StewMac Free-Way 5-Way/10-Position Switch

[motorpsychologist]

Hi - I bought the above StewMac switch for my Strat, which looks and fits like a stock Strat switch, but adds 5 additional pickup combinations (e.g., parallel and in-series by clicking the the switch into a special "up" position (the "down" position is all the traditional Strat pickup combinations). At the same time, I replaced the bridge pickup with a Duncan Little '59 humbucker. I followed StewMac's online wiring diagram for an HSS, but there doesn't seem to be a difference in sound between the traditional bridge-only switch position ("down"- which should split the humbucker and give a bridge single coil tone) and the "up" position (which should be humbucker only). I guess I'll have to go in and check the switch wiring again, but I thought I'd get a Forum opinion before I broke it open. Thanks!

 

[jeremy]

i have a freeway 10 way switch in my hss orpheo superstrat, works great. when in the down positions, it its all single coil selections. in the up positions its bridge humbucker in series and four other combinations of coils. i find most of them very useful.

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www.freewayswitch.com

 

[motorpsychologist]

i have a freeway 10 way switch in my hss orpheo superstrat, works great. when in the down positions, it its all single coil selections. in the up positions its bridge humbucker in series and four other combinations of coils. i find most of them very useful.

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www.freewayswitch.com

Thanks for the response, Jeremy. Yeah, it's hard to find a such a great new toy for your guitar that's only $55! I guess I'll have to dig back into the wiring. Thanks for the link, but they have a different diagram for an HSS if you scroll down, and that's the one I used for the Duncan Little '59 humbucker at the bridge..

 

[jeremy]

gotcha. id guess you are just missing the ground connection when you split

 

[Juanhanglo]

I use their tele 3/6 way in my sss strat.

Great switches!

N/n+b/b on one bank

The 3 middle sounds on the other one.

 

[motorpsychologist]

gotcha. id guess you are just missing the ground connection when you split

Thanks again, and sorry for the delay in responding. I've attached the StewMac diagram for wiring a Free-Way to a Strat with an HSS configuration. In the upper right you'll see the wiring info I got from the SD site re: the Little 58 hum bucker that I put in the bridge position. I can't see what I missed in wiring it all together. But maybe I'll just have to dissect the whole thing and see if maybe there's a cold solder or loose wire. You can only be so careful when you're stuffing everything back in. The holes in the Free-Way's terminals are tiny, and I wonder if in soldering one wire some solder got on an adjacent terminal and screwed things up. Grrr...

 

[Sam SG]

Id call Stewmac

 

[motorpsychologist]

Id call Stewmac

Yeah, I wrote a note to their customer service a while back and never heard from them. Wouldn't hurt to resend. I suppose.

 

[Sam SG]

Yeah, I wrote a note to their customer service a while back and never heard from them. Wouldn't hurt to resend. I suppose.

I think they have an 800 #