wiring advice requested
- Thread starter Herby
- Start date
vinnie1971
New member
Re: wiring advice requested
Herby
This is really bugging me. I think maybe I have a wire in the wrong place on the diagram.
When I get a moment I’ll recheck the diagram. If mine works and yours doesn’t and you’ve followed the diagram- then I’ve made a mistake somewhere drawing it up.
( easy to do as I use the doodle app on my iPhone)
I’ll get back to you....
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I'm giving up on the super switch. I have it wired up 'exactly' the way you showed it and it's not working right at all. I don't know why unless the Oak Grigsby Super Switch is different than the Fender Super Switch.
Thanks for trying
Herby
This is really bugging me. I think maybe I have a wire in the wrong place on the diagram.
When I get a moment I’ll recheck the diagram. If mine works and yours doesn’t and you’ve followed the diagram- then I’ve made a mistake somewhere drawing it up.
( easy to do as I use the doodle app on my iPhone)
I’ll get back to you....
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
vinnie1971
New member
wiring advice requested
Herby !!!!
I’m so sorry - made a mistake.
I found the issue. I’d got one wire wrong! And that one wire screws it all up as in the down position it’s shorting out to ground. How did I not see that. It’s got n the wrong lug on the push pull.
Anyway here’s how it should look. Note the black wire from the yellow bank needs to be connected to the bridge and ground leads on the push pull.
While I was in there, I decided to set my tone one as master tone and tone 2 as bass cut - it works best with a 500k pot (I’m using 250k so the bad cut at max is more subtle - it’s all I have and I don’t want extreme bass cut anyway) - this is useful for series mode as it can get quite dark sounding, it just cleans things up quite a bit. I’m using a 0.0022 cap for that.
So your series parallel push pull should look this this
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I'm giving up on the super switch. I have it wired up 'exactly' the way you showed it and it's not working right at all. I don't know why unless the Oak Grigsby Super Switch is different than the Fender Super Switch.
Thanks for trying
Herby !!!!
I’m so sorry - made a mistake.
I found the issue. I’d got one wire wrong! And that one wire screws it all up as in the down position it’s shorting out to ground. How did I not see that. It’s got n the wrong lug on the push pull.
Anyway here’s how it should look. Note the black wire from the yellow bank needs to be connected to the bridge and ground leads on the push pull.
While I was in there, I decided to set my tone one as master tone and tone 2 as bass cut - it works best with a 500k pot (I’m using 250k so the bad cut at max is more subtle - it’s all I have and I don’t want extreme bass cut anyway) - this is useful for series mode as it can get quite dark sounding, it just cleans things up quite a bit. I’m using a 0.0022 cap for that.
So your series parallel push pull should look this this
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Last edited:
vinnie1971
New member
wiring advice requested
Makes no difference- I was trying to make the drawing easier to follow by swapping them.
It’s all down to that one wire that was in the wrong place, so down its shorting to ground, and up you got 3 pickups.
I just did the screw driver test and multi-meter test in mine to double check it’s firing what it should and it is, so I’m pretty sure if you move that one wire it’s going to work!
BTW, I tested the wiring diagram error, by moving the wire to the wrong place and I get the same results you get. I moved it back and it’s doing what it should.
Once again - so sorry
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Yup. Your drawing is different than mine. I think I see my mistakes. I was looking at your switches up-side-down and transposing the connections to my switches right-side-up. It looks like all I have to do is swap a few wires on the two push/pull switches and I should be good to go. I'll post when I get it rewired and let you know how it went. Thanks Vinnie
[edit]
I see a difference in the old drawing and the new one in the 5 way. Electrically they look the same to me...
Old one
New one
There's one more discrepancy. The upper left (3) post (wire to switch) was moved to upper right (3) post. I don't think it matters but I thought I better check with you.
Old one
New one
Makes no difference- I was trying to make the drawing easier to follow by swapping them.
It’s all down to that one wire that was in the wrong place, so down its shorting to ground, and up you got 3 pickups.
I just did the screw driver test and multi-meter test in mine to double check it’s firing what it should and it is, so I’m pretty sure if you move that one wire it’s going to work!
BTW, I tested the wiring diagram error, by moving the wire to the wrong place and I get the same results you get. I moved it back and it’s doing what it should.
Once again - so sorry
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vinnie1971
New member
Re: wiring advice requested
I have to say Herby, in all the years of playing and modifying guitars, this set up is pure genius. It’s perfect, so thanks for thinking it up and giving me the challenge to wire it up.
It makes all the other SSS combinations seem quite pointless, and I especially like it with my with the push push to get neck and bridge in them middle. So no more fiddling around getting the combos you want, no more pointless selections. They s is great.
