10 Easy & Cheap Guitar Wiring Mods - Including Coil Split, Bass Cut, Series / Parallel & More!

This is a list of 10 of my favourite wiring modifications for guitars to get the most versatility for the least amount of cash! In the video I give descriptions of each mod and also demonstrate the tonal effects. I also go into the tools required. The mods include everything from basic Coil Splitting to adding a Bass Cut, a Killswitch, Series / Parallel wiring and loads more.
0:00 - Getting Started
2:18 - What You'll Need
3:36 - #1
5:19 - #2
6:59 - #3
8:48 - #3.5
9:52 - #4
11:49 - #5
13:55 - #6
14:38 - #7
15:32 - #8
16:42 - #9
18:11 - #10
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#GuitarMods #Modifications #DIY

[@DanLeggatt]

Any mods that you love that aren’t on this list? Please share them below! Also, during the section about pots, I say 1k when I meant to say 1meg! My bad.

[@AndrewLewisHowe]

Stereo's the only thing you didn't cover. Real nice for studio work - instant doubling. Much more of a pain to gig with, traveling with two complete signal chains (although modern stereo pedals at least allow you to share one pedal board).

[@grantstewart5453]

For me it's the no load tone pot mod. I have been thinking about a treble bleed mod, but since no loading my tone pot, it seems I may not need it. But, of course, I will try it anyway.

[@johnmac8084]

Nice thing about Strats is you can drill the pickguard for switches, but easily put it back to stock with a new pickguard

[@philipwacker4629]

Never thought about it like that. Am a LP guy and also usually didn't like the pick guard aesthetics - but your point really made me rethink my stance on it!

[@Gorefarded]

or just buy a loaded pickguard online and replace it for a whole new sound!

[@rafaelbaffini]

Blending knob is one of my favourites for a strat guitar.

[@mvyper]

Master switch to have both pickups in parallel or series with each other is a fun one too!

[@SergeiVlassov]

I want a guitar with all 10 mods in it simultaneously!

[@crushingthewussies7465]

Killer Dan! Just got done working on my LTD Viper-50 using a Seymour Duncan Liberator with Seymour Duncan Black Winter pickups and an added killswitch.I have a push pull knob and trying to find the right tone to go for and pulled a lot of great ideas here. Thanks again and keep it up. Subscribed.

[@traceyzebra3528]

Fantastic. It's great reading about these mods and looking at diagrams but I really do appreciate being able to hear the difference. Thank you, this has been really helpful.

[@Ray-um3if]

Hi Dan, thank you for putting this video together. Lots of great little mods demoed as always with your easy to follow charm.

[@DanLeggatt]

No worries! It took a little longer to put together than expected. Unlike a lot of my vids, this one took a fair bit of forward planning to get the info across correctly (for the most part) & not run out of battery half way through! Thanks for watching as always and hope you are keeping well.

[@geoffwhitemusic]

A man who understands what coil tapping is! Have yourself a like, good sir. Also, dude! That’s the exact way I do treble bleed circuits! I’ve tried a bunch too, and that’s the way I do it.

[@ry7hym]

I wanna get started on modding / building guitars and I definitely wanna try these out. lovely playing throughout the video

[@lone-wolf-1]

Perfect explanation! Thanks a lot!👍🏼

[@wooggeek]

Awesome video putting together a HSH strat. This video makes me want to install all the mods (lol) ensuring I have a kill switch and a blower switch to override the fact that I did all those mods. Your video gives just enough information to have a full understanding of what the mod is and some about the basic wiring of it as well as examples of most. Terms and labels get thrown around a lot and get muddy in the mix 🙏.

[@geezerbliz]

Great video! The 5B5-01 10 position Free-Way Blade switch is a very elegant way to get (all?) 10 possible pickup section/wiring options on a strat. And it is virtually unnoticeable from a stock guitar.

