fredj
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Post by fredj on Oct 22, 2013 0:40:07 GMT -5
I posted awhile back about a wiring diagram for my tele, but ended up figuring it out myself! However that one was a little more simple than this. So I have a S-S-S strat, but to be clear I want to put a Dimarzio Chopper (twin blade humbucker sized single coil) in the bridge. So the configuration I want is a S-S-Chopper that still does the "quack" in position 2. I'd also like to have it wired so that one tone knob goes to the bridge and the other to the neck. (or perhaps one to the neck and middle? Not sure what would be "more conventional") But that way I'd be able to get independent "presets" on the bridge and neck pickups. Lastly, a friend of mine hipped me to this kill pot and I figured it'd be a neat quirky little feature to add to the mix. www.shadow-electronics.com/viewpro.html?lang_id&id=266So how doable would this be? I've already got a kill pot, so can you guys help me out and can I go ahead and order the chopper pickup? Will I need any other supplies?
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Post by newey on Oct 22, 2013 4:31:22 GMT -5
Your link to the "kill pot" just goes to the Shadow pickups home page- and I didn't see any such item there. So I can't tell you anything more about that.
The rest of what you want is doable. To get your "quack" at position 2, you'll want to split the chopper HB at position 2. This is the way Fender does their HSS Strats. Basically, you use the second pole of the 5-way switch to ground the HB "series junction" (i.e., the two middle wires which are wired together).
Here's the shorthand: The jumper wire between the two poles of the 5-way gets disconnected. The series junction goes to the #1 lug on the side of the switch opposite from where the pickups' hot wires go. The #2 lug on that side of the switch gets grounded. This grounds out one coil of the pickup when in position 2.
Now, you could use one of Fender's diagrams to do this, but the majority of Fender's HSS guitars use a Superswitch, and not the regular Strat 5-way, so that another pole of the 5-way can be used to switch the tone pots. But that isn't really necessary, especially if you use the tone pots for the bridge and neck, instead of for the mid pup. The two tone pots can be wired "across" their respective pickups before the switch.
Understand, however, that your "quack" may not be exactly the same with a split HB pickup at the bridge, particularly with the blade-type HBs.
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fredj
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Post by fredj on Oct 22, 2013 11:26:21 GMT -5
Hey Newey, Try this link instead: www.shadow-electronics.com/doc/pro_pdf1/de-DE/Manual_SH_124_international.pdfI have a super switch left over from an old project, but I don't have to use it if it isn't really necessary. I follow most of what you're saying, but a wiring diagram if possible would be appreciated just for ease of mind. If not then I'll go ahead and give it a try when my chopper pickup gets here. As for pos. 2 I understand it won't sound exactly the same, but realistically its the position I use the least and the extra kick in the bridge position will be worth the trade.
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Post by newey on Oct 22, 2013 13:28:27 GMT -5
OK, the Shadow kill switch will be the last thing in line before the output jack. This,too, is doable for what you want. It will probably fit better replacing the volume control if, as I suggested, you wire the two tone controls across the pickups.
I can do a diagram for you but it may be a few days before I cn get to it.
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fredj
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Post by fredj on Oct 22, 2013 18:57:35 GMT -5
Newey,
After rereading your message you said that the Fender diagrams use a super switch so that another pole of the 5 way can be used to switch the tone pots. What exactly did you mean by that? I'm not totally sure I understand
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Post by newey on Oct 23, 2013 9:40:35 GMT -5
Fender makes a number of different HSS Strats. Most of these use a Superswitch. Some, like the American Deluxe Strat, also use Fender's S-1 switch to give more options.
Where the Superswitch is used, one pole does the regular Strat pickup switching. The second pole is used to split the Bridge HB at position 2. The third pole is used to select for the neck and middle tone pots (The standard Strat configuration doesn't have a tone control for the bridge pickup, for historical reasons).
Fender did make at least one HSS Strat that used the regular 5-way switch to split the HB coil at position 2. It was called the "Big Block" Strat. There was no issue with switching the tone controls as it used a master V and T set-up. But you can consult that diagram (Look under "Support" on Fender's website) to see how the coil splitting is done with the regular 5-way. As I said, the tone controls can be dealt with separately.
Since you want separate Bridge and Neck tone pots, there is no problem with interaction of having two pots "on" at once, since the bridge and neck pickups are not used together on a std. Strat scheme.
On a regular Strat, with Neck and Mid Tone pots, the two pots are both in the circuit at position 4 (N + M) of the 5-way, which leads to interaction- when you turn down one pot at position 4, it also affects the other pickup. Most folks don't notice this, however, since most don't use their tone controls much, if at all.
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fredj
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Post by fredj on Oct 24, 2013 22:36:58 GMT -5
Thanks for breaking it down for me! I comprehend it fully now. I don't have a stock wired strat (mine is currently wired with 1 vol and 1 tone) but when I get a chance I'll have to check out the tone knob redundancy and see how big of an effect it takes. I'm willing to wait a few days for a wiring scheme if you're still up for doing it! I really appreciate the time and effort you're putting forth to help me out My one question is would you recommend that it be wired with one tone knob to the neck as was first suggested or have one go to the neck and middle and a separate one on the bridge? I'm aware that would create some overlap on the tone controls on the middle position, which is why I'm hesitant. I just have never had a strat without a tone attached to the middle pickup (with the exception of my current master tone, which isn't quite teh same thing...) so I'm not sure how not having a tone knob attached to the middle pickup would effect the "quack" positions. It's been awhile since I've had a standard wired strat, but I don't recall using the second tone knob too often, but I figured I'd just ask for your input.
