|
|
Post by kulturvultur on Jun 21, 2007 19:25:10 GMT -5
Hey, I've been lurking around this site for a while, and today I decided to draw up a plan for modifying my highway 1 strat. She's been great to me, but I'd like to squeeze some new sounds out of her. Browsing through the site, I found Franco's "The Five" modification which struck me as being very tonally diverse. So I decided to give it a shot, and I drew up the plans.  Please excuse my poor skills with paint, I assure my hand-drawn diagram is much better. I basically copied the switching idea verbatim, but added a master 500k tone pot and a kill switch (a fun toy, I think) to use up all three holes in my pickguard. I'm not particularly skilled with this sort of thing (EE 101 didn't teach me a damn thing), so I'm kind of asking you smart folks if this will work right. I'm particularly shaking about the humbucker... |
|
|
|
Post by ChrisK on Jun 21, 2007 19:35:41 GMT -5
You have two wires on the humbucker going to the "B-" terminal on the switch, it should be only one. One wire to "B-" Two wires tied together (the series connection One wire going to common/back of pot (along with the bare wire/shield if you have one). Here's my favorite Strat 5-way diagram. It's not only tonally diverse, with the push pull pots for phase reversal, it's tonally perverse. guitarnuts2.proboards45.com/index.cgi?board=schem&action=display&thread=1153172741 |
|
|
|
Post by kulturvultur on Jun 21, 2007 19:52:35 GMT -5
This: www.guitarelectronics.com/category/wiringresources.11pickupcolorcodes/is where I'm coming from on the "two wires to the B- terminal." Farther down the page it has details on Fender humbuckers. With fender humbuckers (as far as I know), the negative "end" is a red wire and shield wire, right? So I'd want to connect the negative "end" of the bridge pickup to the B- terminal. Unless that page is wrong... |
|
zamzara
Apprentice Shielder
Posts: 49
Likes: 0
|
Post by zamzara on Jun 22, 2007 12:46:21 GMT -5
The "all 3 in series tone" is quite good, but it seems kind of a waste of a superswitch; plus you lose 2 stock tones. I would go with the Mike Richardson design as well.
|
|
|
|
Post by kulturvultur on Jun 22, 2007 14:18:09 GMT -5
From what parts of the Mike Richardson design I understand, it does seem to be pretty swell indeed. But yeah, I don't really "get" all of it.
That and it looks like quite a larger undertaking than what I've cooked up.
|
|
|
|
Post by JohnH on Jun 22, 2007 16:33:31 GMT -5
K - on your diagram version of the '5', you dont seem to have the N+ connection and the B+ connection to the super switch, as shown on the original. The pups should only get connected to the lugs shown on the switch, not directly to ground, except for bare screen wires .
Your Fender humbucker should have black and white joined together and taped (as you have them), green goes to B+ on the Franco diagram and red to B- (as you have it). The bare wire is a shielding wire and is not part of the signal. It should go to ground.
In normal, parallel-only wiring, the screen and signal wires would both be permananetly connected to ground, as in the GuitarElectronics diagrams. But with series wiring they have to do their own things.
Your volume tone and killswitch wiring looks OK.
I will be easy enough to try this design, but I think there are better options for using a superswitch. One aspect I dont like with the Francos 5 is that the bridge pup is switched using its - lead and the + is always connected to hot, even when it is not used as when neck only is selected. That is undesirable and can cause noise since the dangling pup acts like an antennae.
So I'd advise not doing anything irreversible - but carry on, you might like it!
