Hey, new here/ Is my schematic right?

[jimplaysguitar]

Hey I'm new here, I drew this schematic..

i18.photobucket.com/albums/b116/sh1tguitarist88/diagram3.jpg

Just wanted to know. Have i drawn it right?
Would it work?
Do you think it's a cool thing to do?
Would switching between two capacitors make a difference?

Thanks

[JohnH]

Welcome - Basically I think your diagram is good, and could work. Here are some things to check.

Pickup wire colours.
Manufacturer uses different combinations of colours, eg Di marzio is diferent to Seymour Duncam etc. Do you know what yours are? I have an impression that colours for the neck and bridge pu's may be inconsistent in the diagram

Switch types
The neck pickup coil selector looks like it should be an on/off/on type, ie in the central position, the pole is not connected. these are easy to get.

The bridge coil selector is a special on/on/on switch, in which in the middle position, one pole is connected 'up' and the other 'down' These can be got from guitar components supplier but are not generally common. Theres another type of on/on/on that wont work here, where the central position has poles connected both to the 'up' and the 'down' (does that make sense?)

Pickup polarity
On a Strat, the middle pickup is 'reverse wound reverse polarity', compared to the others. THis means that it is in phase for sounds but cancells hum in combination with the others. Humbuckers have one of each type, which is why they cancell hum.

In your case, you have th opportunity to make single coil combinations between middle and either neck coil. One combo will be hum cancelling and the other will not.

With the bridge/middle combo you only have one single coil option on the bridge. If you find that it is not hum cancelling with the middle, you can swap the wires from the bridge coils to make the other coil selected

With neck/bridge combos in single coil mode, you have a hum cancelling and a non hum cancelling option.

Overall sounds
Youll get a lot of sound options. The two neck single coil options may not be very different, but having both gives the chance to optimise hum cancelling with the other pups Of course, with humbucking settings, hum is not a problem. The main sound type you dont have is out of phase, and not everyone likes them. I do however. If you get tempted, a phase switch for the neck, after the coil select would give you this.

In the all off position, you may find tha some noise is picked up, hopefully not too bad though. Make sure you shield the inside of your guitar and do proper grounding.

Your capacitor idea would work. I dont find tone controls very useful, but others do. You could try 0.01 and 0.047 to get a greater range. You might want to hear the basic sounds first before deciding. 0.01 will take the edge off a very bright pup, without cutting too deep.

Let me know how much of the above is unclear - and I can point to some links to help explain.

John

[jimplaysguitar]

Thanks John.

I was aware of the color codes, the two humbuckers will be DiMarzio, i believe i've done that right?

Your info on switches has helped me a lot, i wasn't aware that there are two types oh on/on/on switches, but i was aware of all the types of switches needed.

Having both singles avaliable on the neck pickup to have hum cancelling with the middle and the bridge single was my intention.

With every pickup on/off switch in the off position, will i get a noise as if my lead isn't plugged into my guitar?
i will properly shield the control cavity and the pickguard.

Jim

[JohnH]

OK, yes looking at it again, I think it is OK with Di Marzio colours. I also think the all 'off noise' will be a bit like an unplugged lead, ie, not too bad if all is screened
Good luck!
John

[jimplaysguitar]

I found these on two different sites, they both do the same thing, why are they wired different?

[jimplaysguitar]

johnh said:

I also think the all 'off noise' will be a bit like an unplugged lead

Could i prevent that by grounding the "down" possition of the push-pull pots? like this



Jim

[JohnH]

I found these on two different sites, they both do the same thing, why are they wired different?

They are both OK. the lower diagram is for SD colours. They are just two ways to skin the same cat and end up with the same electrical connections.

I also think the all 'off noise' will be a bit like an unplugged lead



Could i prevent that by grounding the "down" possition of the push-pull pots? like this

What you have shown, i think will short out the signal if any one of the pups is turned off - not what you want. But you could fix this, and make a quiet 'kill switch' setting, using the other half of your DPDT switches on the push-pulls, also changing the bridge SPST to a DPDT. Leave the wiring as you had it, but connect the second pole of each of these three DPDTs in series, from ground to output, such that only if they are all off, a shorting connection is made. See if you can figure that out!

John

[jimplaysguitar]

I think i've figured it out..



I believe that would send the signal to ground, shorting the connection, only if all switches are off.

I'm probably wrong ;D

Jim

[JohnH]

Yep - that should do it!

John

[jimplaysguitar]

Thanks for all your help, John, nice of you to help a pommie out. I apreciate it a lot.
I'll let you know how i get on.

One more question, is the north coil, the one closest to the bridge or the one closest to the middle PU?

Jim

[JohnH]

Jim - you are welcome. I am in fact, also a Brit although I live down under.

I am not sure how to determine north and south coil, except by testuing a pup to see which wires go with which. Use a multimeter or clip the wires to a guitar lead and lightly tap the coils with a screwdriver. You can place the pup or swap the wires according to which coil you want.

cheers

John

I

[Mini-Strat_Maine]

Good morning, Jim and John (well, it's morning where I am)

jimplaysguitar said:

One more question, is the north coil, the one closest to the bridge or the one closest to the middle PU?

