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Post by christopherhopkins on Dec 7, 2006 13:16:47 GMT -5
This is an idea that presented itself whilst I was working on my Esquire project. I’ve never been a fan of the tone switching options on the Esquire and wanted to do something a little different with the 3-way switch. I did consider using it to select different sized capacitors to change the depth of the tone pot. I had to give this up when I realised I could fit the control plate back on as the cavity isn’t deep enough for the caps I used! So it was back to the drawing board. I’m building the Esquire using a GFS Lil’ Puncher (Barden style) bladed pickup and it has 4 conductor cables, plus a ground. I’m using a genuine Fender 3-way switch (#51992-0441) and I realised that it should be possible to use it to switch the coils; after all it is a 2p3t (double pole, triple throw) switch. I’m in the stages of wiring the guitar, so at the moment this schematic is at the “theoretically correct” stage. Here’s how I would wire the switch. I’ve colour coded the switch lugs to make it less messy. I’ve also left out including a tone control, although this is easily done as in most standard schematics. Here’s what you do: - Wire up the White and Red cables to the switch as shown above
- Wire a cable to Lug 1 on the “B” side of the switch
- Connect the wire you soldered in Step 2 and the “Black” cable from the pickup to Lug 3 of the Volume Pot
- Connect a wire from Lug 3 on side “B” to Lug 3 on side “A”
- Connect the Lugs colour-coded Black on the switch to Ground
This gives us: Switch Forward: Parallel Switch Middle: Split (Bridge coil only) Switch Back: Series I haven’t tried this out yet as I am in the middle of wiring it all up. Theoretically it should work but I guess the proof of the pudding is in the eating.
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Post by christopherhopkins on Dec 8, 2006 7:41:38 GMT -5
I've spent most of the morning finishing off the wiring and it does work!!!
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Post by UnklMickey on Dec 8, 2006 17:01:14 GMT -5
hey, a success story.
those are always good to hear.
congratulations!
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Post by ChrisK on Dec 8, 2006 18:03:01 GMT -5
Kudos, you've wired the Fender 3-way (a 2 pole 3 throw) switch into a DPDT ON-ON-ON (really a three position switch that we-all here never could agree to a proper name for) normally used for exactly this scheme. I do appreciate your sharing your thought process and solution development in your post. It's a "fishing guide" of use to many. I've an on-line co-worker in Horsham named Christopher Hobson, but I'm sure that it's asynchronously unrelated. ;D
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Post by christopherhopkins on Dec 8, 2006 19:29:26 GMT -5
Thanks Now if only someone would invent a 3way superswitch I could use different caps for the tone control - and then use dual 250k/500k pot for Volume (i.e. series to 500k and split/parallel to the 250k). This is getting seriosuly addictive! I also screened all the cavities in the manner of "Taming the beast's cousin" - it's really quiet, even in the split position. I tested it using my Marshall VS100 which is quite a noisy amp and there I couldn't detect a jump in hum levels until I cranked the gain on the OD2 channel and sat in front of my laptop. Is that a posh term for "randomness" lol ;D
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