Need some advice/help on wiring this up (5 way import style blade switch)
- Thread starter toonskeez
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Steve Holt
Friend of Leo's
Correct. Doing it that way doesn't give you a way to split up those two pickups.
What about one of those stacked potentiometers? I've never used one but it would be like two pots in one then you could have neck tone and bridge tone separated on that tone pot, but you'd still have three volume knobs.
Yeah, that's what someone else said to me too, about using a stacked, concentric pot. problem is, I wouldn't have enough clearance to get it through the f hole and into place. It's a tight squeeze
I think that link I posted above there though could be the ticket. I altered the image slightly so that the one vol would control neck and bridge, rather than neck and middle, which is the way he drew it. Here's mine:
He says to disregard how the tone is wired up though, so don't know what's going on with that.
He says to disregard how the tone is wired up though, so don't know what's going on with that.
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Steve Holt
Friend of Leo's
By golly I think you have it! That's a clever way to do it using the two sides of the switch to separate the two. Hadn't thought of that, but now it's in my arsenal for future use. You're still on your own to figure out how you want to wire that middle tone switch, but everything else *should* be good.
Steve Holt
Friend of Leo's
I really don't envy the job you have ahead of you wiring this up inside of what I've gathered is a hollow body? Good luck!
Thanks man. Just one question: The solid blue and green lines (hot wires) going from the neck and bridge pups to the selector switch, you then have them continuing on as dashed lines, coming out of the lugs on the switch they went into. Is that right?
Steve Holt
Friend of Leo's
Yeah I was trying to make it simple and try to keep neck and bridge and middle on one color scheme. So the dashed lines are just a different wire that runs from the switch to tone. That's how I would do it it isolate those tone controls.
So your basic setup goes like this
Pickup hot to switch (White) --> Switch to Input of Volume (Green) --> Then it branches off to go to the tone (Yellow) --> Output of volume to jack (Red) - this is kind of the telecaster wiring because on a strat we use the other pole on a 5 way to wire the tone pots.
On a strat you basically have the same thing. But the tone connects to the switch rather than volume, then the two poles are connected together.
Pickup Hot (White) to switch --> Common 1 of switch connects to common 1 of switch (yellow) and the that side of the switch goes to tone (also yellow) --> switch to volume input (green) --> Volume Output (Red) --> Jack
On yours since You're running one volume pot for two pickups, but you then want to separate the tone control for those two pickups so each has its own control BUT you're already using both sides of the switch I did it like this.
Pickup hot to Switch (white) --> Switch to tone (dashed white) --> Common of switch to volume input (green) --> Volume output to Jack (Red) So instead of having to go through the whole ordeal of wiring the tone pot to the corresponding lug on the other side of the switch, then connecting the two commons together as strats usually do, I just went ahead and put two wires on the lug connecting the pickup directly to its tone control. I have a lot of colors to choose from in inkscape, but there's only so many bright noticeable primary colors that stand out, so I used dashed lines to try to indicate a separate wire. Tried to keep it simple but look how much extra work it caused
ah, ok, I get you. that's great, thanks. It does make sense when you explain it that way
Looking at the two tone pots for neck and bridge. They're wired slightly differently. I presume that's intended?
I just want to be sure of everything before I start soldering.
Looking at the two tone pots for neck and bridge. They're wired slightly differently. I presume that's intended?
I just want to be sure of everything before I start soldering.
Steve Holt
Friend of Leo's
ah, ok, I get you. that's great, thanks. It does make sense when you explain it that way
Looking at the two tone pots for neck and bridge. They're wired slightly differently. I presume that's intended?
I just want to be sure of everything before I start soldering.
Good catch! Yes that's intentional and it's something that really messed me up for a long time when I was trying to understand how wiring worked.
That's how strats are wired, and since those two pots on your diagram were facing the directions that strat tone knobs face, I just drew it up to match a strat because that's easier for me than trying to turn the dang thing in my head and figure out which lug is which.
If you turn the bottom pot the other direction you'll notice that they both have the same lug that has nothing connected to it. I think the reason these two are wired up like this historically is a) because they can be and b) because it makes it easier for the person doing it. This way the wire coming from the switch connects to the closest inside lugs on each pot. And then the shared capacitor connects easily. If you wired them up identically the capacitor would have to run from the far side of each pot.
Also here's a diagram that gets passed around here a lot (not mine) that is helpful.
Steve Holt
Friend of Leo's
Here's a thread of mine from a few years back asking the same question. Post number 5 answers it.
www.tdpri.com
You didn't ask...but a little background on me. I built my first guitar in 2015 and had to have a friend wire it for me because everything I had done up to that point with a soldering iron was usually a two steps forward three steps back kind of thing.
After that I started trying to wire my own guitars with diagrams I found online and did okay, but wanted to understand what was going on, not just follow a map.
A year or so ago I had progressed to the point where I could take concepts from two or three different diagrams and blend them together (sometimes with help from the good folks here). And then suddenly it all kind of clicked to where I (am definitely still learning) but can take the concepts and throw them together on my own.
Point of all my rambling is I've come a long way in just a few years. And I find guitar wiring to be so exciting and fun to dig into. It's my favorite part of new builds now. So even if some of it looks like gibberish now, you're never too old to figure it out.
Help me Understand - Strat Wiring Question
One of my recent goals has been to understand the how and whys of guitar wiring. I have no background in electricity so it's taken me awhile. I've gotten fairly good at wiring my guitars the last few years. And now I really enjoy it. The last one I wired up, i was actually able to diagnose my...