If you get it working, master tone and bass cut works really well, although I’ve ordered a 1 meg push push for the bass cut - going to go with the G&L specs ( but 500k volume) of 1 meg with 0.0022uF bass cut, 250k tone pot with 0.22uF. Under gain 250k as bass cut let’s too much signal to bypass the cap.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I have to say Herby, in all the years of playing and modifying guitars, this set up is pure genius. It’s perfect, so thanks for thinking it up and giving me the challenge to wire it up.
It makes all the other SSS combinations seem quite pointless, and I especially like it with my with the push push to get neck and bridge in them middle. So no more fiddling around getting the combos you want, no more pointless selections. They s is great.
If you get it working, master tone and bass cut works really well, although I’ve ordered a 1 meg push push for the bass cut - going to go with the G&L specs ( but 500k volume) of 1 meg with 0.0022uF bass cut, 250k tone pot with 0.22uF. Under gain 250k as bass cut let’s too much signal to bypass the cap.
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Re: wiring advice requested
Well... You've given me new hope
I'm going to try it one more time. I think I found the bad wire you were talking about and am going to move it from 1 to C1 on the upper switch. I'm hoping that's the only mistake.
I'm also concerned with the tone pots not being hooked up correctly and they also may be causing trouble. In my diagram above do you see any problems with them?
I'll post results when I'm done. Thanks for hanging in there Vinnie.
Well... You've given me new hope
I'm going to try it one more time. I think I found the bad wire you were talking about and am going to move it from 1 to C1 on the upper switch. I'm hoping that's the only mistake.
I'm also concerned with the tone pots not being hooked up correctly and they also may be causing trouble. In my diagram above do you see any problems with them?
I'll post results when I'm done. Thanks for hanging in there Vinnie.
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Re: wiring advice requested
rewired: Neck (white) Middle (blue) Bridge (yellow) No dead spots. I'm getting all 3 pickups in 2 and 4 with both switches up. Is this normal? I'm thinking maybe it is.
Are my tones set up correctly or should I do something different with them? You say a master tone works well. Maybe that's what I should do.
Bass cut? Can I use 1.5nF 0.0015uF 100V 5% Polyester Film Box Type Capacitor? Does the pot have to be a 1 meg? What happens if I use a smaller value?
rewired: Neck (white) Middle (blue) Bridge (yellow) No dead spots. I'm getting all 3 pickups in 2 and 4 with both switches up. Is this normal? I'm thinking maybe it is.
Are my tones set up correctly or should I do something different with them? You say a master tone works well. Maybe that's what I should do.
Bass cut? Can I use 1.5nF 0.0015uF 100V 5% Polyester Film Box Type Capacitor? Does the pot have to be a 1 meg? What happens if I use a smaller value?
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vinnie1971
New member
wiring advice requested
Hmmm no I don’t get all 3 - mine behaves as it should. Have you got a photo? Maybe a strat wire strand?
Are you using CTS pots? Can you send me a link? Maybe there’s interaction between the pots.
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rewired: No dead spots. I'm getting all 3 pickups in 2 and 4 with both switches up. Is this normal? I'm thinking maybe it is. Are my tones set up correctly?
Hmmm no I don’t get all 3 - mine behaves as it should. Have you got a photo? Maybe a strat wire strand?
Are you using CTS pots? Can you send me a link? Maybe there’s interaction between the pots.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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vinnie1971
New member
Re: wiring advice requested
I’ve had beers - let me look over the weekend at this. Glad you’re getting somewhere now.
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I’ve had beers - let me look over the weekend at this. Glad you’re getting somewhere now.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
vinnie1971
New member
Re: wiring advice requested
Ok, I’ll have a look. I’m determined we will solve it .
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My phone takes lousy pics. The diagram above is correct. I checked it several more times to make sure.
CTS 250K tone. CTS 500K vol
Ok, I’ll have a look. I’m determined we will solve it .
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vinnie1971
New member
wiring advice requested
When I first did this wiring I set my tone pots linking the single cap across 2 tones like this:
That gave me all 3 pickups in position 2 and 4 but not in equal measure - because we are taking the hot signal from the pickups to the tone pickup there is some bleeding across the pot especially when you roll back the tone, you bring the other pickup in even more.
Try this;
Disconnect the ground link wire between your tone controls. Then link the ground from each tone separately to the volume pot. It may seem electrically the same but you are giving each pot it’s own a parallel path to ground rather than sharing the same path. This is a problem because the capacitor stops so much signal from getting to ground that both tone pots are leaking signal from neck and bridge.
I’m pretty sure this will fix it.
