wiring advice requested

[vinnie1971]

wiring advice requested

Vinnie. I don't mean to sound ungrateful because I am extremely grateful for all your help but every template you put up is different from any other and I'm getting so confused I can't move. There's more than 2 wires difference between the below diagram and the transposed diagram above. The pickup black wires for neck and bridge are going to different locations and I'm not sure if it makes a difference. I've tried tracing all the connections to understand what's happening but it's complex and confusing. I think it's the same thing but I'm not sure. Was this done to relieve the crowded terminal at C2 on tone 2 switch? There are other differences also but I can't tell if they have the same end result. I'm a noob at anything but basic guitar wiring.

I'm used to the pot switches and how they work. I'm even understanding the super switch a little better now. It's the different workable routings of 'all' the switches and pickups that still gives me fits. I've had 2 failed attempts. This one has to work.

Is this 'below' the correct final version? The above version and the below version are quite a bit different but they may give the same results. I'm not sure.

There’s one mistake on the bass tone

It should be this if you don’t need a transposed diagram but it shows all the wires crammed in the middle lug of tone 1 which I could not do as the terminals are too small on the push push pots

The challenge for me is I’m drawing diagrams on my iPhone and I don’t have proper diagram software.

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[Herby]

Re: wiring advice requested

It's wired and It's working... sort of. There's a 'lot' of bleed.
Where's the mistake on the bass tone? Is it the ground going to the vol pot?
Instead of running the yellow common to the top of the tone 2 pot I ran it to the top of the volume pot. My error but does it really matter?
In humbucker mode I get a lot of buz.
Don't know if it makes a difference but It's a Squire Strat with alniko 5 pickups and a reverse wound middle pickup.

 

[Herby]

Re: wiring advice requested

Not very clear pics.

 

[vinnie1971]

Re: wiring advice requested

It's wired and It's working... sort of. There's a 'lot' of bleed.
Where's the mistake on the bass tone? Is it the ground going to the vol pot?
Instead of running the yellow common to the top of the tone 2 pot I ran it to the top of the volume pot. My error but does it really matter?
In humbucker mode I get a lot of buz.
Don't know if it makes a difference but It's a Squire Strat with alniko 5 pickups and a reverse wound middle pickup.

Herby!!!
Well done man.
It’s hard to see, but from what I can see it all looks correct. With the bass cut off have you plugged a lead in and checked all positions with a multi meter? In series instead of the sum of DCR divided by 4 of the 2 selected pickups you get in parallel ( e.g. 7k bridge, 6k middle = 3.5k in parallel) in series its sum of DCR - e.g. 7k bridge + 6k middle = 13k.
If it reads zero and you have output then there’s a phase issue.

Now there’s a mystery blob on your picture- can’t make out what it is.

Also I can’t see exactly how the bass cut is wired.

When you say there’s s lot of bleed do you mean when the bass cut is fully counter clockwise (off) ?

There should not be any buzz - it should be noiseless in humbucker mode.

I’ll have a closer look at you pictures and see what else I can make out. Any chance of another photo with a flash so I can see the black wires better?

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[vinnie1971]

Re: wiring advice requested

If you can get some photos so I can follow the red wires that would be good too.


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[Herby]

Re: wiring advice requested

I borrowed a phone for these. If you need more let me know.
The buz went away. I may have had something touching the bridge underneath while testing before. I laid a rag down but maybe something touched where it wasn't supposed to.
I'm not sure how to use the meter to test the pickups. I've never done that before.
All the pots are working correctly.
I guess the only issue I have is the bleeding. The bleed is from pickups that shouldn't be in the chain. Like the neck pickup working when the middle/bridge are selected. This one seems to be the worst. Not full strength but still working slightly. I've noticed this behavior before on strats (not necessarily this pickup combo but similar). I have 2 other Strats and one has this issue but the other doesn't. Could this be normal or is it a grounding issue?

 

[vinnie1971]

wiring advice requested

I borrowed a phone for these. If you need more let me know.
The buz went away. I may have had something touching the bridge underneath while testing before. I laid a rag down but maybe something touched where it wasn't supposed to.
I'm not sure how to use the meter to test the pickups. I've never done that before.
All the pots are working correctly.
I guess the only issue I have is the bleeding. The bleed is from pickups that shouldn't be in the chain. Like the neck pickup working when the middle/bridge are selected. This one seems to be the worst. Not full strength but still working slightly. I've noticed this behavior before on strats (not necessarily this pickup combo but similar). I have 2 other Strats and one has this issue but the other doesn't. Could this be normal or is it a grounding issue?

Ahhh

Did you do this using the screw driver test?

If you google how to measure resistance of pickups at the jack you’ll be able to tell for sure.

Some pickups are more microphonic than others.

I tend to choose pickups with minimal potting but when you do the screw driver test, you tap and scratch an inactive pickup and you can hear it feintly. That’s not because signal is leaking or bleeding, it’s because the active pickup is getting a microphonic action and sensing the vibration. But the multi meter will prove there’s no leakage.

If you have a humbucker equipped guitar with open coils and coil splits you can split to the active coil tap the inactive coil and it’s still makes sound. Even heavily wax posted humbucker do this.

My strat does it, and that’s got tex mex pickups in, but the multi meter confirms no signal bleed. All the numbers add up in series and parallel mode.


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[Herby]

Re: wiring advice requested

OK. What I found.

Normal settings:
1) = Bridge--6.25
2) = B/M----3.01
3) = Middle--5.74
4) = M/N----2.94
5) = Neck---5.98

Humbucker settings:
1) = Bridge--6.25
2) = B/M---11.85
3) = Middle--5.74
4) = M/N---11.59
5) = Neck---5.98

B/N settings:
1) = Bridge--6.25
2) = B/M----3.01
3) = B/N----3.08
4) = M/N----2.94
5) = Neck---5.98

Humbucker and B/N settings
1) = Bridge--6.25
2) = B/M---11.85
3) = B/N----3.08
4) = M/N---11.59
5) = Neck---5.98

According to this everything is very consistent. In series everything doubles. In parallel everything halves.
Unless I'm not reading this correctly, I can put it together... so... am I done???

A 1 meg pot would have been better for bass cut. It's kind of subtle with a 500K.

 

[Herby]

Re: wiring advice requested

Here Vinnie. Use it how you wish.

 

[vinnie1971]

wiring advice requested

OK. What I found.

Normal settings:
1) = Bridge--6.25
2) = B/M----3.01
3) = Middle--5.74
4) = M/N----2.94
5) = Neck---5.98

Humbucker settings:
1) = Bridge--6.25
2) = B/M---11.85
3) = Middle--5.74
4) = M/N---11.59
5) = Neck---5.98

B/N settings:
1) = Bridge--6.25
2) = B/M----3.01
3) = B/N----3.08
4) = M/N----2.94
5) = Neck---5.98

Humbucker and B/N settings
1) = Bridge--6.25
2) = B/M---11.85
3) = B/N----3.08
4) = M/N---11.59
5) = Neck---5.98

According to this everything is very consistent. In series everything doubles. In parallel everything halves.
Unless I'm not reading this correctly, I can put it together... so... am I done???

A 1 meg pot would have been better for bass cut. It's kind of subtle with a 500K.

Perfect - that’s reading exactly as it should.

If there was a problem with signal crossover positions 2 and 4 would give exactly the same reading (between the readings you have for parallel), for series they would be around 9k.

So congratulations- well done. It’s worth the effort ! It’s probably one of the most complicated schemes I’ve tried. But it’s the best switching on an SSS strat.

And most of all well done for thinking of the most ergonomic way to have series - parallel switching on a strat.


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[vinnie1971]

Re: wiring advice requested

That’s what I love about this forum.

