How do I wire up a 5-way strat switch?

[That90'sGuy]

I'm really puzzled as to how I get [neck],[neck/middle],[middle],[middle/bridge], [bridge] out of a 5-way switch. I managed to do it right on my Grosh Bent Top Custom, but I'm having difficulty with the G&L. I took out the old G&L and replaced it with a official Fender 5-way switch.

This is my rustic diagram (from facing the serial number):

n n n n
u u u u
xxxxxxxxxx (the serial number)

Which connection goes to which pickup? The Torres Engineering blend pot I got seems easy enough (one end connects to wherever the bridge pup is and one connects to where the neck pup is).

My electronics are going to be the 5-way, one volume, one tone, one blend. The tone control must control all 3 pickups. I've tried various things while getting two or three different tones, but not all 5 like I should. Something isn't working quite right. I have the upper left connection (the left most n) connected to the first pot (the leftmost one) on a 250k pot. I was under the impression the other n connections go to the respective pickups, but that doesn't seem to work.

I would appreciate it if anyone could fill me in (I understand electronics for the most part and different types of circuits, but don't understand things like rheostats and potentiometers beyond the notion that they are variable resistors).

 

[beandip]

Re: How do I wire up a 5-way strat switch?

I'm not very good at describing wiring stuff over the internet, but if you got to the Duncan front page, you can find schematics for many different wiring schemes. Check 'em out, you might find some stuff that you never thought of.

 

[That90'sGuy]

Re: How do I wire up a 5-way strat switch?

http://guitarelectronics.zoovy.com/product/WDUSSS5L1101

This is a newer schematic I found, but I'm still having trouble. All the positions but the neck and neck/middle are working. This happened before and I thought my neck pickup was DOA. I unsoldered the other two and eventually got the neck working, but then the other pups weren't working when I soldered them in different areas. :?:

 

[beandip]

Re: How do I wire up a 5-way strat switch?

http://www.seymourduncan.com/website/support/schematics/3singlecoils_1vol_2tones.html

I dont get why that other one wouldnt work, since it seems to be all drawn up ok. Try this one, I've shown it to alot of people and they seem to have alot of ease with it since they drawings are color and very "real life". Make sure that when you wire everything up, all the grounds go to the back of the volume pot and that you dont have any terminals touching on the switch. Done that one before, and it's no fun, since you cant hardly see that any of the terminals are touching, but the damn thing just dont sound right.

 

[stratsandaks]

Re: How do I wire up a 5-way strat switch?

Here's a schematic from Fralin with the blender pot.

http://www.fralinpickups.com/images/blendschem2.jpg

 

[That90'sGuy]

Re: How do I wire up a 5-way strat switch?

Thanks for the replies guys... I still can't figure this out.

I retried the Fralin wiring (yes, I actually did have that before stratsandaks, but thank you for refreshing my memory) and got the same results. With it followed that way, I get neck, neck/middle, middle and the rest doesn't work. No matter what I do, there is one pickup that isn't working. Individually, each pickup works, but when I try to put them on the switch, everything screws up. The blend pot does work fine, but I need to get the third pup problem fixed.

 

[stratsandaks]

Re: How do I wire up a 5-way strat switch?

Do the 5 positions of the switch work if you physically remove the blender pot (unsolder the connections) from the circuit?

 

[That90'sGuy]

Re: How do I wire up a 5-way strat switch?

The first thing I try to do is get the 5-way switch working alone and then try the blender. If I hold down the wires for the blender pot where they need to be, the blender pot works fine, but the 5-way still doesn't work.

Unfortunately, at this point, it doesn't make a difference. I'd hate to have to pay to get this thing checked out, considering I'm so close to getting it all right. Everything has been grounded perfectly, there's very very little noise in the circuit... it's just that one pup.

 

[stratsandaks]

Re: How do I wire up a 5-way strat switch?

Could there be a blob of solder across a couple of the contacts?

Or maybe you have a bad switch.

Since you are only using one side of the switch you could flip it over and try the other set of contacts...

I dunno it's hard trouble shooting across the net for me anyway

 

[That90'sGuy]

Re: How do I wire up a 5-way strat switch?

Thank you for your persistant time and effort to help me stratsandaks, but I think it's now best to leave it to a pro. I tried everything I could with no such luck. The bridge hot was connected to every contact with no response whatsoever. With the other two pickups off the switch, it worked fine, so there is something very weird here, but it looks like I'm going to have to go to someone to get it fixed.

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: How do I wire up a 5-way strat switch?

I'd do it like this: https://forum.seymourduncan.com/showthread.php?p=215959#post215959

Just use the final version in this thread.

 

[That90'sGuy]

Re: How do I wire up a 5-way strat switch?

I'd do it like this: https://forum.seymourduncan.com/showthread.php?p=215959#post215959

Just use the final version in this thread.

This may be a dumb question Lew, but how would I be able to do this with one master tone control instead of two (the other is a blend pot)?

Thanks for the reply

 

[That90'sGuy]

Re: How do I wire up a 5-way strat switch?

This may be a dumb question Lew, but how would I be able to do this with one master tone control instead of two (the other is a blend pot)?

Thanks for the reply

Bump for Lew's advice

 

[Artie]

Re: How do I wire up a 5-way strat switch?

Like this:

Connect the tone control, (point A), to either point B, for regular tone control, or point C, for the "50's mod".

The connections for the blend pot are in blue to make it easier to see.

Artie

Edit: I believe that the connection I show on the left terminal of the blend pot, belongs on the right terminal. Its just a matter of whether you want the "blend" function dialed in with CW rotation, or CCW.

 

[That90'sGuy]

Re: How do I wire up a 5-way strat switch?

Thank you ArtieToo, I'm going to be trying this later on today! :arms: