Wiring help needed - 3-way switch, H-S, 1 tone, 1 volume troubleshoot

[alexreinhold]

We're talking about a metal guitar with a very nice single coil which I am using for clean tones and some leads. I have a Dimebucker in the bridge and a Häussel single coil in the neck using the wiring diagram below. My pots are 500k (EVH speed volume, CTS No-Load) and I use a standard 3-way blade switch. I am encountering three problems:

1. The Dimebucker is AMAZING at 10/10 (volume/tone). However, the single coil sounds too shrill at 10/10 - which makes sense given I use a no-load pot. In fact, it sounds great at 9/9. However, I hate fiddling around with tone and volume all the time. Is there any way I can keep the Dimebucker at no load at all times (i.e. disconnect from tone) and get a normal 500k tone pot for the single coil instead?
2. the taper of the volume knob is insanely aggressive. 10 to 9 is like two different worlds and 9 to 5 leads to an absurd volume loss. Do you think this will improve when replacing the EVH (which I really liked on another guitar) with a CTS volume knob?
3. That middle position (Dimebucker + Häussel) sounds horrific at volume 10 (ice-picky galore) but actually pretty amazing at volume 5. Any ideas regarding that?

Thanks!

 

[beaubrummels]

Soiunds like your neck pickup is just too bright for the guitar. You might consider a different, warmer pickup for the neck. You could wire the tone just on the neck pickup. You'd have to tap the neck pickup hot to the tone before it goes to the switch. Otherwise, you'd need to hardwaire a resistor/cap from the neck pickup hot to ground to darken it up. What values is going to take experimentation.

EVH are Audio taper (which I'm sure helps with manual volume swells, the reason for the low-friction pot). Switching to another brand like CTS alone won't fix it, but switching to a linear pot will.

 

[alexreinhold]

Sorry to bump. Just to make sure, in order to get the humbucker on no-load at all times (i.e. have the tone knob only for the neck), I'd have to alter the wiring in the previously posted diagram like so:

Neck hot to tone knob.
Top right on switch to tone knob
Everything else stays as is

Can someone confirm? Thanks!!
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[Artie]

The humbucker can only be no-tone when it's being used by itself. As soon as you select neck/bridge, the tone will affect both, regardless of how you wire it.

 

[alexreinhold]

Yeah, I don't care too much about position 2. So in order to have position 1 be no tone at all times, what do i do?

 

[Artie]

Yeah, I don't care too much about position 2. So in order to have position 1 be no tone at all times, what do i do?

Take the blue wire that goes from the tone to the volume, and disconnect it from the volume pot. Then resolder it to where the neck hot wire connects to the 3-way. That's it. Make sense?

 

[alexreinhold]

Yes, thank you so much. Super helpful! Will do it on Tuesday and then update when everything works. Thanks!

 

[Artie]

You're welcome. Let us know how it works out.

 

[alexreinhold]

Finally got to it. Worked like a charm,thanks!! Also removing the no load made a massive difference. I learned that no load in 9 is noticeably different than a normal tone pot on 10.