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Post by newey on Oct 25, 2013 5:00:28 GMT -5
If you have one tone for the neck and middle, and a separate one for the bridge, then you will need to use a Superswitch. You can't wire the tone controls as I suggested, across individual pickups, since you can't wire one tone control across two pickups at once. You'd need either a Superswitch, or a separate switch to do the bridge coil cut (thus allowing tone pot switching with the other half of the 5-way switch.)
Doing so will change the interaction issue from position 4 to position 2 (B + M). Is it a big deal? Probably not, some people play Strats for years and never notice it, because they don't use their tone controls, as I said. (How many even know which pickups have tone knobs on a std. Strat? I'd bet that a poll would surprise us.)
As far as "quack", turning down either tone control will certainly affect that sound. I don't think leaving the mid pup without a tone control will affect it, again, presuming that both tone pots would be left at "10" anyway.
The diagram changes substantially if you want to do N + M tone; it's not a problem but I don't want to do a diagram twice. So we need to zero in on exactly what you want before I put pen to paper (or pixels into MS Paint, as the case may be).
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fredj
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Post by fredj on Oct 25, 2013 12:14:40 GMT -5
Okay Newey, let's go with the super switch wiring that has one tone for the neck + middle & the other for bridge.
I was able to find my left over super switch and the chopper pickup should get here any day soon!
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Post by newey on Oct 27, 2013 21:24:54 GMT -5
OK, before you go firing up the soldering iron, let's get another set of eyes on it as a double-check. A few notes: 1) I have shown the Shadow killpot as a "black box", with just "wires in" and "wires out". You'll need to use the Shadow-suppled diagram to wire this up. Just treat the whole killpot shebang as a separate module, it really is irrelevant to the rest of the diagram. 2) I have omitted a string/bridge ground, pickup shield wires, any cavity shielding, and/or ground wires between pots. Some or all of these things may be present (or may need to be present . . .). These all would go to the grounding point, and are omitted for clarity. 3) There may well be cleaner, more efficient, ways of doing this, with fewer connections, etc. This was the best I could come up with. It ought to work just fine, anyway. 4) The wire colors for the HB should be correct for DiMarzio HBs. I didn't pay attention to the colors on the SCs, YMMV (You didn't specify what they were, anyway). 5) The correct coil should be selected for the #2 position,which is the "North" coil. (i.e.,Red/Black wires). However, it is important that this coil be the one which is RWRP with respect to the middle pup, so as to be hum-cancelling in position 2. If you are using all DM pickups, you should be able to figure this out from DM's literature, but if you're using different brands of pickups, you will need to test first to be sure you've got the right coil. To do so, put the two coils together, face to face, middle pup to bridge coil which will be closest to the middle. They should attract each other. If not, let me know. Also, please check that this is the coil wired with the red and black wires (you will need a multimeter to check this, unless it's visually obvious.) If not, let me know.
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fredj
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Post by fredj on Nov 10, 2013 13:39:37 GMT -5
Hey Newey! Really sorry for the late reply! I've had quite a busy couple of weeks and things are about to get busier...
I looked over your diagram and it seems to be okay to me, but I'm probably not the best person to be a proof-reader for this sort of thing.
One thing, my middle pickup isn't RWRP like your standard middle pickup. So my pos-2 wouldn't be hum canceling, regardless, right?
The dimarzio pickup should be arriving sometime this coming week and perhaps I'll have to see when I get a chance to sit down and mess with my strat to wire it up. It's my main gigging guitar and I've got a lot of things coming up that might prevent me from working on it for a few more weeks.
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Post by newey on Nov 11, 2013 22:59:54 GMT -5
Position 2 can be hum-cancelling by simply selecting the other coil from the bridge pickup. To select the other coil, do as follows: Look at the lower left-hand pole of the Superswitch. The "series junction" of the bridge HB is connected to lug #2; the common lug ("C") is grounded. This is what gives you the coil split at position 2. If you connect "C" to the hot output instead of to ground, you'll have the other coil selected. However, if the middle pickup isn't RWRP, then position 4 (N + M) won't be hum-cancelling, and can't be made hum-cancelling. Again, I suggest testing the coils as described above. Discretion is often the better part of valor. We often get people who dig into the innards of their guitar a couple of days before they need it for a session or a gig, then get frustrated when they can't make it work within their self-imposed time limitations. Assume that any reasonably-complex wiring scheme won't work the first time out of the box. Expect that troubleshooting will take twice the time it took to wire the shebang up in the first place. And start the job at a time when you don't need the guitar for a few weeks. If there is no time frame of a few weeks during which you don't need the guitar, then you have too few guitars for all of your commitments . . .
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