Another solution is PTB circuit- which I’ve put in mine - master treble cut, master bass cut. It really suits the guitar. But so will what you’ve done with .047 for the bridge and 0.022 for the neck. If you are using 250k pots that will colour the tone on 10 nicely.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
When I first did this wiring I set my tone pots linking the single cap across 2 tones like this:
That gave me all 3 pickups in position 2 and 4 but not in equal measure - because we are taking the hot signal from the pickups to the tone pickup there is some bleeding across the pot especially when you roll back the tone, you bring the other pickup in even more.
Try this;
Disconnect the ground link wire between your tone controls. Then link the ground from each tone separately to the volume pot. It may seem electrically the same but you are giving each pot it’s own a parallel path to ground rather than sharing the same path. This is a problem because the capacitor stops so much signal from getting to ground that both tone pots are leaking signal from neck and bridge.
I’m pretty sure this will fix it.
Another solution is PTB circuit- which I’ve put in mine - master treble cut, master bass cut. It really suits the guitar. But so will what you’ve done with .047 for the bridge and 0.022 for the neck. If you are using 250k pots that will colour the tone on 10 nicely.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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Re: wiring advice requested
I'd like to try running a master tone. One for bass cut and one for treble cut. That should help solve the bleed problem. I did notice the bleed effect but it confused me because I didn't know what was happening.
I ordered .0015uF caps for a bass cut pot. Should be here by the middle of next week.
I have a few questions. I hope you don't get annoyed with me:
Volume pot is 500K exactly.
1) Master Treble cut pot is 243K exactly. Which cap should I use for treble cut? .047uF or .022uF?
2) Should the Master Bass cut pot be 1000K and what happens if I use a smaller value?
3) What's the best way to hook up the bass cut?
I found this on the web. It shows the treble and bass cut pots wired together. Is this correct?
I'd like to try running a master tone. One for bass cut and one for treble cut. That should help solve the bleed problem. I did notice the bleed effect but it confused me because I didn't know what was happening.
I ordered .0015uF caps for a bass cut pot. Should be here by the middle of next week.
I have a few questions. I hope you don't get annoyed with me:
Volume pot is 500K exactly.
1) Master Treble cut pot is 243K exactly. Which cap should I use for treble cut? .047uF or .022uF?
2) Should the Master Bass cut pot be 1000K and what happens if I use a smaller value?
3) What's the best way to hook up the bass cut?
I found this on the web. It shows the treble and bass cut pots wired together. Is this correct?
Last edited:
vinnie1971
New member
wiring advice requested
Ha ha
Just saw this as I did the diagram - if it’s audio taper you need it wired backwards- or use reverse audio taper.
By backwards I mean 10 for max bass cut, 0 full bass. Otherwise it’s an on off switch at 7.
This is how I have put it in my strat (1 meg pot on order for bass cut)
250k for bass cut is subtle. When fully cut, 250k let’s a lot of signal bypass the bass.
Under gain you can’t even tell it’s cutting bass.
Think of this as a tone pot that at 0 is like it’s on 7.
1 meg is the recommended value to get max bass cut. Using a 250k volume pot exaggerates it even more. I think 500k volume is better as you want this in series mode.
500k for bass cut will work well but not as extreme as 1 meg but more noticeable than 250k.
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Ha ha
Just saw this as I did the diagram - if it’s audio taper you need it wired backwards- or use reverse audio taper.
By backwards I mean 10 for max bass cut, 0 full bass. Otherwise it’s an on off switch at 7.
This is how I have put it in my strat (1 meg pot on order for bass cut)
250k for bass cut is subtle. When fully cut, 250k let’s a lot of signal bypass the bass.
Under gain you can’t even tell it’s cutting bass.
Think of this as a tone pot that at 0 is like it’s on 7.
1 meg is the recommended value to get max bass cut. Using a 250k volume pot exaggerates it even more. I think 500k volume is better as you want this in series mode.
500k for bass cut will work well but not as extreme as 1 meg but more noticeable than 250k.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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Re: wiring advice requested
The switch pole designations are really messing with me. Originally I had them wired up one way and I was reading your switch diagram inverted. The poles on the switch were inverted/backwards from what I was used to looking at. When you posted the newer CTS pot wiring diagram it was different so, catching my mistake I reversed the wires. Now the new diagram is not the same as the CTS one. It looks like the switch poles are swapped left to right. I'm completely confused.
On your pot pic (inverted) the poles go from:
4 -- 2
c2-c1
3 -- 1
On my pot pics the poles are:
---1--3--c2
c1--2--4
Transposed are
1 -- 3
c1-c2
2 -- 4
The switch pole designations are really messing with me. Originally I had them wired up one way and I was reading your switch diagram inverted. The poles on the switch were inverted/backwards from what I was used to looking at. When you posted the newer CTS pot wiring diagram it was different so, catching my mistake I reversed the wires. Now the new diagram is not the same as the CTS one. It looks like the switch poles are swapped left to right. I'm completely confused.
