HB and SC Tele w/ Std Strat Switch

[newey]

This idea was extensively discussed on the TDPRI forums for use in a Tele with a neck HB (4-wire) and a SC Tele bridge pickup. This utilizes the standard Strat "5-way" (errr, 3+2 . . .) switch in a way I had never seen done before.

The following wiring diagram was finalized by Deaf Eddie, whose website is posted on our links page:



I thought it was an interesting use of the standard switch to get at some interesting combinations. The description of the switch positions is a little confusing. In position "3", the neck humbucker has one coil in parallel with the bridge, and the second neck coil in series with both the bridge and the first neck coil.

Any opinions?

BTW, since the bridge pickup is shunted to output, this requires a bridge pup with a separate "ground" wire (I know, Chris, I know . . .) Many Tele bridge pickups have a metal baseplate which forms the ground through the Tele bridge, and with those types, the jumper connecting the pickup to the baseplate must be cut, and a separate ground(errr, signal return . . .) run.

[ChrisK]

This design is fairly clever and useful.

The combinations realized are actually as follows:

1. Neck series humbucker
2. Neck bottom coil, top coil and bridge coil shorted
3. Neck series humbucker with bridge in parallel with neck top coil
4. Neck top coil in parallel with bridge (hum hint), neck bottom coil shorted
5. Bridge coil

Now, if you have a Tele with a bridge humbucker, you get (flip the switch aboot Sparky):

1. Bridge series humbucker
2. Bridge bottom coil, bridge top coil and neck coil shorted
3. Bridge series humbucker with neck in parallel with bridge top coil
4. Bridge top coil in parallel with neck (hum hint), bridge bottom coil shorted
5. Neck coil

And for the Stratovarious among us:

1. Bridge and middle in series
2. Middle coil, bridge coil and neck coil shorted
3. Middle in series with (neck in parallel with bridge)
4. Bridge coil in parallel with neck (hum hint), middle coil shorted
5. Neck coil

[newey]

AND-

There is still an unused terminal on the switch, we can't have that around here.

[nickname009]

reviving an old post, I decided to go ahead with this wiring scheme as well on my warmoth build in reverse with a humbucker in the bridge and a single coil in the neck.

After finally completing the build I decided to give back and recorded a quick demo of the tones available from this wiring scheme.
I'm playing a swamp ash warmoth tele with a fender noiseless pickup in the neck and a gibson 498T in the bridge.


Thanks again to newey for all his help!

youtube link here

[newey]

Nice job, nickname009!

And, here's your official welcome:

Hello and Welcome to G-Nutz2!

Nickname hadn't posted before, although he and I exchanged a series of PMs on this build. I've been wanting someone to try this scheme out, so we can now say that it has been successfully built by one of our members (well, presumably Deaf Eddie built it as well, but we don't hear from him much).

[nickname009]

thanks newey for the warm weclome and help with the wiring!

Glad to have been able to help with the video! looks like i'm keepin' her like that for the meanwhile!

[zender]

Hi guys,
I am newbie here and newbie to guitar wiring.
I get to this thread from google, since i am going to build a SH tele with 5 way switch with 2 tone 1 volume.
May i know the above schematic diagram works with 2 tone controls? if yes, where should i connect?
And I suppose i need a 500k for the H a 250k pot for the S, but what capacitor? any suggestion?
Thanks in advance~

[newey]

zender-

Hello and Welcome to G-Nutz2!

A Strat-type guitar uses one half of the 5-way switch to switch the two tone controls. You can't do that here, because this scheme already uses the other half of the switch,so it is unavailable for tone control switching.

However, you can still use two tone controls with this scheme. Each tone control will be wired "across" its respective pickup, before the 5-way switch. For the HB, the black and green wires will be used for the tone control; the red and white wires will go straight to the switch just as the diagram shows now.

To wire the tone controls "across" the pickups, it's just like any LP or SG guitar. If you need a diagram, we can provide one, but it may be a few days.

As far as pots, and capacitor values, these are matters of personal preference. Certainly, 250K and 500K would be good compromises. With two tone controls, you can use different cap values for each pickup. For caps, .022µf would be a basic choice for the single coil, and .047µf would be a usual value for a HB.

[zender]

Thanks so much newey!
Very useful and prompt answer.
I really appreciate it!

[zender]

Hi Newey,
I still can't figure out how to wire a "sound" circuit.
Could you provide me a diagram?
Please take your time for that.
Million Thanks.

[newey]

This is what I mean. I think it's OK but let's let someone double-check it before you start wiring

[zender]

Thanks so much newey.
That help's alot!
I will try that out later~

[newey]

Zender-
I'd still like someone to double-check my work before you start . . .

[sumgai]

Looks good to me....

[Ro_S]

This scheme is clever with how achieves the series combinations; I've never encountered that otherwise with using a standard 5-way switch. 

Personally, I see more applicability(?) with the bridge humbucker / neck single coil variant.

The only downside of this scheme is that it can't do the normal two-pickup in between sound. i.e. both pickups (their full output), in parallel.   You can't have it all, I suppose?

[mead]

Hi to all,

I‘m new here, and am interested in trying this scheme. I have a nice CRL switch laying around and a Lace Alumitone splittable HB sized PU I would like to use with a Seymour Duncan Jerry Donahue in the bridge position. 

Is the schematic still accessible anywhere? The upload from newey doesn’t work anymore and it’s a bit hard to re-engineer from the blurry photobucket placeholder. 

Thank you

[JohnH]

Hi mead, welcome to GN2

Just to offer a work around that might help, try looking at neweys design on a mobile phone! it works on my Android-powered Samsung.

[newey]

Does this help? Also please note that this is not my scheme, but Deaf Eddie's- credit where due and all that.



If you wanted my revision with the dual tone controls instead of DE's original, please let me know and I can repost that.

[mead]

Wow. Thank you guys for the fast and kind reply! That‘s really kind. I was looking at it in safari on an iPad btw.

That helps a lot. I think I leave the regular tone pot as is. I‘m more curious about the switching.

Thanks again. ✌️