Wire your own STEREO Guitar | Stereo Switch Mod

[@codysmith4642]

I don't often comment on videos, but this one was so clear and concise, from the clearness of the tilted pickup demo to the easy to understand signal path descriptions. Your views are criminally low, I hope your channel grows exponentially because you deserve it.

[@CV-qy5qi]

I 2nd this comment

[@jpj-bagdi]

Absolitely, the production quality is insane!

[@reactivelemur846]

This INCREDIBLE video came out 2 days ago and has 374 views? Man you deserve WAY, WAY more

[@chriswakfer4473]

Bridge and neck in stereo is amazing. I've been recording that way using an sf300 and it really fills it out in the mix. Thanks for this video, cuz now I can do it live

[@Its_Just_Max_]

I clicked mostly to hear some sound examples, but I was greeted with one of the best explanations of guitar wiring I've ever come across. Those animations are obviously very high effort, and I'm sure for many they will be THE thing that helps them understand. this is a smaller channel and I really hope you do well with quality like that.

[@honza2703]

Sounds amazing. Yes please please do the telecaster video.

[@Ginkgo_B]

Unbelievably well made, easy to understand, and intuitive video, and is easily the best explanation of any guitar wiring I've seen. Can't wait for the Telecaster video!

[@Cpt_Adama]

Wow, this was your first, doesn't get any better, great video.

[@SonicReels]

This is GREAT! I'm doing this with my Les Paul Special that is already modified for tuning stability with a locking nut and Kholer style tuners.

[@MistaMahcos]

Appreciate the amount of work it took to script, animate, and recording! Bravo sir!

[@natekelmes]

Great video!! I'm definitely going to try this with a baritone strat that I have been planning on building. Subscribed!!

[@nobnobnobnob]

This is what I've been asking the internet for years. Finally

[@nitin8595]

The production of this video is so good. Especially the wiring diagrams. Keep up the amazing work!

[@ihorgryniv7777]

How in the living hell did you know right now that I was just looking for a rickosound solution for my Harley Benton Rick copy?? What kind of sorcery is this, subscribed.

[@spastickitchen]

I've been doing seperate outputs for bridge and neck pickups for a long time. It has a ton of advantages. I also tried balanced wiring, which noticeably reduces unsavory noise, but has the problem of not really being able to plug into any amp without mod'ing the amp significantly in order to take advantage. Anyway, back to stereo/two outputs... you can use an A/B or ABY switch as a pickup selector. This is cool if you want to keep your hands in the playing position. It's also great for recording, especially lead parts, since you can record both pickups isolated, then decide which take (or how to mix both) to use later. I had never thought about tilting one pickup toward bass and the other toward treble- that is a brilliant idea. I also wanted to mention that Parker guitars were stereo equipped as well, with one output for both magnetic pickups and the other dedicated to piezo. I'm sure other piezo-equipped guitars followed suit.

[@NestofWeasels]

Wow! Very clear analysis of this obscure topic.

[@JamesDierken]

I mentioned on a previous comment that on a jazz bass, a really simple way I was able to achieve stereo was by connecting what were the ground lugs of both volume pots to the ring of the jack. Rolling back either volume with a stereo cable plugged in sends the respective pickup left or right, depending on which you choose. As a benefit, a mono cable works like the mod isn't there, and you can select which pickup is primary and secondary. The downside is you can't kill the volume completely, and you'll get some signal bleed from the other pickup. The switch method is probably better, and I'll use it on a custom bass I'm going to build in the future. Thanks for the vid, it really helped me understand the other ways you can wire stereo :)

[@JoywalkerMusic]

Thanks for the comment! I was actually considering including it in this video, but decided to push it back for a future video since I hadn't tested it on my end yet. It's definitely a simpler/easier solution for Jazz Basses. Thanks for bringing up potential downsides, I'll keep an ear out for those!

[@ИванБочев-ь6э]

Maaaaan, you are the first one to make entertaining and efficient video for understanding the signal flow of the pickups, thank you

[@alaricpaley6865]

Hell yeah, great to see this, and I'm glad you included the tilted pickups.

[@esobrev]

Amazing videos. Keep it up and you will go far.

[@charleslambiase5670]

All of my vintage Gibson basses are all wired in true stereo.. Of course with plenty of other passive options as well With Phase switching as well as being able to pull it into mono on the Fly if necessary... It just truly works phase reversal options on board are a must makes a big difference even if running in mono.. Just catching your videos now nice work❤

[@Veeger]

Great vid. I will try this out. Thanks.

[@ywtcc]

Great content! I'd been thinking about doing something like this, and the info here is perfect. For multichannel guitar mods to really take off in popularity, I think you'd need buy in from hardware makers. A dual channel multieffects that was designed to work with a neck/humbucker could include effects to take advantage of it much better. A pro level hexaphonic digital multieffects would be out of my price range, but would have all kinds of potential for making guitar sound much more detailed. Just my 2 cents on where to look for popularization of the idea. Guitar companies, for the most part, could figure out how to make the hardware already.

[@jameslifetimelearner]

I already did dual mono hum bucker split coils w/separate tone controls.I unsoldered the existing 3 way selector switch common output.Thanks for the cool suggestions!

[@ArmandoPrado]

Love your stereo vids - wish there were more!

[@andreylarin]

Super level animation and infographics!

[@randomcommenterurl]

Great diagrams & clear directions. Well done!

[@AndrewWukusick]

This was VERY professionally done, I can't wait to see what other videos you put out.

[@cdlytle]

Great video Jony. I wish there were more stereo amps out there.

[@徐劲夫]

This video is so cool, I can't believe this channel only has a few hundred subscribers

[@flatfingertuning727]

In addition to tilting pickups, it's possible to limit which strings a humbucker respond to by placing a piece of soft steel between the two pole pieces under any string which should not be picked up. It won't completely kill the signal from those strings, but will reduce it to the point that it would only be audible when no other strings were playing. On my own guitar, tune G-D-d-f-g#-b, I use the bottom two strings to play the root notes of chords while the top four strings play the rest, and I use soft steel mutes under the treble strings of the bridge humbucker. One of the great things about this "mod" is that the magnets will hold the steel bars in place firmly and reliably, but they can easily be removed if/when desired.

[@kaganozmeric9822]

I own a Rickenbacker 4001 bass. Having stereo output is useful generally for recording. In live conditions sound people frown for an extra hassle (this is not a case if you are famous touring musician or a in a resident band of a venue). For a very long time I have been considering adding a stereo output to one or two of my guitars. So, it would be possible to have two pure signals from each pickup without any phase cancellation. Thank you for all the charts and the info, very valuable content

[@JoywalkerMusic]

Thanks for sharing your insight! I agree, this mod is way better suited for recording than performing live.

[@ramziel]

First of all, I wanna thank you for this video. It got on my recommended about a month ago and I saved it and yesterday I had time to do the mod to one of my guitars and this is great. This is what I have wanted for years! I love the sound of an electric guitar but ever since I started playing I was a little bummed that it lacked that VOLUME (as in spaciousness) that acoustic instruments have. I dabbled into stereo FX and multiple amp setups, but it was not it. Somehow it never occurred to me that you can wire different pickups to different outputs. This makes so much sense, as it literally mimics a projection an acoustic guitar has. That being said, I messed up :) Somehow in stereo mode, the pickup that goes straight to the output is very muffled. Like my tone knob is stuck at 2. I know this could be because of the wire I used, but I don't think so, because it has a capacitance of 65 pF/m (and it's 4-5 inches). Also, this is an H-H 2v2t style guitar, so there are many things at play. There's another oddity that makes me think it's my bad soldering skills rather than a cable. Again, in stereo, if I select the pickup that is bypassed, I still hear some bleeding of a signal (it's very quiet and thin, trebly one might say). But this doesn't happen in mono - the right channel is dead silent, as it should be. Does the physical point of ground connections matter? Because I was attaching them wherever. Also, I have a treble bleed mod and never used push-pull pots, so I don't know how they interact with it. Also, I have to mention that this is a hollowbody - a major pita to work on, so I really would like to know where I messed up before going in on it again.

