Roast my wiring!

[deekerr16]

Hey gang, long time lurker but first time poster.

Been wanting to mess around modding some cheap guitars that I own to open them up to as many tonal possibilities as I can. Tried to get my head around everything first with reading and looking at other diagrams on here, but now it's time to check my work. I'd appreciate any feedback, cool ideas, and/or let me know if I have anything screwed up. Will try to post updates once I start working on executing these.

Thanks,

David \m/

[newey]

deekerr16-

Hello and Welcome to G-Nutz2!

This is going to require a deeper dive, I haven't lookerd at the HH setup yet. As to the SSS, first of all, it looks to me as if the mid phase switch is on the volume pot, not on the tone pot as stated in your diagram??? I suspect this is just a mislabeling, but was the intent to have the master V be the mid phase? (if so, that part looks good.

If so, then the "mid parallel switch" must have been intended to be on the master tone. But I'm not clear on what you're trying to do there. Is this simply to turn the middle pickup on/off, in parallel with the other 2 pickups? If so, it will do that but is overly complicated. If all you want to do is turn it on/off, just use the push/pull to connect the hot and ground when up, and disconnect both wires from the middle pickup in the "off" position. No need for all the other wiring you show there, assuming again that I am reading your intent correctly.

As to the 5-way switch, I can't tell from your diagram where the green wire is connected, it looks like it makes a "Y" at some point.

[deekerr16]

Hey newey!

That first part is a typo, you are right to spot that. I have rectified that and also fixed having the input jack backwards as well.

The idea for the parallel switch would be to change the middle pickup between series and parallel in its relation to the bridge and neck pickups? But I see that it could result in a volume drop when switched into series if the blend pot would no longer be receiving the direct input from the middle pickup. I'd be fine with that I suppose, provided it would achieve the desired combination when blended fully to the neck/bridge side.

I have included some reference numbers for the super switch. The green wire connects to Pole #1 positions 4 and 2 as well as Pole #4 position 4. I saw many different diagrams on how to do the same style "5-tone tele" setup that I wanted to go for so it's entirely possible that I ended up with a non-functioning amalgamition, though I did try to go through my due-diligence at the time of design.

Thank you for taking the time to review this, I appreciate it!

[newey]

The idea for the parallel switch would be to change the middle pickup between series and parallel in its relation to the bridge and neck pickups?

In the other thread you posted, I referred you to a discussion of the diffences in "true Blend" versus "pan pots". That discussion is particularly relevant if the middle pickup doesn't have an on/off switch.. Presumably, you'd want the middle pickup completely out of the circuit at the ends of the blend pot rotation in each direction.

Also, you want what you want, so I'm not trying to dissuade you from your original plan here, but rather than using a dual-gang blend (or pan, see the above) pot, you might consider using a no-load regular single-gang pot to blend the middle pickup in with whatever is selected on the 5-way switch. This would simplify things considerably.

The green wire connects to Pole #1 positions 4 and 2 as well as Pole #4 position 4

Got it. For clarity, a jumper wire between 2 and 4 on Pole 1, and then over to the other pole, would avoid that "hanging in mid-air" connection.

If the intent was a middle series/parallel switch, I think there are issues with your diagram. Let me look at this further later today, got some work to do IRL first.

[deekerr16]

In the other thread you posted, I referred you to a discussion of the diffences in "true Blend" versus "pan pots". That discussion is particularly relevant if the middle pickup doesn't have an on/off switch.. Presumably, you'd want the middle pickup completely out of the circuit at the ends of the blend pot rotation in each direction.

    Might've been someone else, but I did just go read through ChrisK's thread from 2007 discussing the difference on that note and I'll make sure to get a trusted "true blend" pot as that's definitely the goal - 0% being middle off, 50% being half signal from bridge/neck and half signal from middle, and 100% being just middle. Good point to watch out for, especially if cheap distributors might not be consistent. I saved the fender part numbers and will get that specific part.

I'm not trying to dissuade you from your original plan here, but rather than using a dual-gang blend (or pan, see the above) pot, you might consider using a no-load regular single-gang pot to blend the middle pickup in with whatever is selected on the 5-way switch

    No dissuading needed, I'm definitely open to pivoting the plan to better ideas. Really just trying to get as many sounds from my strat/LP as I can and experiment with convoluted wiring on cheap guitars before I fiddle with any nicer instruments, without fully ape-ing someone else's existing design. I will look into how that would be wired. Would that still be able to achieve an exclusively middle pickup output or would it just be adding the middle to the bridge/neck existing output?

I'll continue to tidy the diagram for legibility as I go, like with the green wire - when I was figuring everything out on my breaks at work the whole diagram was just pencil which was brutal to go back through. So I knew I needed to make something with pretty colors and proper component images.

If the intent was a middle series/parallel switch, I think there are issues with your diagram

    I'm not surprised, but we can save him! I'm trying to picture the neck/bridge/switch assembly as one big humbucker (more or less) to take as a whole between parallel or series with the middle pickup. So with the throws down, the negative from the switch and middle pickup both go to ground while the positive from the middle pickup goes straight to its input on the blend pot. With the throws up, the positive from the middle pickup will go to the negative of the switch (putting it in series?). The scenario of pos. 4 where all pickups would be in series isn't adding up in my head though. I think connection 3 from the series parallel switch would have to connect to the pole 2 on the switch, with positions 3 and 1 on pole 4 going straight to ground in order for the signal flow to be correct?

    I was typing my thoughts out when I seemed to come to my senses. This attached design feels better, though I'm curious if there's a way around losing one of the inputs on the blend pot when the middle pickup is switched to series. Maybe a switch with an additional pole that can send the middle pickup positive to the other input (effectively having the same signal being sent to both inputs of the pot when switched)? I'd have to see if such a 3PDT push/pull pot exists and if that would cause any issues (I could imagine phase troubles). Are there any foreseeable issues with having three pickups in series, a humbucker and a single coil in series, or one of the other combinations here? I will research this separately as well. Just thinking out loud now though while I'm in the headspace.

Thank you again for having a look newey! Take your time, I've got plenty to look into and learn about.