We’re in totally different time zones, you come up with an idea, I tried failed (3 times) before I worked out how to do it, then I help you get it.

through this forum we both got a great result .

Awesome ! That’s what these forums are for. Innovative ideas and sharing knowledge.


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[vinnie1971]

wiring advice requested

I’ve 2 HSH strat that uses a 3 position 4 way switch which used to have 3 modes
Fat strat
1 bridge humbucker
2 Bridge has humbucker + middle
3 middle
4 neck humbucker + middle
5 neck humbucker

LP fat telestrat
1 bridge humbucker
2 Bridge split + neck humbucker
3 Both humbuckers
4 neck split + bridge humbucker
5 neck humbucker

Thin Telestrat
1 bridge split
2 Bridge split + middle
3 neck split + bridge split
4 neck split + middle
5 middle split

But split humbuckers sounded weak in their own so now the switching is:

Fat strat
1 bridge humbucker
2 Bridge has humbucker + middle
3 middle
4 neck humbucker + middle
5 neck humbucker

Alt fat strat
1 bridge humbucker
2 Bridge has humbucker + middle
3 Both humbuckers
4 neck humbucker + middle
5 neck humbucker

LP fat telestrat
1 bridge humbucker
2 Bridge split + neck humbucker
3 Both humbuckers
4 neck split + bridge humbucker
5 neck humbucker

The latter is much better.
But wiring it is a lot of work but nothing like as hard to work out as your schema.



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[vinnie1971]

Re: wiring advice requested

Here Vinnie. Use it how you wish.

That’s awesome really neat !


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[Herby]

Re: wiring advice requested

My next project is going to be a 3 pickup firebird (actually, It's a copy, but I'm poor). I want to get split coils and N/B SC out of it... but that's for another thread. For now I'm going to put strings on this thing and take it to a gig tonight :fingersx:
Thank you for everything Vinnie!!!

 

[vinnie1971]

Re: wiring advice requested

And you are right about it being the ultimate strat wiring. It sure is.


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[vinnie1971]

wiring advice requested

My next project is going to be a 3 pickup firebird (actually, It's a copy, but I'm poor). I want to get split coils and N/B SC out of it... but that's for another thread. For now I'm going to put strings on this thing and take it to a gig tonight :fingersx:
Thank you for everything Vinnie!!!

Good luck at your gig man!!!
My Firebird is an ancient Korean Epiphone one, but it came from the factory with OBL ( old bill Lawrence ) mini humbuckers

The Firebird will be easy. The fun will be getting hum free operation - either by combing RWRP coils or instead of coil splits -put the coils in parallel....

Give me a shout if you need help!

EDIT

Just a thought, are your Firebird pickups humbuckers or mini humbuckers. If they are mini humbuckers they may not sound good at all split.


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[Herby]

Re: wiring advice requested

They're minis. I wasn't really after the single coil sound. I was wanting to run 2 coils but off different pickups parallel. Make them quack a little.

I got the Strat put back together and took it for a test drive. It's perfect... except for one thing (but it's not a big deal yet). The 500K pot needs to be a 1 meg pot. Bass roll-off is very subtle. I'll fix that one of these days. I just put new strings on it and I don't want to take them off again right away. With my other two Strats I just take the springs off the back and lift the Rose clamp out to get at the pickguard. This one has the old style bridge and no nut clamp.

 

[vinnie1971]

Re: wiring advice requested

They're minis. I wasn't really after the single coil sound. I was wanting to run 2 coils but off different pickups parallel. Make them quack a little.

I got the Strat put back together and took it for a test drive. It's perfect... except for one thing (but it's not a big deal yet). The 500K pot needs to be a 1 meg pot. Bass roll-off is very subtle. I'll fix that one of these days. I just put new strings on it and I don't want to take them off again right away. With my other two Strats I just take the springs off the back and lift the Rose clamp out to get at the pickguard. This one has the old style bridge and no nut clamp.

Yes, I like the 1 meg. Works nice with 0.0022uF


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