Questions about this wiring diagram

rmackowsky

New member
This diagram was posted awhile ago in another thread (https://forum.seymourduncan.com/for...309177-potential-wiring-diagram-for-hhh-strat), but thought a separate thread specifically about this diagram would get more responses.

I have a few questions about the diagram. Forgive me if they are obvious, or if I am incorrect- I am a just getting started with guitar wiring.

- I assume the Bridge Tone DPDT is supposed to be for the bridge pickup, but it looks like the neck pickup is also wired to it. Can someone explain this? Is this switch intended to get neck and bridge out of phase when pulled?

- Also, on the same pot, the bottom right lug appears to have a ground connection directly to bridge green wire. How does that work? Should the wire be green in the diagram?

- On the N+M tone pot: I assume the first "push" is a typo and should say "Pull'? If not, why?

- Also N+M tone pot: it says M in series with B or N, but I don't see any neck connections to that pot? Does that bottom right lug on the bridge tone pot connecting to the bridge ground somehow bring the neck into play on the N+M pot since the neck IS wired to the bridge pot? Whew.

- Is the blue wire going across the middle and neck outputs on the switch mean that it is wired to both of the outputs?

- Where are the tone caps?

I have a feeling that some of these results are dependent on the positions of the push/pull in relations to each other - i.e they work in combination in certain positions. Example - N+M pot pulled in combination with bridge pot pulled has one result, while N+M put pulled and bridge pot pushed has a different result. Am I correct?

Appreciate answers in advance - thanks!
 
I'll do these one at a time as I study that diagram. (And as I have both time and inclination.) :D

- I assume the Bridge Tone DPDT is supposed to be for the bridge pickup, but it looks like the neck pickup is also wired to it. Can someone explain this? Is this switch intended to get neck and bridge out of phase when pulled?

- Also, on the same pot, the bottom right lug appears to have a ground connection directly to bridge green wire. How does that work? Should the wire be green in the diagram?

The bridge tone polarity switch is only connected to the neck pup. What might be confusing you is the thin black line that appears to connect to the thick bridge green line. It's simply a common ground. In reality, that thin black line would probably be soldered to the back of a pot. Along with the bridge green line.

And yes, it reverses the polarity of the neck pickup relative to the bridge.
 
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- On the N+M tone pot: I assume the first "push" is a typo and should say "Pull'? If not, why?

- Also N+M tone pot: it says M in series with B or N, but I don't see any neck connections to that pot? Does that bottom right lug on the bridge tone pot connecting to the bridge ground somehow bring the neck into play on the N+M pot since the neck IS wired to the bridge pot? Whew.

There's a definite "typo" here. The first "push" should be "pull", as you observe. I would do it the opposite. I would want "down" to be normal.

Also, it only places the middle in series with the bridge. Never the neck.
 
- Is the blue wire going across the middle and neck outputs on the switch mean that it is wired to both of the outputs?

- Where are the tone caps?

Yes, the blue jumper gives you one tone control for N/M and the other tone control for the bridge.

And yes also, tone caps have been omitted from the drawing. They should connect from the upper-left terminal of each tone pot with the other end going to ground.
 
I'll do these one at a time as I study that diagram. (And as I have both time and inclination.) :D



The bridge tone polarity switch is only connected to the neck pup. What might be confusing you is the thin black line that appears to connect to the thick bridge green line. It's simply a common ground. In reality, that thin black line would probably be soldered to the back of a pot. Along with the bridge green line.

And yes, it reverses the polarity of the neck pickup relative to the bridge.

Afraid you've missed something here, artie. It's a tricky wiring from Brandenburg for sure.


"that thin black line" being connected where it is enables the series switch to put the middle into the neck. Follow the signal path from where the middle pickup is grounded on the N/M pot which is the origin for both of those combinations and you'll see how it works. This schematic has series working both in phase and out of phase with the neck pickup because of this.

OP, the switches do interact in a weird way, but maybe not how you expect. Because of the limits of how you have to wire these combinations on a standard strat 5 way, if you have either the series switch pulled for one of the combination positions and then also pull the coil split switch, you'll get just the output from the split coil because of how it grounds everything before the red/white link.

I don't think the "push" is a typo in the same way that you do. If we assume a standard push/pull, the series switch is wired backwards(upside down in terms of the diagram) so that the normal operation is with the switch pulled, and series is with it down as artie pointed out. I think it may have been meant for a push/push style switch where it doesn't matter which is which, and in the old thread no one disclosed that to us.

Although there are plenty of push/push style switches that pop up just like a push/pull when switched, meaning it's still wired backwards unless you get the kind with no visual difference.
 
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Afraid you've missed something here, artie. It's a tricky wiring from Brandenburg for sure.

"that thin black line" being connected where it is enables the series switch to put the middle into the neck. Follow the signal path from where the middle pickup is grounded on the N/M pot which is the origin for both of those combinations and you'll see how it works. This schematic has series working both in phase and out of phase with the neck pickup because of this.

Yup. I think you're right. I was just tracing it out again. It's always hard to read someone else's diagram because we all think differently and have different logic. But I can see it now. I shouldn't have 2nd guessed Brandenburg's work. He always has great diagrams. ;)
 
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