Help Understanding Wiring of Switch in Strat

[dynamitebloomseed]

I’d appreciate if anyone can help me understand what is happening here. I’m new to guitar wiring, and I’m changing the pickups on a Squier 40th Anniversary Strat. I can’t make sense of this wiring on the 5-position switch:



More pics here:
imgur.com/a/9CStkUk

From left to right, terminals 1, 2, and 3 are connected to each respective pickup. Terminal 4 is connected directly to volume pot, left lug. Terminal 5, which I expect would be the common on the second pole, is connected to nothing. There is no jumper connecting the two poles. Then terminals 6, 7, and 8 are all soldered together, with two wires heading to the 2 tone pots from that blob.

The guitar worked like this, standard 5 positions, bridge tone adjustable by one pot and middle/neck tones adjustable only by the other pot. How? Should I keep it this way for some reason, or change it to the standard wiring? I’m considering removing the bridge from any tone control to prevent treble bleed, but without understanding how it works now I’m not sure it’ll continue to work with my changes.

The three terminal connection between 6-8 is what makes no sense to me. How is it still acting as a switch, when whatever position it’s in will be in contact with everything there always. Yet somehow the bridge pickup is sweeped only into one pot and neck/middle are only sweeped through the other pot. Thanks for any help.

[sumgai]

dynamitebloomseed ,



First, to The NutzHouse!


Second, you're correct in that per the first image in your link, we can see that the two sections of the switch are separate, with 4 and 5 being the common terminals for each. Lacking a jumper between them, I am strongly confident that the tone controls don't work as intended by the manufacturer, nor as desired by most users. In fact, they don't work at all, do they.

So. Put a jumper between 4 and 5, that'll tie the two sections together, just as you surmised. Then strip both Tone control wires from the switch, and that jumper too (it may be nothing more than the end of one of the wires, not a separate jumper). Clean up all the remaining solder, and put the tone control wires back on the proper terminals as you wish. By that I mean, you've said that you don't want any tone control for the Bridge pup, so leave terminal 8 unconnected. Again, just as you already figured out.

And trust me, you may be "new" to guitar wiring, but you made the correct "sense" out of what you found - it's bogus, plain and simple. But what amazes me is that terminal 5 never had solder on it - it's as clean as if it were new, so that tells me that the switch was replaced by someone less familiar with guitars then you! But also, I have to say this now - if you're going to be replacing parts, then you should consider stepping up to a quality switch at the same time. What I see now may not be "junk", but I'm morally certain that it won't last as long as the rest of your rig. And that means, you'll be opening up the guitar again, just to fix that piece of #%&@. Grrrr!

HTH




sumgai

[newey]

@dynamiteblossomseed-

Hello and Welcome to G-Nutz2!

Some of these import-style 5-way switches have the two common lugs connected internally, so I suspect that's what's allowing your tone controls to function at all. If you have a multimeter, you can check to see if this is the case. But if, in fact, 6-7-8 are all connected to together, then you are correct, it makes no sense that you would have separate tone controls. First, perhaps despite the "blob", one of the 3 is not in fact connected to the other 2- that would explain it. Again, a meter would tell the tale.

Did you actually check to see that, if you select the neck pickup by itself, the bridge tone does not also affect that pickup? Is that bridge control truly independent?

Assuming that you checked that, I can't explain what you're reporting. Maybe someone else has some insight.

[dynamitebloomseed]

Thank you kindly for the help. As newey suspected, there must be an internal connection between the commons as a multimeter shows continuity between them right now. I wasn’t aware of this possibility, so thank you. And, surprisingly, there is no continuity between all of 6-7-8. While they look to be connected to my eyes, the multimeter reveals one is somehow separate which allowed for independent tone control from the two pots. I’ll do as sumgai advised and clean this up, removing those tone wires and all that solder then redoing it properly now that I know this is in fact a mess.

This is my first attempt at doing any work like this, and figured a pickup swap on an inexpensive guitar would be a good/easy starting point. It’s sat for over a week while I’ve been frustrated over that switch making me feel like I don’t understand the basics still, but after your comments I’m back at it and should be done tonight. Wanted to let you both know I greatly appreciate you taking the time to offer your knowledge and encouragement here.

[newey]

Please report back if you get it wired up and playable. Glad we could help, if it works out.

Some of those import 5-ways will have a tiny bare wire jumper between the poles, other connect the 2 poles internally. At first, this didn't seem to make much sense to me. After all, there are import 5-way switches with only 7 lugs, with a single common lug in the center.

But what I suspect (without any proof, but seems sensible to me) is that the internal connection is deemed more durable than the jumper, and the same switch body with the 8 lugs is used for multiple switch configurations, they just swap out the inner contact plate. Or so I figure it, anyway.

[dynamitebloomseed]

Happy to report, mission accomplished. Wired it up last night, after restringing it today everything functions as intended including the bridge pickup being removed from any tone control. Thank you once again for all the help.

One lesson learned through this experience is that I am nowhere near as competent with a soldering iron as I thought. Will have to spend a few hours attaching and disconnecting spare components just to get a better feel for it. My work didn’t always look so pretty, and grounding a bunch of wires to the back of a pot was challenging and kept coming undone. It was like dealing with a basket of kittens, perpetually trying to get one back with the group while another sneaks out. I would not have been surprised if I fried the pot, but letting it cool after each failure and trying again ultimately worked out okay. Will aim to get more proficient at this, then move on to the next project on the next guitar!

[newey]

It helps solder adhesion to rough up the back of the pot a bit with a piece of sandpaper (the black oxide kind used for metal).

But I avoid soldering to the backs of pots and use a star ground technique. In fact, that was what brought me to this forum some 16 years ago or so.

[dynamitebloomseed]

Excellent, thanks for both of those suggestions!