HHH, 2 Vol and 1 tone, 1 push/pull 7 way and 1 series/para?

[arseniic]

I'm modding my old squier strat so I'm wiring up a guitar for the first time and I'm kinda lost, and I've got two railhammer humcutters for the neck and the bridge, with a dimarzio chopper for the middle. I want to have the first volume pot to be for the bridge and neck with the push/pull used for a 7 way mod by activating the neck pickup, and the second volume pot for the middle with a push/pull for series/parallel, and a master tone for all three pickups. Any help would be appreciated!

[newey]

arseniic-

Hello and Welcome to G-Nutz2!

Squier made (and makes) several different Strat models. Some, like the original Fender Strats, have 3 pots- 2 tones and a master volume. Others simply had 2 pots, a master V and T. You mentioned wanting separate volumes for the middle pickup and for the neck/bridge. How many post do you have on this guitar/ Is there going to be a tone pot at all?

Apart from questions about the pots, the rest of what you want is fairly straightforward. It's just regular 5-position Strat wiring with a "neck on" switch". The "neck on" switch is just a module that will be wired between the neck pickup and the 5-way switch. We can show you how to do that pretty easily. Since you are using different types of pickups, however, we will need to sort out the wire colors.

[arseniic]

Hi there, and thanks for the reply!

I'm essentially replacing the old pickguard with an entire new one with a 3 pot configuration. Right now i have two push/pull 500k cts pots for the volumes and a regular A500k pot for the master tone.

For the railhammer humcutters (bridge and neck), the color code says the hot wire is black, green and silver/bare are ground, and white and red are soldered together and taped off out of the box
The dimarzio's (middle) color code is red as the north start, black as the north finish, white as the south finish and green is the south start, with the bare as the ground.

I'm planning on having the first/top volume pot be the neck on and the second one being the series/parallel for the middle pickup.

[reTrEaD]

Jan 22, 2024 11:26:21 GMT -5 newey said:

Apart from questions about the pots, the rest of what you want is fairly straightforward. It's just regular 5-position Strat wiring with a "neck on" switch".

I don't share your optimism. The fact that that first volume control is shared between the Neck and Bridge pickups when either (or both) are selected tends to make this a bit snarly. We don't want that volume control in the circuit unless one (or both) of the neck/bridge are selected, or if the neck-on switch is activated.

Jan 22, 2024 11:03:33 GMT -5 arseniic said:

I'm modding my old squier strat so I'm wiring up a guitar for the first time and I'm kinda lost, and I've got two railhammer humcutters for the neck and the bridge, with a dimarzio chopper for the middle. I want to have the first volume pot to be for the bridge and neck with the push/pull used for a 7 way mod by activating the neck pickup, and the second volume pot for the middle with a push/pull for series/parallel, and a master tone for all three pickups. Any help would be appreciated!

Are you planning on using a standard 5-way or a superswitch for basic pickup selection. It might be possible to have that series/parallel switch place the middle pickup and its volume control in series only when another pickup is selected and remain as a single pickup selection if no other pickup is selected, IF you use a superswitchh (although I'm not certain that is possible).

If you're planning to use a standard 5-way switch, the S/P switch would need to be configured as a series-override and one of the other two pickups would need to take its place in the 5-way selection where the middle pickup is selected. And since we would also need to force the volume control that serves those pickups into that selection, I don't think we'll have enough poles to accomplish that with a DPDT push-pull.

[newey]

I somehow missed that he said "series/parallel" switch as well. That does complcated the picture.

[arseniic]

I figured that since the second volume pot would be basically isolated to the middle pickup only, with it being used to switch between series and parallel for the middle pickup only, it would be possible, but if it overcomplicates things too much i might just swap it to a regular volume or tone pot for the middle pickup. Would that be the recommended change?

[stevewf]

I also think I see some added complexity when using more than one volume control but a single master tone control.

Usually (i.e. non-50's), we want to see the tone control wired "before" the volume.

In order to keep the two volume controls separate, there'll be a need to either switch the tone control to go with the selected volume control, or a need for a two-gang tone pot.

[reTrEaD]

Jan 23, 2024 13:06:29 GMT -5 stevewf said:

I also think I see some added complexity when using more than one volume control but a single master tone control.

Usually (i.e. non-50's), we want to see the tone control wired "before" the volume.

In order to keep the two volume controls separate, there'll be a need to either switch the tone control to go with the selected volume control, or a need for a two-gang tone pot.

Using a dual-gang pot would be good, that way the tone cut circuits could go before the volume controls. Using a dual-concentric would be even better because you'd have independent tone knobs for the middle pickup and the neck and/or bridge pickup. But the tone control can be placed after all the volume controls and the switching. I'm not particularly fond of doing that since it makes the amount of tone cut vary with the setting of the volume controls. But it's still a viable option.

Jan 22, 2024 19:33:05 GMT -5 arseniic said:

I figured that since the second volume pot would be basically isolated to the middle pickup only, with it being used to switch between series and parallel for the middle pickup only, it would be possible, but if it overcomplicates things too much i might just swap it to a regular volume or tone pot for the middle pickup. Would that be the recommended change?

Having two pickups sharing the same volume control does complicate things but it doesn't make it impossible. Also, after looking at this a bit more closely, we can get there using just DPDT push-pull. Using a superswitch would be more elegant, but I can make this happen with just a standard 5-way.

I recommend a neck-bridge link for the first push-pull rather than a neck-on. It will simplify the wiring and still allow you to access all 7 combinations.  When engaged, the link will add the Neck to any position where the Bridge is selected and add the Bridge to any position where the Neck is selected.


Pickup selection with a N-B Link and a Superswitch

Position	Parallel Mode		Series Mode
	Normal	NB Link	Normal	NB Link
5	Neck	Neck + Bridge	Neck	Neck + Bridge
4	Neck + Middle	Neck + Middle +Bridge	Neck * Middle	(Neck + Bridge) * Middle
3	Middle	Middle	Middle	Middle
2	Middle + Bridge	Neck + Middle + Bridge	Bridge * Middle	(Neck + Bridge) * Middle
1	Bridge	Neck + Bridge	Bridge	Neck + Bridge

Pickup selection with a N-B Link and a Standard 5-way

Position	Parallel Mode		Series Mode
	Normal	NB Link	Normal	NB Link
5	Neck	Neck + Bridge	Neck * Middle	(Neck + Bridge) * Middle
4	Middle	Middle	Middle	Middle
3	Middle	Middle	Middle	Middle
2	Middle	Middle	Middle	Middle
1	Bridge	Neck + Bridge	Bridge * Middle	(Neck + Bridge) * Middle

Another thing you need to be aware of:  When having two volume controls, they interacts a LOT when either of the volume controls are near zero in a parallel configuration. For instance, if you select Neck and Middle (parallel) and roll either of the volumes to zero, it will kill all sound from both pickups.

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Given all this information, would you choose:
N-B Link or Neck-on switch?
Superswitch or standard 5-way?
Single tone control, Dual-gang tone control, or Dual-concentric tone control?