Esquire wiring - Straight to jack/V+T (50's wiring)/Eldred Mod

[Bearzooka]

Anyone here know of a wiring diagram for this combo?

 

[SixStringSlinger]

@moosie drew this up for me when I was planning my Esquire and 920D couldn't seem to understand what I wanted.

It's what you want except for the '50's wiring, though I imagine you can find that elsewhere and "plug it in" to this diagram easily. The straight-to-jack is the "bridge" position and Eldred is "neck" on the switch. I used a no-load pot for the tone to have the option to remove that control from the circuit without having to dedicate a switch position to that. And you can experiment with cap values for the Eldred to see what you like.

 

[Kevin Wolfe]

@moosie has been a real help to this newbie. Where has he been? I hope all is well.

 

[moosie]

I'm still kickin'. Busy with other stuff, lately. Woodworking, Etsy, more woodworking... but winter's here, so it's guitar season again, maybe I'll come around a bit more.


You can't do 50s wiring to the above circuit without using a 3-way super switch.

 

[Bearzooka]

Thanks everyone! I actually have a 3 way super switch, but was wondering if it was possible to do with a regular 3 way.

 

[moosie]

For those who may need it, here's a diagram using the 3-way super:

 

[EsquireBoy]

Not « straight to jack » in the first position, but here you’ve got 50´s wiring with the traditional Esquire wiring, thanks to @moosie as always:
1. Volume
2. Volume + tone
3. Eldred
https://www.tdpri.com/threads/50s-style-wiring-on-a-classic-esquire-harness.1021271/

 

[moosie]

Not « straight to jack » in the first position, but here you’ve got 50´s wiring with the traditional Esquire wiring, thanks to @moosie as always:
1. Volume
2. Volume + tone
3. Eldred
https://www.tdpri.com/threads/50s-style-wiring-on-a-classic-esquire-harness.1021271/

Hah, I remember that thread, and the WEIRD / broken wiring diagram you were trying to work with.

Thanks for reminding me of that one I cobbled together. It gave me an idea. Here's what the OP wanted, using a standard 3-way. I prefer to lift ground when going straight to jack, and this one doesn't, but it should still work, and I'm not sure there will be any difference.

 

[EsquireBoy]

Hah, I remember that thread, and the WEIRD / broken wiring diagram you were trying to work with.

Thanks for reminding me of that one I cobbled together. It gave me an idea. Here's what the OP wanted, using a standard 3-way. I prefer to lift ground when going straight to jack, and this one doesn't, but it should still work, and I'm not sure there will be any difference.


View attachment 804932

You are a man of great help @moosie !
The downside I see with 50s wiring coupled with an Esquire is that, because your tone is not connected on all the positions, the volume knob changes his behaviour between positions: with 50s wiring, the taper of the volume pot becomes more reactive, so when switching from position 1 to position 2, you may have a drop or increase in volume if your volume is not wide open.

 

[moosie]

You are a man of great help @moosie !
The downside I see with 50s wiring coupled with an Esquire is that, because your tone is not connected on all the positions, the volume knob changes his behaviour between positions: with 50s wiring, the taper of the volume pot becomes more reactive, so when switching from position 1 to position 2, you may have a drop or increase in volume if your volume is not wide open.

Well, yes, but there's potential for an abrupt vol change whenever you have multiple settings, one which uses the vol pot, and one which does not.

 

[Bearzooka]

Thanks @moosie . I never checked back on this thread because I figured the only way to do this wiring would be with a super 3-way switch. I'm going to test out your idea and post results.

 

[Bearzooka]

So it's late and I quickly wired up just positions 1 and 2 on my 3-way switch and it's a no go. Volume pot still works on the straight to jack position. Possibly a tired user error, but I'm going to try again tomorrow after work when I have more time.

 

[moosie]

So it's late and I quickly wired up just positions 1 and 2 on my 3-way switch and it's a no go. Volume pot still works on the straight to jack position. Possibly a tired user error, but I'm going to try again tomorrow after work when I have more time.

No, I think you're right. Which I guess is why I always prefer to lift ground when bypassing. Because the other way doesn't work .

I think if you test, you'll find that the vol pot does little through most of the rotation, staying at full volume. Then, when turned pretty far towards zero, it begins to drop, and drops very quickly.

A normally wired vol pot has two resistors, both changing as the knob is turned. When turning down, not only is there less resistance to ground, there's MORE resistance for the signal to get through, to the jack.

In position #1 here, there's only one resistor, between signal and ground. When the vol pot is dimed, that resistor is large. The easiest path will be for the signal to go to the jack. As the pot is turned down, the resistance to ground decreases, making it easier to dump signal... BUT the path to the jack remains wide open, no resistance. So, I think the signal will keep going to the jack, until it's almost entirely shorted to ground.

 

[Bearzooka]

No, I think you're right. Which I guess is why I always prefer to lift ground when bypassing. Because the other way doesn't work .

I think if you test, you'll find that the vol pot does little through most of the rotation, staying at full volume. Then, when turned pretty far towards zero, it begins to drop, and drops very quickly.

A normally wired vol pot has two resistors, both changing as the knob is turned. When turning down, not only is there less resistance to ground, there's MORE resistance for the signal to get through, to the jack.

In position #1 here, there's only one resistor, between signal and ground. When the vol pot is dimed, that resistor is large. The easiest path will be for the signal to go to the jack. As the pot is turned down, the resistance to ground decreases, making it easier to dump signal... BUT the path to the jack remains wide open, no resistance. So, I think the signal will keep going to the jack, until it's almost entirely shorted to ground.

@moosie you are correct, this is exactly how the volume pot reacted in position 1.

 

[Bearzooka]

In case anyone else out there is interested in this wiring, I came up with this idea. It uses a Dual Gang potentiometer for the Volume control, and a modified wiring for the 3-way switch.