Mississippi queens

[syr2012]

Hello all,
So, a few months back, I bought an overwound mississippi queen for my strat. For lack of better words, it's perfect. The heavy crunch is great, the light crunch is like glass, and sustain and palm muting is like no other. However, with curiosity getting the better of me, I'm contemplating ordering another one and moving the bridge queen to the neck. I also want to try series wiring. My current queen is braided two, would I be able to try series with that or would I need a four-connector?

[Keven]

I don't think you can even get 4 connectors on a single coil except for shields or real coil taps.

basically just make sure it's RW/RP from your current MQ. as far as wiring goes it evades me exactly how, but if i remember right it's either Ground---(MQ1)---Hot-)(Ground----(MQ2)----Hot)(output to amp.

or hot to hot, but i think hot to hot will reverse phase. either way, just get RW/RP and the rest is just a matter or wiring it the correct way.

[AndyR]

Series wiring on tele pickups involves having an extra wire on the neck pickup, connected to the pickup cover (and the pickup cover must disconnected from the pickup's main ground wire) this enables you to send the pickup cover to earth separately and avoid grounding issues when in series...

I'm no big expert here - but would the same be required for pickups in humbucker-type housings? (and I'd have no idea how to do it :D - I can butcher a tele neck pickup successfully, but I order them from BKP with it done already - but how do you do it to a humbucker casing?). I suggest asking Tim/BKP over this bit.

On the RW/RP, the only benefit that would give you is hum-cancelling when both pickups are active. It does actually alter the tone slightly as well, I understand. It's a matter of personal choice whether you want it or not.

My strat pups have RW/RP on the middle, and I don't actually like it! Yeah, there's no hum on positions 2 and 4, but there's standard single coil hum on the others - I'd rather it was consistent myself. And, actually, I've found the MQ single coil hum to be negligable (and my neck MQ isn't RW/RP - nor are any of those in my tele sets where I am running a series option).

[Philly Q]

I'm no big expert here - but would the same be required for pickups in humbucker-type housings? (and I'd have no idea how to do it :D - I can butcher a tele neck pickup successfully, but I order them from BKP with it done already - but how do you do it to a humbucker casing?). I suggest asking Tim/BKP over this bit.

Yeah, you'd need a cable with two conductors plus a shield - the shield soldered to the baseplate (to ground the baseplate, polepieces and cover), the two conductors connected to each end of the coil so they can be used interchangeably like on a Strat pickup.

[Keven]

welp. forgot that you can have a covered MQ. yeah, by ground i meant start of coil. the cover's ground cable must not be in the signal path or else you'll have some nasty buzzing-ground problems.

though i assume if someone wants series they want hum canceling. i guess it's all up to taste!

[AndyR]

though i assume if someone wants series they want hum canceling. i guess it's all up to taste!

After I posted earlier, I realised it might even be an age thing, Keven. I spent years playing gigs with a strat at venues with dodgy mains/lights/etc... after a while the hum becomes an integral part of your tone :lol:... Now I feel slightly strange when I play a quiet strat (eg I've got some Line6 Variax guitars, and the strat models never seem quite right - they're totally silent).

If I was starting out again, I'd probably do anything I could to get rid of as much hum as I could... (In fact, I seem to remember I did, actually, but gave up... :lol:)

[dheim]

just a side consideration...
if you find your bridge MQ perfect, keep it where it is!
and, of course, buy a neck MQ - that's a completely different pickup with an alnico IV magnet.

[syr2012]

just a side consideration...
if you find your bridge MQ perfect, keep it where it is!
and, of course, buy a neck MQ - that's a completely different pickup with an alnico IV magnet.

That's actually a pretty good idea... me being power-hungry, it didn't really cross my mind. But the small dilemma of series wiring remains, I'm not sure of how I would do it with a braided two, and I WANT series wiring...

[Will]

Sambo was speaking of this a while back, it is possible.
Have it as the middle position of the switch with a push pull to decided between parallel and series?

[syr2012]

Sambo was speaking of this a while back, it is possible.
Have it as the middle position of the switch with a push pull to decided between parallel and series?

Well, I'll be sacrificing a tone knob ('cause I really don't use it much, if ever) so I can install a switch. I just need to know how to make it happen.

[syr2012]

Well, I just emailed Tim and he told me that series wiring is doable, but since I have a braid and not two conductor with screen wire, it's not doable. Since there's no way in hell I'm going to part ways with my queen, even for a little bit, I'm thinking about resorting to plan b: get a pig-90 with a coil tap and move my current queen to the neck. I know a tapped pig-90 is possible, I've heard about it. So, what's the opinion?

[dheim]

i wouldn't care too much about series wiring and buy another MQ in neck... it's an amazing set.

[syr2012]

i wouldn't care too much about series wiring and buy another MQ in neck... it's an amazing set.

I'm very power-hungry, plus I sorta never use my neck pups (I wired my current favorite so now I have a bit of a kill switch thing going on) so I think I'm going through with plan B. Tim said that a queen as hot as my bridge one at the neck might be too bassy, but to see if I like it. I'm gonna get the pig tapped at 8.6k, 'cause I do love the sound of the '92s. If the neck is a fail, then I'm sure it would be at home in my first guitar. No worries, dheim, I'll have a genuine queen set one day...

Also, do removing the tone pots really introduce a new dimension of openness and brightness? 'cause I'm thinking about trying that.

[Philly Q]

Well, I just emailed Tim and he told me that series wiring is doable, but since I have a braid and not two conductor with screen wire, it's not doable. Since there's no way in hell I'm going to part ways with my queen, even for a little bit, I'm thinking about resorting to plan b: get a pig-90 with a coil tap and move my current queen to the neck. I know a tapped pig-90 is possible, I've heard about it. So, what's the opinion?

Is there going to be a middle pickup?  If not, you could get a 4-way switch and use the 4-way Tele wiring:

1. Bridge
2. Bridge & neck in parallel
3. Neck
4. Bridge & neck in series

(I know I've totally ignored what you said about getting a tapped pickup.  And you would have to get your MQ rewired.  )

[syr2012]

Well, I just emailed Tim and he told me that series wiring is doable, but since I have a braid and not two conductor with screen wire, it's not doable. Since there's no way in hell I'm going to part ways with my queen, even for a little bit, I'm thinking about resorting to plan b: get a pig-90 with a coil tap and move my current queen to the neck. I know a tapped pig-90 is possible, I've heard about it. So, what's the opinion?

Is there going to be a middle pickup?  If not, you could get a 4-way switch and use the 4-way Tele wiring:

1. Bridge
2. Bridge & neck in parallel
3. Neck
4. Bridge & neck in series

(I know I've totally ignored what you said about getting a tapped pickup.  And you would have to get your MQ rewired.  )

Nope, no middle pickups. Two queens are plenty. Unfortunately, parting with my MQ, even for a day is simply out of the question. So I'll be saving this lovely plot for the guitar after my next one. I was actually thinking of installing a switch, though that idea sounds better.