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For blending the signal from two humbuckers I really like what I call "jazz wiring" with the hot lead from the pickups connected to the wiper instead of the CW terminal (called terminal #3 for a very logical reason- see below ***.) In the middle position with normal wiring if you turn one volume control all of the way down it mutes the guitar. With jazz wiring when you turn one of the volume controls to 0 it is just like selecting the other pickup. So you get infinite control over the blending of the two pickups.
One disadvantage with jazz wiring is that you can't mute the guitar- there is always some signal coming from the volume pots- so these guitars usually have a master volume control which is really cool because you can adjust the blend and then have independent control of overall volume.
With a Les Paul style guitar with two volume and two tone controls you could rewire one tone pot as a master tone control and rewire the other tone pot as a master volume control. Another solution would be to use a push-pull pot as a mute switch.
The ESP/LTD EC256 humbucker models are a good candidate for the mute switch configuration as it has 3 pots- 2 volume and 1 tone, with a push-pull switch on the tone control wired as a coil cut switch. No need to swap out any of the pots.
To use 50s wiring (with the tone controls connected to the output from the volume pot rather than the hot signal from the pickup) you would want the tone pot to be connected to the CW terminal (#3).
Steve Ahola
*** So why is the CW (hot) terminal of a pot designated as terminal #3? You can use just the CCW (cold) terminal and the wiper to create a simple volume control which mutes the signal as you turn down the control. So the CCW terminal is designated as terminal #1 and the wiper is designated as terminal #2, which leaves terminal #3 for the CW terminal. (I used to think that the terminal designations were completely arbitrary but you will find that most modern Fender schematics use these labels.)
One disadvantage with jazz wiring is that you can't mute the guitar- there is always some signal coming from the volume pots- so these guitars usually have a master volume control which is really cool because you can adjust the blend and then have independent control of overall volume.
With a Les Paul style guitar with two volume and two tone controls you could rewire one tone pot as a master tone control and rewire the other tone pot as a master volume control. Another solution would be to use a push-pull pot as a mute switch.
The ESP/LTD EC256 humbucker models are a good candidate for the mute switch configuration as it has 3 pots- 2 volume and 1 tone, with a push-pull switch on the tone control wired as a coil cut switch. No need to swap out any of the pots.
To use 50s wiring (with the tone controls connected to the output from the volume pot rather than the hot signal from the pickup) you would want the tone pot to be connected to the CW terminal (#3).
Steve Ahola
*** So why is the CW (hot) terminal of a pot designated as terminal #3? You can use just the CCW (cold) terminal and the wiper to create a simple volume control which mutes the signal as you turn down the control. So the CCW terminal is designated as terminal #1 and the wiper is designated as terminal #2, which leaves terminal #3 for the CW terminal. (I used to think that the terminal designations were completely arbitrary but you will find that most modern Fender schematics use these labels.)
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