8” end mill to cut the inside because the radius was right for the inside corners, I don’t remember what size I drilled the holes, and use a 45 counter sink on the 4 mounting holes. They are dimensionally exactly the same as the cream pickup rings I removed but much stronger. It was a little time consuming but totally worth it! And they are black to match pickups! ,,,
On a side note I love the sound I get out of the hybrid pickups, it was a bit of a pain but again totally worth it!

That's a cool looking machine.