Brilliant Idea for HSS Guitars. Need Wiring Schematic!

[Gearjoneser]

I love HSS guitars with a hot humbucker like a C-5 tremspaced in the bridge, and vintage A-5 strat pickups like Antiquity Surfers. The only problem is that the humbucker always overpowers the vintage singles.

My solution. Make the volume pot effect only the bridge pickup, along with the right value cap to keep it natural sounding throughout it's sweep.
Make the second pot a volume for only the singles. Make the tone pot effect only the bridge pickup, since I rarely back the tone down on the singles.

This way, I can keep the volume backed down on the humbucker, while retaining all the volume from the vintage singles. If I want the humbucker to outpower the singles, I just bring up the volume to 10, but usually keep it around 7.

Can anyone draw up a schematic that would allow this to work?

 

[Artie]

Re: Brilliant Idea for HSS Guitars. Need Wiring Schematic!

Doing it with the standard 5-way might be tricky - not necessarily impossible - but tricky. I'll chew on it a bit.

Doing it a slightly different way, which I posted a long time ago, is to use two 3-way switches. The first 3-way selects between neck & middle, and has its own volume control. The second 3-way selects between the output of that 3-way, plus the bridge, with its own volume control.

Its actually a versatile setup, that allows for all three pups to be on in a simple matter. It just takes mounting two 3-ways, instead of a 5-way.

I'll post the drawing for that shortly, and work on the other.

 

[Breaking the law]

Re: Brilliant Idea for HSS Guitars. Need Wiring Schematic!

Could it be possible to wire the bridge pickup to a volume pot, and then the pot into a 5-way switch? Sort of like having a volume for the bridge pu and a master volume for all of the pickups. That way you could back down the bridge pickup volume.. in theory.

 

[Artie]

Re: Brilliant Idea for HSS Guitars. Need Wiring Schematic!

Could it be possible to wire the bridge pickup to a volume pot, and then the pot into a 5-way switch? Sort of like having a volume for the bridge pu and a master volume for all of the pickups. That way you could back down the bridge pickup volume.. in theory.

Yeah, that might work. But you'ld have one volume control feeding another. May not be a problem.

Here's a quick mod I made to an older drawing just to give you an idea of what I meant. It also includes a little "template" for a dual-3-way convertor plate to cover the 5-way slot.

(Pic converted to link, to save bandwidth.)

double 3-way

 

[Artie]

Re: Brilliant Idea for HSS Guitars. Need Wiring Schematic!

BTL's idea would look something like this:

Pic converted to link, to save bandwidth.

HSS twin volume

I just threw this together real quick. I haven't analyzed it to see the electrical implications yet.

 

[Breaking the law]

Re: Brilliant Idea for HSS Guitars. Need Wiring Schematic!

Hey, ArtieToo, could that other 3-way switch in your first schematic be replaced with a push-pull pot? Well, it would have only 2 positions, of course..

Just an idea..

 

[Artie]

Re: Brilliant Idea for HSS Guitars. Need Wiring Schematic!

Yup. Just use the 3-way to select:

1. neck
2. neck & middle
3. middle

and pull up the pot anytime to bring in the bridge. Works regardless of whether or not you use the second volume control.

 

[Artie]

Re: Brilliant Idea for HSS Guitars. Need Wiring Schematic!

Note that both of those drawings have the classic dual-volume control problem. Ideally, the two pots should be reversed. (Wiper for "hot" end.)

I can draw that if anyone needs.

 

[Breaking the law]

Re: Brilliant Idea for HSS Guitars. Need Wiring Schematic!

I know very little of pots.. what's the difference between logaritmic and linear pots?
Could that difference help with 2 volumes?

 

[theodie]

Re: Brilliant Idea for HSS Guitars. Need Wiring Schematic!

Note that both of those drawings have the classic dual-volume control problem. Ideally, the two pots should be reversed. (Wiper for "hot" end.)

