Strat selector switch wiring

[bluesman13]

hello,

Someone was kind enough to post a video explaining how selector switches work. It really explained to me how strat selector switches work (here's the link if you want to watch it:  


I captured a still frame from it:

If we agree that this is correct, I attached all of the pickup leads to one side (as in the photo), and connected my two leads from my blender pot to the B and N lugs on the opposite (but corresponding) side. However, the blender pot did not work at all. I then moved the blender leads to the same lugs as the pickup leads and it worked. Just to see if I had a good connection, I left the middle pickup lead on the opposite side, and that pickup functioned properly. I was hoping to be able to connect the pickup leads to one side of the selector switch and then as I experiment, connect other wires to the other side, so I wouldn't have to keep soldering and resoldering the pickup leads. I have seen other wiring where the tone pots are attached to the opposite side in different configurations, but never for a blender pot. Is there a reason why a blender would not be able to be connected to the opposite side of a 5 way selector switch? thanks for your ideas...Steve

[stevewf]

Making a guess at what the blender should do, and assuming a desire to keep the pickguard unchanged from a standard Strat, here's my first shot:

(I think I do better with schematics than with wiring diagrams or textual description. sorry if that's not everyone's cup of tea!)

Better get the above vetted. Also, I'm sure there'll already be good versions of the above in this forum somewhere. But there it is anyway, my try from scratch.

It's meant to enable adding in, via a pot, the "other" pickup. "Other" meaning that when the selector is in the Bridge or Bridge+Middle position, then the blender will add the Neck pickup's signal in parallel (Neck being the "other" pickup); and mirror that for blending in the Bridge pickup (when in Neck and Neck+Middle positions). In Middle position, the blender won't have any effect. [edit: it's shown in Neck+Middle position, if that helps reading]

The scheme takes one of the standard pots' spots. In this version, it took one of the tones, and the other tone was made into a master tone. Converting the unused tone pot for use as a blender will work, but a No-Load pot would be better, as it makes Zero Blend really zero. Or the old tone pot could be modded (irreversibly) into a no-load (there are how-to threads in this forum).

By the way, it looks like that video linked in the OP has been taken down.

[bluesman13]

thanks Steve. I fixed the link...

[newey]

bluesman13-

I think steve's diagram is OK, but I've never been real clear on blend pot wiring, so let's get another set of eyes on it.

stevewf, the 5-way switch, as rendered in your diagram, looks like more of a "half-superswitch" because it implies that wiring positions 2 and 4 can be done. Would be clearer to just leave the "2" and "4" off, numbering the lugs "1-3-5". (I get that you were probably using the graphic from a Superswitch, minus 2 poles, and adapting it).

[stevewf]

May 31, 2023 5:00:57 GMT -5 newey said:

bluesman13-

I think steve's diagram is OK, but I've never been real clear on blend pot wiring, so let's get another set of eyes on it.

Yes, please, "eyed" appreciate the vetting.

stevewf, the 5-way switch, as rendered in your diagram, looks like more of a "half-superswitch" because it implies that wiring positions 2 and 4 can be done. Would be clearer to just leave the "2" and "4" off, numbering the lugs "1-3-5". (I get that you were probably using the graphic from a Superswitch, minus 2 poles, and adapting it).

Good idea, newey. I threw the drawing of that component together hastily. I keep components like that in a sort of library; I'll edit the "master" for future drawings.

[bluesman13]

any thoughts on the wiring of the selector switch and why wiring the blender connections doesn't work on the other side of the selector switch. thanks everyone!

[stevewf]

Jun 2, 2023 12:46:04 GMT -5 bluesman13 said:

any thoughts on the wiring of the selector switch and why wiring the blender connections doesn't work on the other side of the selector switch. thanks everyone!

Let's see if I can do this...

Some assumptions: the Blend pots is a a normal Audio-taper pot, and the lugs to be used are the ClockWise ("10") and the Center lugs. To simplify, we'll disconnect both the tone pots and leave them out of the issue.

With that, let's imagine a switch like the one pictured at the top of this thread, but what's connected to the lugs on the right side having been changed. The CW lug of the Blender is connected to the right-side "N" lug, and the blender's center lug is connected to the right-side "B" lug.

Pausing here to get a verification that this is indeed the setup in question, that doesn't work, Yes?

From there, let's imagine the circuit's path, when the switch is in the Bridge position, for example:
Ground -> BridgePickup -> Selector's left-side "B" lug, to selector's left-side Common lug, to selector's right side's Common lug*, to selector's right-side "B" lug, to blender's center lug, through blender, to blender's CW lug, to selector's right-side "N" lug, where the flow stops.
* and also from the selector's right-side Common lug onward to the output.

So the blender has only one lug in the circuit.

[bluesman13]

Hi Steve,

this diagram worked for me. It's the most common wiring I've found on the 'net.

[stevewf]

Yes, in that diagram, the blender is on the same side of the selector switch as the pickups. It's better than my offering because it doesn't mess with the selector's other pole at all.
In this new diagram, it looks to me like turning down the blender will add the pickup's signal. This feels backwards to me. The choice may have been driven by a characteristic of the "custom made CTS blender pot" mentioned in the diagram text. I don't know that pot, but I'm guessing its track is cut just below "10" (rather than just above "0").

So, do we have a working answer for the original Q?

[bluesman13]

yes, you're exactly correct - turning down the pot, brings in the other pickup. I thought I had wired it incorrectly (I'm left handed so I'm always dealing with that), so I reversed the outside lugs of the blender pot thinking that that would reverse the rotation so that turning the pot CW would blend in the pot - but that didn't work!

[stevewf]

Jun 3, 2023 16:41:58 GMT -5 bluesman13 said:

yes, you're exactly correct - turning down the pot, brings in the other pickup. I thought I had wired it incorrectly (I'm left handed so I'm always dealing with that), so I reversed the outside lugs of the blender pot thinking that that would reverse the rotation so that turning the pot CW would blend in the pot - but that didn't work!

That behavior fits with my understanding of a pot whose track has been cut near the CW ("10") lug. You could further verify by isolating the pot and then checking the resistance between the two outer lugs; it the track has been cut, then the resistance will be infinite.

If that's the only adjustment that CTS does in order to make the "custom" pot, then it might be pretty easy to make your own. I haven't done that with CTS pots, but there are some posts around here by people who have done it successfully, with reports that it's pretty easy. Cutting the track of a 250K or 500K pot near the CCW end of its track would make it suitable for a "turn up = add" by using the CW and center lugs.

[bluesman13]

thanks Steve, yes, I've read the same thing, although I bought a readi-made "blender" pot. thanks for helping understand my issue. my suspicion is that since the blender pot is not attached in the same way as the vol/tone pots, it isn't able to function by itself on the selector switch, but it's really just a curiosity thing on my part.  have a nice weekend...

[stevewf]

For completeness, I post a schematic that I think represents the "Strat Blender Wiring" diagram above




A better implementation, I think, because it involves only a single pole of the selector switch.*   This schematic uses a pot whose track has been cut near the CW/10 end; the cut is optional, but without it, some of the "other" pickup's signal will leak through even when the blend pot is at ten. With or without a cut track, as the pot is turned down, the "other" pickup's signal gets added in parallel.