[@JoywalkerMusic]

Thanks! I’m sorry to hear you’ve had some difficulties getting it to work. I haven’t come across that issue when doing stereo mods in the past so I’m not quite sure what’s causing it, but your description of it sounding like the tone knob is stuck at 2 makes me suspicious of the treble bleed. If I had to guess some potential culprits, I would check the following. There are a few different ways to hook up pots in a 2V2T guitar and there may have been some sort of mismatch between my diagram and how to the pots and/or treble bleed are laid out in your guitar. There’s also a chance something might not be properly grounded. I’d also double-check that you’ve got the ring and tip contacts hooked up properly since the “right”/secondary output does get grounded when using it in mono, and having these hooked up in the opposite way might be interacting oddly with your treble-bleed. I hope that helps!

[@ramziel]

@@JoywalkerMusic Thanks for the reply! There's nothing to be sorry about - an 8dB boost at 3k solves the problem for now. Sounds great. I will diagnose the problem when I have some free time (not soon) and keep you updated.

[@bizmofunyuns9693]

I really enjoyed this because it was very informative. Im currently working on a bass and guitar build and this video showed me a better and more cost-effective way of reaching my goal. I would love to see a 3 humbucker or quad coil stereo wire up. Bass pickups have such a varying amount of coil arrangements beyond single coil and humbucker and could yield interesting results.

[@voa.aquino]

Just perfect! New subscriber!

[@gipsyredneck]

I had my jazz bass wired series, but stereo is something I always wanted too. I'd buy another just to be able to distort the signal for the neck pickup and keep the bridge one clean. Could it be possible to have both on the same instrument? Also, nice video. Subscribed.

[@JoywalkerMusic]

Yep, there shouldn't be any problem with that. Switching may get a little complicated since you'd first need to set your bass to "parallel" mode before the stereo switch could likely work. Assuming you're using a push-pull volume control for series/parallel switching, you'd want to use the other volume pot for the push/pull stereo switch. Alternatively, I'm working on a video about a simpler Jazz Bass stereo mod which might be easier to adapt to your bass. It'll be my next upload.

[@SkinkUA]

this looks really fucking cool

[@juanvaldez5422]

Subd , glad to find an interesting Organic channel … it’s getting harder to find stuff like this on KZbin . I’m old enough to remember when KZbin was user generated and actually fun . Keep up good work

[@AJNpa80]

As a new bedroom player, only for me, between a 40w 2 speaker acoustic and a 40w 2 speaker modeling amp, with an ABY pedal, my dream was to buy a Ric 12 when I reach a level of competency and swim in the effect. It's awesome with just an ABY but I think separate pickups and 12 strings would keep me happy just noodling and plucking random frets for hours to swim in the shimmer.

[@AJNpa80]

Have had ideas to add stereo to several of mine in different ways, add on mag pickup and jack on my acoustic piezo practice guitars, TRS mod on others to my ABY.

[@spunkybrewster1972]

Very, very well done! Sub earned, and I hope the channel takes off. Strong content.

[@ZblockWoW]

This video is impressive 👍🏻 Great job.

[@conrad5342]

About your example diagrams, I need to add the existence of stereo potentiometers. If you change the master volume poti for a stereo one and adjust the wiring, it would still work as a master value knob.

[@SiffusVera]

Love the video!

[@kathrynwhitby9799]

if you can, take a look at the wiring diagram of an original 80s Shergold Modulator. (stereo control plate)

[@jregns]

Interesting mods, and great explanations and graphics! Switching the volume pot to a stereo one would enable changing the volume of both channels simultaneously. 🤔 Greetings from Sweden! 🤘🏻

[@JoywalkerMusic]

That's true! I might try that out in a future video. Thanks for the comment!

[@vikingsofvintageaudio7470]

Man, really great!!😊

[@mikesmith1290]

My ‘05 Ibanez RG4 is begging me to do this mod!

