very unique wiring, need help

[HolyDirt]

ok... i want to try something specifically for my needs... ok.. here it goes... i made a schematic... it's at the bottom of this post, and what i am intending to do is wire my guitar to run with 2 volume pots (they're wired so that if one is at 0, there is no sound), in addition, there is an on/on toggle switch that toggles from using the neck and bridge pickups seperately in stereo, or together as a mono signal. Now, this is where it gets wierd... i'm going to wire a special footswitch specifically for this guitar, it will also have a stereo input. When the guitar is in stereo mode the footswitch will:

1) use 3 dp/dt stomp switches, one to toggle the bridge pickup on and off, the second to toggle the bridge on and off, and the third to turn both on.

2) have a master tone knob for both bridge and neck pickups.

3) lastly, it will have a combined signal, so there is a mono output, making it work with standard amps.

here's the schematic

[what?]

Re: very unique wiring, need help

thats cool, but what are you asking us? what help do you need?

[Cory_Dylan]

Re: very unique wiring, need help

so what are you wanting to do? just use a stomp box to turn your pickups on and off instead of using a 3 way switch? why?

what i think would be cool, is keep the standard 3 way toggle switch on the guitar, but still seperatly on a stereo output, and have the box split the pickups up into their own mono outputs. you could send the neck pickup to a clean amp, and the bridge pickup to a distorted amp. idk how that would sound, but it would be pretty cool. joe satriani (i think) has a box that splits your guitars signal up and you can plug it into 3 different amps. But this way you could have an amp for each pickup.

[HolyDirt]

Re: very unique wiring, need help

oh, i wanted for someone to check it and see if it would work. i know it seems stupid, but i often play licks in which i cant hit the 3 way switch fast enough for it to work, and i think this would be pretty cool, along with functional. thanks

[HolyDirt]

Re: very unique wiring, need help

oh ya, and i wanted 2 volume controls on my guitar, but i dont want concentric pots, nor do i want to be without a pickups selector, and my guitar just doesnt have enough space on it. I want a tone control, but i dont need to use it during a song, so it can be on the pedal. thanks+


EDIT: ON THE SCHEMATIC, THE BOTTOM RIGHT DT/DP SWITCH IS WIRED INCORRECTLY, THE LEAD THAT ATTACHES TO THE LEFT MIDDLE TERMINAL SHOULD ALSO ATTACH TO THE MIDDLE RIGHT TERMINAL

[ArtieToo]

Re: very unique wiring, need help

Hey HolyDirt; It looks to me like what you have will function, but, you have some redundancy and some unnecessary wiring. If you don't mind, let me make some recommendations:

Guitar: Your top pot is wired such that it's connected to the output jack "tip" in both switch positions. So, it doesn't need to be connected to the switch at all. Your bottom pot is connected so that it switches between the "tip" and "ring" of the output jack, but this is also unnecessary. Here's what I'ld do: just wire the top pot direct to the output jack "tip", and the bottom pot direct to the output jack "ring". Now use a simple SPST switch to "short" the tip to ring. You get the exact same functionality that you have now, (stereo/mono switching), with much simpler wiring.

(BTW - I'm at work now. I'll post some diagrams to go along with this as soon as I get home.)

However; lets take this a step farther. There's a dirt-simple way to wire up an ordinary "Alco" style 3-way switch, that will give you the same stereo/mono switching, with the added benefit of being able to use your guitar with a "normal" guitar cord. (I'll post the pic as soon as I get home.) The wiring for this method is actually easier than your first diagram, and will give you this functionality:

With a standard guitar cord plugged in, you'll have normal neck/neck & bridge/bridge operation. So, your guitar will be completely usable even without your "special" cable and foot-switch.

With your "stereo" cable and foot-switch, you'll have mono operation with the switch in the middle. With the switch "up", you'll have neck-to-tip/bridge-to-ring, and with the switch "down", you'll have neck-to-ring/bridge-to-tip. So, basically, with a different switch, and some simpler wiring, you'll gain quite a bit more versatility and functionality.

Foot-switch: The way your FS is wired now, you have three switches: One to select the neck, one to select the bridge, and one to select both. I'm not sure why you're doing it this way, but you can maintain those options with only two switches. And, there's two different ways to perform that funtion:

1. Use two SPDT switches, (or two DPDT switches if you'ld like to include LED indicators), to select the pickups. Hit one switch to select the neck, the other to select the bridge, and leave both on to select both. The disadvantage of this method is, it takes two foot operations to switch from one p'up to the other. (Your own diagram has this same limitation.)

2. Use an SPDT switch to select neck or bridge, and a DPDT switch to select between that switches output and "both" p'ups. This wiring is actually simpler than what you show, but again, I'll have to wait til I get home to post the pic. This, by the way, is the method I'ld use. With one foot movement, you can switch between neck or bridge - and one other foot movement to switch between one or both p'ups.

This is all much simpler that it sounds, but its hard to visualize without pics. (Film at eleven.)

[HolyDirt]

Re: very unique wiring, need help

Hey HolyDirt; It looks to me like what you have will function, but, you have some redundancy and some unnecessary wiring. If you don't mind, let me make some recommendations:

Guitar: Your top pot is wired such that it's connected to the output jack "tip" in both switch positions. So, it doesn't need to be connected to the switch at all. Your bottom pot is connected so that it switches between the "tip" and "ring" of the output jack, but this is also unnecessary. Here's what I'ld do: just wire the top pot direct to the output jack "tip", and the bottom pot direct to the output jack "ring". Now use a simple SPST switch to "short" the tip to ring. You get the exact same functionality that you have now, (stereo/mono switching), with much simpler wiring.

(BTW - I'm at work now. I'll post some diagrams to go along with this as soon as I get home.)


However; lets take this a step farther. There's a dirt-simple way to wire up an ordinary "Alco" style 3-way switch, that will give you the same stereo/mono switching, with the added benefit of being able to use your guitar with a "normal" guitar cord. (I'll post the pic as soon as I get home.) The wiring for this method is actually easier than your first diagram, and will give you this functionality:

With a standard guitar cord plugged in, you'll have normal neck/neck & bridge/bridge operation. So, your guitar will be completely usable even without your "special" cable and foot-switch.

With your "stereo" cable and foot-switch, you'll have mono operation with the switch in the middle. With the switch "up", you'll have neck-to-tip/bridge-to-ring, and with the switch "down", you'll have neck-to-ring/bridge-to-tip. So, basically, with a different switch, and some simpler wiring, you'll gain quite a bit more versatility and functionality.

Foot-switch: The way your FS is wired now, you have three switches: One to select the neck, one to select the bridge, and one to select both. I'm not sure why you're doing it this way, but you can maintain those options with only two switches. And, there's two different ways to perform that funtion:

1. Use two SPDT switches, (or two DPDT switches if you'ld like to include LED indicators), to select the pickups. Hit one switch to select the neck, the other to select the bridge, and leave both on to select both. The disadvantage of this method is, it takes two foot operations to switch from one p'up to the other. (Your own diagram has this same limitation.)

2. Use an SPDT switch to select neck or bridge, and a DPDT switch to select between that switches output and "both" p'ups. This wiring is actually simpler than what you show, but again, I'll have to wait til I get home to post the pic. This, by the way, is the method I'ld use. With one foot movement, you can switch between neck or bridge - and one other foot movement to switch between one or both p'ups.

This is all much simpler that it sounds, but its hard to visualize without pics. (Film at eleven.)

great! thanks artie, i knew i did some redundancy on the wiring, i was kinda confused as to what i was doing at the time... but your way sounds much better. Oh, and how do you wire LEDs? i would like to put some in the switch as well

[ArtieToo]

Re: very unique wiring, need help

Ok . . . here's the way to simplify what you already have:



A simple SPST or DPST switch that does the same thing, but makes the wiring easier. (Take note, that my drawing accidently reverses the tip/ring connection. Just switch those around to have match what you had.)

However, here's how I'ld do it:



The 3-way switch in the guitar must be the "Alco" style. When the switch is in the middle, the two terminals connected by green must be shorted.
With this configuration, you can plug in an ordinary guitar cord, and get normal operation. If you plug in your "stereo" cord, into your foot-switch, you'll get mono with the switch in the middle, neck-to-tip/bridge-to-ring in one position, and the opposite, in the other.

On the foot-switch, you'll use one switch to select between neck and bridge, and the other switch to select between the first switches position and both.

Hope this makes sense.

[ArtieToo]

Re: very unique wiring, need help

Doing it this way gives you another interesting option. Build yourself another really simple foot-switch box. (Actually - there's no "foot" involved here.) One stereo input jack, two mono output jacks:



Now you have an A/B box controlled on the guitar. With the 3-way switch in the middle, both p'ups go out the A jack.
Put the 3-way "up" and you have neck-to-A / bridge-to-B.
Put the 3-way "down", and you have neck-to-B / bridge-to-A.

Opens some interesting possibilities.

If you're reading this since I edited it, I made a mistake. Refresh the page to make sure you see the "corrected" text.

[HolyDirt]

Re: very unique wiring, need help

AWESOME, thanks artie