Wiring diagram---Help please???

S

Stevie M

New member
Hi guys, I don't know if anyone can help me out here? I'm just finishing my latest project, but I can't find a wiring diagram anywhere.

Basically I've got 3 hotrail humbucks ( with 4 core shielded cable), 3 pushpull tones, 1 vol, and 3 mini spdt switches. The 3 mini switches are to turn each pup on and off ( instead of a 5 way switch).

Also I'm not sure the best way to wire the push/pulls to get the best tone ( or sound) difference?.

Any ideas------or comments???

Cheers.
 
Re: Wiring diagram---Help please???

Stevie M said:
Hi guys, I don't know if anyone can help me out here? I'm just finishing my latest project, but I can't find a wiring diagram anywhere.

Basically I've got 3 hotrail humbucks ( with 4 core shielded cable), 3 pushpull tones, 1 vol, and 3 mini spdt switches. The 3 mini switches are to turn each pup on and off ( instead of a 5 way switch).

Also I'm not sure the best way to wire the push/pulls to get the best tone ( or sound) difference?.

Any ideas------or comments???

Cheers.
Click to expand...
Pretty much the only thing you can do is do coil split or series/parallel for each pup with each push/pull.

I'd look at getting a 5-way superswitch and the Mike Richardson wiring scheme.
Waaay more versatility and you can use your push/pull pots to switch modes and do out-of-phase with the neck or mid pup.

If you had 3 on-on-on switches you could wire each of them series/parallel/split to get more versatility.

MM
 
Re: Wiring diagram---Help please???

MojoMonster
Pretty much the only thing you can do is do coil split or series/parallel for each pup with each push/pull.
Click to expand...
Gee, that's the only thing he can do?
To me that seems like quite a lot.
The Mike Richardson diagram has series options as well as parallel. Since hotrails are pretty hot to begin with, do you think series wiring them would be a good idea?
 
Re: Wiring diagram---Help please???

wolf said:
MojoMonster

Gee, that's the only thing he can do?
To me that seems like quite a lot.
Click to expand...
Oh goodness no.
There are all kinds of crazy-assed things you can do with pickup switching... just not so much with 3 on-offs and 3 push/pulls.
My first axe, a 1989 Carvin DC-135 came with pretty much that wiring scheme... 3 x on/off/on wired series/off/parallel and MT/MV.

The Mike Richardson diagram has series options as well as parallel. Since hotrails are pretty hot to begin with, do you think series wiring them would be a good idea?
Click to expand...
Humbuckers are wired in series with each other normally so it would be no hotter than any other 2 humbucker guitar.
Switching them to parallel with each other will give you a thinner sound.
He'll find that without the "quack" associated with that middle pickup, it's pretty much redundant.
At least I did.
I eventually ended up with a PATB2/PA-STK1n combo and ditched the middle pup.

And yes, the Mike Richards scheme is designed for single coils, but the concept works the same.

MM
 
Re: Wiring diagram---Help please???

what are the mini switches: SPST, DPDt, 3P3T etc? Are they on-on-on, on-off-on? The kind of mini switches you have will determine What you can achieve.
 
Re: Wiring diagram---Help please???

Thanks for the suggestions guys, can't change anything now though 'cos the holes are cut, body lacquered, all ready to go. I'll keep these in mind for the next one though.
Just need the diagram ( not schematic---can't read and work those out) of how to do it as it stands.


nalo----- they're just a 2 position mini switch ( I call it on/off:1:) with 3 pins.
 
Re: Wiring diagram---Help please???

3 pins?
with a meter
with the switch in one position
you get continuity from center pin to one outer pin ?
in the other position
you get continuity from center pin to the other outer pin?

cool its called an on-on
but just splitting hairs
 
Re: Wiring diagram---Help please???

With the current switches your only real useful option is either on/off with p/p pots for coil splitting phase reversal. If you wanted to update the switches it would be possible to provide Series/Parallel/Off functionality with p/p pots for splitting or phasing.
 
