Alternative Strat-wiring

[Jeroen]

Hi there, I'm new here. I stumbled upon this forum in my quest for pretty unusual wiring schematics for Strat. Here's the story:

I recently got my hands on the new Yamaha-catalog, and noticed the SA503TVL Troy van Leeuwen signature model. This is an ES335-style semi-hollow, but with three soapbar pickups. It was the switching that caught my eye most, though. They use two three position toggle switches for them. This opens lots of possibilities, but I can't find how they wire them. There's one wiring scheme that came to my mind, and has been haunting my mind eversince, as it would make a great wiring scheme for my Strat. Here it is:

I would fit a three position Strat-switch on my Strat that switches between the neck pickup, bridge pickup and both pickups in parallel mode for Tele-switching. A three way toggle switch adds the middle pickup (RW/RP), with the settings OFF, ON (parallel) and ON (series).

I know it can be done (with little modification of the guitar, I'd only need to drill a new hole in my pickguard for the switch - OR make one tonepot a master tonepot and stick the switch in the hole of the other tonepot) but I don't know [CENSORED] about wiring pickups. I've been searching the internet like crazy but this switching scheme is nowhere to be found. Or maybe it is, but I missed it.

Who can supply me with the correct schematics? It would make me very happy!

 

[PFDarkside]

Re: Alternative Strat-wiring

I like that idea. When I wire my strat I am going to use a 5-way for the neck+bridge (n, n+b parallel, n+b series, n+b series out of phase, b) and use a blender pot to blend the middle in parallel in varying degrees.

If you wanted to use gibson style 3-ways it might me difficult or impossible, but with a dpdt I'm pretty sure artie can figure it out.

 

[Artie]

Re: Alternative Strat-wiring

I think that can be done. Not sure about the series part using a DPDT. Let me think on it a bit, and I'll see what I can whip up. I'm a drawing or two behind right now, so give me a day or two.

Artie

 

[Jeroen]

Re: Alternative Strat-wiring

That would be great, Artie! I'm looking forward to it :beerchug:

 

[Dirt123]

Re: Alternative Strat-wiring

Another way to do it if you prefer 2 Gibson type toggles:

One switch could select neck, neck + middle, and middle; the other switch could select bridge, bridge + output of the other switch, or just the other switch alone.

 

[Jeroen]

Re: Alternative Strat-wiring

I like that idea, but it's not exactly what I'm looking for. I would really like the series/parallel switching option as described in my first post. That would really be awesome, and would make my Strat very versatile. Thanks for thinking along though

 

[Artie]

Re: Alternative Strat-wiring

Hey Jeroen; Just wanted to let you know, I haven't forgotten, its just . . . Monday.

I should have something tomorrow.

Artie

 

[SpiderVenom]

Re: Alternative Strat-wiring

Hey Jeroen; Just wanted to let you know, I haven't forgotten, its just . . . Monday.

I should have something tomorrow.

Artie

Y'know, Artie, we really need to get you off Microsoft Paint and onto something like Visio :laugh2: (maybe it's not Paint you use, but uh... it sorta looks like it) I guess I'm just a sucker for eye candy diagrams.

 

[Artie]

Re: Alternative Strat-wiring

Not quite "Paint", but close. Its Neo Paint I like to keep it . . . uh . . . simple.

 

[PFDarkside]

Re: Alternative Strat-wiring

Visio sucks (I know, I am forced to use it every day, it's a memory hog and is very imprecise when you need to allign something exactly) and MSPaint may very well be the greatest visual program on earth. KISS philosophy at it's finest. I converted my department into using Paint because it's a simple program to do simple things. (I mean come on, it lets you edit individual pixels easily!)

 

[octavedoctor]

Re: Alternative Strat-wiring

I don't know why you would want to use two switches?

Why not use a superswitch and program it with the positions you want?

Or get a 5 or 6 way rotary from Allparts.

 

[octavedoctor]

Re: Alternative Strat-wiring

A three way toggle switch adds the middle pickup (RW/RP), with the settings OFF, ON (parallel) and ON (series).

I don't understand this; do you have a Strat with 3 single coils? If so the terms series and parallel have no meaning in relation to a single coil pickup, only two coil arrangements can be wired in series or parallel.

 

[Artie]

Re: Alternative Strat-wiring

I don't understand this; do you have a Strat with 3 single coils? If so the terms series and parallel have no meaning in relation to a single coil pickup, only two coil arrangements can be wired in series or parallel.

I wondered about that myself at first. I'm guessing that he want the #2 and #4 positions to be series or parallel.

Artie

 

[PFDarkside]

Re: Alternative Strat-wiring

Me too Artie.

 

[Jeroen]

Re: Alternative Strat-wiring

I don't understand this; do you have a Strat with 3 single coils? If so the terms series and parallel have no meaning in relation to a single coil pickup, only two coil arrangements can be wired in series or parallel.

Oh, I'm sorry if I didn't make that clear enough. Yes, it is a Strat with 3 ordinary single coil pickups (Levinson VS-1's, that were originally fit on a Swiss-made Blade R2).

I wondered about that myself at first. I'm guessing that he wants the #2 and #4 positions to be series or parallel.

Right on!
That's exactly what I meant.

 

[MikeS]

Re: Alternative Strat-wiring

Very interesting wiring scheme. For the most part it's easy, just trying to figure out the series/parallel part of the middle pickup switch.

 

[SpiderVenom]

Re: Alternative Strat-wiring

Visio sucks (I know, I am forced to use it every day, it's a memory hog and is very imprecise when you need to allign something exactly) and MSPaint may very well be the greatest visual program on earth. KISS philosophy at it's finest. I converted my department into using Paint because it's a simple program to do simple things. (I mean come on, it lets you edit individual pixels easily!)

I've never much cared about the memory hogging... I don't exactly run Half-Life 2 at the same time. I know all about the imprecision thing, drives me nuts, but I work around it.

Sure paint works, but maybe that's taking KISS a little too far :laugh2: 'specially when I want to having wires going everywhere, and like little grey blobs representing solder (yes, I'm obsessive :beerchug: )

 

[ParameterMan]

Re: Alternative Strat-wiring

1 vote for having the middle pickup blendable. I have something to that effect and really use it a lot.

 

[Jeroen]

Re: Alternative Strat-wiring

I don't want to seem impatient :naughty: , but have you conjured up something yet, Artie? I would like to make the modification somewhere this week, as soon as I know how to, and my local luthier/hardwarestore is only open two days a week

 

[Artie]

Re: Alternative Strat-wiring

I don't want to seem impatient . . .

Not a problem. I lost track of some promised wiring diagrams due to some "stuff" at home. Glad you bumped this back.

I hope I got this right. If not, we can modify it to accomodate anything.
This is based on what you described in your first post. I'm assuming you have a "normal" Strat/Fender-style 3-way blade switch. The kind that looks just like a 5-way, but doesn't have the "notch" positions.

Next, I couldn't get this to work with an on-off-on DPDT. You'll need to use an on-on-on DPDT, but those are available in the same places as the other type.

See if this makes sense:

With the DPDT in the middle, the middle pup is off. Flip it one way to add it in parallel, and the other way, to add it in series. The cool thing about this is, if you have the 3-way set to neck and bridge, you'll add the middle in series with that parallel combo. Could be a cool sound.

Let me know if this isn't quite right, or doesn't make sense. We'll get it.

Artie

Edit: btw - I've seen 3-way switches with the terminals arranged differently. Make sure that the dark blue and dark red squares are the "common" terminals, however they're arranged.