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Post by newey on Jan 25, 2022 13:19:20 GMT -5
His repeated mentioning of pickup height (which seemed to be the major variable in his testing) was music to my ears- How many times have I said around here that adjusting the pickup height is the simplest and most effective change one can make to an electric guitar, whatever it may be?
I also noted that the biggest difference in sound between his Anderson Tele and the kit tele was his first test, with the stock kit pickups versus his Anderson's SD pickup. Once he replaced the kit guitar's pickups with the same SD one, all the rest of the tests, while not identical, were pretty doggone close.
Cyn's point about the neck joint is also critical here. When I see those YouTube vids with poplar versus mahogany guitars, my first thought is always that they haven't controlled for differences in the neck joint tolerances.
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Post by newey on Jan 24, 2022 22:03:42 GMT -5
Not sure what type of diode that is, but JohnH has done some experimentation with Shottky diodes for a passive distortion in a guitar here. Germanium diodes also apparently work OK, but silicon ones not so much. John also has some sound clips you can listen to.
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Post by newey on Jan 22, 2022 13:18:16 GMT -5
frets- Sorry no one ever vetted this for you. I'm having trouble following all the wiring. I do note that you have SW5 mislabelled as "SW2", and as shown, it is a bridge on switch not a neck on as stated in your description.
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Post by newey on Jan 22, 2022 13:11:15 GMT -5
talon119- Hello and Welcome to G-Nutz2!I am in the weeds with this one need a diagram for 3 humbuckers all coil split 1 push pull volume and 1 push pull tone and a 5 way switch Let's try to "zero in" a bit on exactly what you want. First off, is this a standard Strat-type 5-way switch? What pickup selections do you envision on the 5-way? Are we using the 5-way for some of the coil splitting, or are the coil splits going to be on one (or both) of the Push/Pulls? One push/pull can split all 3 humbuckers, but you may not be able to maximize hum-cancellation in single-coil mode by doing so. Using both P/Ps to split the coils (2 HBs on one P/P, the third HB on the other would allow for some HB/SC combos; if you put all three coil splits on one switch, then you're either split or not split on all 3 HBs simultaneously.
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Post by newey on Jan 22, 2022 12:56:46 GMT -5
Surely the green/red coil being connected to the bridge HB would be that coil in parallel with the bridge HB? That's what I'm questioning. The red/green neck coil only gets to the output through the neck white/black coil. But the coil is simultaneously grounded through the bridge HB. I dunno, maybe you're right . . . Try it and see what you get, I guess.
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Post by newey on Jan 22, 2022 10:00:55 GMT -5
5. (Bh+Ns) in series with the other neck coil. I guess you'd call that last one half-series or something, but it could be interesting. Hmmm. Not sure about that. If we think about this using SD colors, both N and Br green wires are grounded. Neck series junction (red/white pair) at position 5 connects together. Bridge black connects via commons to lug 5, where Neck Red/white is connected. Neck Black is connected to output via the other half of the switch. So, I'm thinking you'd have the Bridge HB in series with the white/black coil of the neck HB (would this be in phase???). The green/red coil of the neck would be shorted to ground through the bridge HB, and wouldn't sound. At least, that's the way I see it, maybe I'm wrong.
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Post by newey on Jan 22, 2022 7:37:26 GMT -5
@angellahash- A picture, as they say, is worth 1000 words . . .
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Post by newey on Jan 21, 2022 21:27:45 GMT -5
Good job, MattB! Looks like that should work, I didn't spot that.
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Post by newey on Jan 21, 2022 19:46:30 GMT -5
pete12345: I'm with @angellahash, not seeing this with a regular Strat 5-way switch. To do the coil split at both positions 2 and 4, you would need to connect both bridge and neck "series junctions" to lug 3 (numbering the lugs as 1-3-5) on one pole of the switch. The commons on that side either goes to ground or to output, depending on which coil you want split (And, if the pickups are the same, both will split to the same coil unless you wire one of the two "inside out"). So, the DPDT switch then has to switch the other pole's #3 lug between the middle + (for your "Standard Strat" mode) and the neck + (for the mode without the middle pickup). SO, instead of the "truth table" you show, the bottom part with the DPDT switched "on", will give: 1) Br. HB 2) Br. SC + N SC 3) Br. SC + N SC 4) Br. SC + N SC 5) N HB + Br. HB I don't see any way around that result with a standard 5-way switch. If you're seeing it differently, please enlighten me. Also, in this mode, you could make positions 2,3 and 4 hum-cancelling by wiring one HB "inside out", as I said. But you would then lose hum-cancellation with the middle pickup at eithe rposition 2 or position 4.
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Post by newey on Jan 21, 2022 14:51:09 GMT -5
Personally, I've never felt the need for a "climax regulator" . . .
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Post by newey on Jan 20, 2022 13:46:59 GMT -5
Never buy a guitar or date anyone younger than your kids... When I had to jump back into the dating pool after my first marriage ended, my #1 Rule was that women were only datable if they remembered Woodstock. Of course, as the old saying goes, if you remember Woodstock, you weren't there. . .
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Post by newey on Jan 20, 2022 13:37:58 GMT -5
Rick Neilsen will see Vai's three necks and raise him two . . . His original 5-neck was custom built by Hamer in 1981, and he has had several more made since then with even more necks. One of his monstrosities includes (wait for it . . .) . . a 12-string bass neck! In the picture above, he has a 12-string neck, a Strat guitar, an LP Jr-ish one, and a fretless 6-string neck.
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Post by newey on Jan 20, 2022 12:19:08 GMT -5
then put the nut back on (after you've cleaned the nut and threads and regreased them both) to hold it in place. I think you mean the truss rod nut, not "the nut", just to be clear (I had to read it twice, so just clarifying that the fret nut doesn't have to be removed.)
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Post by newey on Jan 19, 2022 19:12:52 GMT -5
Hard to tell from the pictures, but the last shot, the "full frontal" one, looks like it has a truss rod nut at the base of the neck heel.
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Post by newey on Jan 17, 2022 21:29:25 GMT -5
swiftwind: Hello and Welcome to G-Nutz2!I'm not the one to ask about this sort of thing, no experience with neck repairs. Unfortunately, it looks like more than just the finish- does it extend into the binding, as it seems to from the picture? Member cynical1 is the one who might have some answers for you, hopefully he'll chime in here. I take it that the guitar is of a vintage where any warranty has long since expired?
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Post by newey on Jan 17, 2022 14:01:44 GMT -5
pete12345- Welcome Back! Which coil gets the cap is strictly a matter of preference, by all means try it to see whether you like it or not. As for the cavity depth, you are no longer limited to strictly the Oak Grigsby (i.e., Fender OEM) Superswitch. There are now other manufacturers of 4P5T switches, and some of the import ones may be a bit smaller. Measure carefully and then shop your dimensions around a bit. I'm not sure if the Schaller Megaswitch version is any smaller, we had someone ask that question a while ago but I don't know that we ever got a definite answer.
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Post by newey on Jan 16, 2022 21:38:57 GMT -5
It's not "insane", it's do-able. But splitting the coils of one of those single-coil sized HBs has never yielded good results for me, the individual coils are too tiny. But, hey, maybe that's just me, and I'm not a hi-gain type of player, so maybe if you crank 'em up enough you'll get something out of them. I dunno.
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Post by newey on Jan 16, 2022 17:16:27 GMT -5
brucegregori- Hello and Welcome to G-Nutz2!There's no way to tell very much from your photo, too much traffic congestion in the cavity . . . If we go back to the first post in this thread, the pickup selections for each position are as follows, and the wire colors apparently follow DiMarzio colors: First off, please verify that you are indeed getting the required coils in each position by performing the "screwdriver tap test". Plug the guitar into an amp, and tap each coil with the blade of a screwdriver (or other magnetic metallic object). With Humbuckers, you will get a slight signal from tapping a coil even when it is "off", if the other coil is active, but you will get a louder signal from the active coil and the difference should be apparent. Also, please give us the lettering/numbering off of those capacitors from the toggle switch, as they appear different than the OP's. Also, are there resistors attached there in addition to the caps?