This chart might be of some use, at least if you know what brand(s) is/are in there:
guitarelectronics.zoovy.com/category/wiringresources.11pickupcolorcodes

I've got a "new" one here with neither slug nor screw pole coils (blade type), but I've got a polarity tester from Stew-Mac. (I should go practice on some "known" pups so I can be sure of what it's saying.)

--
Doug C.

[jimplaysguitar]

That's a great chart, Doug, but i'm in the same situation, both of the coils look the same.
I thought about just getting an old input jack, linking the pickup straight to it, and using my amp so i can hear which coil is on by touching the pole pieces with a screwdriver, is this dangerous? lol.

Also, i thought i'd change the bridge pickup on/off switch to another push/pull pot, just to make it so i have a push/pull for each pickup. This would leave me with with an extra pot, i could just leave it out of action, unless you can think of a better use for it? Lol.
I would like an extra Tone control, just for the neck and middle, leaving the original for the bridge only. But i thought, that linking the two pickups together with one tone pot, would do exactly that, link them together.
So if either one of the switches were on, neck or middle, the signal would be getting to both pickups, via the tone control, that's not good. Do you understand? lol

Jim

[Mini-Strat_Maine]

jimplaysguitar said:

That's a great chart, Doug, but i'm in the same situation, both of the coils look the same.
I thought about just getting an old input jack, linking the pickup straight to it, and using my amp so i can hear which coil is on by touching the pole pieces with a screwdriver, is this dangerous? lol.

Do you mean dangerous to you, dangerous to the pickup, or both?
I've learned from reading here that it's not good to use a soldering gun around pickups, but I wonder if a small bar magnet with its poles marked would give off too much of a field to be used for checking. If it was safe, and you pointed the "N end" at one coil and felt resistance, you'd know that was the north coil. Theoretically, anyway.
That's basically what the Stew-Mac (Schatten) tester does, but it has a little color-coded ball inside that flips toward the given polarity.
We should let JohnH or somebody comment on how much of a magnetic field is safe before it mungs the pup. (Hmm, good name for a rock band. {/Dave Barry mode})

I would like an extra Tone control, just for the neck and middle, leaving the original for the bridge only. But i thought, that linking the two pickups together with one tone pot, would do exactly that, link them together.
So if either one of the switches were on, neck or middle, the signal would be getting to both pickups, via the tone control, that's not good. Do you understand? lol

I understand that coupled controls are not "optimum" in a lot of ways, but beyond that, I don't know a darned thing about it. That's why I'm always looking for good diagrams by "those who have been there before." I assume they already know all the things not to do. ;D

What about one of the blender or TBX or whatever mods for the extra tone control?

[JohnH]

jimplaysguitar said:

That's a great chart,
I thought about just getting an old input jack, linking the pickup straight to it, and using my amp so i can hear which coil is on by touching the pole pieces with a screwdriver, is this dangerous? lol.

I dont think that is dangerous. I do that just by touching the ends of the pup leads to the jack plug, or connecting them with alligator clips, then tapping th epoles with a scredriver.

It is not important which coil is really north or south magneticaly, what is important is the relative polarity between two coils together , their position on the guitar and their phase direction. What I mean is, if you called one of the poles north consistently on both pups and wired everything up correctly, it would not sound different if in fact, all of the souths and noths were reversed

You have DiMarzio pups. So just assume their colour codes connect to the correct coil, then find out which one physically connects to each coil on the pup by testing as above. That will let you decide which way round to place the pups on the guitar, ie do you turn one 180 degrees. Most people would want the bridge pup when cut to a single coil, to use the coil nearest the neck.

John

[jimplaysguitar]

I don't care what the extra pot does, even if i never use it, as long as it pushes and pulls, i'm happy, lol
I'm quite happy with a Master tone.
Maybe i can use the extra pot as another Master Tone.
Like...instead of the switch switching between caps, it could switch between pots, each with a different value cap.
Maybe pointless, but i could have my tones set where i want them, so i can switch between two of my favourite sounds, lol.

[UnklMickey]

jimplaysguitar said:

I think i've figured it out..



I believe that would send the signal to ground, shorting the connection, only if all switches are off.

I'm probably wrong ;D

Jim

i just LOVE it when someone takes the time to figure out how to get exactly the right result by using extra poles on existing switches.


nice!



BTW: whazza pommie?

[jimplaysguitar]

unklmickey said:

BTW: whazza pommie?

It's what an Australian calls a Brit, lol.

[UnklMickey]

yeah, i kinda got that from the context.

let me re-phase the question.


what is that term derived from?

[jimplaysguitar]

unklmickey said:

what is that term derived from?

www.snopes.com/language/acronyms/pommy.htm

[UnklMickey]

clear as mud!

cheers.

[jimplaysguitar]

I think I've found a use for that extra pot.
Maybe i'll buy The Original "Orange" Midrange Shaper,



from here
www.guitar-mod.com/
Ditch the pot that it's mounted to, and mount it to my push-pull (bridge on/off) pot. That will give me more sounds to play with.

Jim

[UnklMickey]

jimplaysguitar said:

...Ditch the pot that it's mounted to, and mount it to my push-pull (bridge on/off) pot. ...

or, they might sell you one already assembled on a push-pull, with nothing connected to the switch. that saves a bit of re-work.

small companies are usually pretty responsive to special requests.