Odd wiring question

[ZiggyZipgun]

I have an old Fender Dual Six Stringmaster, so two necks, each with two Mustang-style single coils, with a blender pot on each neck. These usually have a Telecaster-style 3-way switch to select either neck or both - and with both on, the output of both necks drops considerably. I'd like to keep the blender pots, and use a 4-way switch to select 1st neck (out of phase), 1st neck (in phase), 2nd neck (in phase), and 2nd neck (out of phase); I'll probably add an S-1 switch later to get series wiring on both necks.

Now, they don't make a 4-way Super Switch, I know, but I had a few Oak Grisby switches laying around, including a 5-way Super Switch and a 4-way Tele switch, and it was surprisingly easy to pop out the rivets, swap the wafers, and rip the middle tab off of each of the 4 poles. So I have one.

My big problem is that not only are there no wiring diagrams similar to what I'm trying to do, but there aren't even original wiring diagrams for Stringmasters with the 3-way switch. Can anyone point me to some helpful diagrams that I could piece together?

[hermetico]

Re: Odd wiring question

If your concerns are about volume drop, to put a humbucker out-of-phase with itself will lead you to same results.
I dunno which blender pot do you have but, you probably need 1 MOhm TRUE blender pot to combine both pickups.

Anyway, which I would probably do is to use just a 4-way Tele-switch and do the mod you can find in SD's diagrams, to have:

Neck1
Neck1 in parallel with Neck2
Neck1 in series with Neck2
Neck2

I would stay out of the out-of-phase.

[ZiggyZipgun]

Re: Odd wiring question

The blender pot is really just a 250k audio taper volume pot for the neck pickup only. And I actually don't need to have both necks (physical necks) on at the same time - each neck has a neck and bridge pickup, but no wiring diagrams show how to keep the necks (physical necks) separate.

[beaubrummels]

Re: Odd wiring question

For reference, here is the normal wiring diagram, to start with. (Says double-8, but I doubt the wiring is any different)

http://www.hawaiiansteel.com/graphics/pdf/fender_stringmaster_2neck_1957.pdf

Phase is typically handled with push/pull switches on the pots, Rather than focusing on the 3-way/4-way, you might consider replacing the blenders with 250k push/pulls to flip the phase of the bridge/neck pickup on each physical neck.

Here's phase switching single coils using a push/pull switch.

http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/wiring-diagrams/schematics.php?schematic=phase_reversal_singlecoils

[ZiggyZipgun]

Re: Odd wiring question

Phase is typically handled with push/pull switches on the pots, Rather than focusing on the 3-way/4-way, you might consider replacing the blenders with 250k push/pulls to flip the phase of the bridge/neck pickup on each physical neck.

This is just a random pic from the internet, but close enough - the blend pots are hidden by the chrome bridge covers, with thumb wheels on shorter-than-normal pot shafts. The 3-way neck selector is pretty pointless, since again, you would never need both necks on at the same time. I personally hate push-pull or even push-push pots, even standing with a regular guitar, so I've decided to stick with the Five Tone Tele switch (maybe trim it down to four since I've already made the 4-way switch) and use an S-1 switch to switch from one set of pickups to the other. Now to figure out how to only have the blender pots active on the series and parallel settings, so that I can still have the full output of a single neck or bridge pickup.

Someone out there now owns my old Strat that I installed a set of Antiquity I Jazzmaster pickups in with the Five Tone Tele scheme. I tweaked it a little bit to have parallel out of phase instead of the regular series setting, with an extra cap wired in to lessen the phase cancellation - loved that whole setup. I'll most likely do the same thing in the Dual Six.

[beaubrummels]

Re: Odd wiring question

I see. I didn't catch the blenders were the knobs under the bridge cover. Leo was expecting it to be more like a preset I guess.

Sounds like you've got a strong direction and idea of where to go. Would be interesting to hear some tone clips when you get it all working.

[ZiggyZipgun]

Re: Odd wiring question

Any thoughts on adding a blender pot to the three middle positions only?

[beaubrummels]

Re: Odd wiring question

I've been looking at this and from what I can figure out, because of the reverse phase setting, there's no place to hook in a single blender on just the middle three settings that will work. If you can give up the flipped phase setting, then it might be possible to find a spot to put the blender in between the rhythm pickup and the middle three settings, but I think it's more than likely, and way way easier, to just have the blender in circuit on the neck pickup all the time.

[ZiggyZipgun]

Re: Odd wiring question

...and way way easier, to just have the blender in circuit on the neck pickup all the time.

This is true. And it's not just one blender pot - there's one on each neck. I just worry that I'll flip the switch for just the neck pickup and have almost no output because I forgot that the blender pot was turned way down. I may turn the master volume knob into the blender pot, and switch that in on certain settings, because volume knobs are pretty redundant when you're always using a volume pedal.

[beaubrummels]

Re: Odd wiring question

This is true. And it's not just one blender pot - there's one on each neck. I just worry that I'll flip the switch for just the neck pickup and have almost no output because I forgot that the blender pot was turned way down. I may turn the master volume knob into the blender pot, and switch that in on certain settings, because volume knobs are pretty redundant when you're always using a volume pedal.

You can get used to it. I have a rhythm PU blender on my Tele and now I've just developed a gut habit of rolling the blend just before switching. But do whatever you gotta do.