Is this insane or should I try it?

L

Lakatu

New member
Ok, first of all, hello everyone.
I'm a woodworker and my electronics experience has always stuck to pretty standard wirings. Here's one though I would like to try but thought I'd run it by all you skilled people here first. Any holes in this design or should I just put it together and see what it does?

http://www.jdilworth.com/touchwood.jpg
 
Re: Is this insane or should I try it?

Looks versatile... Have you ever heard people complain that an H-S-H or triple humbucker combo is just too crowded? Are you going to have like 17 frets on this thing to make room for all these pickups? :eek13:

Don't let me discourage you, unique guitars are what make life worth living. If you can make it work and have no problem with less room for picking (personally I have no problems with guitars with more pickups) than its certainly a cool idea. Maybe instead of that bridge-side minihumbucker try a P-90 for some wicked tones.

Also I didn't check your wiring for functionality, hopefully ArtieToo will be around to comment.
 
Re: Is this insane or should I try it?

I like it, but I'd ditch the neck lil' 59. I honestly don't think you'll use it that much, and I doubt there will be room for it anyway. I like the idea of the middle pup having an independent volume control though.
 
Re: Is this insane or should I try it?

I didn't trace out every position of the 5-way, but it looks ok to me. I like oddball stuff too. The one thing I'd warn against though, is that each pup will see all three volume controls. If you turn down one, you turn down the whole guitar. If you use 500k pots, the effective load will be 167k. Thats gonna suck out a lot of high-end.

I'd use at least 1 meg pots, for an effective load of 333k, and switch the tone cap to at least a .022uf. That should save some of the high end.

btw - I didn't answer the questions in your title:

1. Yes, its insane.
2. Yes, you should try it.
3. Welcome to the forum. :)
 
Re: Is this insane or should I try it?

Thanks guys, I knew it’d be a good idea to get a second opinion.

They all fit with 22 frets and my 25.125 scale. I think the P-90 would sound great there. Maybe the next one? I already have these pickups and I have an ibanez with that duck in the middle and love it.

I’ll definitely change those pots to 1meg and the cap to .022uf. These are the things I’m really lost about. Would it be better to wire the output separately on a stereo jack? Maybe the switched pickups to one channel, the mini-hums to the other, and choose one to get the tone control? or will I still loose independent control over the mini-hums. I know having two volume controls on the same output isn’t anything new. There has to be a way. I’ll try and look up some LP schematics today.
 
Re: Is this insane or should I try it?

The answer is: You should try it, because it's insane!!!

I really want to see the finished product. I'll bet you can get some awesome tones from it, and at the very least some VERY unique tones.

Welcome to the forum!


Oh yeah, Duncan needs to hire you to do their wiring diagrams. Not that theirs are bad, but that one is really cool, and I like the diagram at the bottom that shows which pickups are activated.
 
Re: Is this insane or should I try it?

Thanks jacksonMIA. Graphic Design pays the bills. Wasn't meant to be pretty though, just clean and functional. Think Duncan would trade some work for pickups?

So I looked and it seems none of the multi-volume designs anywhere solve this problem. They all just kinda live with it. I know my mixer doesn't have that problem so I looked up some simple mixer schematics. In the passive (preferable) examples it seems they just add a small resistor between the pot and the output. Is this my solution? or is it gonna mess up all those numbers that I don't quite understand? If I had to I could add a 9v battery but I'd rather not and two of them is out of the question. How much current does a pickup generally create?
 
Re: Is this insane or should I try it?

Lakatu said:
Ok, first of all, hello everyone.
I'm a woodworker and my electronics experience has always stuck to pretty standard wirings. Here's one though I would like to try but thought I'd run it by all you skilled people here first. Any holes in this design or should I just put it together and see what it does?

http://www.jdilworth.com/touchwood.jpg
Click to expand...

i recently underwent an "insane" mod to my guitar, im getting it back tomorrow, the guys working on it said im going to be VERY pleased. go for it, you can always change it around after. Personally, i would say get the "lil Pearly Gates" for the neck, either that or a classic stack single coil
 
Re: Is this insane or should I try it?

Lakatu said:
How much current does a pickup generally create?
Click to expand...
Well, DiMarzio usually lists their buckers in the 300-400 mV range, and if you figure on a roughly 10K pickup, you'd get just a few microamps. Of course, all those milivolt ratings vary depending on every factor imaginable and that resistance is DC resistance, not the AC resistance which is what I should be using, but maybe that'll get you in the ballpark.
 
Re: Is this insane or should I try it?

modophoto said:
Personally, i would say get the "lil Pearly Gates" for the neck, either that or a classic stack single coil
Click to expand...


What is a lil Pearly Gates?
 
Re: Is this insane or should I try it?

Lil PG is a custom shop pickup, basically an Alnico (2 or 5-can't remember) version of a Lil 59.

I've got a guitar with 5 pickups. 3 singles, then a "triple bucker" mounting ring housing a Full Shred and Hot Rails. It's great. I get some pretty cool sounds. If you have a neck single (or rail) set right up against the fretboard, then you'll get good strat neck pickup tones, and the humbucker next to it will be in the same spot as a 24 fret guitar, for some Santana or 24 fret shredder guitar tones, depending on what you want. Then the next "middle" single coil or rails can be in the normal spot, too. It's not a bad idea. I've toyed around with the idea of having a triple bucker mounting ring in the neck position, to house a vintage single with a smooth Santana style bucker.
 
Re: Is this insane or should I try it?

There are ways of wiring independant volumes so they don't affect each other.
Don't recall how...
 
Re: Is this insane or should I try it?

Alright, after sifting through many complex ways to do this I finally encountered a simple one. This was pulled straight from Stewart McDonald's web site. An excellent resource and place for parts and tools. If anything ever goes wrong with my orders with them, they always make it right.


Reversed (Jazz Bass) wiring for independent control of volume
If a guitar has two or more volume controls that are wired in the traditional manner (a Les Paul for example), an interesting thing occurs when the selector switch is in the middle position. The volume control for the neck or bridge pickup will turn down the whole guitar—not just its respective pickup. Yet, on a Fender Jazz bass, which doesn't have a selector switch, two volume controls somehow allow you to turn the pickups up or down independently, without affecting the output of the other. How is this possible?

The reason for this is simple. Since the volume controls are in parallel and the output of the volume pots is the sweeper, when either of the controls is turned down (applying signal to ground) the sum output (what the output jack and amp “see”) is “short-circuited” to ground. To resolve this problem, simply swap the input to lug 2 and the output to lug 3.

This means that the output jack or the amp never really see or are shorted directly to ground—the pickup is shorted to ground instead. The overall tone of the instrument is not affected, since the DC resistance of the resistive strip that attenuates the high end is still present. Refer to diagram #5 for an example of this wiring.​


No diagrams but it's really simple. Basically, switch the input and output to the pot so your input is in the center. Now why doesn't Gibson just do this? I'm reworking the design with this new information and I'll post it as soon as I know that it works.
 
Re: Is this insane or should I try it?

Thank God I'm not going to be wiring that! But I can't wait to see how YOUR's turns out. HAve to see what Zhang thinks about this. Might also attract a Steve Morse/Vai sighting here in forum land. Welcome! And good luck....

Gotta let know how it sounds when it's done!
 
Re: Is this insane or should I try it?

Welcome to the forum! I like your thinking, although maybe a cheeky noiseless single in the neck pos'n instead of the lil '59?
 
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