You didn't ask...but a little background on me. I built my first guitar in 2015 and had to have a friend wire it for me because everything I had done up to that point with a soldering iron was usually a two steps forward three steps back kind of thing.
After that I started trying to wire my own guitars with diagrams I found online and did okay, but wanted to understand what was going on, not just follow a map.
A year or so ago I had progressed to the point where I could take concepts from two or three different diagrams and blend them together (sometimes with help from the good folks here). And then suddenly it all kind of clicked to where I (am definitely still learning) but can take the concepts and throw them together on my own.
Point of all my rambling is I've come a long way in just a few years. And I find guitar wiring to be so exciting and fun to dig into. It's my favorite part of new builds now. So even if some of it looks like gibberish now, you're never too old to figure it out.
sounds kind of similar to my journey with guitar wiring and electronics in general.Here's a thread of mine from a few years back asking the same question. Post number 5 answers it.
Help me Understand - Strat Wiring Question
One of my recent goals has been to understand the how and whys of guitar wiring. I have no background in electricity so it's taken me awhile. I've gotten fairly good at wiring my guitars the last few years. And now I really enjoy it. The last one I wired up, i was actually able to diagnose my...
You didn't ask...but a little background on me. I built my first guitar in 2015 and had to have a friend wire it for me because everything I had done up to that point with a soldering iron was usually a two steps forward three steps back kind of thing.
After that I started trying to wire my own guitars with diagrams I found online and did okay, but wanted to understand what was going on, not just follow a map.
A year or so ago I had progressed to the point where I could take concepts from two or three different diagrams and blend them together (sometimes with help from the good folks here). And then suddenly it all kind of clicked to where I (am definitely still learning) but can take the concepts and throw them together on my own.
Point of all my rambling is I've come a long way in just a few years. And I find guitar wiring to be so exciting and fun to dig into. It's my favorite part of new builds now. So even if some of it looks like gibberish now, you're never too old to figure it out.
I did a 2 year guitar making course 2018. I've been playing guitar since 11 and bass since 16. I think that helped greatly, in that I could see how improving in certain areas would lead to a better, more enjoyable playing experience. I had a LOT to learn though, and still do. I had barely even picked up a chisel when I started. But I've always enjoyed messing around with wood and building tree houses etc since I was a kid. Love the smell of it, the feel and the sound it imparts in guitars.
So anyway, got my first build finished in college (3 in total) and then came the wiring. Unfortunately the teacher didn't teach us any wiring, so it was up to us to figure it out. I had never even picked up a soldering iron. (Here in Ireland, high schools don't teach electronics. It's considered a specialty subject you can study in college/university). I built a Telecaster, but with 3 humbuckers. I bought two push/pull pots and wanted to split both pups at same time to single coil with the vol pot and reverse polarity of bridge pup with tone pot... a hefty task for someone like me at that time (and still now to be honest). So I got an electricial to wire it up for me.
But I knew then that I wanted to learn about how it all works, at least so I could do some upgraded of parts and mods on my own guitars I had accumulated over the years. Bit by bit since then I've been learning a bit more as I go. The forum helps a lot, plus I bought a book on guitar wiring recently. I guess I've been gathering bits and pieces of knowledge from anywhere I can get it really and like you, I want to be able to understand as much as possible, so I can just wire up stuff without scratching my head.
Opinions on what resistor values I should use in my 3 way tone toggle switch
Yes, the grounded legs of the caps are soldered together in my drawing. Steve Holt's drawing (previous post) works too. Can't address the buzz, I never had that issue. The other common does NOT need to be grounded in my scheme as it does in Steve's. BUT, if it works for you, then it works...
I finally got it all wired up, routed out space for a control panel, made one and it's all done and sounds good.
Everything works as it should. Only thing I'll change is get rid of the .047 cap (just sounds like mud). I'll probably put a .015 cap in it's place. The .022 cap sounds good when used with overdrive, especially in positions 2 and 4. The middle pup is obviously quieter than the humbuckers, so I had to raise it's height up a bit to try compensate, but it's still slightly too quite. I might get a high output single coil pup and put it in there at some point in the future. One small issue I have, is that when I have the middle pup out of phase with the two humbuckers, it buzzes if I touch it. Don't know if this is to be expected or not. This doesn't happen when it's in phase with other two pups.
One other small issue, is that when I use positions 2 and 4 AND the middle pup is in phase with the two humbuckers, the sound is slightly darker than I would like. I'm guessing this is because the signal is traveling through two volume pots, as opposed to just one?
If this is the case, I guess I could swap the middle pup 250k volume pot for a 500k volume pot (or even 1meg) to try get a tad more brightness in positions two and four.
Here's some pics:
Everything works as it should. Only thing I'll change is get rid of the .047 cap (just sounds like mud). I'll probably put a .015 cap in it's place. The .022 cap sounds good when used with overdrive, especially in positions 2 and 4. The middle pup is obviously quieter than the humbuckers, so I had to raise it's height up a bit to try compensate, but it's still slightly too quite. I might get a high output single coil pup and put it in there at some point in the future. One small issue I have, is that when I have the middle pup out of phase with the two humbuckers, it buzzes if I touch it. Don't know if this is to be expected or not. This doesn't happen when it's in phase with other two pups.
One other small issue, is that when I use positions 2 and 4 AND the middle pup is in phase with the two humbuckers, the sound is slightly darker than I would like. I'm guessing this is because the signal is traveling through two volume pots, as opposed to just one?
If this is the case, I guess I could swap the middle pup 250k volume pot for a 500k volume pot (or even 1meg) to try get a tad more brightness in positions two and four.
Here's some pics:
