Idea for wiring

[amtaylor]

I had this idea to modify the wiring in my American Standard without changing the appearance. My idea was to use on of the s1 type circuit in the deluxe and add a blender and push pull pot to act as a coil cut for a bridge humbucker. Is this possible? Does anyone know of a schematic for something like this?

[newey]

am-

Hello and Welcome to G-Nutz2!

First off, yes, what you want is possible. Adding a blend pot will, of course, require you to scrap one of your tone controls. Presumably, you would want a master tone instead? If the S-1 switch occupies the other tone pot hole, then the push/pull for the HB goes on the Volume pot.

S-1 switches are somewhat hard to find, and pricey when they are found. We have an alternative that does much of the same using a regular P/P pot:

ChrisK's "S-None" Switch

While this is set up for 3 single coils, it would be easily modified for a HSS set-up. Page down for the version that uses a regular 5-way switch, as the first drawing is for use with the Schaller Megaswitch.

[amtaylor]

Cheers
That looks good. I'm unsure though how to swap it from 2 tone controls to a master one though. I have done some wiring before but I'm not an expert by any stretch of the imagination. The tone controls are the ones that confuse me normally.
The megaswitch option looks slightly better as it has a bridge and neck position which I would like to have. I have got a fender megaswitch somewhere too.

[amtaylor]

Although thinking about it if i have a blender I can have the bridge with anything and everything so it doesn't really matter

[newey]

I have got a fender megaswitch somewhere too.

That would be a Superswitch™, which is a different animal altogether. It could be used for this, though. But we need to settle on what type of switch you want to use before we start drawing up a diagram for you.

The tone controls are the ones that confuse me normally.

A master tone is usually wired off of the volume control, rather than off of the 5-way switch as in a regular Strat. A diagram for any guitar with a single master V and T will show you how to do it. Once we zero in more specifically on how you want the rest of this to go, that piece of the puzzle will fall into place easily.

Although thinking about it if i have a blender I can have the bridge with anything and everything so it doesn't really matter

Well, that depends on what type of blender we're talking about, and what pickups it affects. There are several different options. There are dual-gang pots with center detents which are sold as "blend pots", or you can use just a regular pot. You have 3 pickups, you can blend the outputs of any 2 of the 3 together, or you can blend one pickup into the output coming from the 5-way switch.

You can also give your bridge HB a separate volume control, and thus could blend that pickup in with the others; some folks would call that a "blend pot" although it's really just a separate volume control.

So we need some further info on exactly what you want to blend together here.

[reTrEaD]

Jan 27, 2012 14:38:58 GMT -5 newey said:

I have got a fender megaswitch somewhere too.

That would be a Superswitch™, which is a different animal altogether.

Schaller makes several models of the Megaswitch.

Megaswitch S - Replacement for the standard Fender 5-way Stratocaster switch.
Megaswitch T - Replacement for the standard Fender 3-way Telecaster switch.
Megaswitch P - 5-postion lever switch for PRS style wiring.
Megaswitch E - 5-postion lever switch for specialized wiring.
Megaswitch E+ - 5-postion lever switch for other sorts of specialized wiring.
Megaswitch M - Analogous to a 4P5T Superswitch.

[amtaylor]

Jan 27, 2012 14:38:58 GMT -5 newey said:

I have got a fender megaswitch somewhere too.

That would be a Superswitch™, which is a different animal altogether. It could be used for this, though. But we need to settle on what type of switch you want to use before we start drawing up a diagram for you.



A master tone is usually wired off of the volume control, rather than off of the 5-way switch as in a regular Strat. A diagram for any guitar with a single master V and T will show you how to do it. Once we zero in more specifically on how you want the rest of this to go, that piece of the puzzle will fall into place easily.

Although thinking about it if i have a blender I can have the bridge with anything and everything so it doesn't really matter

Well, that depends on what type of blender we're talking about, and what pickups it affects. There are several different options. There are dual-gang pots with center detents which are sold as "blend pots", or you can use just a regular pot. You have 3 pickups, you can blend the outputs of any 2 of the 3 together, or you can blend one pickup into the output coming from the 5-way switch.

You can also give your bridge HB a separate volume control, and thus could blend that pickup in with the others; some folks would call that a "blend pot" although it's really just a separate volume control.

So we need some further info on exactly what you want to blend together here.

Thanks for your response. Sorry it took me so long to get back to you. I have decided what I want now (i think) I want be able to bring the bridge pup in with whatever else in on with an option for it to be in series or in parallel. I would also like to be able to put the mid pup in and out of phase. I am going to stick with single coils only and would like to keep all the "normal" strat sounds.

[newey]

I have decided what I want now (i think) I want be able to bring the bridge pup in with whatever else in on with an option for it to be in series or in parallel. I would also like to be able to put the mid pup in and out of phase. I am going to stick with single coils only and would like to keep all the "normal" strat sounds.

And, without altering the appearance as well, I assume . . .

Here's one way this might all shake out. It requires using P/P pots for the switching, given that you want to keep a stock appearance.

1) Neck tone control becomes a master tone control.

2) Stock 5-way switch with the std. Strat selections.

3) Mid tone control becomes Bridge blend control. P/P switch on this pot turns the bridge pickup on with whatever is selected on the 5-way.

4) P/P on the tone control selects bridge pup in series/parallel with whatever is selected by 5-way switch.

5) P/P on the volume control is mid phase switch.

The issue with this idea is that we're asking the bridge blend control to do double duty, blending in both series and parallel. This will work, but in series mode it will not blend so well. The solution is another switch pole- but P/Ps don't give us that option, and we've already used all the holes available.

Another option is to use a Superswitch, with a P/P controlling the "mode" of the Superswitch; "down" gives the std Strat selections on the Superswitch, "up" gives the bridge in series/parallel (you chose 5 options- B+ N, B * N, etc). Another P/P controls the mid phase.

One advantage may be (not sure if we can work this out or not) that you can probably do all the switching with 3 poles of the Superswitch, and the 4th pole might work to select the series/parallel blending function.

There is also the "free neck on switch" idea, but substituting the bridge. This idea uses one of the tone controls to turn the bridge pup on/off at the very end of the pot's travel. Not sure whether that could be made to work with a series/parallel switch, though- probably not.

If you have a Superswitch already, I think the second idea makes the most sense.

[amtaylor]

I think the superswitch idea is the best. Will this option allow the bridge to be in series when the neck and mid are in parallel. I reckon the sign for that would be B+(N*M)

[amtaylor]

Thinking about it if I get the superswitch might it just be best for a bridge volume control as this should give the same effect and might be easier perhaps?

[newey]

Will this option allow the bridge to be in series when the neck and mid are in parallel. I reckon the sign for that would be B+(N*M)

No, we use "+" for parallel, and "*" for series- that's just sort of our convention around here, others do it differently. But + and * more or less describe what's happening electrically.

So, it's "B * (N + M)". And, yes, this could be one of your five alternatives on the Superswitch.

[amtaylor]

Has anyone done a design that has these options? Or do I need to adapt one?

[newey]

Take another look at the "S-None" diagram. Notice how, with the "S-None" switch "up" (assuming a Push/Pull is used), the middle pup is put in series in various ways.

If the design were redrawn to put the "S-None" on the bridge instead, you would get those same series combos- including B * (N + M)- instead of the middle being in series. The phase switch that was on the bridge pup then moves to the middle pup. The second phase switch could then be eliminated if you like.

At least, that was my thinking here. Seems like that ought to work, but I haven't gone through ChrisK's diagram in detail to see if switching the "S-None" over to the bridge presents any issues.

[amtaylor]

OK cheers, I'll tak a look again