Please help me wire my HSH guitar?

[DutchSailor]

Hello all,

I'm a new member, I registered here to post this thread but I have been following the Seymour Duncan forums for a long time. I plan to stay active here
I'm a 22 year guy old from the Netherlands (so sorry if my English is a bit dodgy sometimes). Here's my story:

After getting my guitar back from my luthier after 3 months, he confessed to me that he couldn't do what I wanted him to do: I have to do it by myself.
I have a Fender Stratocaster with HSH configuration, and the reason why he couldn't do it is because of the 5 way superswitch.
I don't understand the 5 way switch myself either, so I decided I'm going to replace it with a standard 5 way switch. The pickup configuration that I want is the following:

Position one: Gibson 500t bridge humbucker
Position two: Split humbucker + middle pickup
Position three: Middle pickup
Position four: Middle pickup + P-rails P90/rails/humbucker (controlled by a three way on-off-on switch)
Position five: P-rails P90/rails/humbucker (controlled by the same three way switch)

All this with 1 master volume control, one tone control for the bridge and a combined tone control for the middle and neck.

The diagram that I included should be able to do most of the work, except for the switching of the P-rails. How do I wire/solder the three way toggle switch to achieve the sounds that I want?



Thanks in advance!

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: Please help me wire my HSH guitar?

Welcome to the forum.

The bad new is that you cannot simultaneously route the signal to two tone pots and have automatic coil splitting from the traditional two-pole, eight contact selector switch.

You need at least three poles. (Most Superswitch designs have four poles, twenty four contacts.)

Governing the modes of the P-Rails via a DP3T on/off/on switch may create phase relationship issues when combined with the middle pickup. (If necessary, this can be resolved by repositioning the bar magnets in the P-Rail.)

My experience when using two tone controls with three pickups is that it is wiser to dedicate one to the neck position pickup and let the other two pickups share the second pot. I frequently roll back the treble from the neck and neck/middle combinations. I still expect to be able to flip directly to the brighter middle/bridge pairing without needing to rotate any pots.

 

[DutchSailor]

Re: Please help me wire my HSH guitar?

Thank you!

That's too bad.. then could you, or someone else from the forum who knows about it, explain me how to superswitch works and how I have to wire it? Maybe with the way you just described, with one tone pot for the neck and one for the other two.

I know about the phase issues that can occur, it's just that I don't know which one of the P-rails coils will work with my middle pickup.. I thought that if I include the 3 way switch in that position I can't wire it wrong right?

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: Please help me wire my HSH guitar?

The five-way switch with which you are already familiar has two poles. Two switches, operating in synch with each other.

The twenty four contact Superswitch can be thought of as four switches, operating in synch with each other.

On the traditional five-way switch, positions 2 and 4 are achieved by bridging, respectively, positions 1 and 3 or positions 3 and 5.

On the Superswitch, every position gets a discrete terminal. Any bridging has to be achieved by jumper connection wires.


Wiring up your desired circuit is difficult to put across in jargon-free English. Apart from the connections that will need to be soldered up, there is the sequence in which it is done to consider.

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: Please help me wire my HSH guitar?

You can rob most of the Superswitch connection layout from this schematic diagram. http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/wiring-diagrams/schematics.php?schematic=3stks2_1v_2t_super5way Do not worry about it being for all Strat Stack pickups.

From this, it should become obvious how to distribute the switching tasks between the poles of the switch. (For instance, you will not need connect the auto coil split wires for the P-Rails pickup.)

Obviously, the mode switch for the P-Rail pickup goes into circuit before the signal reaches the selector switch. The physical positioning of this switch is entirely a matter for you.

 

[DutchSailor]

Re: Please help me wire my HSH guitar?

Again, thank you!

I think I'll try to learn how to understand how all the electronics work before I go soldering without really knowing what I'm doing. I'm have to work at sea for a few months soon so it will be after that.
I'll put the original fender humbuckers back in the guitar and wire it up like it was stock... almost

The luthier did install two 2 way toggles into the pickguard (from an earlier request, which failed too). Is there a way that I can use those to split the humbuckers in position 1 and 5? They are 3 conductor humbuckers.