Deaf Eddie 5 Tone Tele Variation

[jimplaysguitar]

Hello there.

Please could you check my theory (mess) on Deaf Eddie's 5 tone tele, but with three pickups. Using a 4p3t rotary to select which two of the three pickups the main five way switch uses.



Finding a quality 4p3t rotary I think may be difficult, I may use a 4p4t from Allparts and use the 4th position as.. who knows?

Thanks for looking

[sumgai]

Jim,

Getting kinda chatty, ain't ya?!!! Four years without a peep, and then all of a sudden, Bang! Twice in one year! Good thing some of us around here can remember (from year to year) who you are. ;D

In a brief glimpse at your design, I don't see any thing that gives me heartburn. I'll give it another, more in-depth, going-over tonight, but for now, I gotta get outta Dodge!

HTH



sumgai

[newey]

Jim-

Welcome back!

I also took a quick glance, the few positions I checked looked OK.

But I'm not quite clear on exactly what the Rotary is giving you, or supposed to be giving you.

Using a 4p3t rotary to select which two of the three pickups the main five way switch uses.

This didn't make sense in view of the 5-way position chart- I'm assuming the chart was just carried over from DE's drawing?

I guess what I need is a table of switch positions, with the 5-way and the rotary- what sumgai calls a "truth table"- to be able to see what's going on.

Labeling the poles (or, at least, the "1" and the "P") of the rotary would help as well.

[jimplaysguitar]

Thanks for the welcome, it has indeed been a while.

I've edited my post above to make it more understandable. Hope it helps

Cheers

[ashcatlt]

I didn't check all the way through the 5-way. Looking at the 5-way in position 2, it looks like the rotary works fine. I'd assume that the rest is fine too.

At least for this one position of the 5-way, I think that the jumpers to postion 1 and 2 on the bottom-most pole of the rotary are unnecessary. They connect the bottom wire of the unused pickups to ground. Maybe you need that for the other functions?

As for rotary switches, these aren't exactly the mil-spec ones that ChrisK used to recommend, but I've got 12 of this type installed in 4 guitars, and another in a pedal and am perfectly satisfied. Mostly I've used the DP5T version, but I do have this exactly 4P3T in my Rick. I know from experience that these will not withstand excessive attempts to exceed their rotational limits. That is, they will break if you try too hard to turn them too far, but when you're turning them the right way, the action is really easy and smooth.

The one thing is that that the shafts are a full 1/4" in either round (as linked) or D-shaft. These do not fit knobs meant for split knurled shafts like on most Fender and Gibson guitars. They fit exactly the set-screw knobs on my Rick, but I had to ream out the strat knobs, and even the set-screw Tele style knob on my LP.

[jimplaysguitar]

Cheers for the switch recommendation, ashcatlt. As for the bottom pole, I assumed that unused pickups should still be hanging from ground, don't ask why.