Please help!!! BC Rich STIII Wiring

rbilleaud

New member
OK, apparently I'm a complete moron and about to just chuck it all. Here's the setup, I'm hoping some kind soul will have mercy. I have a BC Rich STIII. HSS. The two singles are wired to SPST on/off switches. Those work fine as I have them wired. Hot wire on one end, ground wire to the housing of the switch. I have another wire connecting the center tabs of the two SPST switches. Up to that point everything is cool. Where I run into a problem is the humbucker. It has a three wire conductor (not four) pink, white and ground. The switch is a DPDT so that I have OFF/one coil/both coils. I have tried every conceivable wiring combo and nothing works. I guess I just don't understand how DPDT switches work or for that matter 3 conductor wiring. I have posted this thread elsewhere and tried to follow what other people are telling me but I just don't get it. I am a very visual person so looking at a diagram is easiest - it's how I wired the other two single coils but I can't find a diagram anywhere that does what I need it to do. I'm finding on/on/on diagrams for two humbuckers and all other manner of diagrams but not the specific one I need. Even something super simple like a line drawing on a piece of paper (see below) would be great.
20170923_000159.jpg Thanks.
 
Please help!!! BC Rich STIII Wiring

A 3-way DPDT will be one of two forms... on/ON/on or on/OFF/on.

Here's how they work:

6688521a5e54d54983f67db3ef617b23.png


The shaded circles show how the connections are made within the two types of switches. Do you know which type you have?

Also, is this the same humbucker that was in there before, and did it work with the switch? The reason I ask is that a humbucker with three wires could be either hot(+)/split/ground(-) or hot(+)/negative(-)/ground(baseplate).

If it's the latter, you would actually have to do some "surgery" to the pickup in order to split it.
 
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Re: Please help!!! BC Rich STIII Wiring

I took the liberty of drawing up a diagram for you that would employ an on/on/on DPDT. The Ibanez V8 pickup in the diagram was just one I had on file that was a 3-conductor, so the wire colors might not be correct, but the "hot," "split," and "ground" will be right.

I didn't bother making one with an on/off/on DPDT because it won't give you exactly what you're asking for, but it will come close. It could give you the three settings you're asking for, but the center position would have to be either "series" or "off" instead of "split." Let me know, though, if you'd like me to draw one up for you.

3c8a653494adb677a7aad706ebfc9191.png
 
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