John
|
|
|
|
Post by kulturvultur on Jun 22, 2007 23:35:40 GMT -5
K - on your diagram version of the '5', you dont seem to have the N+ connection and the B+ connection to the super switch, as shown on the original. The pups should only get connected to the lugs shown on the switch, not directly to ground, except for bare screen wires . Your Fender humbucker should have black and white joined together and taped (as you have them), green goes to B+ on the Franco diagram and red to B- (as you have it). The bare wire is a shielding wire and is not part of the signal. It should go to ground. In normal, parallel-only wiring, the screen and signal wires would both be permananetly connected to ground, as in the GuitarElectronics diagrams. But with series wiring they have to do their own things. Whoops! Haha, no wonder I couldn't wrap my head around how exactly it worked. Thanks for pointing this out! I will be easy enough to try this design, but I think there are better options for using a superswitch. One aspect I dont like with the Francos 5 is that the bridge pup is switched using its - lead and the + is always connected to hot, even when it is not used as when neck only is selected. That is undesirable and can cause noise since the dangling pup acts like an antennae. Do you mean to say that in the "neck only" position, I would get signal from the humbucker as if it was on? Or would it just be noise (noise from a humbucker? le gasp!)? Moreover, is there any way to cut that last "undesirable" bit out from this design? |
|
|
|
Post by JohnH on Jun 22, 2007 23:47:32 GMT -5
the noise would not be the bridge sound, but a cahnce of additional buzz/hum. I cant see an easy way to fix it, but there are other designs that do not have this problem. On the schematics board, any design for three pickups can be adapted to your purpose
J
|
|
|
|
Post by JohnH on Jun 23, 2007 1:35:12 GMT -5
Just thinking about possibilities. The basis of your design is 5 sounds. If you could choose any 5, without being limited to an existing design, what would they be?
For me, Id want to keep the Bridge Hb, the neck single and the neck/mid in parallel from the basic Strat, then have two different ones, probably chosen out of bridge single coil, Bridge Hb in series with neck, Bridge Hb in series with mid, or Bridge Hb in series with out-of-phase neck.
Now what if you up-ed the ante? With an extra 4 pole switch you could have a global change from parallel to series wiring. Fender do this with their S1 switch, but it could also be a standard four pole toggle. Fender don't even scratch the surface with the tonal possibilities that they offer.
You could have one set of 5 which are standard Strat: B, B+M, M, M+N, N, all based on single coils including a bridge single coil sound. Then flick the toggle, and blast off with all series options: BridgeHb, BxM, BxN, MxN and BxMxN.
Add a phase switch to the bridge pup? - for extra swamp rock and Jimmy Page tones.
All Im really saying is, theres lots of options, and with careful wiring, you can keep these options open and make it a journey of several steps. Go for the francos five, or if any of the above are of interest, Im happy to help, as will others I am sure.
John
|
|
|
|
Post by kulturvultur on Jun 27, 2007 22:39:08 GMT -5
Truthfully, I'd rather like to experiment and "see what happens" since it's low voltage. I will say though, you've got some damn good ideas! This is more or less a starting point I'd like to spring from. I imagine I'll have a ton of questions in the near future, so I might be poking my head around some more.
Just one last question: Am I correct in thinking that my 500k tone pot will up the brightness level of my guitar? Or will there be no change in tone from the stock 250k pot?
|
|
|
|
Post by michaelcbell on Jun 28, 2007 5:58:49 GMT -5
You are correct in assuming a 500k will be brighter than a 250k. How much it will effect your tone will depend on a number of factors, but it will most definitely be noticable.
|
|
|
|
Post by kulturvultur on Jun 28, 2007 12:42:02 GMT -5
Ah, I was under the impression such was the case only with volume pots. Thanks guys.
To stewmac.com!
|
|
|
|
Post by kulturvultur on Jul 11, 2007 0:27:20 GMT -5
I have run into a bit of a problem, unfortunately; "middle" position (er, mid plus bridge) works fine, but all other positions don't work at all (well, I suppose they are just extremely quiet) and hums quite loudly unless I'm touching the strings. What do you think is wrong here?
The only thing I thought of was perhaps the bridge shield wire wasn't grounded, but a double-checking proved that it was. Could poor soldering be the culprit? My joints arn't particularly shiny, but they're all solid...
EDIT: Further diagnosis reveals that positions, 1, 2, 4, and 5 have loud humming, with the tone knob and volume knob both acting as a volume control for the humming and very faint guitar sounds. Position 3 works great, no humming, (thanks, QTB) volume and tone knobs behave like they should.
Triple checking to make sure the switch is wired up right and not being shorted by the shielding reveals that everything is in order there.
I was thinking the middle position could be the only working one because nothing "fancy" is going on with it, but then why wouldn't "neck only" and "bidge only" work?
|
|