[@dododingus3787]

Could you, in a 2 humbucker guitar, wire outer coils on one stereo output, and inner coils on the other stereo output? And if so, what would that do for funky tonal options?

[@JoywalkerMusic]

That would be really cool to try out! With the humbucker coils placed right next to each-other, I'm curious how different or "wide" they'd sound when split into stereo like that. In theory, you could use a Fender S-1 switch to send one of each of your humbucker coils to the secondary output, and it would also double as a coil-split when you plug in a mono cable.

[@dododingus3787]

@@JoywalkerMusic I suppose they would sound similar? But that might open up some options to run two different pedal chains to create a more interesting stereo effect. It might require to wire the coils to have their wire ends separated and not connected to one another?

[@JoywalkerMusic]

Yep, you’ll want to make sure you have humbuckers with 4-conductor wiring. One coil needs a wire connected to ground and a wire connected to the main (left) electronics, and the other coil needs a wire also connected to ground and the other one connected to the secondary (right) output.

[@redmodpedals9100]

super like for all the animations

[@teknoaddict9335]

Just what i wanna hear !

[@ValterS91]

Great video! I´m wondering whether it would be possible to alter the Les Paul style configuration explained in the video to work with two separate mono-outputs in stereo mode? I´d prefer to use normal TS cables...

[@JoywalkerMusic]

Thanks! Yes, if you want to do that, you can keep the original output jack the way it was (TS), and instead run the green wire to the tip of a second TS output jack. Just make sure that second output jack is also grounded, and you should be good!

[@analogMensch]

A friend of mine made himself a TRRS jack out of two jacks (cause he can't find one in 1/4"), cause he got tired of always having problems with stereo cables on his active guitar.

[@MotoMarios]

Awesome.

[@horse_dog]

great video, but i have a quick question. i have a peavey t-40 bass that i think would be great to do this mod on, and in the wiring there’s a switch that’s a phase inverter. would it be possible to change that switch to the stereo switch without changing any of the original hardware? thanks

[@JoywalkerMusic]

Thanks! I believe that the phase inverter switch is a DPDT switch, so in theory you can convert it into a stereo switch if you do a bunch of rewiring. However, you'd want to be pretty comfortable with your soldering skills since you'd need to re-solder a lot of the contacts on that small switch.

[@JoywalkerMusic]

I should also mention that my next video features a simpler stereo mod for Jazz Basses and other basses with independent volume controls, which I think yours also has. If you want something that requires less soldering, and allows you to keep your phase inverter, stay tuned!

[@horse_dog]

@@JoywalkerMusic oh i think that will work swimmingly

[@worsthandleever]

Nice video. Is there a wiring to send just the EAD string outputs to one channel, and the GBE string outputs to the other?

[@JoywalkerMusic]

For that, I’d guess you would need some sort of split pickup. Possibly either a “single coil” that’s actually a couple coils, each wound around half of the pole pieces, or maybe a humbucker with 3 pole pieces removed from the EAD strings on one coil, and 3 removed from the GBE strings on the other coil. You’d want 4-conductor wiring in either case. I’m sure pickups like these exist, but I haven’t come across any specific models that do that yet.

[@onbedoeldekut1515]

Instead of just going stereo, have two TRRS output jacks, use two cables and make a footpedal which you can use to do all of your regular guitar switching 'on the floor', whilst also having the ability to use the normal body controls. It could also have stereo outs, as it would essentially just be an extension of the guitar circuit.

[@JoywalkerMusic]

That would be a cool pedal to make. There’s definitely advantages to being able to switch pickups with a foot rather than with hands.

[@Shahaaim]

Can I try something like this with a single humbucker with coil splitting? Also can't believe you have less than 1000 subs!

[@JoywalkerMusic]

That's a good question! With the right switch, you should be able to coil split a humbucker, placing one coil on the L/mono output, and one on the right output. Not sure how "stereo" it would sound though, since both coils are right next to each other on the guitar. Might be a fun experiment to do sometime.

[@TheHirade]

My Takamine acoustic from the 80 has a pickup with this selection 000000 111222 121212 Best stereo guitar on planet

[@krattsignup]

Who makes a multi phonic pickup?

