Rotary switch education.

St_Genesius

St_Genesius

New member
Okay...got my '51 and my goal is to make it a single pup guitar, just one HB at the bridge and that's it. I'm going to replace the push-pull volume knob with a normal 500K pot but I want to continue using the rotary pickup selector to select Series-Parallel-Split on the HB, but I don't know if the stock switch is up for the job.

I can take photos, so I'll have to describe the setup.

The switch has three positions and the underside reveals two concetric circles of lugs. The outer ring has 12 lugs and the inner ring has 4.

Can this switch do what I want it to do?
 
Re: Rotary switch education.

Yeah, its pretty simple. Give me a day or two, and I'll post the diagram. I might get it later today, but I'm vegging out on a quiet Sat. afternoon. ;)

Artie
 
Re: Rotary switch education.

:D

You're saving me steps, Artie. I was gonna make sure that this switch would work and THEN come begging you for a diagram...
 
Re: Rotary switch education.

Ooops . . . almost forgot about this. :blackeye:

I'll post the diagram when I get home from work tomorrow.
 
Re: Rotary switch education.

No sweat, brother. We all appreciate the enormous amount of work you do in the diagramatic department around here.

ArtieToo said:
Ooops . . . almost forgot about this. :blackeye:
Click to expand...
 
Re: Rotary switch education.

I tried to just modify the Squier wiring diagram from the website. Its kinda hard to make out some of the detail, so let me explain a couple things. If its still not clear, we can cover it some more.

StGenesius.png


The large gray cable coming down from the middle is your 4-conductor cable from the pup. (I assumed Duncan colors.) Green and bare go to ground, and black goes to one end of the volume pot, as normal. I used different colors on the rotary switch just so you could tell them apart. You can, of course, use any color when you wire it up.

Notes:

1. The red and white wires go to the two center terminals of the rotary switch.

2. That purple wire that comes from the output jack wire goes only to the center lug of the volume control. It doesn't connect to anything else. Also, there will probably be another wire, or shield in that output jack cable that will need to be grounded.

3. Note that there are a total of 3 lugs on the rotary switch that are grounded. (Green lines.) Two on the top, and one on the bottom.

4. The two blues go together, then the only thing left is that black line on the bottom that jumpers over to the black wire on the volume control.

I hope all that makes sense. If anything doesn't - ask. We'll get it straightened out. ;)

Artie
 
Re: Rotary switch education.

It won't be Duncan colors, as it's a GFS Retrotron Liverpool going in, but hopefully the pickup's own instructions will make clear which colors correspond to what in the DUncan scheme. The pickup should be here Wednesday. I'll take everything apart that night and see if I can suss it out. As always, thanks!
 
Re: Rotary switch education.

I think you're right, Captain. According the the Retrotron diagram Green is Hot, Red and White would normally be taped together for humbucking mode and Black is Ground. So if I simply reverse Artie's references to green and black, I'll be in the clear. I think...
 
Re: Rotary switch education.

Yeah, I found the wiring diagram Jay sent with both the Fat PAF and the Crunchy PAF i got, and the diagrams are both for the Retrotron, you should be good to go.
 
Re: Rotary switch education.

Quick question: What's the ring terminal wire and where should I find it? The drawing seems to suggest that it's coming from somehere in the middle of the body, but other than the hot and ground from the neck pickup (which I've now removed) there was nothing at all in that direction. There IS, however, and unaccoutned for wire still in the guitar: a bare wire shooting off from the main white wire coming from the output jack. Is this the Ring Terminal Wire?
 
Re: Rotary switch education.

Okay, I looked at the original diagram (for the stock pups) and I guess that the ring terminal wire is actually the bare wire from the bridge pickup, right? Okay, that's easy enough.

As for the split in the jack wire, though...on the original diagram, the white wire went to a lug on the push-pull and the bare went...to the side of the pot? I can't quite tell. In any event, Artie's new diagram treats the jack wire as a single entity. DOes that mena that both the white and the bare from the jack should go to the center lug of the volume pot?
 
Re: Rotary switch education.

Nevermind. I reread Artie's instructions again. He covered it to begin with. It's late. I'm tired and stupid.
 
Re: Rotary switch education.

Okay, I wired it up but I'm not getting any signal in the middle position. The first and third are there. I think the third position (all the way to the back) is split, no? When I touch the coils with a screwdriver in that postion, one of them is pretty quiet (lke perhaps it's actually the other coil picking up the sound). Is the first position series? If so, that means I've screwed up the parallel wriing somehow. Any ideas which joint would have to be bad to get these syptoms?
 
Re: Rotary switch education.

Hmmm . . . that is odd. Position #3 is split, so you should only have one coil on. But for the middle position not to work at all, means there must be at least two connections that are wrong. Since thats the parallel position, the two coils operate independent of each other.

Check this:

On the top half of the switch, (relative to the drawing), you see the blue wire at approximately the 1 o'clock position? The two terminals next to it, at 1:30 and 2:00, should be shorted together and go to ground. (Along with the 5:00 position on the bottom half.)

Also, on the bottom half, the black terminal, at approx. 4:30, should have a jumper that goes over to the "hot" lug of the volume control.

Double-check those two connections, and let me know.

Artie
 
Re: Rotary switch education.

Good stuff! very educational.

I wonder if there is a way to have the split tones hum free as PRS does with their guitars using the 5 way.
 
Re: Rotary switch education.

But don't they achieve that by using one coil from each pup? (I'm not sure.) St_Genesius is only using one pup in this guitar.
 
Re: Rotary switch education.

Okay, I'm heating the iron back up, but those joints all look good to me: smooth and shiny.
 
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