I can draw that if anyone needs.

I was going to suggest that the pickups be wired to the wiper side (middle lug) of the pot. Would that work out on its own Artie? I wired My LP that way and the volumes are independent of each other.

 

[Artie]

Re: Brilliant Idea for HSS Guitars. Need Wiring Schematic!

A linear pot changes the resistance proportional to how much you turn it.
If you move it to the halfway point, its at half resistance.

A logarithmic pot has a "taper" on the resistance. Typically, at the 50% rotation point, it will be at 10% resistance.

 

[Breaking the law]

Re: Brilliant Idea for HSS Guitars. Need Wiring Schematic!

Okay, thanks, Artietoo! I've been thinking about a wiring resembling Gearjoneser's idea.. I might go with the push-pull switch..

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Brilliant Idea for HSS Guitars. Need Wiring Schematic!

The 5 way switch is actually two switches...one on each side.

You could wire the two single coils to one side of the switch and the output of that side to a 250K volume pot.

You could wire the humbucker to the other side of the switch and the output of that side to a 500K volume pot.

Then you could bridge the outputs (the middle terminals) of those two pots together and feed the output jack and a 500K (or 250K) tone control.

I think it would work...but I haven't tried it.

Lew

 

[Breaking the law]

Re: Brilliant Idea for HSS Guitars. Need Wiring Schematic!

Hey, Lew.. I have time on my hands and a guitar to experiment with.. I could try that,
If you can tell me which terminal on the 5-way switch is which.. Let's call the one where the hot from Bridge pickup comes no1. 2 is for the middle pu..3 is for the neck pu How would they have to be connected in your idea?

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Brilliant Idea for HSS Guitars. Need Wiring Schematic!

BTL's idea would look something like this:

I just threw this together real quick. I haven't analyzed it to see the electrical implications yet.

Cool...please give a try!

The output for the left side of the switch in Artie's drawing is the terminal on the bottem left side of the switch.

The output for the right side of the switch is the terminal at the top right of the switch.

Leave the neck and middle pickups connected where they are but move the connection for the bridge pickup to the right side. It would be the terminal at the bottem right.

And then wire it all up as I described in my earlier post.

I'm sure that will work perfectly.

Lew

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Brilliant Idea for HSS Guitars. Need Wiring Schematic!

Just a note: we talked about this a year or two ago here on the old board and I'm pretty sure Artie did a drawing of the wiring I just described. Remember Artie?

 

[Artie]

Re: Brilliant Idea for HSS Guitars. Need Wiring Schematic!

Just a note: we talked about this a year or two ago here on the old board and I'm pretty sure Artie did a drawing of the wiring just I just described. Remember Artie?

Yeah . . . sorta. I'm getting old. :laugh2:

I don't know why I didn't think of that. I'll see if I can dig that old drawing up. I know I have it somewhere.

 

[Artie]

Re: Brilliant Idea for HSS Guitars. Need Wiring Schematic!

Hmmm . . . oddly enough, it wasn't that long ago. Here it is in schematic form:

If anyone needs this converted to diagramatic form, let me know.

 

[Gearjoneser]

Re: Brilliant Idea for HSS Guitars. Need Wiring Schematic!

I hate putting people to work on this, but I'm a wiring tard. LOL Even though I kinda understand it in schematic form, I'd need it in the diagram form to actually start the wiring. My new G&L Legacy Deluxe now has the C-5/2 Fat 50's, but I gutted all the wiring, since they had some fancy-schmancy stuff in there, like a bass and treble boost. I wasn't digging it. I've wired it up as a normal American HSS strat right now, but this new idea dawned on me this morning.

 

[Artie]

Re: Brilliant Idea for HSS Guitars. Need Wiring Schematic!

Cool . . . its early Sunday morn . . . and I'm still on my first cup-o-java.

I'll put something together once the sun comes up. :laugh2: