Freeway Toggle Switch Wiring Problem - HH, 1T, 1V

[gideongraves]

First post here -- hello!

This isn't a really exotic wiring situation, but somewhat troublesome nonetheless.  I probably should've asked for help when I started this project, honestly.

So, the pickups I'm using are IBZ V77 (Neck) and IBZ V87 (Bridge), a couple of CTS 500k pots, and an NSF Free-Way 6-position switch (3x3-02N) [Diagram PDF].  I saw in a similar post that a person was advised that a 2-pole switch wouldn't be enough to give all the options he wanted.  In my case, I don't have any specific requirements, and if I'm better off just going with a 3-way toggle that's fine.  I wouldn't be able to use one of the bigger switches without routing/modifying/drilling in some way, which I'd like to avoid.

What I'd like to do is get a few non-vanilla options out of my set-up (series/parallel, coil split if possible, etc), but if I can't that's fine too.  I didn't want to spend a fortune on this project seeing as it's just a beat-up basswood guitar, but I figured I did pretty good getting the guitar and parts for ~$50 or so.  

Here's an Imgur gallery with some of the diagrams I've looked at trying to figure this out.  The Ibanez one doesn't show the exact pickup models I have, but same basic situation (4-conductor neck, 2-conductor bridge).

[newey]

gg-

Hello and Welcome to G-Nutz2!

The Freeway 303-02N was the original version of that switch. There is now a version called the "Freeway Ultra" which is a true, independently wire-able 6-position switch. The earlier model you link to (and the one I assume you have) is much more limited. It was apparently originally intended for use on a HHH LP, such that one side of the switch (pos. 1-2-3) gives the std. LP HH switching, and flipping the switch over to 4-5-6 adds in the middle HB. It can also be used for coil splitting on a HH guitar, as the mfr. shows in its diagrams.

But they don't show any series/parallel or out-of-phase options. That doesn't mean those things aren't possible with that switch, just that no one has worked them out as of yet. If I had to venture a guess, I doubt that series can be done with that switch, but OOP might be possible.

But in a HH guitar such as yours, the only thing we know for sure that it can do is coil splitting. And, in your case, only the 4-conductor neck HB can be split; it would take major surgery to convert the bridge pup to 4-wire, and the surgery might well be fatal to the patient. So, you are even further limited in your options . . .

One option (we'll call it the "down and dirty" option) would be to simply use the HH coil-split diagram that comes with the switch, but you would ignore the two middle wires from the bridge pickup, since yours is only a two wire. (The two middle wires are shown on the diagram as being the red and white wires, which corresponds with SD colors.) This would give you the normal HH settings in positions 1-2-3, and would give you the neck pickup split in position 4, with the split neck and full bridge HB in position 5. Position 6 would be just the bridge HB, and would be redundant with #3.

(Not sure I'm right with those position numbers, I might have reversed them, but you get the picture.)

Usually, when coils are to be split, folks want to split the bridge pup, for more treble-ey lead work stuff. You might want to consider swapping the positions of the two pickups so as to be splitting the bridge instead of the neck.

But, as I said, "down and dirty", since you're only adding 2 additional options with that fancy switch, and will have a redundant switch position. You could actually get the same options just using the tone control to split the HB between "9" and "10" on the pot, with a regular Gibson-style toggle to switch the pickups. I use the tone pot to do the coil split on an Epi LP Jr. I have, it works like a charm although one has to turn a knob instead of just flicking a switch.

Other options might be possible, but someone would have to sit down with that funky switch logic and start tracing through it to see what else might be done.

[JohnH]

Hi gideongroves. Welcome. Newey has covered the issues well.

I could forsee a good simple arrangement with what you have, which I would find useful. In my HH Les Paul, I have various options but the ones I use most are the full bridge and the split neck. I get them with switches and the tone pot trick that newey describes. But you could get them all on the freeway switch. I like the split neck but not the split bridge. I think it might be good to have full bridge humbucker in two positions so that any pre-solo swipe downwards will engage the full face-melting bridge power.

Or, another option that you might like for the 6th position could be a part mix of bridge plus a bit of neck, or the other way round, particularly since you seem to have just one volume pot.

Or, if may be possible to disengage the volume pot in one position, for a volume boost.