[@JoywalkerMusic]

That's a good question! I've seen Ultramagnetics demo a stereo guitar pickup at NAMM 2014, but their website is no longer up. Polyguitars currently makes the "Poly Pickup", a 6-channel hexaphonic pickup available at polyguitars.com which I'll be trying out in a future video.

[@viscid09]

This tissue box right next to KRK speaker deserve some credits here 😅

[@grimoire7851]

stereo lot of amps tv recorded only delay channel since stopped you feel it only in stage

[@ryanboembadz3521]

Hss please

[@onlyusernameleft2]

If nothing else, I would be happy if more pedals and multieffects had TRS stereo outs. I don't want to say too many mean things about guitar players because I am one myself but a small number of people insist on amp-only setups, even for recording. It's 2024, recording guitar direct is the way to go a vast majority of the time but I need 2 cables and hopefully the interface has 2 instrument level inputs. It could be so easy but nope, let the engineers deal with it. And how would it inconvenience them, worst case scenario? They might have to buy a pedal that splits the signal for TS cables😮 (or something like that idk I'm a guitar player) If there's anything I hate as a guitar player, it's buying pedals.

[@luukderuijter1332]

The only place where bass tech is way ahead of guitar

[@Grishanof]

I'd rather make a tone pot the stereo selector, and replace volume pot with two-channel pot. At least the volume knob would be working as intended, right now your bridge is wired straight to the output and the neck still has 500k pull to the ground which changes its sound a bit.

[@JoywalkerMusic]

That's true! While I kept things relatively simple in this video, you could use some sort of dual pot for the volume. In fact, since Bourns makes a dual pot with a push-pull function, you could even do it for the tone as well.

[@Grishanof]

@@JoywalkerMusic i can only dream to afford one of those, but it's good to know they even exist. Maybe in a few years when the demand knocks the price down

[@gaymanisfree]

bros got the cleanex by his pc ready to rumble

[@minimoog4236]

Not really stereo, though, is it? Proper stereo would have the bottom E coming out of the left speaker, the top E out of the right and the rest equally spaced between. Like when you stero-mic a piano. This is just individual outs for the pups. Still interesting, but not stereo, But then a 'tremolo' arm doesn't control tremolo, does it?

[@juanvaldez5422]

Where’s your mods? Yes , a trem arm controls trem . Why are you like this ?

[@minimoog4236]

@@juanvaldez5422 Tremolo is the cyclical variation of loudness. Vibrato is the cyclical variation of pitch. Now, tell me I'm wrong, go on, I dare you. I think it would be amazing to have a real stereo guitar. But this ain't it. At best you could describe it as 'dual mono' with tonal differences L-R.

[@Ottophil]

This is a dumb idea too. Stereo guitar should be 2 guitarists. Or one guy double tracked and panned

[@ElrondMcBong.]

Minimoog guy is technically right. Two-channel and stereo are two different things. But with the tilted pickups it becomes more or less stereo. With the pickups straight it‘s „just“ a dual channel guitar. The trem comment was obviously to point out that it doesn‘t really matter anyways. And he‘s right about that too. It‘s technically a vibrato.

[@labuti17]

That would be a different kind of setup but both are still stereo This one pans the pickups, what you describe would be string panning (not very practical imo)

[@elviradark6902]

He didn't even demonstrate how the guitar actually sounds, I don't need to hear that backing track with the post processing effects!

[@zonakmahanta]

This is the same as keeping two mics in front of a single amp...not stereo...for that you will need two separate sound sources...for example, any stereo amp has two preamps which creates two separate signals....

[@DEWEOS]

Only one pickup is placed on the left channel and one pickup on the right channel. This is not stereo, but mono on two channels. To get a stereo signal, there would have to be a stereo pickup and that is not possible for physical reasons. If so, then what you represent in the video is at most a fake stereo or spatial stereo.

[@rodturner6759]

Just get a stereo chorus pedal, and turn down the chorus...lol

[@Bobby_Uterus]

And in a live mix. No one will even be able to tell you have a stereo guitar.