All 3 Pickups on?

[WaywardWanderer]

Hello!

I'm looking for the name of the mod that allows you to have all 3 pickups on at the same time, With a simple on/off switch. This is for a Baritone Strat I'm building part Warmoth and part CV 50's.

If anyone knows the name of the mod and knows where there is a simple wiring diagram, it would be most helpful!

:)

[stratman323]

The nearest I have is this one - it uses a switch (or push-pull) to add the bridge pickup to whatever is selected, so the neck & middle position becomes all 3 pickups. And neck position becomes neck & bridge - very Tele like. There is another variant that adds the neck pickup - same thing but in reverse.

Any good?

[WaywardWanderer]

This is brilliant man! Thank you very much

[JD0x0]

Checkout G&L diagrams as well. It lets you get all 5 positions, and has a switch to use all 3 pickups or the neck and bridge combo. They also use a very versatile PTB system which turns one tone control into a treble cut, and the second is a passive bass cut which work with all the pups. Unlike fender's layout which i find is tedious at best. Two tone controls neither of which work on the brightest pickup. How did they think that would be useful?

[stratman323]

Originally Posted by JD0x0

Checkout G&L diagrams as well. It lets you get all 5 positions, and has a switch to use all 3 pickups or the neck and bridge combo. They also use a very versatile PTB system which turns one tone control into a treble cut, and the second is a passive bass cut which work with all the pups. Unlike fender's layout which i find is tedious at best. Two tone controls neither of which work on the brightest pickup. How did they think that would be useful?

Isn't that the same as the Seymour Duncan diagram above?

I agree with you about the Strat's tone controls though. The best way to deal with that (IMHO) is to learn from the Tele & wire a Strat with master volume & master tone, like this.

[Rob S]

You can use a Blender pot also. Acme guitar parts has the Dia online and everything you need.http://www.acmeguitarworks.com/

[JD0x0]

Originally Posted by stratman323

Isn't that the same as the Seymour Duncan diagram above?

I agree with you about the Strat's tone controls though. The best way to deal with that (IMHO) is to learn from the Tele & wire a Strat with master volume & master tone, like this.

Youre right except G&L's works slightly different, the result is pretty much the same.

Yeah I have all my guitars wired with a master tone. On my strats I use the second control as a bass cut (I use a switch on teles) It works exactly like a treble tone control except it cuts bass instead of treble. IMO it can get a very tele like sound in a strat with the bass cut.

[Mike Simpson]

I asked a similar question in this thread http://www.tdpri.com/forum/just-pick...ml#post2569696

I used a push pull switch on the tone pot.

I also learned after wiring up my guitar that another concern is whether the pickups will be in series or parallel.

EDIT: When pickups are in PARALLEL there is volume drop and when they are in SERIES there is a volume increase or volume remains constant. (thanks Stratman for catching my typo)

[stratman323]

Originally Posted by Big Mike Simpson

I also learned after wiring up my guitar that another concern is whether the pickups will be in series or parallel. When pickups are in series there is volume drop and when they are in parallel there is a volume increase or volume remains constant.

That's the wrong way round. Series gives you a louder, fatter sound, more like a humbucker. Brian May apparently uses series wiring. Standard Strat wiring for both pickups on together (positions 2 & 4) is parallel.

[Mike Simpson]

OOps... I typed that wrong... Stratman, you are correct I meant to say it the other way. I think that Fast Eddie or one of the wiring wizards came up with a way to get series wiring with a5 way switch and 2 push pull pots... I am not sure on That one. The easiest way to accomplish a series wiring like Brian May or on the old Teiscos is with seperate switches.

I tend to use N, M, N+B and B and rarely use all three or N+M or M+B.

[stratman323]

Originally Posted by Big Mike Simpson

OOps... I typed that wrong... Stratman, you are correct I meant to say it the other way. I think that Fast Eddie or one of the wiring wizards came up with a way to get series wiring with a5 way switch and 2 push pull pots... I am not sure on That one. The easiest way to accomplish a series wiring like Brian May or on the old Teiscos is with seperate switches.

Cool. There is a diagram for getting the pickups in series using one switch or push/pull pot - I used to have it, & I tried it for a while years ago. I decided the parallel option was better (for me) so I switched it to the circuit shown above. But I can't find the series wiring diagram - I guess I last had it in the days before computers were invented.

[Mike Simpson]

I found the thread... Deaf Eddie does it with a super switch

http://www.tdpri.com/forum/stratocas...ere-s-how.html

[stratman323]

Originally Posted by Big Mike Simpson

I found the thread... Deaf Eddie does it with a super switch

http://www.tdpri.com/forum/stratocas...ere-s-how.html

Too complicated! I'm sure it can be done with an ordinary switch as I used to have that mod on my Strat - I just can't remember how. One comment from that thread rang true:

"The series positions are fat, but lack zip."

That sums up how I remember it. The bottom line is that the five best sounds you can get from a Strat are the standard five.

[WaywardWanderer]

Thank you for all the help guys.

As it turns out I'm not really sure where to start with the electronics! it appears the Squier have put in 5 way switch with a circuit board on it. (As pictured below)



I'm pretty happy with the 5 way switch there, has a nice feel to it.
I won't be to happy replacing a lot of the electronics, as I have only done a few pickup rewiring before.

Is there anyway to a push pull pot into this without changing to much?
I'll be posting a build diary for this project very soon.

[jkingma]

Here is how Dano does it with a 6 way rotary switch and a toggle switch.

Bridge - Bridge/Middle - Middle - Neck/Middle - Bridge/Neck - Neck

...and the toggle turns on all 3 pickups in parallel regardless of where the rotary switch is set. Its a very versitile setup.

[stratman323]

Originally Posted by WaywardWanderer

I'm pretty happy with the 5 way switch there, has a nice feel to it.
I won't be to happy replacing a lot of the electronics, as I have only done a few pickup rewiring before.

Is there anyway to a push pull pot into this without changing to much?
I'll be posting a build diary for this project very soon.

Yes, all you have to do is to replace one of the pots with a 250k push/pull pot & you have your switch available to do the mod I posted at the top of the page. It's up to you which pot you choose to replace - I prefer the tone pot, but if volume seems more logical to you, use that instead.

You can get all kinds of pots from http://www.axesrus.com/ - free postage in the UK.

My advice is to stick to the simple diagram at first if you're not used to doing wiring work on guitars. Don't worry about series wiring or complicated rotary switches till you've tried some more basic stuff.

[stratman323]

Originally Posted by Rob S

You can use a Blender pot also. Acme guitar parts has the Dia online and everything you need.http://www.acmeguitarworks.com/

There are some very interesting diagrams on that site, including several I have never seen before. I'm now getting myself very confused trying to work some of them out! But thanks for posting that - I guess it's about time I tried some sort of wiring using a blender. But which one?

[Lobar]

all 3 plus 6 more pup combinations useing standard 3-way switch...


I have had my old strat wired to get seven cobinations for years: N-M-B-N&M B&M N&B or NMB. just useing the standard 3-way slector switch by wireing the top volume as master volume for the neck and bridge.. middle ex-tone pot is master volume for the middle pup and bottom pot is master tone for all 3.. basicly the middle pup is wired to the middle pot..

On the switch looking from the bottom there are four solder points on each side of the switch if you were to number them as 1-2-3-4 top to bottom.. On the left side post L1 is wired to the bridge pup + jumperd to post L2.. L3 is not used.. L4 is jumperd to post R1 on the right side + wired to middle post on top volume.. R2 is not used.. R3 is jumpered to post R4 and R4 is wired to neck pup.. just use a small bit of wire for jumpers..

Looking at the pots from the bottom..the top and middle pot with posts pointing down toward
bottom tone pot.. (top vol pot and middle tone/new middle master vol.) and posts labled left to right 1-2-3... and bottom pots posts turned to point at the middle pots posts, so looking at it posts would be 3-2-1..

Now on the top volume pot, post 1 is wired to output jack (pos) and jumped to post 1 on the middle pot then to post 3 on the bottom (tone pot)... post 2 is wired to R1 on the switch..
post 3 is wired to output jack (neg) and jumpered to back of pot to ground if you dont have a ground plate on your pickup cover..

Middle pot: post 1 is alredy wired between pots 1&3.. post 2 is wired to middle pup.. and post 3 is jumperd to back of pot for ground.. This is the middle pup master volume.

Bottom pot (master tone): post 3 is already wired to other two pots posts 1.. post 2 or middle post is wired to tone cap of your choice and to back of pot.. post 1 is not used..

wire all pups neg to bottom of vol 1 as usual...

Now Top master volume controls neck and bridge pups..

Middle is master volume for the middle pickup.. add or remove middle pups volume for any combination..

Bottom pot is master tone for all 3 pickups..

The switch works like it always did except the middle position = bridge and neck pups if middle vol is off..
So Down = bridge pup..
middle = neck and bridge..
Up = neck pup..
Turn top volume off and middle volume up for just middle pup..

Now you can blend the middle pup with any combination of the other two pups or turn both volumes up and put switch in the middle to get all three singin'...

Are you confused yet.. I know a picture is worth a thousand words but I have no way to add one.. Hope this helps ;)

-Lobar..

[stratman323]

Originally Posted by Lobar

Are you confused yet.. I know a picture is worth a thousand words but I have no way to add one.. Hope this helps ;)

-Lobar..

Far too complicated for me! I would forget what I was doing on stage with that set up. For me one absolute requirement is that the standard 5 way switch doesn't change - I'm happy to add extra sounds to that, but I need the standard options when I flick a switch or turn a blender knob.

Each to their own though.

[caliban335]

I had a Callaham blender installed in my Strat and it works great. Now I have master volume, master tone and the blender.

http://www.callahamguitars.com/partsstr.htm

It shows up near the bottom of the page.