eberkain
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Post by eberkain on Apr 29, 2007 21:30:45 GMT -5
Tell me I'm crazy or whatever, but this is what I'm planning to do to my guitar, its still in the idea stages though. I can handle the work, but electronics theory is not my strong suit, will it even work? The hardware is six push/pull 500k pots and 3 of the four pole triple throw switches from WD. It gives each pickup its own volume and tone control, in phase out of phase switch, series or parallel or off switch, and a choice of a low or high cap for the tone. Oh, and each pickup is run to its own jack and then to a separate set of chorus/eq pedals before patching them back together and sending the signal to the amp. I'm looking to get a really wide crunch sound out of it for playing rhythm stuff, something that sounds like a whole fleet of guitars playing together, while keeping a huge range of versatility for playing lead and experimenting with other stuff. What do you think? The reason for the 4PTT switches is to completely remove the switches and all from the circuit whenever the pickup is off, to reduce load. The On/On/On side of the switch does butcher the diagram in the middle position, but that doesn't matter since the middle position on the other side of the switch completely cuts all the hardware out of the circuit. The slide switch is going to be mounted on the cover plate itsself and facing to the back side of the guitar and I think there is just enough room for six knobs and three switches on the front.  |
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Post by UnklMickey on Apr 30, 2007 1:22:03 GMT -5
okay, you're crazy. seriously, i see a few problems right off the bat. 1 - it's a very bad idea to use a phase switch to put one coil of a HB OoP with the other. that defeats the hum-canceling when OoP. also, the signal will be weak and thin. just say no. 2 - you could use a local Series/Parallel or Series/split/Parallel switch for each HB. afterward you would have the phase switch to alter the phase relative to the other pickups. for ideas on how to wire the local S/P or S/s/P switches, go here: guitarnuts2.proboards45.com/index.cgi?board=schem&action=display&thread=1145315219&page=1#1157994747if you only have the HBs S/P then hum-canceling won't be a problem. if you also split them, the phase switch would need to be imbedded in the switching to swap coils when OoP, maintaining hum canceling with other pickups. since you are planning on using the center position of each mode switch to turn the pickup off, you won't be splitting the HBs. also, you only need one additional pole to switch the pickup on, in the outer positions. the forth pole will be left vacant. good luck, unk |
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Post by sumgai on Apr 30, 2007 3:24:38 GMT -5
eberkain, Well, I think my word for "something" would be ambitious. That's certainly a load of work there.  The only thing I wonder about is, why are you calling the Mode switch (s/o/p) an On/On/On for part of it, and On/Off/On for the remainder? Since it's off for the crucial part anyways, it makes little sense to worry about whether or not the S/P portion is off, on, or out back playing mumbledy-peg with the boys - the pickup will still be off, thanks to the right-most portion of the switch. I mention this only to get it straight in my head that you aren't using any special switches here, there's no need to. (BTW, the proper designation for this kind of switch is 4P3T.  ) For clarification, there are several switch templates that can be found here: Electronic Symbol TemplatesWithout the tiny arrows inside the switch, it's sometimes difficult to determine what the designer's intent might be. Just something to consider. And unk is correct, you can leave the ground side of the pots permanently connected, there won't be any loading issues or anything like that. What kind of axe are you putting this into? Oh, and late as I am about it....... Welcome to the Forums! ;D sumgai |
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eberkain
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Post by eberkain on Apr 30, 2007 8:16:07 GMT -5
Thanks guys, and thanks for the welcome. Unk, yeah, i know the phase switch is going to make things thin and weak, but lets just call that intentional.  I know I dont need to switch the ground side also, but if I wanted to, there would be nothing wrong with doing so eh? Sumgai, the host for this thing is going to be a WRC Gibson (the model Wayne Charvel made while he worked for gibson for like a year), I'm currently in the process of sanding down the whole thing for a new paint job. This axe had a rough life before I got it, but the neck is still pristine and the Kahler Spyder trem system is perfect. I'm going to use a Gibson Iommi Signature pickup in the bridge, a little 59er in the middle and a JB Jr in the neck if you were wondering. As much as I like the concept of multiple output jacks, I think I'm going to hold off on that for the time being, because I sure wont have the money to dump on a bunch of pedals anytime soon. So here is a revised diagram with some colored lines to indicate the switching, sorry I made it so hard to read the first time. I mainly posted this because I wanted to have someone else look things over before I stared drilling holes in my guitar. Thanks guys.  |
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Post by sumgai on Apr 30, 2007 11:36:02 GMT -5
eberkain, Your new diagram shows tiny red lines inside the switches, and that's good. However, they don't indicate what's happening in the center position, which is crucial to analysis of any switching circuit. In case you aren't aware of it, there are several variations of the xP3T schema, and not all of them are shown on that Template link I gave in my previous message.  But I repeat, you still specify "On/ On/On" for two of the four poles of that 4P3T switch, yet the remaining two poles are labeled as "On/ Off/On". If that didn't just 'slip your mind', I'd like an explanation, please. And yes, you can also switch the ground side on and off, if you so desire. However, sometimes this will cause a small 'pop' in the output signal. Not always, but sometimes. Just so ya know. HTH sumgai |
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eberkain
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Post by eberkain on Apr 30, 2007 14:27:26 GMT -5
Well, I'm not holding the switches yet, so I can't put them on the ohmeter and test them exactly, but I "think" its a 4P3T switch which has one half of it as on/off/on, and the other half as on/on/on with the center part of that side bridging in both directions. But as you said, the middle part of the on/on/on side of the switch doesn't matter because the on/off/on side cuts everything else out of the circuit anyhow.
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Post by sumgai on May 1, 2007 1:03:15 GMT -5
ebby, Ah, so you're labeling the sections to be correct insofar as they are built, but not necessarily correct as to the way the circuit works. I see it all now........  Works for me. sumgai |
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Post by ChrisK on May 1, 2007 17:47:59 GMT -5
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eberkain
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Post by eberkain on May 21, 2007 13:34:33 GMT -5
After finally getting all my parts, some were backordered. I can finally make some progress on this project. Test fit of the new electronics.   Everything fits good, a little tight but workable, now its time to do some painting. |
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Post by sumgai on May 22, 2007 16:34:44 GMT -5
eberkain, Ah, I see that Cheshirecat and ChrisK are gonna have to do some work to stay ahead of the game...... That's a lot of switching and pot-twisting going on there! Or as Chris would say "....... oh, shiny!" ;D Lookin' good so far. sumgai |
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Post by ccoleman on May 22, 2007 21:47:21 GMT -5
U have 3 output jacks ?!
And just 3 switches instead of the original design 9 switches .. ?!
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Post by UnklMickey on May 23, 2007 4:42:10 GMT -5
^ I noticed the output jacks as well. BTW, still 9 switches. (push-pull pots)
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eberkain
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Post by eberkain on May 23, 2007 6:10:47 GMT -5
Yeah, I figured since I was doing all this work I might as well do everything I wanted, so there is a switch in the back panel that lets the jacks be separate, so essentially, each pickup has its own output jack and can have its own effects processing or I can flip the switch and the outputs get mixed and each jack functions as a standard output jack. |
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eberkain
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Post by eberkain on Jun 4, 2007 19:48:35 GMT -5
Its not going to win any awards, but it is together.  I put up a page on my website with more pictures and whatnot. www.eberkain.com/guitar.html |
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Post by dd842 on Jun 4, 2007 20:51:50 GMT -5
Its not going to win any awards, but it is together. I put up a page on my website with more pictures and whatnot. www.eberkain.com/guitar.htmleberkain, I've gone through the thread, and I'm not going to pretend I understand everything ... that's a complicated piece of work. But I like it! It looks like it turned out very well (... it does work, too ... right?) Nice job! Dan |
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Post by michaelcbell on Jun 4, 2007 21:20:14 GMT -5
nice! Do be aware that I put a switch on the back of my guitar, hooked to some LED's inside my pickup covers back when I was just a nut (not a guitar nut) - I took them out a bit ago for other reasons, but I did have some problems with my pants turning on the lights (let's see where the jackals take that one ) The rogue pant effect might be even more dangerous to you in this configuration - Just be aware. |
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) For clarification, there are several switch templates that can be found here: 