[@olenfersoi8887]

Good explanations of options. Thnaks! You might want to mention the 10-position Freeway switch that adds those serial-parallel choices for Strat single coil pickups, as well as the ability to choose all three pickups "on" at once, as well as bridge & neck choice. This started out at close to USD$60, but I see that some places are offering it for USD$38...plus, there is at least one alternative brand available thru Temu, which costs less than half as much though...caution...it appears that the required mounting depth of about 34mm is greater than the Freeway switch requires. Another mod you may mention, as an alternative to changing pots, (ie: 250kΩ to 500kΩ), is to simply wire a resistor is a series with the tone controls, plus switching some wiring so that one tone control is for the bridge pickup & the other is for the middle & neck pickups. With that mod, you can leave the bridge tone control at 250 for the bridge, but increase the brightness for the other two pickups. You mention the Gilmour Mod, but there is another expansion of that...---the 9 way Strat mod...adds the additional options of parallel combiniations of some or all pickutps as well as the standard series combos & the added Gilmour series combo added option. Finally, you might mention that treble bleed circuits can be installed on individual tone controls, rather than the master volume, so you can modify only some pickup's tone is so desired. There are also variable treble bleeds circuits...and while some are "adjust & forget" (before closing the control space)others add a pot so that the treble bleed characteristics can be changed at will...less than USD$20.

[@MultiGuitarDave]

Perfect info. Thx. I want all the wiring mods together in one guitar LOL

[@DanLeggatt]

😂 The thought has crossed my mind too!

[@trunks828]

Thanks for the tips been working on my baritone jazzmaster with humbuckers for a long while. I did the parallel wiring with a 1 meg pot and it definitely gave me more clarity out of the guitar following a lot of brightness from the pot. The single coil sound that comes from this is awesome I prefer it to the stock series. Definitely an awesome mod for a low tune (b-b) answer.

[@Jenisonc]

This was great. Thanks for the knowledge. That Wylde sig is the surprisingly the best clean LP I've ever heard. 🤙Love it.

[@DanLeggatt]

Cheers! It used to be my work horse guitar. Took some messing to get it where I wanted it but I’ve done everything from rock gigs to funk gigs with it.

[@yaroslavyermakov1636]

Good content! Keep on!

[@DanLeggatt]

Thank you!

[@luigidambra2523]

Perfect video, thank you very much and happy soldering 😊💙😊

[@simonwest8338]

Excellent run down of these awesome mods Dan. It's really cool what you can achieve, and all with passive circuitry as well. Have you ever messed with active stuff like on board preamps, boosts or effects? A whole other ball game of course but definitely an interesting topic.

[@DanLeggatt]

Cheers mate! I once had a delay pedal in a guitar for a short time. One of those GFS ModBoards. Good fun but not all that useful. I've never done much else with a battery. I'm really bad at checking / changing batteries so I think it would end badly! haha.

[@mattjazz3]

Dude! I stumbled across your channel. Incredible stuff

[@DanLeggatt]

Cheers man! Welcome 👍

[@Αδιάφθορος]

Brilliant video.. Thank you so much mate

[@sugameltpastriescoffee7186]

The coil blending pot is a versatile mod but I wonder in what situations would you be going in between, best video on pickup wiring mods!

[@brettmclnnes2546]

Another great video. Most of these I played with. A very notable missing mod is the Bill Lawrence telecaster 5 way switch mod. Does kind of the opposite to strat mod. Gives telecaster some strat tone. Got treble bleeds series 150k 1nf (best to me) and PRS Style coil splits on all my passive guitars

[@DanLeggatt]

I'll definitely be looking into that man, thanks for the tip! Do you run your cap and resistor in series or parallel on the bleeds?

[@brettmclnnes2546]

@@DanLeggatt series

[@sugameltpastriescoffee7186]

Love the blower switch! Installed that on all my guitars, really feels like you are pushing the amp a little more

[@renevanderbruggen731]

Dan thanks a lot for sharing your mods 👍👍

[@DanLeggatt]

No problem at all. Thanks for checking out the video.

[@ArcMediaFilms]

Great video thanks very helpful.👍

[@Markleford]

I keep coming back to this video for mod inspiration. 👍

[@DanLeggatt]

Glad it’s helped out!

[@jimiwills]

I use jst connectors on my pickups, toggle and jack so i can easily remove and reconfigure my ppp connections. I've connected a pot across a 4wire humbucker for variable coil split of either coil ... Quite nice. The coil positions on a LP all sound different. Parallel is a lovely sound, especially clean. On my strat i have a freeway to get my series combos. I dont have a treble bleed but i think cos my weird wiring doesn't shunt much over the tone cap when i tweak the volume. ❤❤

[@stephenchow5161]

awesome, thanks

[@sashabagdasarow497]

Single coils wired in series sound so good!

[@johnmac8084]

Useful video, thanks

[@mcgrath16511]

I have an Ibanez law suit les Paul , 1975 vintage, that of course I have changed controls and pickups..I ended up with 500k vol and 250k tone control.( don’t recall the value of the caps) .. treble bleed cap/resistor in parallel.. and a phase switch.. for my personal taste this works for me. Great video.!

