Questions About Wiring Scheme

[PooPooShoe]

Hi Everyone,

Basically, I'm working on a telecaster parts caster and I want to have independent volume and tone controls for each pickup. Im looking to use stacked Dual Concentric pots, as well as a master volume control that each section will feed into. I know this is stupid complicated, I'm just wondering if anyone is able to tell me if this will work as intended. Will I need the Treble bleed circuit on the master volume control?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks.

 

[Steve Holt]

From looking at this corner I think you need to break up these wires. Bring the pickups in on the top lugs, then run a separate wire from the common to the controls. If you bridge those two, then your pickups are still active in the off position.

 

[bebopbrain]

Wired like the Harmony Rocket H-59, but hopefully not requiring access via F-holes.

Good point by Steve about the switches.

Why the bright cap on the master volume?

I would use higher value pots (500k?) to avoid loading the pickups.

There will be interaction. Say only the bridge pickup is on and it is at volume 10. And say the neck pickup is off but at volume 10. Now the neck tone control is in the circuit exactly in parallel with the bridge tone control. I am not saying this is a terrible thing.

 

[wabashslim]

Don't run the pickup grounds thru the switches, just connect them all together and ground them to the pot shells.

Run the pickup hots to the pots first, then the pot outputs to the switches to avoid what bebop said about the tones interacting. Like a Gibson.

With all the pickups on you've got a lot of pots & coils in parallel. Going to get a bit mushy. I'd drop the master.

 

[peterg]

Wired like the Harmony Rocket H-59, but hopefully not requiring access via F-holes.

Good point by Steve about the switches.

Why the bright cap on the master volume?

I would use higher value pots (500k?) to avoid loading the pickups.

There will be interaction. Say only the bridge pickup is on and it is at volume 10. And say the neck pickup is off but at volume 10. Now the neck tone control is in the circuit exactly in parallel with the bridge tone control. I am not saying this is a terrible thing.

Maybe this: pickup>volume/tone controls>on/off switch (spst)>master volume.
Removes interaction at least when the pickup is turned off.

 

[wabashslim]

Maybe this: pickup>volume/tone controls>on/off switch (spst)>master volume.
Removes interaction at least when the pickup is turned off.

I'm thinking one master tone is enough. When more than one pickup is on, what can multiple tones do that one can't? And you'll preserve some highs that all those pots will attenuate.

Some of us that have been doing this stuff awhile understand "control overkill". Too many options, not enough difference, and tone pays the price.

 

[PooPooShoe]

Wired like the Harmony Rocket H-59, but hopefully not requiring access via F-holes.

Good point by Steve about the switches.

Why the bright cap on the master volume?

I would use higher value pots (500k?) to avoid loading the pickups.

There will be interaction. Say only the bridge pickup is on and it is at volume 10. And say the neck pickup is off but at volume 10. Now the neck tone control is in the circuit exactly in parallel with the bridge tone control. I am not saying this is a terrible thing.

Thanks for the reply! I was thinking i might need the bright cap on the master to avoid high end loss. Not sure if its necessary. I'm still pretty inexperienced with all of this!

 

[PooPooShoe]

I'm thinking one master tone is enough. When more than one pickup is on, what can multiple tones do that one can't? And you'll preserve some highs that all those pots will attenuate.

Some of us that have been doing this stuff awhile understand "control overkill". Too many options, not enough difference, and tone pays the price.

I'm sure you're right. The idea here was to make it as versatile as possible with many combinations of tone control. Basically I want it to be useful in the the studio for getting unique tonal options. Obviously I don't really know what I'm doing so its more of an experiment. After seeing some of these replies, I'm not sure if its really worth it. I definitely Haven't really wrapped my head around parallel interaction.

 

[PooPooShoe]

Maybe this: pickup>volume/tone controls>on/off switch (spst)>master volume.
Removes interaction at least when the pickup is turned off.

Thanks for the reply! This does seem like a good solution. I guess I'm just ignorant on interaction between the different pots. I just want to make this guitar as versatile as possible.

 

[wabashslim]

It's learn as you go. At least you're not asking how to convert a Princeton into a Twin Reverb.

 

[peterg]

Thanks for the reply! This does seem like a good solution. I guess I'm just ignorant on interaction between the different pots. I just want to make this guitar as versatile as possible.

You’re welcome. Give your idea a try. If it doesn’t work for you you can always try something different.

 

[NoTeleBob]

If you want a lot of options, go with one stage pots with a DPDT on each. Wire as volume for each and master tone. Use one DPDT to switch to parallel / series. Second on is in phase or out of phase. Last DPDT for something else... differing tone caps, or kill switch, or bypass tone, etc.