HHH - 1 Volume - 2 Tone Diagram Request

[rere9090]

Hi guys, I'm incredibly new to this. I bought a strat off of reverb and when it got to me it was basically unplayable. I want to salvage this loaded pickguard but it seems as if a lot of the switching options don't work.

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Here are the images to help visualize what I mean:










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The guitar is loaded with Duncan designed HB 102 pickups in the neck and bridge and from what I was told a Dragonfire Lil VB stacked single coil sized humbucker in the middle position.

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There are 3 on/off/on switches, 1 for each pickup.

Up position - single coil tones
Middle position - off
Down position - humbucker

Would it be possible to make this actually work? The neck and Middle pickups seemed to work fine this way but the bridge pickup had never worked.

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The tone pots were meant to be switchable too, this 3 way switch is an on/on/on switch.

Up - the upper 250k pot
Middle - both the 250k and 500k pots
Down - the lower 500k pot


When i received the guitar it barely worked, I'm not familiar with pickup wiring and advanced switching like this, I understand that this is might be kind of complicated and a lot to ask, but I'd appreciate the help.

[sumgai]

rere,


Hi, and to The NutzHouse!


What you ask for should be do-able, but your posted link to IMGUR doesn't work for me, so I suspect others may have the same issue.

In your original text entry to start this thread, there was a button at the far upper right that said "Upload File", and next to that was a button that said "Add image to post". The same two buttons appear in the Reply text entry window as well.

The first one permits almost any type of file, but to take advantage of that site's features, you must "join" in order to set things up. The latter button is usable without further messing around. Simply click it, point to a file on your 'puter or somewhere on the web, and follow a few more prompts. When that's done, copy the address for that newly uploaded image, and then paste it into our site's textarea. HINT: There is a button to make this job even easier, the third from left on the bottom row, just above the textarea. (The long row of buttons, that is.) It looks like a mountain scene. That will add your copied link and all the other stuff you don't have to worry about in order for the Forum software to display it correctly. Easy!

You can either edit your OP to include the image (in place of the IMGUR link), or you can make a new post, either way is fine with us.

Once that's done, we can help you diagnose the issues you've described.

HTH

sumgai

[Deleted]

Simple enough from what you say.
If one had replied in 14hr I'll do a circuit diagram (been up since 3am and now 5am off to work for 12hr shift)
So I'll try and sort it, if not (means I've pasted out) and will sort it within 24hr

14
25
36

1 Humbucker North+
2 output
3 Humbucker South+
4 Humbucker North-
5 Humbucker South+
6 output
Humbucker South- to ground

The on/on/on you got to know what side has the middle on (I think it's the right hand side)
1 not connected
2 output
3 250K
4 500K
5 output
6 not connected

[rere9090]

Jan 15, 2020 0:03:04 GMT -5 @angeisbunny said:

The on/on/on you got to know what side has the middle on (I think it's the right hand side)

Thanks and yes I believe it's the right hand side.

Jan 14, 2020 23:43:18 GMT -5 sumgai said:

You can either edit your OP to include the image (in place of the IMGUR link), or you can make a new post, either way is fine with us.

Thanks, I fixed my post and I appreciate the help!

[sumgai]

rere,


You're welcome for the information, and I see it "took" - nice images.

You stated that the Neck and Middle pups work as described for the switching, yet the Bridge does not. We need a bit more info.... Does the Bridge work at all, in any position? Does it work when either of the other two are On, in some way?

And finally, do you have a multimeter of some kind? Or access to one, perhaps through a friend? If not, be prepared to to spend a few dollars (pounds? euros?) for a cheap meter, that's all you will need for everything the average player/owner might do. Advanced meters are nice, but I understand that you (and most folks) need to balance needs against available funds.

So what we're after here are two possibilities:

A) Is the Bridge pickup in good working order;

and

B) Is the switch also in good working order.

 Only a meter can tell us these things.

For the most part, we won't need to unsolder/resolder anything just yet. But if you don't have a small pencil-style soldering iron, you might want to invest in one of these as well as the meter. If you are new to this kind of tool, ask and we'll give you pointers on what to pick out.

And aside from all of the above, if you don't feel like doing these things is in your future plans, then find a good guitar tech that you can trust. But if you read a few threads here, you'll find that a lot of "beginners" have passed through our doors, and were able to fix their issues with nothing more than our help, and a tool or two. Oh, and an excuse to tell the Significant Other that everything is going fine, and the wallet isn't being molested beyond repair.

The soldering job in the photo you posted looks very good to me, so I suspect the pickup or the switch. It's possible that a wire is bad, and a meter will find that too, but I'm betting on the more expensive part, not the cheap one. Murphy's Law, and all that.

HTH





sumgai

[Deleted]

you can get POTS that if you turn them too much to the Right say it turns off (hear a CLICK) 

[rere9090]

Jan 15, 2020 11:04:32 GMT -5 sumgai said:

rere,


You're welcome for the information, and I see it "took" - nice images.

You stated that the Neck and Middle pups work as described for the switching, yet the Bridge does not. We need a bit more info.... Does the Bridge work at all, in any position? Does it work when either of the other two are On, in some way?

And finally, do you have a multimeter of some kind? Or access to one, perhaps through a friend? If not, be prepared to to spend a few dollars (pounds? euros?) for a cheap meter, that's all you will need for everything the average player/owner might do. Advanced meters are nice, but I understand that you (and most folks) need to balance needs against available funds.

So what we're after here are two possibilities:

A) Is the Bridge pickup in good working order;

and

B) Is the switch also in good working order.

Hello again and thank you, I have several multimeters. My old man and I tend to work together on electronics and amplifier repairs. We have more tools than we could possibly ever need.

Because the builder failed to contact us back and we couldn't be sure about any of the switching, we decided it would be best to take it all apart and start from zero.
We've already desoldered everything and used the solder sucker to clean up. All of the switches and pots work and have continuity. The pickup does work and is showing up just fine on the multimeter.

[rere9090]

Jan 15, 2020 14:19:07 GMT -5 @angeisbunny said:

you can get POTS that if you turn them too much to the Right say it turns off (hear a CLICK) 

Thanks for this! We'll give it a go when we get back to the shop!

[sumgai]

rere,


Good to hear that you're no stranger things hot and measurable.

Since you can get good measurements from each component, then I must assume a cold solder joint. Doesn't happen often from the pro's, but it does happen... just less often that most hobbyists.

@angeisbunny 's diagram above isn't quite exactly how your guitar was wired up. For each pickup you have a switch that chooses between single-coil, off, and humbucker. This means that the switch must be an on/off/on type, or it wouldn't work. @angeisbunny shows you an on/on, choosing between humbucker and single-coil. He "may" have assumed you know the difference, and taken a shortcut by leaving out the obvious switch positions, but I'd prefer that others reading this thread in the future not make a mistake, and go out and buy 3 each of the wrong switch. (Note to ange: you did label the right switch as a DPDT, on/on/on, so I must assume that you forgot to label the other switches, thus necessitating this paragraph.)

Note that the wiring on the bottom-most switch is slightly different - this is to choose the "North" coil, whereas the other two switches choose the "South" coil. The net effect is to provide humbucking for N+B and M+B. N+M will not be humbucking, at least under ordinary circumstances. If you find that the pickups are made such that N+M is humbucking, and the other two are not, then you can easily transpose the coils for any one of the pickups, as desired. But with this simplistic switching scheme, you will never get all three single-coil pairs to buck hum.  It can be done, but the parts count goes up, to say the least.   (However, with all three pups selected in single-coil mode, there will be some reduction in hum - not all of it, but some percentage of it will go away.)

HTH

sumgai

[Deleted]

Don't show the middle state. On/on on/off/on no real difference in drawing just state it's a on/off/on .

I don't like on/off where they just chop off a leg..

[rere9090]

Jan 15, 2020 18:00:28 GMT -5 sumgai said:

Yeah man, I knew what he meant. Thanks for looking out 😁

All is going smoothly and I couldn't be more grateful to @angeisbunny for their help. You guys made a daunting task much easier by sharing your expertise!

[sumgai]

Jan 15, 2020 18:13:01 GMT -5 @angeisbunny said:

Don't show the middle state. On/on on/off/on no real difference in drawing just state it's a on/off/on .

I don't like on/off where they just chop off a leg..

Nonetheless, ange, it is a Prime Rule here in The NutzHouse that we don't assume the reader has the same level of knowledge that you and I do.  (Or lots of other long-time members.)  Taking shortcuts because of a "dislike" is not the Order Of The Day, if you get my meaning.

Your diagram specifically called out a DPDT on/on/on for the cap selector, so I'm assuming in a gentlemanly fashion that you merely forgot to insert such a label for the pickup selectors themselves.  But I have an advantage over the casual reader in that I know how your mind works, and I purposely look for things like this.  When I feel it's important, I will call out such items that might lead a casual reader/modder to possibly buy incorrect parts, or possibly mis-wire a circuit.  If such were to happen just because someone "disliked a chopped off leg", our reputation would be quite harmed.  And that's not something that's gonna happen with impugnity, not on my watch.

And yes, to address your first statement, there is a difference.  Perhaps you've not seen my screed ere now, so I'll repeat it:

When drawing a diagram, notes can be made either directly on such diagram (schematic or wiring pictorial), or they can be stated in the accompanying text.  The trouble with the latter is that if a note-less drawing is "purloined" and then posted on another site, then a future reader could well have problems, sometime down the line.  (Don't laugh, this has happened, more than once in our lifetime.)  Murphy's Law states that the poster of that "borrowed" diagram will point back here, which then puts us in a bad light... just because it was incomplete.

I trust you are getting my point.

HTH

sumgai