[@Johngaltsghost]

Thanks for sharing!

[@mattchurchill]

Great vid, I learned a lot👍

[@DanLeggatt]

Glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for watching!

[@Mcqlfc]

Good vid dude. I hate stock guitars and mod everyone that I have. The Les Paul in my profile pic (I've since sold it) had the Peter Green mod but I flipped the magnet in the neck pick up whereas some of my other guitars have the wiring method. Such a good mod to have.

[@nicolassanchez3099]

I'm dying to try this! 💖

[@JoeGreenRocks]

Some great ideas here dude. I think the alligator clips so you can test mods is a great idea, I don't know why I hadn't thought of that before, might have saved be reversing some work I'd tried that didn't work out the way I wanted.

[@DanLeggatt]

Get yourself on Amazon mate! I’m pretty sure I got a pack of 10 for £6 or £7. Total game changer for testing values. I’ve even used them for quickly changing pickups before I settle on one👌

[@JoeGreenRocks]

@@DanLeggatt Oh you know me better than that! I've got loads, I just never thought to use them for that haha

[@thecoverstory1]

Fkin awesome vid mate

[@DanLeggatt]

Cheers 👍

[@u.s.a.198]

thank you!

[@agateenchantmentrockwizard5969]

Some great ideas 💡

[@saunds59]

Very nicely explained 👍

[@DanLeggatt]

Cheers!

[@pathackett3958]

One of the challenges is working out the Pickup wiring such that things are not unintentionally out of phase, SD Hotrails combined with stock Fender Custom Shop pickups have this issue so you have to swap the black & green over on the SD pickup.

[@DanLeggatt]

Very true. I've certainly fallen foul of that a few times. Not such a problem with a LP with a backplate. More of a ball ache with a Strat after you've put the guard back on!

[@ry7hym]

very strong introduction of the video

[@AndrewLewisHowe]

#5 is the one I use the most. Totally allows me to control the low-end in band situations. I've wired mine so it only effects the neck pup, and if you have a tele-style 3-way you can make it so it only works in the neck position (middle and bridge position have the normal amount of bass). The guitar I'm building now has phase, series, kill switch and bass cut. I could add a stereo option, too, but didn't bother. It's going to be my gigging guitar.

[@DanLeggatt]

Stereo as in each pickup to a different output or something else? Sounds interesting!

[@AndrewLewisHowe]

@@DanLeggatt Yup. I did it to my bass, inspired by stereo ricks, and it's way cool. I've organized my pedals as SC/bridge vs HB/neck, so I can have the neck pup running a completely different signal chain than the bridge pup, from pickups all the way to different amps. Record the two amps at the same time, and you have instant double-track wall of sound. Obviously with 3-pup guitars you have to decide which pup to throw down the different signal chain. And of course it require you to use a stereo (3 wire) cable, usually used for XLR purposes.

[@terrymiller111]

Thank you.

[@andrewbecker3700]

Decent video, covers most common wiring mods. There's multiple ways to achieve most of these. With different control layouts on various guitars, the possibilities are almost endless. The HSS platform with 1 vol. 1 pp tone. 5way megaswitch and 1 on/on microswitch for phase is my current build. I'm wiring for ( neck,neck+middle,neck+bridge,middle and bridge,bridge). So with coilsplit and phase I'll have 9 different tones. Can't find one single schematic for this wiring online? Anyone?

[@JordanSeal]

Fantastic video. Did you end up trying a pot in your bass cut mini-circuit? I need to do some clean-up inside my main guitar, and I'm probably going to rewire the tone control to cut bass instead of highs.

[@eckyevans5437]

Just thought I'd mention how I do two of the mods you mentioned Dan For bass cuts on guitars with one master tone knob I use a concentric pot, usually have the bass cut on the bottom knob and treble cut on the top knob, means you're getting both without having to put an extra pot/knob in/on the guitar With partial splits I usually use an on-off-on DPDT mini-toggle and give it two 'stages' of partial split, one being similar to the PRS style partial split you mentioned, retaining just a little of the signal from the coil being split, the other being what I refer to as a half split, using a higher value resistor so you get somewhere in between the single coil sound and the full humbucker sound Kinda like putting the humbucker into more like P90 territory, or perhaps giving a modern higher gain humbucker an output more like a PAF, you end up with a switch that gives the pickup(s) like three voices, half-split/full humbucker/single coil split I find a resistor around 20% of the pickup's total output generally works out well for the half-split, go much higher and depending on the pickup's output the sound gets closer to the full humbucker sound, I aim to get it sitting where it actually sounds halfway between full humbucker and single soil sounds

[@DanLeggatt]

Very cool. Thanks for sharing 👍

[@TheAtheistworld]

Cool vid. So any pickups with 4wires can be made toggled into series/parallel ? Right? Thnxx brother ❤

[@garosser]

Fabulous mods. Can you please leave a link for the bass cut wiring i can't seem to find it... Thanks !

[@mauricedibert2635]

Applause on the amount of experimentation.

[@johnbhumphrey]

The bass bleed is something I have to try. Carl and Leo, are you checking this out?

[@charles-ul9uo]

good stuff lad.

[@DanLeggatt]

Cheers 👍

[@huginstarkstrom]

I have a switch that allows me to switch between 2 different capacitors on the tone knob. When it's full on, there's no difference. But when I roll the tone control back, then the treble cut is at different frequencies, depending on the switch position. Easy to do and makes the guitar a bit more flexible. I like .22 caps for strumming - That said I use 500k potis on H-S-S guitar with noiseless pickups, so it'S nice to be able to control treble a bit more.

[@DanLeggatt]

Interesting! I have to say I'm guilty of not using the tone knob all that much but I think that would make it a lot more flexible. Cheers!

[@kyledore1534]

Thanks for this very informative overview. Currently trying to put together and HSH with a piezo bridge as well. Hoping to incorporate coil splits, treble bleed, a bright/mud switch, kill switch, and the phaser mod. Also planning on using the freeway 5 way 10 position switch. Is this all possible in one guitar? I am very new to this.

[@DanLeggatt]

Definitely possible but sounds like a hell of a wiring job! You also may need to create a bigger cavity in the guitar to fit it all in, especially if the piezo has a preamp and battery.

[@kyledore1534]

@@DanLeggatt thanks for the feedback. Afraid it would be a crazy plate of spaghetti inside the body. I have a builder lined up to make the body and can leave some extra space in the cavity. Thanking I will have to buy special wiring harness instead of a standard one. Do you have any recommendations?

[@razisharbini7569]

Just subbed brother, love the info in this video.. and thank you for not seeming like an ego frog 🐸

[@DanLeggatt]

Thanks for the sub 🤘

[@razisharbini7569]

@@DanLeggatt no worries Dan, keep up the great work! If you have a minute, id love to pick your brain. When trying to get the best single coil split sound from humbuckers, would you say that cap wiring/mods achieve this more than the pickups themselves? Does choosing which 4con humbucker to use actually matter? Or does the pick up construction still play a big part in getting the best coil split from humbuckers. I guess essentially, is spending $200++ on a set of humbuckers just for its “coil split” a waste of money? Haha i got no slots for an actual single coil. Sorry for the long message, adding some context. Cheers!

[@DanLeggatt]

@@razisharbini7569 Sorry I overlooked your comment for so long mate. The pickup and its output make a big difference in how it splits to get a single coil sound. However it’s not an exact science. I really like a low output humbucker with a partial split. It doesn’t get super thin, more like a fat single coil or a little p90 in voicing. The parallel wiring will give a good single coil tone but totally hum cancelling.

[@DanLeggatt]

@@razisharbini7569 Also, humbucker sized p90 might be worth looking into if you aren’t too fussed about full humbucker.

[@razisharbini7569]

@@DanLeggatt Hey Dan! No worries mate, and i do appreciate the response and advice brother! Its much appreciated and keep rockinnn 🤘

[@musicvida2171]

Saludos desde méxico, grandes aportaciones

[@DanLeggatt]

Gracias por ver. Saludos desde Inglaterra.

[@sunnyray7819]

Makes me want to put as many of these mods as possible in a guitar or two...

[@nicolasaraistrujak208]

where is the link from guitarworld that you promised on bass cut mod?

[@nbase2652]

Great overview, thank you :) I was planning to mod my Ultra Swede ('50s wiring, PRS-style partial coil split and bass cut) so I did some google research. You said you used 3.3nF for the bass cut - are you sure it wasn't a 33nF cap? I got a stacked 500K/250K pot and thought I could use it as treble and bass cut. Do you think 250K would be enough for a low cut?

[@DanLeggatt]

Interesting thought! I’m not 100% sure but worth a shot for sure!

[@chaosclg]

Nice easy one for metal guitarists with active pickups is adding another battery saddle and running 2 batteries, more headroom and beef

[@Rikamortis6stringer]

Out of phase!! YES SIR!!! How about adding a BOOST SWITCH. That wood be SWEEEEEETTTT!

[@mauricedibert2635]

Going to check out your other vids. Looking to put a filtertron in the neck of my tele, thinking of putting a varitone switch (can't decide on cap values) mod the filertron some how, don't know yet and change the nut to brass. Going for a vintage 1965/1969 sound. Wondering if it will sound great or trash. Might put a b-bender in the future

[@DanLeggatt]

Sounds like a cool setup!

[@mauricedibert2635]

@@DanLeggatt instead of a varitone might be a tonestyler switch. I keep going back and forth. Ha

[@goliathfx]

I have the same multimeter my dude! Haha 😄

[@DanLeggatt]

You've got good taste! haha

[@VanjaSpirin]

Wiring diagram for bass cut?

[@lehrgangswerk]

Long time I hated the out of phase sound. Now I love for high gain rythm... Try it - it cuts through the rythm group and let the solo guitar fly...

[@danielcastrodelamata8873]

I'm attempting to convince my dad to get a sterling valentine (here's hoping haha) and modding it to include the coil split on the neck humbucker that's on the music man one. Do you think I'll run into any difficulties?

[@DanLeggatt]

You will likely need to change the pickup entirely. As far as I know the stock pickup isn't 4 conductor.

[@joeymarchitti7687]

So I'm curious is it possible to add an analog delay into the guitar instead of into the guitar pedal chain?

[@DanLeggatt]

Absolutely, as long as you can fit it in. I used to have a MoDboard delay in one of my guitars. You can purchase from guitar fetish.

[@azanuddincheahmad7464]

hi good content... very interested on no#2 partial coil split..... any wiring schematic details... already subscribed.. tqvm

[@DanLeggatt]

You simply wire up a standard coil split but place a resistor between the ground and the switch. This will limit how much of the coil gets bled to ground 👍

[@castiel136loxx]

I looked into the kill switch mod a while ago and my under standing is if it's push to make, you wire it to hot and ground of output jack, but if it's push to break, you just wire it in series to your hot output jack and whatever's supposed to be connected to the hot. Am I incorrect to assume this?

[@DanLeggatt]

That is correct but I would always go for push to make over the ground of the output Jack. It grounds the guitar fully and gives no buzzing when cutting signal.

[@castiel136loxx]

@@DanLeggatt that's actually new and useful info for me. Thank you!

[@kawvika1984ify]

Hi I have a predicament. I have 2 humbucker pickups the neck has 5 wires, and the bridge has 3 wires?? I want to wire them up to a 1 tone, 1 volume pot with a 3 way toggle switch. Any advice please. I don't have a luthian in my county so I'm stuck.

[@DanLeggatt]

I would try and find the wiring colours for each of pickup online if you can. Which brands are they? Then it’s just a case of wiring the ‘hot’ from each pickup to the switch through to the volume and tone, then to the output Jack.

[@kawvika1984ify]

@@DanLeggatt they are ibanez v7 and v8 pickups, the shr version covered pickups

[@DanLeggatt]

I have no idea what the Ibanez colour code is to be honest. I’m sure you could find it with a bit of digging online.

[@kawvika1984ify]

@@DanLeggatt I managed to find out more. They were from either an ibanez mtm1 or mtm2 {mick Thompson} guitar. And found the wiring diagram to do the job. I'll send a link of my guitar build once I've got all the parts as im on youtube aswell.

[@daniloberserk]

About 7. I guess an "no load" pot is better isn't? It bypass the pot when it's full open, it's VERY easy to make your own "no load pot", or you can just buy one.

[@DanLeggatt]

How do you go about making one?

[@daniloberserk]

@@DanLeggatt kzbin.info/www/bejne/nHOvoWhpnrN2nJY

[@1dimtim]

Matt Lucas, with hair!

[@planetsloan]

no beef

[@colinburgess7728]

demo without distortion - pleeeeease

[@joejams136]

Won a sub from me

[@DanLeggatt]

Cheers!

[@wealldieatthehandsoflovedones]

I sat thru this and he talked the whole damn time

[@DougHinVA]

we could have heard and not needed his awkward explanation of coil split if he could stop showing off and just illustrate the point... the video is for viewers... not for him.

[@DanLeggatt]

🤣 It’s my video, I can do what I want 🤷‍♂️ Don’t like it, make your own.

[@crystalbarker5902]

Thank you