Strange Strat wiring idea(s?)

[azrael]

Hey there, first post. Mostly just frequent UG's forums, but I heard you guys were bigger experts on wiring...and i needed some technical advice. I wire my guitars, but nothing too unorthodox, just coil splits, series/parallel for humbuckers, coil taps, phase reversals, etc...

But I had an idea...As I have 4 single coil pickups. And one Strat.

I was thinking of maybe wiring it with a single in the neck, single in the middle, and two bridge single coils.
the one closest to the neck would have a ferrous plate behind it (to be referred to here on as t-bridge), to get some Tele tones. The other would be a normal strat pickup(s-bridge).

I already have a coil tap, ya a tap... - on the middle pickup and a neck on switch. I figure that the best way to do this would be to have individual on switches, right? I'd like to incorporate series/parallel switch for the neck/middle, middle/s-bridge, maybe neck/s-bridge and doubly maybe neck/t-bridge.
Is that possible?

As you can tell, i'm perfectly okay with having awesomely mutated guitars. I'd like to build a Jag with P-90's one day...

If I decide to be lazy and not route the extra space in the body for a second bridge single coil, and just make a normal SSS...Is it possible to use a normal 5-way switch, and have series/parallel options for the neck/bridge, neck/middle, middle/bridge combos? I'm okay with extra switches...but I'd like to stick with a 5 way just because it's a little less alien, and could maybe consider a super 5 way, as long as stock sounds were available...

So, thoughts?

[gfxbss]

I would like to start off by saying Welcome to the GuitarNutz!


check here.

this site is from our very own wolf. it doesnt have your 5 way switch, but it has nearly all that you wanted.

HTH Tyler

[azrael]

Cool, I believe I've taken a look at that site before. Crazy wiring options!

I was looking at Wolf Wire Ultra Strat, and that one looks okay...But if I were to add a 4th pickup, where would it go in the circuit?

Still, I'd like to keep a stock strat switch, or at least use the blade switch, just it doesn't totally weird people out. Also, I've got terrible memory, so it'd take me a long time to get used to the whole thing, haha.

[ChrisK]

If I decide to be lazy and not route the extra space in the body for a second bridge single coil, and just make a normal SSS...Is it possible to use a normal 5-way switch, and have series/parallel options for the neck/bridge, neck/middle, middle/bridge combos? I'm okay with extra switches...but I'd like to stick with a 5 way just because it's a little less alien, and could maybe consider a super 5 way, as long as stock sounds were available...

Absolutely not!

Well, OK, it is.

Mike Richardson wiring with phase

It lives in here;
The Padouk Caster

And, with three pp pots, it looks stock. I love it.


Now, we could also add a DPDT ON-ON-ON toggle switch for Tbridge/both in series/Sbridge. I do hope that the two bridge pickups are RWRP with each other for hum cancellation.

[azrael]

Whoa, the double diagram on that thing confused me for a sec! Haha.

Okay, so that's with a Super 5-way switch. Alright, alright. Wow, that's crazy wiring.
Question, though - Why are there 3 wires coming off each pickup?
Also, how would I wire that last ON/ON/ON switch you talked about? The only thing I could think of wires them in parallel, I think. The bridge pickups are RWRP with each other, of course.

[ChrisK]

Whoa, the double diagram on that thing confused me for a sec!

Yeah, it's only half as complicated as it looks.

I prefer schematics, but those that (just) implement prefer wiring diagrams. This has both. It's not my design, I only added the tone controls in the way that I wanted and drew my own schematic and wiring diagram.

While I prefer to design my own schemes from scratch, this one is unique in that I love the logical layout of the combinations and, as a result, promote it often (always giving Mike Richardson the credit he deserves).

Okay, so that's with a Super 5-way switch. Alright, alright. Wow, that's crazy wiring.

NOPE!

This is crazy wiring; ;D ;D ;D
The HSS All Mode 'Caster

Question, though - Why are there 3 wires coming off each pickup?

Signal output, signal return, and ground (shield, except it ain't a shield, just a pickup frame ground reference).

The bridge pickups are RWRP with each other, of course.

Of course!

Also, how would I wire that last ON/ON/ON switch you talked about?

Beats me.

Oh wait, try this;
single coil/both coils in series/other single coil

[azrael]

Signal output, signal return? My single coils only have a hot and a ground.

[ChrisK]

Signal output, signal return? My single coils only have a hot and a ground.

Sorry, I digress to engineering references. The "hot" lead on a pickup is actually a misnomer. It's only "hot" if it's in phase reference with the other "hot" lead(s) on (an)other pickup(s). And the "ground" lead is only that if it's connected to ground in concert with the other "ground" leads.

In other words, if one had a three pickup Strat with a colored "hot" lead from each and a black "ground" lead from each, and connected the black leads from each pickup to the proper location on the selector switch in lieu of each colored "hot" lead, and each "hot" lead to ground, the guitar would work EXACTLY THE SAME.

When two pickups are wired in series, the "hot" lead of one is the signal output, but the "ground" lead of that pickup is connected to the "hot" lead of the other pickup, whose "ground" lead is grounded.

It's also equally incorrect but quite helpful to label a coil with a (+) and (-) lead designation other than to indicate the relative phase reference. From the perspective of the signal ground (not to be confused with a safety ground) the actual "hot" lead on a two-lead pickup is the lead NOT connected to ground (it has the signal output).

I found that once I stopped thinking of pickups as having bespoken hot leads and ground leads (other than shields), the more advanced wiring concepts were much easier to "see".


AC signals are.

[azrael]

Ah, I see what you're saying. See each coil as like, half a humbucker, in this instance.
Still need a bit of digestion to figure out how it's wired, but that helped. To facilitate wiring that, should I add another lead to the "hot" and "ground" of each pickup, since it sometimes seems to need to wires from those ones to do the wiring?

Also, how do you change the B-M-N to just M? Is that position the most convenient to change to just middle?


Oh, and do you have pics of the Padouk Caster's wiring? I'd like to see how this looks, finished.

[ChrisK]

Ah, I see what you're saying. See each coil as like, half a humbucker, in this instance.

Each coil is just a coil, floating about in the ether, until structure results and at least one end of one gets tied down to ground (and at least one end of one gets tied to the signal output).

To facilitate wiring that, should I add another lead to the "hot" and "ground" of each pickup, since it sometimes seems to need to wires from those ones to do the wiring?

Uh. no. You just wire the leads into the circuit and add any additional wires to the switches and pots. I never add wires to the pickup leads themselves.

Oh, and do you have pics of the Padouk Caster's wiring? I'd like to see how this looks, finished.

No, sorry.

But, the bottom section of the diagram IS a wiring diagram.

Also, how do you change the B-M-N to just M? Is that position the most convenient to change to just middle?

I know that there are other Mike Richardson designs about, but I'll have to look for them. There is one that has the middle only in one position, but I like the design that I drew up. Ask zamzara, who posted in the MR thread how he did it.

[azrael]

Right, right, I understood that the second part of the diagram is the wiring diagram. I just wanted to see ther jumbled mess of wires I'd be dealing with.