Help needed for custom wiring

[indec1isive]

If it would be easier to put the switches closer together or somewhere else along that axis then that's fine, I haven't cut out the holes yet

[JohnH]

It doesn't make much difference, my diagram isn't to scale, its really just to show what is connected to what in as clear a way as possible.

But on your diagram, looking from the front, the two added switches are to the right. So from the back as you see it while wiring, they are to the left with series/parallel switch furthest. If that's the intent, then that's what I'm doing.

These toggles have 12 lugs with wires from all of them!

[Yogi B]

Jul 23, 2023 22:49:31 GMT -5 JohnH said:

Also thinking trough how best to use the 4-pole toggle for the BxM combo. Probably one pole cuts out the neck, two to divert B hot and M cold to hot and ground, and one to join B cold to M hot in series. Need to be sure all other switching then does nothing when at this setting, no matter how other switches are set.

That last qualification makes things a little more difficult. The most obvious example of a problematic setting is when all three pickups are toggled off, since this creates a short between hot (the volume pot input) and ground. Additionally, as your using only one pole within the B×M series link this means one of either bridge cold or middle hot must remain attached to the main switching circuit which will cause issues in other settings too.

I think the below is a workable alternative, I've swapped one of the 'bypass' pickups (in this case bridge) to the bottom of the series stack (in place of the neck pickup in your original diagram). If we ignore the bridge phase switch for a moment — having bridge cold permanently connected to ground saves a pole on the 'bypass switch', leaving the four poles to: (a) switch middle cold from the main circuit over to bridge hot; (b) switch middle hot from the main circuit over to the output; (c) disconnect bridge hot from the main circuit; and (d) disconnect the output of the main circuit. Reinserting the bridge phase switch meant the connection between bridge cold & ground was no longer permanent, but I remedied this by utilising a spare terminal of pole c.

Note I've also slightly altered the bridge (ex-neck) toggle switch to prevent shunting that pickup. Now, the only shunting within the main circuit should be of the middle pickup (which is only avoidable by instead making it hang, possibly from hot — so I left it as is). As for B×M 'bypass' mode, the neck is occasionally shunted (in 8 of the 128 total positions), this happens when 'selecting' bridge OoP plus neck (either phase) in parallel mode (with middle either on or off, in or out of phase).

[JohnH]

Hi Yogi, thanks for looking at that. There's a lot going on there and I'll need to print it out large to follow it!

Some good points there. Some things I'm not worried about include shunting of single-coil puckups. I don't think that causes any issues,( compared to shunting of humbucker coils where it adds damping to the remains coil.) Also, if all pickup switched off cuts everything off in all settings, that's probably OK and logical.

I'm hesitating to launch into a full do-over of the wiring.....

[indec1isive]

Would a push/pull pot be easier for the preset switch?

[JohnH]

Push pull switches generally just have 2 poles, so not enough for what we need

[JohnH]

I was looking through Yogi's diagram, and I restyled it to make it easier for me to 'see':





The coloured boxes isolate switch groups. At the pickups, there are groups comprising of pickups, phase switches and the bypass poles that can be looked at together as self-contained complete units, connected to other things at left and right Also highlighted are the on/off switches for each pickup.

Thanks Yogi and it's nice work, next is to lay out wires on a wiring diagram....

[indec1isive]

Lovely, I can't thank you enough for doing this as I've searched everywhere to no avail

[JohnH]

I'm doing the wiring in two stages to help check because its quite complex. First is to put the switches in the right orientation relative to each other, and show it wired with the S-P switch but not the bypass yet, but based on Yogi's arrangement . Then, put in the bypass.

[indec1isive]

Ok

[JohnH]

Very cautiously, this might be it....





It needs a look through again. I've tried to be as careful as possible to check but, this one really is an OMG WTF LOL wiring.


But thanks to Yogi's insights, it looks to be possible!

[indec1isive]

Thank you so much, just in time it seems lmao as I have today and tomorrow to get the guitar playable lol, if it doesn't work I'll let you know

[indec1isive]

Would this be the right switch?4PDT, 12 lugs, on-on

[JohnH]

yes that switch is right for the two extra switches. Good luck!

[JohnH]

Was just wondering if you started wiring, and if the diagram is clear enough?

[indec1isive]

Haven't been able to start wiring yet no, need to get more solder, need to buy switches, been busy with life lol, I'll be sure to reply when wiring has commenced