5-way Rotary Help!!

[dhenry88]

Ok so I bought a couple 5-way rotary switches from StewMac to experiment with some PRS wiring on my SEs and found something interesting. Apparently, with their wiring diagram these are the switching positions:

1. Neck humbucker
2. Outer coils in parallel
3. Outer coils in series
4. Inner coils in parallel
5. Bridge humbucker

However, the actual PRS wiring should be:

1. Neck humbucker
2. Inner coils in parallel
3. Inner coils in series
4. Outer coils in parallel
5. Bridge humbucker

Now this is their wiring scheme:

What would I change to ensure that I'm actually getting the PRS positions and not theirs? Would it just be a matter of flipping the hot and ground wires? If it helps, here are how my humbuckers are wired:

Black: Screw Coil
White/Red: Series Link
Green: Slug Coil
and, of course, a bare ground.

Thanks in advance!!

 

[BriGuy1968]

5-way Rotary Help!!

Easiest way would be to just flip your pickups over. The only drawback would be that the logos (if any) would face the other direction.

Oh yeah... and welcome to the forum!

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[dhenry88]

Re: 5-way Rotary Help!!

That would be easy, however I need the screws to be on the outside as the slug coils are going to actually have rod magnets instead of steel slugs.

 

[BriGuy1968]

Re: 5-way Rotary Help!!

Are your screw coils both magnetic North and slugs South?


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[dhenry88]

Re: 5-way Rotary Help!!

No. Screws are South, Slugs are North. As I wire this in, I will flip the bridge humbucker's magnet, so that the screws on the Bridge will be North.

 

[BriGuy1968]

Re: 5-way Rotary Help!!

Ok... I understand. So your pickups themselves WILL be wired as in the diagram you provided.

Unfortunately, my eyes are starting to cross looking at this tonight (long day today). I THINK the only thing you're going to have to swap will be the two series link wires, causing the two pickups to split in the opposite directions. As I'm trying to follow the different variations, however, my brain is just not cooperating. Tell me, do you have it wired up like this already? And if so, does it work as StewMac said it would (in reverse from PRS)? I'm having trouble getting it to work in my head, and I just can't tell right now if I'm too sleepy or if the diagram is faulty. If you have it already wired up and it works, then the diagram is fine and I'm too tired... and you should be able to just swap the two series links. If you HAVEN'T wired it up yet, then let me know and tomorrow morning I'll follow it in more detail with a clearer head!

We'll get it figured out! G'nite! :sleeping:

 

[dhenry88]

Re: 5-way Rotary Help!!

I haven't wired it up yet, because I noticed this on StewMac's website, and I want to get it right the first time.

So you mean by swapping the series link, swapping the red/white pair with black/green (if we're talking Duncan colors)? Which would make white hot and red the ground?

 

[BriGuy1968]

5-way Rotary Help!!

If we're talking Duncan colors, then the series link is always going to be red/white, with black as (+) and green as (-), along with the bare ground. When we treat that red/white combo as a single wire (whether we attach a single wire to them or just solder both wires to the same lug somewhere) and then connect that wire to ground, the result is splitting to the North coil. If we connect that wire to hot, the result is splitting to the South coil.

When I talk about swapping the series link wires, I mean on the 5-way rotary. Put the neck link where the bridge link is connected, and vice versa.

I'm going to get some coffee now and take a harder look at your diagram. Last night I was seeing series on positions 2 and 4 but like I said, I was having trouble concentrating and staying awake!


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[BriGuy1968]

Re: 5-way Rotary Help!!

Okay, I looked it over and the diagram you have is faulty. I re-did it in my own program just because I could visualize it better, and here it is, no changes, assuming that the bridge magnet is NOT flipped:

As you can see, the switching provides neither the pattern for which you are looking NOR even the pattern they claim. I thought perhaps they were planning on flipping the magnet in the bridge, as you plan to do and ended up with a slightly different pattern, but still not what you're looking for.

So back to the drawing board.

I completely re-did the diagram and came up with the following which I believe will fit your needs quite nicely. My thoughts about swapping the two series link wires was not the problem, but the other connections on the switch were screwed up. In any case, here's the diagram that should work for you:

Be sure to let me know if I can help in any other way!


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[dhenry88]

Re: 5-way Rotary Help!!

So back to the drawing board.

I completely re-did the diagram and came up with the following which I believe will fit your needs quite nicely. My thoughts about swapping the two series link wires was not the problem, but the other connections on the switch were screwed up. In any case, here's the diagram that should work for you:

Be sure to let me know if I can help in any other way!

Dude, this is perfect!!! Works EXACTLY how I wanted it to. Thank you so much for saving my life here!!!!

I, for some reason, went with a 250K volume pot, because it's wired with no tone control, and the guitar is a little on the bright side. However, I don't like it and I'm going back to the 500K. There are some really cool Stratty tones I'm getting here. Probably more so when my Alnico slugs get here Monday.

 

[dhenry88]

Re: 5-way Rotary Help!!

Btw, what software do you use to draw up those schematics?

 

[Southbound Suarez]

Re: 5-way Rotary Help!!

I have a 6 way rotary installed in my custom made lefty 24 fret PRS clone guitar such that I get: 1) BR HB 2) BR SC 3) BR & NK HB 4) BR & NK SC Series 5) NK SC 6) NK HB.

 

[dhenry88]

Re: 5-way Rotary Help!!

I thought about doing a 6-way switch but ultimately decided to go for the 5-way, because I only anticipated using maybe 3-4 of these sounds. Sounds cool though!

 

[BriGuy1968]

Re: 5-way Rotary Help!!

Btw, what software do you use to draw up those schematics?

It's called ExpressSCH, and then I just export the image and color it using Microsoft Paint.


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[Southbound Suarez]

Re: 5-way Rotary Help!!

I thought about doing a 6-way switch but ultimately decided to go for the 5-way, because I only anticipated using maybe 3-4 of these sounds. Sounds cool though!

I can't use the parallel SC wiring however, as it's too thin sounding.

 

[dhenry88]

Re: 5-way Rotary Help!!

I enjoyed this wiring setup, but ultimately decided to go with a hybrid DGT/408 wiring. Basically each pickup gets a toggle switch for coil splitting (like the PRS 408 models), but instead of the multi-tap pickups, I just use a resistor to ground to lessen signal loss (like the PRS DGT). The end result is a more powerful single-coil tone (which, due to the rod magnets in the slug coils, is pretty legit) and the ability to use an individual pickup in single-coil mode. I find this works better for me.

 

[eclecticsynergy]

Re: 5-way Rotary Help!!

I've often fantasized about trying to replicate those original T&B humbuckers and hook them up to duplicate the early PRS 5-way wiring in my '87. It's a winning combination, and different from the two other variations on the 5-way that PRS used later.

Out of curiosity, to go with the flipped magnet in your bridge humbucker, did you install the alnico slugs with reversed polarity?

 

[dhenry88]

Re: 5-way Rotary Help!!

I've often fantasized about trying to replicate those original T&B humbuckers and hook them up to duplicate the early PRS 5-way wiring in my '87. It's a winning combination, and different from the two other variations on the 5-way that PRS used later.

Out of curiosity, to go with the flipped magnet in your bridge humbucker, did you install the alnico slugs with reversed polarity?

Yes, whatever polarity my tester was reading on the coil was the polarity that was facing up on the rod magnets. I had 6 slugs oriented north (neck) and 6 slugs oriented south (bridge).

 

[miskuamakus]

Re: 5-way Rotary Help!!

Hi there BriGuy1968, and sorry for Bother in a thred so old like this. I've started a project with my guitar and looking for some information so face the wirings, i've found this thred, and i've notice that i'm trying to do something very similar to dhenry did. Ive bought a rotary switch from StewMac but this one is 4 pole and 6 positions, because my idea was exactly like dhenry's but adding the both humbuckers in the position 6, (just like any Les Paul with it selector in middle position).
The idea would be this:

1. Neck humbucker
2. Inner coils in parallel
3. Inner coils in series
4. Outer coils in parallel
5. Bridge humbucker
6. Bridge & neck humbuckers

Do you think that this would be possible using this switch? If the answer is afirmative, would be so much ask you for some help with the modifications to do to the definitive diagram you did for dhenry?
Once again sorry for bothering you and thanks a lot in advance for any comment or help!!!
:yourock:

 

[BriGuy1968]

Re: 5-way Rotary Help!!

Hi mishuamakus, and welcome to the forum!

Yeah, it should be possible. Let me see what I can come up with for you.