my '84 carvin dc200K:
 

 
when i used to gig full time, this was my main axe.
 
the combination of single/double coil switches, AND phase switch on bridge,
gave me a multitude of combinations,
all of which i used.
 
 
i used to wonder why every guitar manufacturer didn't provide these kinds of options.
 
with just ONE guitar,
i could cover almost any tone and style of music.
 
 
 
i then built a custom guitar, based on the brian may style of build:

the cherry burst strat is a true hybrid, built like a chambered les paul, shaped like a strat, it has an explorer headstock, and is a 24" scale length (ala jaguar, mustang or Brian May's red special)
 
at first, i had an EMG SA assembly in it, 
and the switches were simple off/on switches for each pickup.
when they are all on, they are in series, not parallel.
 
i've thought about adding changing these into phase switches (in and out) and using the 3rd knob on the guitar as a 'switcher' ala the old paul reed smith switching, and wiring this exactly like the May red special.
 
 
 

Grem
Is that Koa on the DC200?

yes, solid koa
 
body is two piece bookmatched,
neck is one single piece.
love that guitar

Welp, now I am thoroughly confused! Push/pull came a day early, so I put it in tonight. Thinking that the phase switch would be a novelty item, I wired it so that in is in-phase. Finish up, tune it and jack it into my Carvin amp to check all the connections. Carvin is set at a generic 7-5-7 on the pots with a presence of 5.
 
In-phase, all connections check (good since I already put the back plate on), then pull out the phase knob... high treble output and LOUDER... Initial "WTF" reaction... so run back through the other switches. The phase switch is only on the neck, so is easy to simply switch the neck/bridge switches to bring them on or offline together or solo either. I got the same effect with all switch settings... treble much more pronounced (expected), but gain increase (not expected). I still need to record this to verify, but now the in-phase seems "muddy as hell" to me, and I am baffled by this.
 
Any ideas as to why this would be? (The pups are a generic DiMarzio D-Activator Bridge/Neck pair).
 
 
Edit: I figured I better test this in detail tonight or change the title to "I discovered cold fusion!" Bottom line is my amp was having a field day with the 2-3K range on those settings, so the signal was not louder. Messing around with clean guitar jacked into my Saffire and using Ozone Insight, the average difference for OOP was -3dB, but for full chords (with both humbuckers' coils in series) there is no power loss, it is simply shifted. I am not sure if I did a wiring fluke here, but the delta for that is minimal.
 
I need to test this further as a few configurations saw a 6+ dB drop, so need to get a feel for what is what, but I was expecting more of a drop.

The wiring is no issue, the only thing I installed last night was a phase switch on the neck pickup. I expected a more pronounced drop in output, but never had a phase switch before.

I guess I am more curious what a "typical" out of phase level is now. I actually sent a question to DiMarzio about this this morning as well.

BTW, thanks for the push/pull suggestion! The only two I have in any gear are on my amp.

Exactly, this is all new to me and much is gear dependent too. The part I neglected to think about when I first tested with the amp is the "bright" knob... it is like a 6dB gain to the sweet spot when out of phase.
 
I got to play with it more on the amp this morning and found some nice "bread and butter" settings that keep the volumes evenly matched. The bright knob is a bit excessive now, but this is like being a kid in a candy store. I could never get the tone right for "Bad to the Bone" and now it is a simple phase switch.

Grem
Is that Koa on the DC200?

My G&L Legacy has a push/pull on the volume that does something to the pups in the 3-5 switch settings.

And my DC400 has all the switches like Danny's. And I also gigged with the DC400 and got all the sounds I needed. After gigging with a LP for so many years I often wondered why anyone would want that many switches. But after using the DC400, well I knew then.

I'm so with you there. My DC400 does everything you could ever want from one guitar. I have 3 of them currently and play them more than any of the others that I have in my collection....and I got quite a guitar collection! The pricey Les Pauls and vintage strats just don't move me. Nice to have, cool for some things...they just don't move me like the Carvins do. Hey...whatever it takes to get the job done is what I use. :)
 
This is my latest one:
 

Danny Danzi
 
This is my latest one:
 

Really nice matching job on that one. Looks great!!

Just consider yourself a "Lucky Genius" and have created a new form of "Tone"!
 
They will be writing about you in years to come when old timers get together and speak of that elusive, and hard to mimic "Mettelus Tone!"
 
: )

Just a quick comment to close the loop on this thread. The guy who PLEK'd my guitar dropped a nice piece of advice to anyone interested in these wiring schemes (and are okay to drill more holes), which was "If you ever modify another guitar, you may want to consider a push/push for the phase switch, since you can activate that with the heel of your hand and not have to deal with pulling out a knob."

I can see that happening. I am not overly keen on the appearance of them (on a guitar anyway). I also didn't wanted to drill the crap out of the guitar (some of the images on this page made my skin crawl).
 
The push/pull is a bit slower, but because the phase is only "online" when both pickups are online I figured out the most versatility for my setup with the least number of switch changes. Having 7 switches gives 72 possible combinations, but is impossible to really use them all. These pickup are incredibly sensitive, so any cut coil usage got nixed long ago (so dropped it to 20).
 
For my setup, I leave the neck humbucker wired parallel, and the bridge wired series. Leaving the phase switch out-of-phase gives the most tonal dynamics. Then I just use the humbucker selectors to shift around (bridge, neck, bridge/neck-series, bridge/neck-parallel). When is only the bridge or neck, the phase switch is N/A, and the parallel wired neck is a bit more mellow. The parallel neck also takes the "sting" out of the out-of-phase in the  bridge/neck-series (but good for leads), and inserts a slight timbre shift with bridge/neck-parallel. This knocks the switch configuration down to only 4 positions without gain changes (although I do push/pull that pot since I am still getting used to it).