HSH Wiring Super Switch and Push/Pull Pots

[budzyn1]

New to the forums, and I will start life off with a lengthy and fairly complex wiring question...

I am fairly new to guitar playing and want to be able to get dual Humbucker sounds more akin to a Les Paul, but I also want to have the single coil Fender Strat sound. (mainly because I like a ton of different styles and don't have enough money to put down on 3 different guitars ) Pretty much I want to make a Les Stratopauler with an HSH pickup combo.

Question is... I don't really know how to wire it up. I know the basics of coil-splitting and switching, but unfortunately this is going to be pretty complex to wire correctly.

So for the combinations that I would like to have

Humbucker sounds...
Neck (Humbucker) only
Neck and Bridge (HB) (no middle pickup)
Bridge (HB) only

For Strat Sounds...
Neck (Coil-split) only
Neck (CS) and Middle (hum-canceling)
Middle only
Middle and Bridge (CS) (hum-canceling)
Bridge (CS) only

And for other combinations...
Neck (HB) and Middle
Middle and Bridge (HB)
Neck and Bridge (North coil of Neck pick-up and South coil of Bridge pick-up)
Neck and Bridge (South coil of Neck and north coil of Bridge)

For pot uses...
Volume pot would stay master volume.
Tone 1 would be neck and middle pickups (instead of just neck)
Tone 2 would become bridge pickup tone only (instead of middle)

I would like to keep the look roughly the same so if it can be done using three push/pull pots and a 5-way super switch that would be awesome.

At the moment I do not want/need any parallel/series or in phase/out of phase options (and I don't know if I ever will want them either)

I will be buying completely new pickups probably (GFS Vintage Extra Hot Pair or a Bigmouth Pair for the humbuckers, and a Texas Special-type for the single coil)

Also, if you have suggestions for other pickups that don't break bank please let me know! (from what I have read GFS are awesome pickups especially for the price, but I have never had first-hand experience with them or know anyone who has)

So if you kept with me for all of that... suggestions or diagrams? =)

After looking through guitarnuts2.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=schem&action=display&thread=3157
I have a pretty good grasp on the stock wiring of 3SC Strats with vol, 2 tone, and 5 way switch...
Unfortunately I would probably need a 5 way super switch and several push/pull pots...

[JohnH]

Welcome to GN2. Theres lots you can do with HSH, superswitch and push pulls, which have not been fully explored.

Here's another of mine, which does móst of what you want and some of what you dont want.
i731.photobucket.com/albums/ww316/JohnDHewitt/GN2/HSHx15050910a.gif
cheers
John

[newey]

budzyn1-

Hello and Welcome to G-Nutz2!

Unfortunately I would probably need a 5 way super switch and several push/pull pots...

Well, you want quite a bit here. Can't get something for nothing!

Th real question is, how much "switchiness" can you live with to get the combos you want? IOW, do the Strat combos need to be available with one switch, or is it OK if you have to manipulate several controls to get those? And same with the LP settings.

My first, off the top of my head, thought is:

1) 5-way Superswitch gives you:

Neck HB
Neck SC
Neck HB + Bridge HB
Bridge SC
Bridge HB

2) One Push/pull pot turns the mid pup on/off

3) Second P/P cuts the neck HB to the opposite SC (from the one selected on the 5-way at position 2)

4) Third P/P does the same, cuts the Bridge to the opposite SC

I think this does all that you want, and the LP sounds are all easily available on the 5-way. It's a bit switchy to get all the Strat sounds, but they're all there.

There may be easier ways, too, let's let others weigh in.

[budzyn1]

Thanks for the ideas!

JohnH:

thank you for the welcome =)
and I know!!!! It's so awesome what can be done with some of the switches! (mind slightly blown after looking on-line for a while about them!)

yeah that set-up is a lot of what I am looking for but yeah not quite everything (but it was helpful to figure out the wiring for practice) =)

newey:

This set-up looks to include pretty much everything I would want!
The switchy-ness in general doesn't bother me at all really (I am sure I would catch on pretty quick and eventually get down exactly what does what and make it work smoothly)

Only really important question on this specific set-up is would it be possible to get both inner coils (on the HBs) and both outer coils available? (could it be built into the middle setting on the 5-way along with the use of the P/P pots)

If I could get the two hum-canceling single coil options from the humbuckers, that would be my only other desire out of the set-up! =) (or if I could do it with the addition of only one more P/P or DPDT switch?)

I didn't think about using a P/P to operate the middle pup... (that's why you're the admin and I'm not though I guess!) =)

The only thing that I would be wondering is if one of P/P could switch the super 5-way in a way that would allow for more combinations by making essentially two 5-way switches out the the single super switch... (I think I remember seeing it somewhere but can't quite place it...)

Thanks for the help guys! I think I might be getting closer to a set-up now!

Definitely open to more suggestions!

[newey]

The only thing that I would be wondering is if one of P/P could switch the super 5-way in a way that would allow for more combinations by making essentially two 5-way switches out the the single super switch... (I think I remember seeing it somewhere but can't quite place it...)

There are several scheme around that use a "mode" switch to put a 5-way switch into 2 different "modes", but these are mostly used to get series combos in one mode and parallel in the other. Since your wish list didn't mention any series sounds, I didn't mention those schemes.

Your scheme essentially calls for all the SC combos. My thought was to put one pair of SC settings on the 5-way, and the other options on P/Ps. But that is certainly not the only way it can be done, and it seems somewhat inelegant now that I think on it some more.

I didn't think about using a P/P to operate the middle pup... (that's why you're the admin and I'm not though I guess!) =)

The "mid off" (or bridge off, neck off, etc) schemes aren't my ideas. And I'm the admin only because sumgai "volunteered" me!

There may be a better way, we'll have to see who comes up with what on this one.