Looking for wiring diagram with both Coil Tap and

[insaniac99]

So I have Seymour Duncan's Everything Axe pickup set and I am having my friendly local tech work on it. I am using a 3 pot configuration and want to use one push/pull pot to activate the bridge pickup (for the tele style Bridge/neck or all 3 active at once combos) and one to tap the bridge and neck pickups. The top tone knob I'd like to control the neck's tone and the bottom to control the middle (or middle+bridge)

For some reason my that tech isn't sure about everything works except the top tone pot is acting like a volume know for the bridge pickup. He is having to cobble wiring diagrams together, since we couldn't find one that has both a coil tap and Bridge-On switch.

I figured this wouldn't be that uncommon of a mod but I can't find any diagrams and my tech has said he's never done this before. He said that if I could find a wiring diagram it would help a lot, so I come asking for help: anyone have a diagram that does what I describe?

[newey]

insaniac99-

Hello and Welcome to G-Nutz2!

I'm sure there's a diagram around here somewhere that does this, I'd have to dig one up, and, at the moment it's off to work so that'll have to wait a bit.

But since the only problem with what you have now is the tone control, it will probably be more fruitful to post a diagram of what your tech wired so that we can see what's in the guitar now. It may be that there's an easy fix.

Is the second tone control wired only to the middle or is it to the middle + bridge?

[reTrEaD]

Jun 6, 2012 4:50:36 GMT -5 insaniac99 said:

The top tone knob I'd like to control the neck's tone and the bottom to control the middle (or middle+bridge)

For some reason my that tech isn't sure about everything works except the top tone pot is acting like a volume know for the bridge pickup.

Not sure if you said what you meant to say. If so, it indicates more than a little trouble. If the capacitor in a tone circuit is shorted, that would cause it to severely affect the volume for the pickup it was assigned to. But what you've described is affecting a different pickup.

A diagram of what you have now would be an excellent starting point. At bare minimum, we would need a drawing or pic of the pickup selector you're using. There are several very different "Strat" pickup selector switches. Even the most basic wiring varies according to which switch you have.

[insaniac99]

Thanks for the welcome and the quick replies!

Jun 6, 2012 8:24:56 GMT -5 reTrEaD said:

Not sure if you said what you meant to say. If so, it indicates more than a little trouble. If the capacitor in a tone circuit is shorted, that would cause it to severely affect the volume for the pickup it was assigned to. But what you've described is affecting a different pickup.

A diagram of what you have now would be an excellent starting point. At bare minimum, we would need a drawing or pic of the pickup selector you're using. There are several very different "Strat" pickup selector switches. Even the most basic wiring varies according to which switch you have.

Yeah, I meant what I said, I know a little bit of electronics but I'm a programmer at heart and I have no clue how that would happen except a short and I didn't have time to trace out the wires when I was there.

I do not have a diagram for how the guitar is currently wired, but I did take some pics with my phone when my tech showed me the problem he was having, here they are. Hopefully the three different angles gives you a good view to trace the wires.

[sbgodofmetal]

Ok first thing replace those pots they look like hell try alpha or CTS. Also might want to concider a super 5way switch. Both are available at www.stewmac.com


Other than that you could try this

[reTrEaD]

Jun 6, 2012 12:40:44 GMT -5 insaniac99 said:

Hopefully the three different angles gives you a good view to trace the wires.

I can't tell everything about the wiring from these views, but I CAN see enough to understand the tone control problem. There are 2 errors.

1 - The tone cap is in the wrong place in relationship to the top tone control. But it is correct in relationship to the bottom tone control.

A - One end of the tone cap should connect directly to ground.

B - One lug (either wiper or CCW end) of each tone pot should connect to the other end of the cap. (the end not connected to ground)

C - The other lug (either wiper or CCW end) of each tone pot should connect to the selector switch (via the red wires).

D - The case of the pots can and should be connected to ground for shielding. But none of the lugs of either tone pot can be connected directly to ground.

That explains why the upper tone control was acting like a volume control.



Why it acts like a volume control for the bridge pickup:
The top tone control is connected to the wrong lug of the pickup switch. If you want the top tone control to affect the neck pickup, move the skinny red wire on the far right lug of the selector switch to the unused lug, immediately to the left of the thick red wire. (use second or third pic for reference)




The selector switch you have should work as follows:

N M B C C N M B

N = Neck
M = Middle
B = Bridge
C = Common

The left and right half of each switch could be wired independently, but in your case, both the commons are connected together. The lugs on the left side select which pickup(s) are connected, the lugs on the right side select which tone control(s) work.


Edit:

Jun 6, 2012 14:43:56 GMT -5 sbgodofmetal said:

Ok first thing replace those pots they look like hell try alpha or CTS.

erm...no.

1 - CTS doesn't make a push-pull pot with a DPDT switch. Only SPST. He needs at least DPST or better to split two pickups with one switch. CTS is out of the running here.

2 - Pretty sure the upper tone pot is an Alpha. The volume pot appears to be a DiMarzio. Both are considered good quality push-pull pots.

3 - fk what they look like. If they work well, that's all that counts. If either was noisy or otherwise defective, then fine replace. Else leave well enough alone.

4 - Replacing parts while retaining incorrect wiring won't solve the problem. Unless the problem is that your wallet is too heavy.

[insaniac99]

Thanks guys, I emailed my tech and I'm going to show him this tomorrow, I'll let you know how things work out.

[newey]

I'm going to +1 upside-down RT here for his good eyes, spotting the problem from those photos.

And, insaniac, please report back with your results.

[reTrEaD]

Excellent. I think he'll be able to understand what needs to be done from the text. But if not, he's welcome to make an account and ask more questions. In any case, feedback is always desirable.

Cheers.