5-way rotary switches in LP / ES-335 type guitar?

[PylonRacer]

Has anyone replaced their 3-way switch with a 5 or 6 way rotary switch? I was contemplating adding push pull tone pots to my Ibanez ES335 copy to add out of phase and maybe a split. But... If I can fit one of these babies in there I can maintain the large diameter CTS tone pots and use the rotary switch to control the pup combinations.

I managed to drag myself through the 4 pole 6 throw ibanez switch with one volume & one tone, so how tough is this going to be now that I'm dealing with two volumes & two tones? Can this be done?

I'm contemplating these configurations

5) Neck HB
4) Neck split + Bridge split
3) Neck + Bridge
2) Neck + Bridge (out of phase)
1) Bridge HB

6) Neck HB
5) Neck split (or in parallel with itself)
4) Neck split + Bridge split
3) Neck + Bridge
2) Neck + Bridge (out of phase)
1) Bridge HB


These are from Stew-Mac. Are these good quality or should be looking somewhere else?

 

[FAC]

Re: 5-way rotary switches in LP / ES-335 type guitar?

Has anyone replaced their 3-way switch with a 5 or 6 way rotary switch?

I suspect it would work in a 335 style guitar with a thin top...but it would require routing on a les paul (probably not worth it on a les paul unless you didn't care about whipping out the router).

I was looking into this a few months ago...the rotary switch I bought, which was pretty much exactly like the ones you showed, would not fit into space where the toggle switch resides, nor was it long enough to reach through the top in one of the tone/volume pot holes (also, it was the wrong diameter by a small amount). I ended up using push pulls for the les paul.

 

[Artie]

Re: 5-way rotary switches in LP / ES-335 type guitar?

Keep in mind also, that for the functions you want, you'ld need the larger 4-pole version.

 

[PylonRacer]

Re: 5-way rotary switches in LP / ES-335 type guitar?

Yeah I didn't think about the space limitations in a LP. It's going in an ES-335 type. I was thinking about the 4 pole 5-way or 4-pole 6-way.

 

[PylonRacer]

Re: 5-way rotary switches in LP / ES-335 type guitar?

I suspect it would work in a 335 style guitar with a thin top...but it would require routing on a les paul (probably not worth it on a les paul unless you didn't care about whipping out the router).

I was looking into this a few months ago...the rotary switch I bought, which was pretty much exactly like the ones you showed, would not fit into space where the toggle switch resides, nor was it long enough to reach through the top in one of the tone/volume pot holes (also, it was the wrong diameter by a small amount). I ended up using push pulls for the les paul.

Does your LP require the long shaft pots?

 

[FAC]

Re: 5-way rotary switches in LP / ES-335 type guitar?

Does your LP require the long shaft pots?

It's close. I did use long shaft pots, but I needed to put a nut/washer on the inside to get them to be the correct height because the long shafts were REALLY long. I thought of replacing one of the tone controls with the rotary switch...the diameter of the pot hole (?!!?), however, was slightly narrower than needed for the rotary switch to fit through. I decided not to break out the router.

With respect to replacing the toggle switch with the rotary switch, it simply did not fit in there correctly, regardless of the shaft length. Perhaps others have had a different experience, but it did not work with my Les Paul (57 black beauty reissue).

 

[Will S-T]

Re: 5-way rotary switches in LP / ES-335 type guitar?

I've also been contemplating using the 4 pole 5 way rotary with 2 H/B's.
I came across the following diagram, just assume that the H/B in question
is actually 2 seperate pickups that get to the switch after their own
individual vol and tone pots.
This will give you -

1-Neck+Bridge in series
2-Neck
3-Neck+Bridge in parallel
4-Bridge
5-Bridge+Neck in series out of Phase

You can now use push/pull volume pots to split each H/B and
push/pull tone pots to run them in parallel, or even two seperate
tone caps.

Can this be done???

 

[blueman335]

Re: 5-way rotary switches in LP / ES-335 type guitar?

I'm contemplating these configurations:

6) Neck HB
5) Neck split (or in parallel with itself)
4) Neck split + Bridge split
3) Neck + Bridge
2) Neck + Bridge (out of phase)
1) Bridge HB

This is a nice selection of options, and all very usable. For #4, you want the slug coil of the bridge PU, paired with the screw coil for the neck PU, which will give you hum-free sound.

I have push-pulls in most of my guitars, but would like to try a rotary switch in one. Not sure how easy it will be to get that through an F hole, or if I'd put it in a solid body. Advantages to push-pulls are that individually they are much easier to wire than a rotary (which looks like a jellyfish when wired), and that you make a single movement to get one sound, whereas with a rotary you have to count the clicks as you turn it to get what you want; that could be prone to errors on stage.

 

[PylonRacer]

Re: 5-way rotary switches in LP / ES-335 type guitar?

This is a nice selection of options, and all very usable. For #4, you want the slug coil of the bridge PU, paired with the screw coil for the neck PU, which will give you hum-free sound.

I have push-pulls in most of my guitars, but would like to try a rotary switch in one. Not sure how easy it will be to get that through an F hole, or if I'd put it in a solid body. Advantages to push-pulls are that individually they are much easier to wire than a rotary (which looks like a jellyfish when wired), and that you make a single movement to get one sound, whereas with a rotary you have to count the clicks as you turn it to get what you want; that could be prone to errors on stage.

I'm a Strat guy so I'm assuming that the rotary won't be much more difficult than a Strat 5-way. I think it can be faster and more intuitive than pulling knobs. I do think the Strat toggle makes seeing the location pretty easy. I'm not sure what knob I'll use yet; but I think I'll go with a knob with one indicator line on it and have that facing directly up for position 3. That will be the most similar to a Strat setup that I can think of. Roll it all the way forward tor Neck HB and all the way back for the Bridge. Maybe using a numbered ring like the Varitone knob is the way to go. The chicken head knobs are pretty ugly to me, so I might just modify a Gibson style knob to match the other knobs.

I'd like to stick to 5 positions for simplicity sake. But if I do go 6, I can use the Varitone number ring. I don't know if I really need the [Neck split + Bridge split] option. What do you think? I would like a bright neck tone; and I definitely want the out of phase tone; and of course the other 3 standard settings.