Fancy Wiring Question

[baritone]

Hello, I want to completely revamp the wiring in my Epiphone LP. Right now it has SD Distortion (b) & Jazz (n) pickups. It has 1 master volume, 1 master tone, & a 3-way switch. This is what I want to make:

* 1 pickup blend knob (no center detent) in place of the volume knob.
* 1 master volume in place of the tone knob.
* 3-way switch to do this:
a.) "Neck" position - both pickup on, parallel, in phase
b.) "Middle" position - both pickups on, series, in phase
c.) "Bridge" position - both pickups on, series, out of phase
* No splitting option.

If this is not possible, there is a Seymour Duncan wiring diagram which covers these options using push/pull potentiometers. I prefer to do this without push/pulls, and I can live without a tone pot.

[Jack_TriPpEr]

Hello, I want to completely revamp the wiring in my Epiphone LP. Right now it has SD Distortion (b) & Jazz (n) pickups. It has 1 master volume, 1 master tone, & a 3-way switch. This is what I want to make:

* 1 pickup blend knob (no center detent) in place of the volume knob.
* 1 master volume in place of the tone knob.
* 3-way switch to do this:
a.) "Neck" position - both pickup on, parallel, in phase
b.) "Middle" position - both pickups on, series, in phase
c.) "Bridge" position - both pickups on, series, out of phase
* No splitting option.

If this is not possible, there is a Seymour Duncan wiring diagram which covers these options using push/pull potentiometers. I prefer to do this without push/pulls, and I can live without a tone pot.

Yes the blend knob and the master volume are possible. I am still thinking about whether there is a switch availablr in 3 way toggle format that can do what you requested. I am thinking one of the Freway switches may be able to, but need to review. Will get back to you.

[Jack_TriPpEr]

Be aware that that when both pickups are connected In Series, there is no way to adjust the volume of each pickup individually. I.e. the Blend Control will have no functionality in In Series mode.

[Jack_TriPpEr]

So a Freeway 3X3-05 switch would do the In Series, In Parallel and Phase options you want. But it has an extra 3 positions (which you could use for traditional 3 way switching) which you say you don't want. I'll chew on whether a 3 way 4 pole toggle can do what you want instead.

[Jack_TriPpEr]

I determined yes it is possible for a 4 Pole On-On-On 3 way toggle switch to do the 3 pickup combinations you want. See below.

The wiring coloring code in the Out Of Phase diagram and Master Series/Parallel diagram attached are in fact Seymour Duncan pickup wiring color code.

The particular 4 pole switch I designed around is the Dimarzio EP1111

edit: i replaced the attachment concerning how to wire up a Master Series/Parallel 2 way switch. The prior one was for how to wire an individual humbucker In Parallel or In Series. While the new one is the correct one for 2 humbuckers, it will still need to be modified depending on whether the final decision is to route the pickups hot signal to the 3 way on-on-on switch first or after.... or even bypass tbe 3 way on-on-on when in In Series mode.

https://www.dimarzio.com/hardware/sw...osition-ononon

[Jack_TriPpEr]

Be aware that when the 3 way switch is in the two In Series modes, the blender pot may interfere with it unless the blender is set to full output for each piclup. I'm not sure off-hand, i'll have to chew on it and get back to you.

[baritone]

Hey Jack Tripper, awesome screen name! Thank you for the info! This is something I have been dreaming of for a long time, but I just don't have the know-how. Considering what you habe described, I will keep gathering information before I proceed.

[Jack_TriPpEr]

Thanks Baritone.

Some replies in this thread in The Gear Page about In Series wiring and independent volume controls per humbucker seem to indicate that the Blender control won't be an issue for the two In Series modes in your scheme. Particularly Reply # 3 of that thread.

I would highly recommend using a No Load pot type for the blender control.

https://www.thegearpage.net/board/in...20the%20wiring.

[Jack_TriPpEr]

Here's a starting point for thinking about how the Blender control could be wired. You said you don't want a center detente.

There are different ways to wire a blender control, depending on what you want out of it, as the article explains.

I would say in your case since you will be on occasion putting the two humbuckers in series, you would alter the wiring from what is shown here, by keeping the two wires that go to ground separated, and the two output wires separated as well, whereas in the two diagrams in this article, the two wires in each those get combined.

https://www.stewmac.com/video-and-id...ot-wiring.html

Edit: i'm still chewing on whether to route the pups to the blend control or the master series/parallel portion of the 3 way on-on-on switch first.

[Jack_TriPpEr]

I've got some notes I worked up about how I believe a "stereo style" blend control (i.e. no center detente, with pot set to zero, Pickup A is at 100% volume and Pickup B is at 0% volume, and reverse of that when Pot is set to 10) would work for both pickups In Series that I wanted to share. I've gotten tied up with other things so i don't have time to continue evaluating this further, but I beliwve what I have to-date could be helpful.

See attached sketch.

What is not pictured is the Master Series/Parallel switch feature and how the wires route to and from it. This sketch is a more simplified scenario that assumes the two pups stay wired In Series and how a blend control would operate in that scenario.

The big takeaways are:

-I believe the volume pot on the blend control for the pup that has its ground dropped, will work as a Master Volume for those two pups instead of affecting just the volume of that particular pup.

- because of the above and the inverse arrangement of how volume is controlled for both pups, as the blend control is turned to increase overall volume, the other pickup's volume is decreased. How much and where in the sweep of the pot, is controlled by the taper of the pot. In my sketch, i assumed a blend ctl with two linear taper pots.

- the sketch shows how the above interplay works for two different arrangements, the one of the leftside having the Neck pup's ground wire dropped, and the one on the rightside having the Bridge pup's ground dropped instead.

- based on your request to avoid push-pulls and other switches, and because the Out Of Phase functionality that you requested is consuming the other 2 poles of the 4 pole, 3 way on-on-on toggle switch, you don't have enough poles to wire in an option to bypass the blend control when In Series mode.

Of course, I may have a misunderstanding of how this works -I've never wired one up myself yet - and would be glad if someone else has some helpful feedback.

[Jack_TriPpEr]

Oh, another potential concern with having a blend control (which is essentially one volume pot per humbucker) plus a Master Volume and Master Tone on top of that, is increaesed loading of the pickups. *maybe* using higher value pots for the Blend Control pots OR ( Master Volume & Master Tone) -like 1meg instead of 500K - may help offset that.

[baritone]

Hey Jack Tripper, I will study all the info you have provided. I think I may be able to get close. Thank you for the time and effort you have put into these responses. I will give you updates on my tone adventure.