Re: Wiring diagram---Help please???

nalo1022 said:
With the current switches your only real useful option is either on/off with p/p pots for coil splitting phase reversal. If you wanted to update the switches it would be possible to provide Series/Parallel/Off functionality with p/p pots for splitting or phasing.
Click to expand...

yeas
what he said
with different switches
yeas

on-off-on mini switches
yeas

up
series connected

middle
off

down
something else connected
yeas
 
Re: Wiring diagram---Help please???

Yep, those are the ones I've got, and you can split hairs anytime ehdwuld, at least then I know what to put down and don't seem like quite such a dimbo:bigthumb:

It'd be no problem to change 'em for on/off/on, I might even have some of those with 6 pins----dtdp are they called? then it could get complicated!!!!:laugh:
 
Re: Wiring diagram---Help please???

Ok, thought I'd leave it a while, but no more suggestions, so I'll have to learn a bit more and work out my own one. Can anyone recommend any good books on wiring, or websites ( to save me buying a book:biglaugh:), that take you right through it and explains how it all works?. Bearing in mind, of course, that I'm not an electrical engineer or anything. Sort of the 'Idiots guide to wiring' would do!
Cheers.
 
Re: Wiring diagram---Help please???

Usual suspects:
Craig Anderton
Donald Brosnac
Dan Erlewine
Adrian Legg, "How To Customise Your Electric Guitar"

In the late Seventies and early Eighties, Legg worked for UK DiMarzio distributor, Rose-Morris. He had ample opportunity to try out custom wiring ideas - no matter how demented.
 
Re: Wiring diagram---Help please???

Cheers FF, I'll check them out.
You calling me demented?????? You ain't seen nothing yet:naughty::lmao:
 
Re: Wiring diagram---Help please???

If you can find the Adrian Legg book, you will see photographs of testbed, screw-on neck Les Paul copy guitars, bristling with more PU mode switches than a Seventies B C Rich.
 
Re: Wiring diagram---Help please???

Stevie M said:
Ok, thought I'd leave it a while, but no more suggestions, so I'll have to learn a bit more and work out my own one. Can anyone recommend any good books on wiring, or websites ( to save me buying a book:biglaugh:), that take you right through it and explains how it all works?. Bearing in mind, of course, that I'm not an electrical engineer or anything. Sort of the 'Idiots guide to wiring' would do!
Cheers.
Click to expand...
http://www.1728.com/guitar.htm

Dan Erlewine's repair/setup books tend to have sections on electronics.
You might want to look through the SD wiring diagrams.

MM
 
Re: Wiring diagram---Help please???

I've seen a couple of his books,thanks MM. Quite interesting, but not what I need. I'm ok on all the set-up/repairing side of things and
stuff, it's really just something on the electrics side I need. It's a bit like the 'how to make guitars' books I've got, there's bits and
pieces, but nothing comprehensive.
I've already got hard copies of several SD plans, I'll probably have a trawl through and get some more, but it'd help if I knew how and
why all the bits work.
Cheers.
 
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Re: Wiring diagram---Help please???

I've had a search for anything by Ian Legg, FF, I'll try my local library or bookshop next week.
 
Re: Wiring diagram---Help please???

Stevie M said:
I've had a search for anything by Ian Legg, FF, I'll try my local library or bookshop next week.
Click to expand...

Adrian Legg - the same acoustic fingerstyle wizard who appeared on UK legs of the G3 world tour.

First published 1981. ISBN 0 7182 3730 7
 
Re: Wiring diagram---Help please???

MojoMonster said:
Humbuckers are wired in series with each other normally so it would be no hotter than any other 2 humbucker guitar.
Click to expand...

I'm sorry, but this is incorrect. The two coils in a humbucker are wired in series with each other usually. If you have 2 humbuckers selected with a standard selector switch however, they are in parallel with each other.
 
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