Advice & help please about using rotary for bridge pickup

eclecticsynergy

eclecticsynergy

New member
I have a RioGrande hybrid humbucker with rod-magnet coils based on their Tallboy and Halfbreed Strat pickups.
Would love to have a rotary for coil choices (this pickup only, using regular 5-way blade for overall pickup selection).
Am thinking four or five positions: Series, parallel, inner coil alone, bridge coil alone, and maybe series-OOP also.

First of all, is series-out-of-phase a viable option for two coils so close together? (They are different winds: 7.7K and 8.25K.)
But if OOP isn't likely to be usable, I'd be happy with 4 positions.

Have seen single wafer two- and three-pole rotaries with lugs on the bottom face that should fit in a Fender type rout.
Less certain about fitting two-wafer rotaries that have their connections around the outer edge.

So, can what I want be done using a two pole rotary? or would it require a 3P4T? or a 4P4T?
And could it be done with a 2 pole switch if the series-OOP option were omitted?

Thanks for your help and advice.


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All four modes, (minus OOP), can be had with a DP4T switch. And rotary switches can be had that are high-quality AND very small. But they tend to be for aerospace applications and very expensive. Large rotary switches, (as in a couple inches in diameter), can be had much cheaper. So, it becomes a matter of how much room you have, or how much you want to spend.

rotary-02-sm.jpg
 
ArtieToo said:
All four modes, (minus OOP), can be had with a DP4T switch. And rotary switches can be had that are high-quality AND very small. But they tend to be for aerospace applications and very expensive. Large rotary switches, (as in a couple inches in diameter), can be had much cheaper. So, it becomes a matter of how much room you have, or how much you want to spend.

Click to expand...

Thanks Artie.
When I was looking at 3P5T rotaries, they were either too deep or hideously expensive.
Unless I can find a reasonably priced 3P5T, I can happily dispense with the OOP setting.
I suspect with the coils right nest to each other it might not have been be very useful anyway.

The 3P4T rotary I have my eye on is only a few dollars, and not too deep or wide.
One nice thing is, the terminals aren't sticking out from the edges; they're on the bottom.
Here's a pic.



However, I might still opt for a name brand one if all I really need is double pole.
 
Tried to correct the line with errors, and add that the rotary is only 31mm wide, about 1¼" across the length of the oval baseplate.
But I guess we're once again unable to edit any post that has a quote or picture in it.
I thought that had been fixed for awhile.
 
I don't like rotaries. I find that they are hard to dial to the position I want and I never know which position I'm actually in. Then it's hard to get back to where I was.
 
GuitarDoc said:
I don't like rotaries. I find that they are hard to dial to the position I want and I never know which position I'm actually in. Then it's hard to get back to where I was.
Click to expand...

I don't use them very often. In fact, I have none with a rotary at this time. But on the rare occasions when I use one, I always stick to the same sequence: series, parallel, stud, screw. That heelps keep it somewhat intuitive.
 
I'm long used to the 5-way rotaries on my older PRSs and don't find it hard to navigate at all.
I admit it seemed a bit odd at first, back in the 80s. But I got used to it very quickly.

Anyway, on this guitar the rotary will just be used to set the configuration of the bridge pickup.
I figure it'll probably remain on one setting throughout a song.
 
Maybe this doesn't help, but I wired my Jackson like this, except I used two push pulls on the vol/tone wired like a triple shot. I can easily tell what config the bridge is in by looking at whether the pots are up or down. The 5-way selects between all the pickups as normal. (I don't use OOP between the bridge coils because that would defeat the humbucking aspect without giving me any meaningful additional sounds.)
 
beaubrummels said:
Maybe this doesn't help, but I wired my Jackson like this, except I used two push pulls on the vol/tone wired like a triple shot. I can easily tell what config the bridge is in by looking at whether the pots are up or down. The 5-way selects between all the pickups as normal. (I don't use OOP between the bridge coils because that would defeat the humbucking aspect without giving me any meaningful additional sounds.)
Click to expand...

Thanks. I kinda need to go rotary though - tone pot on this one will probably push-pull for a bass cut cap.
 
ArtieToo said:
Dang. Can't edit. That's, (left to right), series, parallel, stud, screw.
Click to expand...

Yah, I thought the editing glitch had been fixed... But if so, it's back again.

Thanks again for the diagram.
Funny, I understand wiring reasonably well now and looking at the diagram it makes perfect sense.
But I still go blank if I try to visualize something like that from scratch on my own.
 
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