juanhonglo
Rookie Solder Flinger
Posts: 4
Likes: 0
|
Post by juanhonglo on Jul 12, 2007 19:35:20 GMT -5
Hey guys, I'm new here and desperately need help with wiring up a 4pole 5-way strat switch to give me the prs switching combos. i found 2 different diagrams at deaf eddies site. I spent god knows how long trying to get the darned thing working. I seem to get the neck, next to neck,and next to bridge to function. correctly i think too. I just can't seem to get the middle series link or the bridge to work. i get just silence. Can somebody post a detailed diagram? It doesn't matter if the colors are the same or not. just "neck hot" or "Bridge tap" will do. Also, do i have to ground the switch body to the vol pot?
Any guidance is greatly appreciated.
|
|
|
Post by ChrisK on Jul 12, 2007 21:50:01 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by sumgai on Jul 13, 2007 3:30:34 GMT -5
Chris, That diagram from GuitarElectronics is more than a bit bogus: 1) In position 1, the Neck outer coil is hanging hot. 2) In position 3, I see: a - Neck North Start - (always) goes to volume input b - Neck North Finish - goes to ground Not much room for placing anything in there for series, eh? Equally as egregious, the Bridge's South Finish is placed on the volume input, so there's a parallel connection of Neck Outer/Bridge Inner. 3) In position 4, I see: a - Neck South Start - goes nowhere b - Neck South Finish - goes to Bridge South Finish c - Bridge South Start - goes to ground This looks like an aborted Serial connection. And it's dead to boot, neither pup will get to the volume input (trace back all of the connections from the volume input, none of them hit switch position 4). All in all, this thing is the perfect poster child for "Your Brain on Narcotics". Ger-Fooey! sumgai p.s. My assumptions: both pickups are shown with the screws uppermost, but no one mounts them that way - they face opposite. For that reason, I assume that the North coil is the one with screws, regardless of the drawn orientation. This means that the North coil is also the outer coil in both cases. Feel free to rebut these assumptions, please.
|
|
juanhonglo
Rookie Solder Flinger
Posts: 4
Likes: 0
|
Post by juanhonglo on Jul 13, 2007 7:01:06 GMT -5
Thanks for the responses gentlemen! Sumgai, i take it that you are the supreme diety around here? I have the P/ups mounted correctly with the bridge magnet flipped to give me the correct polarity/ies. I am not too bad with this stuff normally. but this has me scratchin my head. Does anyone know if the Guitar electronics wiring setups actually works? i seems that there might be some problems. I have tried this with a "p" model megaswitch also and couldn't get it to work either. that one is simple too! just solder up the wires and go. On a side note, my intention is to install this rig in a strat with a center lace pickup mounted in between. oh the buckers will be lace hemibuckers. so there shouldn't be any issue with polarity......i think? now, i want to wire the center p/u to a separate volume pot ( in the third unused hole). is there a way to set it up to act as a "sub volume" to the master vol? Sort of like a gretsch set up. What size pots would i need if such a setup is feasible? Thanks again for helping the schematiccally challenged ;D
|
|
|
Post by sumgai on Jul 13, 2007 13:21:07 GMT -5
juan, Yeah, like I'm so supreme, right. Hell's Bells, I can't even get my name to start with a capital letter, who you calling supreme? ;D If you're referring to the schematic that I ground into the dirt (posted above), then your sensitivites are to be commended. There may be other PRS style drawings on that site, or elsewhere on the web, but that particular one is null and void. In Chris's response above, there is a truth table to the diagram. It went: Bridge Outer coils parallel Outer coils series Inner coils parallel Neck Is this what you want in terms of combinations? If not, then what combos do you want? It's a good presumption that all the pickups from one company are probably of the same polarity, but personally, I would still check them out. Or I'd get the sales rep on the phone to commit to a no-questions-asked return policy, should they turn out to be incompatible. (But then again, we're just Nutz enough around here to make the incompatible work anyways. ;D) That should be do-able. JohnH has contributed a lot of stuff to the NutzHouse, his designs are always tried and true. Try this on for size: guitarnuts2.proboards45.com/index.cgi?board=schem&action=display&thread=1165712655Simply swap the terms Bridge and Middle as you see them on the volume controls, and hook it up accordingly. (You'll probably want to ignore the switching options, they don't seem to be anything like a PRS scheme.) HTH sumgai
|
|
juanhonglo
Rookie Solder Flinger
Posts: 4
Likes: 0
|
Post by juanhonglo on Jul 13, 2007 15:16:04 GMT -5
woo hoo!!!! I got it!!! This one works: www.deaf-eddie.net/drawings/dbl-fat-prs.jpg*be advised of the wires that connect to the left terminal on the Vol pot. The diagram isn't as clear as it could be. take a look at the hot lead from the neck p/u. kinda looks like it could go to the lower left common. in fact, it goes to the vol pot, left side. that diagram's wires should really be on different levels, not running 2 black lines right next to each other. I guess that is how people like me get flustered ?? Also i think the series link is next to the neck bucker position ( at least in the one i used). series is louder, right? as far as the center p/up, how about a blender pot instead of a vol? what i'm concerned with on this part is the impedance of the dual vol pots. if i go that route i would want to use the vol pot for the single coil as a slave to the master. now, would that create additional impedance? Thinking about it, i'll probably go with a blender. Thanks Sumgai (note capital "S") Juan
|
|
|
Post by JohnH on Jul 13, 2007 16:10:07 GMT -5
That diagram from GuitarElectronics is more than a bit bogus: It's a bit surprsing, but I think that quite a few of the diagrams on Guitar Electronics are sub-optimal, or sub-adequate. They often show unneccessary hanging coils, or 2xHbs with coil cuts, without getting humcancelling combos, or nasty (IMO) reverse-wired volumes without explaining the consequences. On the orientation of pickups however. I believe I prefer to put my bridge pup with screw-coil on the neck side. It gives better control and output from a slightly fatter sounding coil position. Also, with the PRS switching, and others such as our HBD design, theres an advantage in facing both pups the same way, for getting humcancelling when doing 'inner' or 'outer' coils. That way, you can get those variations while always having a north and a south to hum-cancel. cheers John
|
|
|
Post by UnklMickey on Jul 14, 2007 6:24:21 GMT -5
If I were inclined to do a PRS scheme, I wouldn't bother with the Deaf Eddie mod at all. It's complicated, and has "warts". (shunted coils and hanging from hot)
Even if you don't consider the warts aren't an issue, it would make more sense to use a Megaswitch - P. It's made to get the 5 combinations you want, and the wiring is dead simple. It's also a better switch than the Superswitch. The detents are more positive, and the contacts are less likely to fail over time.
Cheers, Unk
|
|
juanhonglo
Rookie Solder Flinger
Posts: 4
Likes: 0
|
Post by juanhonglo on Jul 14, 2007 14:36:37 GMT -5
Forgive me, but what are hanging hots? and why are they bad?
|
|
|
Post by JohnH on Jul 14, 2007 16:42:39 GMT -5
What we mean by hanging coils from hot:
To switch coils in and out, you usually only need to disconnect one end of the coil. The other end can remain connected, and in standard wiring (Strat, Tele, LP, SG) the coils remain connected to the ground while the switching just connects or disconnects them from the output, or hot. This is absolutely fine.
On some more complex wiring however, it is sometimes tempting, for switching reasons, to diconnect the ground ends of a coil only, leaving them connected to the hot, which is 'hanging from hot'. This is fine for switching the sound of the pup on and off, but the single-ended connection to hot can in theory, act as an antennae to pickup up noise. This does not happen with a single connection to ground.
Its easy to demonstarte the effect, with a screened guitar cord in your amp, turn up the gain and connect a short bare wire to the jack tip. You get a buzz, while the same wire on the grounded jack sleeve gets no buzz.
The same effect can happen in a guitar with coils hanging from hot. You may get away with it, or work around it with shielding and covered coils. But it is nearly always possible to avoid this problem in the first place by correct switching design, and that is a better solution.
cheers
John
|
|