Rotary switch wiring?

[KyleSimmons]

Okay guys, I have a pretty big task ahead of me, and I'm not too sure how to do it. I want to have a 6 way, 4 pole rotary switch to do the following:
Position 1: Bridge outer coil
Position 2:Bridge outer coil and neck outer coil in phase
Position 3:Bridge outer coil and neck outer coil out of phase
Position 4:Bridge inside coil and neck inside coil in phase
Position 5:bridge inside coil and neck inside coil out of phase
Position 6:Neck Outer coil

I will be using a Slug and a '59 with 4 connector wire, but along with this rotary switch, I want to be able to bypass the rotary switch, and use a push pull for each pickup to turn them into humbuckers, which could POSSIBLY be what bypasses the rotary switch?

Any ideas?

 

[beaubrummels]

Re: Rotary switch wiring?

Welcome to the forum

Couple check questions back at ya:

Do you have the switch and are certain it will fit in the guitar?
(This type of switch looks pretty big: http://www.newark.com/electroswitch/c4d0406n-a/switch-rotary-4p6t-500ma-125v/dp/06M4597)

Have you tried these combinations with the pickups and are certain they all make desirable sounds you want?
(It wouldn't be a great experience to wire all this up and find out certain positions simply aren't useful for you.)

 

[KyleSimmons]

Re: Rotary switch wiring?

I have the switch, and It fits in my guitar. I've actually got it all installed in the guitar, it's just not wired up yet.

I have used this on comparable pickups, and its something I dont' use often, but i have the option to use them if desired.

 

[KyleSimmons]

Re: Rotary switch wiring?

Also when the rotary is bypassed, is it possible to use the 3 way switch as a humbucker pickup selector?

 

[beaubrummels]

Re: Rotary switch wiring?

I think it's do-able. Of the top of my head, I think this is what's changing per switch position (someone else check me - I'm taking 'outer' to mean 'screw' and 'inner' to mean 'slug'):

Position 1: Bridge outer coil
> Bridge positive to hot
> Bridge series link to bridge positive

Position 2:Bridge outer coil and neck outer coil in phase
> Bridge positive to hot
> Bridge series link to bridge positive
> Neck positive to hot
> Neck series link to neck positive

Position 3:Bridge outer coil and neck outer coil out of phase
> Bridge positive to ground
> Bridge ground to positive
> Bridge series link to bridge positive
> Neck positive to hot
> Neck series link to neck positive

Position 4:Bridge inside coil and neck inside coil in phase
> Bridge positive to hot
> Bridge series link to bridge ground
> Neck positive to hot
> Neck series link to neck ground

Position 5:bridge inside coil and neck inside coil out of phase
> Bridge positive to ground
> Bridge ground to positive
> Bridge series link to bridge ground
> Neck positive to hot
> Neck series link to neck ground

Position 6:Neck Outer coil
> Neck positive to hot
> Neck series link to neck positive

To make humbucking in any position, you are lifting each pickup series link off the rotary switch, so your push-pull when down would route the series link to the rotary and when up go to nothing.

What I'm not 100% certain of is if 4 poles is enough to make the changes above per switch position. That takes a little drawing and analysis, and will take some time to work out. (Not sure if I can get to it. Others may need to jump in.)

 

[beaubrummels]

Re: Rotary switch wiring?

Also when the rotary is bypassed, is it possible to use the 3 way switch as a humbucker pickup selector?

Bypassing the rotary is different from making the pickups humbuckers. I also didn't catch you were keeping a 3-way. Not sure how all that would work. Sounds like you need an 8-pole switch to route between the 3-way and the 6-way? I would get rid of the 3-way if you are doing the 6-way with push-pulls for humbucking. This now sounds messier than I thought. Not sure I have an idea how to do it.

 

[MikE2e]

Re: Rotary switch wiring?

As beaubrummels says you need more poles. To swap phase you need 2 per coil, so that's 4, then you need at least 2 more for the coils that don't need phase reversal just to connect the the hot side of each coil. I attempted to draw it anyway but came to the above conclusion. I'll give it another try.