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For some players this can actually be a benefit, particularly with treble-heavy guitars like Telecasters, the extra beef from a series circuit can add some lovely warmth to your tone. The further a signal has to travel, the more high end you’ll lose which is the same effect you'll see with extra long cable runs. This is due to the impedance created by the longer pickup wire. Unfortunately as is the issue with many overwound and humbucking pickups, you’ll inevitably lose some of the high end with a series circuit. With two single coils you’ll find it delivers a beefier tone that’s much more like a humbucker or an overwound single coil. Series circuit tone adds a boost like quality to your guitar, vastly increasing the output of the pickups for extra loudness when engaged. Many modern Fender guitars feature series switching, and Brian May’s ‘Red Special’ famously featured all three single coils wired in series. Typically you’ll find this kind of wiring on LP and SG style guitars, but there are plenty of examples on single coil guitars too. By doing this we create one large pickup, essentially combining the output of both together. In series wiring, the signal passes from one pickup’s ‘ground’ wire, straight into the second pickup’s ‘hot’ wire. This is why the dual pickup combinations on a Strat don’t sound as loud as the single pickup positions. So instead of getting two pickups operating at 100%, you’re getting two pickups operating at a combined 50%, delivering that lower output tone. This is because when wiring pickups in parallel, you’ll lose around 3/4 of the output when combined with the other. Depending on the type of pickups used, this can also result in a slightly anaemic tone, making some positions sound a little thin for certain tastes. The resultant tone is often described as ‘crispy’ and ‘quacky’ and parallel wiring results in a lower overall output, which can give great clean tones that don’t hit the front of your amp too hard. The signal will usually be passed through the guitar’s tone controls separately and you might have noticed that the tone controls on a Start work differently depending on which position the pickup selector is in. Typically you’ll find this happening in the 2 and 4 positions on a standard Strat switch, as well as in the middle position for an LP style guitar. In parallel wiring, both pickups have their ‘hot’ and ‘ground’ connections sent separately to the We should clarify before we continue however, none of these terms apply to individual pickups, for a series or parallel circuit to come into effect, you must be connecting more than one pickup! Series circuits are far rarer, but despite this they are an incredibly powerful tonal tool. You might be surprised to learn that the vast majority of guitar circuits will feature some form of parallel wiring, particularly with Stratocasters and Strat-style guitars. Moving away from your science lessons, lets look at how series and parallel circuits relate to our guitars. a parallel circuit, will continue to function even if one of the bulbs fails. Whereas a line of bulbs wired into individual loops, i.e.
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If you remember your school experiments, a line of bulbs in series will result in total failure of the circuit if one of the bulbs should fail. Series circuit features a single path of components, where each component has the same current running through it. Parallel circuit features components connected along multiple paths, with each component having the same voltage running through it. You might have done the lightbulb experiment in school, but that also might have been a long time ago! So here’s a basic definition to get us started: Series and parallel circuits aren’t just a thing of the guitar world, the theory applies to all electrical circuits. If you’ve ever been confused about the difference between series and parallel wiring then you’re in the right place! You might have come across these terms shopping for a new guitar, or looking to build your own, so today we’re going to demystify the science and expand on the sounds you can achieve with each.
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