Nashville Style Pickup Switching?

[loudguitars]

I am changing out the PUs in my American Series and when removing the pickguard I realized it is routed for a middle "Nashville" style pickup configuration. This is great because I can have my favorite Tele sounds and a Middle Strat pickup to add another sound.

I purchased a Nashville style pick guard, a 2 Seymour Duncan Vintage stacks (Neck and Bridge) and a Dimarzio 58 style Strat Stack PU. I really need the noise reduction of a stack pickup for my club gig.

Now I need a switch> Suggestions? Is a 5 way standard Strat style setup possible? Where should I get the switch? Anyone got a diagram?? Is there a switch with a Tele style barrel knob instead of a Strat Style.

Should I get it from StewMac? Thanks!!

[loudguitars]

Sorry, guys just bought a Fender Superswitch.

[blacklinefish]

3 pickups is nice, it's about all I need. With that super switch, you can get that neck+bridge in the middle position (where it belongs). Here's mine.

I had trouble getting that super switch in my cavity. Luckily, I found a way to wire it up using only half of that switch. I cut the rest out.

If you want a mini-toggle to put the bridge and neck in series, then you can use this wiring diagram: here

[editorjuno]

Originally Posted by loudguitars

Sorry, guys just bought a Fender Superswitch.

You might be sorrier than you think -- if it's the same Fender-packaged switch I've seen, it won't fit in a Tele control cavity. The Schaller "E" Megaswitch from Stew-Mac or the Yamaha switch used in the Fender JD Tele will fit -- or you could go the Brent Mason route, sticking with the Tele switch and adding a third pot as a middle pickup blend control. I use a Strat switch than I've modified and wired up to disconnect the tone control in positions 2 and 4 -- tricky to do, but it does wonders for the "quack" effect.

[loudguitars]

Originally Posted by editorjuno

You might be sorrier than you think -- if it's the same Fender-packaged switch I've seen, it won't fit in a Tele control cavity. The Schaller "E" Megaswitch from Stew-Mac or the Yamaha switch used in the Fender JD Tele will fit -- or you could go the Brent Mason route, sticking with the Tele switch and adding a third pot as a middle pickup blend control. I use a Strat switch than I've modified and wired up to disconnect the tone control in positions 2 and 4 -- tricky to do, but it does wonders for the "quack" effect.

The switch I bought is made for a Nashville Tele? Is the Nashville routed differently?

[blacklinefish]

I had to cut the switch in half to make it work. So, if I was able to do this with only half the switch, why do we need the full thing?



--gh

[loudguitars]

I am not sure I do? Without seeing a photo of yours I am not sure what to cut? I will wait to see the switch, and possible order a StewMac switch too?
Use whatever works better and easier. I can probably send either switch back minus shipping charges. I just want it to work the best way possible. I am excited about the new PUPS and the pickguard!
Thanks for all your help.!

[blacklinefish]

Originally Posted by loudguitars

I am not sure I do? Without seeing a photo of yours I am not sure what to cut?

Okay, these are ridiculously huge images, but it should be more clear after looking at them. (Click on them for silly enlarging.)

In this picture, you can see that I cut this switch in half. I didn't really cut it. I took a drill and drilled out the two rivets that held it together. (Bolts and screws replaced this.) There might be a c-clasp holding that top wafer on there. Just yank it out, break that part of the switch if you have to. Be careful, though. Can you tell in this picture that I broke the bottom wafer right on the post hole? Luckily, there was still enough to hold on to. I guess I could have glued it if I cracked it.



I thought I was going to grind down that center post - but it fit fine so I neglected that. Therefore, there are no special tools needed to do this job. This side shows the two stove bolts holding the wafer to the switch housing (and the photo above showed the nuts holding it on).



The only hard part will be to find two bolts of the exact length and size. I like to keep stuff like this on hand and it was just a little too tight. The threads in those nuts are barely catching. I was impatient and did not make a hardware run. I did use Loctite, though, to really hold those nuts onto the bolts.

Note that I re-used the two spacers from the switch. Just get two little stove bolts like I did that are skinny enough to fit inside those spacers. Anyone can do this, just be careful not to bend any of the switch parts. Take better pictures than I did and share them. Trust me, when you do little stuff like this, you really feel like you are truly modding your stuff!

--gh

[robrohdeszudy]

Well done! I like splitting the switch.

But I just thought of another way to wire a Nashville, in case anyone's interested. Use a "standard" 4-way switch. Then use a DPDT pull pot to decide whether the middle or neck pickup goes to the neck pickup leads.

You get this:

Pot normal:
1. Bridge
2. Bridge/Neck Parallel
3. Neck
4. Bridge/Neck Series (lots of fat power)

Pot pulled:
1. Bridge
2. Bridge/Middle Parallel (strat #2)
3. Neck
4. Bridge/Middle Series (I wonder if this would be Fat Strat like?)

The deficiency is the lack of Neck/Middle. You can get around this if you're willing to add a toggle switch between pots - a DPDT On-On-On. Not the fancy coil tap on-on-on where the middle position is lopsided. The regular kind where the middle position connects all 3 terminals on each side. With this setup you add a middle position that gives you:

1. Bridge
2. Bridge/Middle/Neck Parallel
3. Middle/Neck Parallel (strat #4)
4. Bridge series with Middle/Neck Parallel (no idea what this would sound like)

Now I'm REALLY thinking hard on putting in a middle pickup!

--Rob