Wiring help

[shpped]

Hey!

I'm currently wiring up my partscaster. I have three pots, one tone with push/pull, one tone, and two volume pots (the volume pots are concentric/stacked) One of the pots are 500k and one is 250k, so I plan to use 250k for the two single coils and 500k for the bridge humbucker. Is it also possible to use the other part of the dpdt switch to switch between the bridge pickup using the 250k and 500k pots? So when it's not split, it's using the 500k and when it's split its using the 250k?
Tone pots preferably standard, one for middle and one for neck

The push/pull dpdt switch is planned to be used for coil splitting my humbucker in the bridge. I'm having issues wiring up and I'm wondering if anyone can help me with a scheme or tips?

Any help is appreciated, if anything is unclear please let me know

 

[gregory]

Re: Wiring help

What pickup is in the bridge? Some work fine with 250k pots.

You can put a 250k in series with the hot lead of your humbucker and have the 5-way autosplit to the hot lead rather than ground, shorting the coil connected to the resistor. This way you can use standard 250k pots without going concentric or using push/pulls.

Alternately, you could use a 5-Way Super Switch to do what you want. It could also save you from using toggles and concentric pots. It also wouldn't result in dropping the volume of your bridge pickup by 6db in humbucking mode that happens in the previous solution. You could still use all those extra controls if you still wanted to.

But as it stands, you're not going to be able to do what you want to do with what you have on hand.

 

[shpped]

Re: Wiring help

Hi.

Thanks! that was what i was thinking as well, i just ordered a 5-way superswitch per your suggestion.
Do you think The Seymour JB SH-4 will work okay on 250k?
Can you give me some suggestions on resistors i might need and maybe some wiring charts that can utilize the superswitch a bit more?

Thank you so much D

 

[gregory]

Re: Wiring help

From what I understand, the JB was originally designed for a guitar that had a 250k volume and a 250k master tone pot, and this is how Seymour Duncan himself uses a JB, if the often parroted claim is true. Myself, I like a JB with a 250k volume control and either a 250k or 500k tone control.

For now, I'll also say that you won't need a concentric pot and maybe not a 5-Way Super Switch, depending on what you want to do. The push-pull may still be needed, again, depending on what you want to do.

To be continued...

 

[gregory]

Re: Wiring help

I'd like to bounce an idea off you, in case it's of any help.

You could use the following scheme with a 5-Way Super Switch, a 250k volume, a 250k tone, a 500k tone and a 270k resistor...

1. Bridge, 500k outside tone control
2. Middle + Bridge (split), 250k middle tone control
3. Middle, middle tone control
4. Neck + Middle, 270k resistor in place of a tone control
5. Neck, middle tone control

Alterations might be necessary depending on what singles you're using as well as the tonality of the guitar. A tone control could still be used in position 4, of course, but I find I'm always rolling the tone all the way up whenever I use the position. Having two tones active in position 4 is way too dark for me. I'm not entirely certain about how to handle the tone control in position 2. I'd play the guitar that way for a while to see if I liked it.

 

[shpped]

Re: Wiring help

Thanks! i really appreciate it.
I'm using some stock fender pickups from an '84 and an '87.
Do you have any diagram that is close to what you are mentioning there? I'm not entirely at a point where i understand how everything works well enough to be able draw a diagram, lol

 

[gregory]

Re: Wiring help

Here you go...



I have the JB split so the outer screw coil is active. You'll have to reverse the hot and ground wires of the neck and bridge to keep them in phase. Splitting to the inner slug coil can also be done. In that case you would need to swap the neck and middle pickups as well as reverse the hot and ground wires. The swapping is for hum cancellation when the slug coil of the bridge and middle single are combined.

If you don't like the 270k for position 4 in place of the tone control then omit it and connect that lug to the the middle tone control. Likewise, using the outer tone control for position 2 should be just as straight forward.

If you want to use a push-pull (or push-push) switch to split the JB (or alternately put it in parallel mode) in position 1, let me know. Feel free to send me a PM if you need any more assistance or want to discuss other ideas.