On your pot pic (inverted) the poles go from:
4 -- 2
c2-c1
3 -- 1
On my pot pics the poles are:
---1--3--c2
c1--2--4
Transposed are
1 -- 3
c1-c2
2 -- 4
Last edited:
vinnie1971
New member
wiring advice requested
I know the feeling. The CTS pots totally confuse me!
You can leave the push pull connections as they are in your diagram- just follow the hot path from ground to volume, then volume to bass control, then bass control to treble control, then treble control to switch.
Do you want me to redo with the CTS pots?
I actually did my diagram with regular push pulls to share with a guy I know who builds harnesses - he uses alpha push push or push pulls - same as me.
This is what I used to work out the CTS up and down connections
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I know the feeling. The CTS pots totally confuse me!
You can leave the push pull connections as they are in your diagram- just follow the hot path from ground to volume, then volume to bass control, then bass control to treble control, then treble control to switch.
Do you want me to redo with the CTS pots?
I actually did my diagram with regular push pulls to share with a guy I know who builds harnesses - he uses alpha push push or push pulls - same as me.
This is what I used to work out the CTS up and down connections
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Last edited:
vinnie1971
New member
Re: wiring advice requested
Ok - feel free to PM me if you want me to transpose the diagram to use the CTS pots.
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Ok - feel free to PM me if you want me to transpose the diagram to use the CTS pots.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Re: wiring advice requested
I'm taking everything apart. It's above my pay grade. I've spent a small fortune on this project, have more parts on order, and the more I work on it, the bigger mess I make and the worse things get. I'm giving up.
Thanks for all your help Vinnie.
I'm taking everything apart. It's above my pay grade. I've spent a small fortune on this project, have more parts on order, and the more I work on it, the bigger mess I make and the worse things get. I'm giving up.
Thanks for all your help Vinnie.
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vinnie1971
New member
wiring advice requested
Don’t give up!!!!
It’s not failure, it’s just feedback on a learning curve. I got this wrong 3 times before I got it right and shared the diagram with you. My first diagrams when I said “no it won’t work” - are when I got it wrong. I’ve fried components getting this right. I’ve had to straighten out the warped wafer in my superswitch, and my push push pot for series parallel is a bit scorched too. But it works. I will be replacing the switch and the series parallel push push as I want this guitar to be good for gigs and 1 meg will work better for the bass cut.
I was determined to crack this because if I could get it working then it’s the most genius SSS strat set up.
It’s worth the effort. It works great
POWER TO YOU FOR THINKING IT UP IN THE FIRST PLACE!
- it’s just really complicated getting it right as the paths to ground have to be exactly right.
Are you in the the UK or US? If you are in the UK I can make you the harness, and all you need to do is hook up the pickup wires and jack. You can post me your parts and I’ll send it back tested and assembled. (If you are in the US them postage is expensive and there’s import duty to pay). Just cover the postage and I’m happy to do this.
Or I can break the diagram up in to stages, or come up with a smarter way to pass you the info.
I can package the instructions in separate parts:
First the switch, then volume, tone and bass controls, then middle pickup, then last,the tricky bit, the series parallel part.
I’ll use the CTS pots on the diagram
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Don’t give up!!!!
It’s not failure, it’s just feedback on a learning curve. I got this wrong 3 times before I got it right and shared the diagram with you. My first diagrams when I said “no it won’t work” - are when I got it wrong. I’ve fried components getting this right. I’ve had to straighten out the warped wafer in my superswitch, and my push push pot for series parallel is a bit scorched too. But it works. I will be replacing the switch and the series parallel push push as I want this guitar to be good for gigs and 1 meg will work better for the bass cut.
I was determined to crack this because if I could get it working then it’s the most genius SSS strat set up.
It’s worth the effort. It works great
POWER TO YOU FOR THINKING IT UP IN THE FIRST PLACE!
- it’s just really complicated getting it right as the paths to ground have to be exactly right.
Are you in the the UK or US? If you are in the UK I can make you the harness, and all you need to do is hook up the pickup wires and jack. You can post me your parts and I’ll send it back tested and assembled. (If you are in the US them postage is expensive and there’s import duty to pay). Just cover the postage and I’m happy to do this.
Or I can break the diagram up in to stages, or come up with a smarter way to pass you the info.
I can package the instructions in separate parts:
First the switch, then volume, tone and bass controls, then middle pickup, then last,the tricky bit, the series parallel part.
I’ll use the CTS pots on the diagram
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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