Hey folks. I'm new to the forum so bear with me.
I'm a tinkerer. Nothing I have can stay stock for long. I just ordered a Strat from Sweetwater a month ago and before it had even been delivered I was out buying parts for it and getting ideas for it together.
Okay so to the point.
I have an American Standard Telecaster that I did A LOT of modifying to. Routed out the body to accommodate Bridge and Neck humbuckers, ordered a pickguard from Warmoth, put a new bridge on it and made it an HSH. The pickups I put in it were the Seymour Duncan P-Rails set, and in the middle position, I put the Texas Special Telecaster Neck pickup because I've always loved the tone of that shiny little *****! I put 2 DPDT on/off/on switches in the pickguard so I could use the P-Rails to their full potential, and because I LOVE my Les Paul so much, I ordered some 500k stacked pots so I could have individual volume and tone for the bridge and neck pickups. For the middle pickup, I wired it up to its own volume pot and made it a blender, so it was wired straight to the output jack and was on all the time unless I rolled the volume back completely. Brent Mason inspired. And all of that while still maintaining a stock 3-way switch.
NOW... It worked SUPERBLY in that configuration, but I wasn't happy with the sound of the P-Rails in that guitar. I decided to put an SH-5 Custom (my favorite) in the bridge, and an SH-2n Jazz in the neck. Since I didn't have any need for a series/split/parallel mod, I pulled the 2 on/off/on switches out and replaced them with a pair of DPDT on/off (or on/on, I can't remember) switches, simply because I don't like push/pull pots, and I still wanted to be able to split the coils manually rather than wire it up with an auto-split setup. Now wiring up a coil split on a Duncan is no problem. Done it a thousand times. But here's where things got really complicated (i.e. It DIDN'T WORK).
I pulled the standard 3-way blade pickup selector, and put in a 5-way pickup selector switch, because I want to have Stratocaster style switching for the pickups, (while manually having to split the coils). And as I said earlier, the Bridge and Neck pickups each have their own individual volume and tone. And the "blender" pot that was on the middle pickup's circuit, well... I decided that I wanted the pickup to be wired onto the selector switch now so the guitar could function like a Stratocaster, but I want the middle pickup to have its own volume. No tone, just volume. AND (not that this one is a big deal, it's pretty cut and dry how to wire this one up) I'm going to install a momentary push-button killswitch as well. It's a normally open type switch, so I just run 2 more words to the hot and ground tabs at the output jack and wire the switch to that.
So anyways I guess what I'm asking is, does anyone out there know how I would wire this thing up PROPERLY? I THOUGHT I did it right but when I tested it, position 5 (neck): only the screw coil of the humbucker was active with the coil split switch in either position. Position 4 (neck and middle): worked fine. Position 3 (middle only): worked fine. Position 2 (middle and bridge): only the bridge worked and even when I tried to split the coils, it did nothing, the pickup was still in full humbucker mode. Position 1 (bridge only): NOTHING AT ALL!
Can anyone help? I guess the only issue that I'm having is, how do I wire up (bridge) Volume and Tone, (neck) Volume and Tone, and (middle) Volume, all to a standard Fender 5-way switch?
I've always had trouble understanding how the 5-way switch works and which terminals do what. I know the hot lead from each pickup goes to its own terminal, and I know there's a jumper in there somewhere, but I just confused myself when I tried to dig into it and figure it out.
Any help would be greatly appreciated! Maybe I NEED to order a Super Switch? I don't know, but in any case, it's a *****! I've included an image of the guitar when I had the P-Rails in it. This way you can see how I configured the Volume/Tone pots and the switches.
I'm a tinkerer. Nothing I have can stay stock for long. I just ordered a Strat from Sweetwater a month ago and before it had even been delivered I was out buying parts for it and getting ideas for it together.
Okay so to the point.
I have an American Standard Telecaster that I did A LOT of modifying to. Routed out the body to accommodate Bridge and Neck humbuckers, ordered a pickguard from Warmoth, put a new bridge on it and made it an HSH. The pickups I put in it were the Seymour Duncan P-Rails set, and in the middle position, I put the Texas Special Telecaster Neck pickup because I've always loved the tone of that shiny little *****! I put 2 DPDT on/off/on switches in the pickguard so I could use the P-Rails to their full potential, and because I LOVE my Les Paul so much, I ordered some 500k stacked pots so I could have individual volume and tone for the bridge and neck pickups. For the middle pickup, I wired it up to its own volume pot and made it a blender, so it was wired straight to the output jack and was on all the time unless I rolled the volume back completely. Brent Mason inspired. And all of that while still maintaining a stock 3-way switch.
NOW... It worked SUPERBLY in that configuration, but I wasn't happy with the sound of the P-Rails in that guitar. I decided to put an SH-5 Custom (my favorite) in the bridge, and an SH-2n Jazz in the neck. Since I didn't have any need for a series/split/parallel mod, I pulled the 2 on/off/on switches out and replaced them with a pair of DPDT on/off (or on/on, I can't remember) switches, simply because I don't like push/pull pots, and I still wanted to be able to split the coils manually rather than wire it up with an auto-split setup. Now wiring up a coil split on a Duncan is no problem. Done it a thousand times. But here's where things got really complicated (i.e. It DIDN'T WORK).
I pulled the standard 3-way blade pickup selector, and put in a 5-way pickup selector switch, because I want to have Stratocaster style switching for the pickups, (while manually having to split the coils). And as I said earlier, the Bridge and Neck pickups each have their own individual volume and tone. And the "blender" pot that was on the middle pickup's circuit, well... I decided that I wanted the pickup to be wired onto the selector switch now so the guitar could function like a Stratocaster, but I want the middle pickup to have its own volume. No tone, just volume. AND (not that this one is a big deal, it's pretty cut and dry how to wire this one up) I'm going to install a momentary push-button killswitch as well. It's a normally open type switch, so I just run 2 more words to the hot and ground tabs at the output jack and wire the switch to that.
So anyways I guess what I'm asking is, does anyone out there know how I would wire this thing up PROPERLY? I THOUGHT I did it right but when I tested it, position 5 (neck): only the screw coil of the humbucker was active with the coil split switch in either position. Position 4 (neck and middle): worked fine. Position 3 (middle only): worked fine. Position 2 (middle and bridge): only the bridge worked and even when I tried to split the coils, it did nothing, the pickup was still in full humbucker mode. Position 1 (bridge only): NOTHING AT ALL!
Can anyone help? I guess the only issue that I'm having is, how do I wire up (bridge) Volume and Tone, (neck) Volume and Tone, and (middle) Volume, all to a standard Fender 5-way switch?
I've always had trouble understanding how the 5-way switch works and which terminals do what. I know the hot lead from each pickup goes to its own terminal, and I know there's a jumper in there somewhere, but I just confused myself when I tried to dig into it and figure it out.
Any help would be greatly appreciated! Maybe I NEED to order a Super Switch? I don't know, but in any case, it's a *****! I've included an image of the guitar when I had the P-Rails in it. This way you can see how I configured the Volume/Tone pots and the switches.