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Post by newey on Jan 15, 2022 18:03:19 GMT -5
I know y’all have moved on, but I had the idea that this might be partly because of the V pot in parallel while taking readings. Good point, I had forgotten he said he read that at the jack.
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Post by newey on Jan 15, 2022 17:59:42 GMT -5
After thinking this thru some more (again!! ), maybe a volume on the middle pickup wouldn't be the best solution for that knob... Using the push/pull for on/off functionality would still be beneficial, but maybe there is another function I can use that knob for other than a tone for the middle..? Well, first off, don't left us put you off what you want to do. There is no inherent issue with the middle volume, just a few quirks as we have discussed. Using a linear pot, as RT suggested, will help some. I'd wire it forwards, as shown on the diagram. If you don't want the middle volume, you could have no volume at all on the middle and the other pot can become a master volume instead of just neck/bridge. The third pot (and P/P) could then be replaced by a toggle switch for the middle pickup- easier to manipulate than a push/pull anyway. The third pot could also be repurposed as a phase switch if you like. Your choice of which pickup it controls.
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Post by newey on Jan 15, 2022 8:02:16 GMT -5
wiring the Vol pots "backwards" will be necessary.” How would I do that..? First off, recognize that I have shown the pots upside down, as you would be soldering them, so the following applies to the pots in that orientation. Instead of wiring the input to the pot to the left-hand lug and the wiper to the output, swap those two connections such that the input goes to the wiper and the output to the left-hand lug. As the old saying goes, however: "There is no such thing as a free lunch". IOW, doing so creates its own issues, mainly that turning both volumes all the way down will not kill all sound- most of it, but not all.
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Post by newey on Jan 14, 2022 19:41:20 GMT -5
Correct. to get the bridge by itself with the blower switch, SW-2 must be down/off. I was assuming the wire colors matched SD's, I've used GFS pickups a lot over the years. As shown on the diagram, I do have the coils bass ackwards . . . . But as shown, SW-1 cuts the Bridge HB to the red/green screw coil, and the Neck HB to the black/white slug coil. If you want it the other way around, simply swap the + and - wires on SW-1., bottom-most wires as shown on the diagram. If you care whether you get inner coils versus outer coils, rotate one HB 180°. It's a humbucker. It has one of each type of coil, one RWRP, one not. When combined with the neck or bridge single coils, it will be partially hum-cancelling (3 coils operating, since the middle is not split). With both HBs split and both "on" (center position on 3-way toggle), together with the middle, it should be fully hum-cancelling (or close to it). The desire to get it done and playable is great, but haste is counter-productive with a fairly complex wiring as here. "Done" isn't the same as "Done right". Take your time, check each step. Wire things in a modular fashion before stringing the modules together, testing each bit as you go along. As reTrEaD is found of saying, "Patience is a virgin . . .". Yes, a highly recommended course of action for exactly that reason. Also, I'm pretty sure of my diagram, but since no one else has vetted it yet, a redraw may spot up an issue (or three).
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Post by newey on Jan 13, 2022 22:33:41 GMT -5
needmorefingers- Sorry for the delay, finally got some time. Sorry for the wiring spaghetti look, this could be cleaned up quite a bit and would be more legible. I omitted several of the grounds to avoid more messiness; if you are grounding to the backs of pot then all those will need to be tied together, which I haven't shown. I omitted the string ground and any pickup shield wires, too. You had a question mark for the third pot and Push/Pull. I made the pot a N and B tone pot. The middle pickup has only its volume pot. The third push/pulll switch acts as a bridge blower- pull up and the 3-way toggle is disconnected and the bridge pickup goes straight to output for lead/solo stuff. However, one sort-of quirk here is that, if SW-2 is also pulled up, you'll have brideg plus middle, with the middle volume pot, so you'll sort of lose the "blower" aspect of it if both SW-3 and SW-2 are pulled. SW-1 splits the coils for the neck and bridge HBs. For hum-cancellation when the 3-way toggle is set to the center N + B setting, SW-1 cuts the Neck HB to the opposite coil from the bridge. Also note that I had no idea which coil was the screw coil versus the slug coil on the GFS HBs, so my drawing is purely arbitrary in that regard, it may be the other way around from what I have shown. If it matters to you which coil is selected, that can be adjusted. If you don't like the blower switch idea, I can do something else with that if you give me a clue what you want . . .
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Post by newey on Jan 13, 2022 21:26:46 GMT -5
Even though the switches are new, you should check them anyway with your meter before wiring them. Likewise check the coils of the pickups.
It sounds like you are having more than one issue with the wiring. The only way to troubleshoot these types of issues is to go through the wiring step-by-step with your meter. It's tough for us to be of much help without being able to physically look at the wiring. Sometimes close-up photos will help, but often times they show only a mess of "wire shaghetti".
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Post by newey on Jan 13, 2022 12:25:57 GMT -5
jhng- Yes, we already have the link to the Netherlands site in our archived original Guitarnuts pages. The guy who did that joined as a member here a while back and posted the link.
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Post by newey on Jan 13, 2022 12:22:51 GMT -5
Oh yeah but will taking out the third knob from the circuit make the guitar overall brighter? Yes, in any positions where that pot is active. The differences in bypassing just one or two pots are fairly subtle, the "blower switch" where you bypass all the pots and go straight to output makes a discernable difference however.
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Post by newey on Jan 13, 2022 10:55:15 GMT -5
"When pushed down, your guitar is working as normal. When you pull up, you remove the Ground off of your volume pot and tone pot. This is the same as sending your guitar’s signal straight to the output jack." I will agree with that statement, with the added proviso that the Volume pot is full clockwise. I'll let others weigh in, but I think if you turn the volume pot down a bit (or a lot), that will no longer be true. What you have is a volume pot wired as a rheostat (2 lugs, like a tone pot) rather than as a potentiometer (all 3 lugs wired). How that will work in operation, I dunno, but there is a reason why we don't wire our volume pots as rheostats. reTrEaD or sumgai will have the answers to that one. Yes, at least as far as the bridge pickup is concerned, and as far as any other pickups that are in parallel with the bridge.
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Post by newey on Jan 13, 2022 10:45:17 GMT -5
having both blenders pulled leaves the guitar set up as an old-school 3-way Strat with N, M and B, which should do me for that sort of thing. Yes, I see that. On the original G-Nuts site, Atchley had his "Double-barrel Strat" design using 2 5-way switches. I had always thought about a design using 2 3-way switches, one for N + B and one for middle off, middle by itself, and middle in parallel with the other 3-way, thus giving all 7 parallel combos. But I never worked that out, fitment issues of 2 lever swithces seemed too daunting, although it can (and has) been done.
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Post by newey on Jan 13, 2022 8:33:29 GMT -5
OK, that made my morning. I didn't even know harps had pickups . . .
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Post by newey on Jan 13, 2022 6:34:35 GMT -5
No time at the moment to vet your latest diagram, sorry. But your original question was whether or not one could live with the switching arrangement, or would it be impractical? If we look at the essence of what you've done here (which is pretty brilliant, I think) is that you've ditched the 5-way in favor of the 3-way so that the N + B is readily available. The middle pickup then gets the "binary tree" treatment via 2 of the push/pulls. Personally, I would find this way too "switchy" to get the middle pickup combos or middle pickup alone. But then again, I'm one of those oddball types who likes position 3 on a Strat and uses it a lot.
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