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Post by newey on Jun 15, 2017 21:13:43 GMT -5
I went looking for a new lever switch for my latest project, and spotted this at Allparts: www.allparts.com/EP-0079-000-6-Way-Oak-Grigsby-Switch_p_5592.htmlIt would appear to be a 6-way shorting style lever switch, as it has 5 lugs per side (thus, presumably, 4 + C). I had never seen anything of the sort before, and Allparts was the only one who came up with this in a web search. Oak Grigsby Co. was apparently acquired by Electroswitch a while ago, and the Electroswitch website didn't seem to have any info about any of the Oak Grigsby lever switches. So, no data sheet, and a bit of a mystery as to the switching, but it appears to be shorting the in-between positions. According to the only review of the thing at Allparts, the lever is a bit longer than a regular Strat 5-way, so the slot for the lever needs to be modified slightly for it to fit. I ordered one, so more to follow once I can get "hands on". EDIT:And, assuming it works as it appears to do, my latest project is shaping up as a HB-SC. Any and all bright ideas on how to use this thing for such a set up would be appreciated. |
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Post by reTrEaD on Jun 15, 2017 23:19:58 GMT -5
Indeed. There is something peculiar about this switch. On a Strat 5-way you have 3 lugs for throws. And two in-between positions. With 4 lugs for throws, one would expect 3 in-between positions. That would be a total of 7 positions. Yet this is a '6-way'.
Looking closely at the pic, the lever is slightly to the right of center. And the commutator is in an in-between position for the middle two throws. I would guess as the lever is pushed fully left, only the last throw would be connected. And if the lever is pushed fully right, the commutator would be in the in-between position for the first two throws.
Just guessing here.
This doesn't seem like it would be a switch of choice for a hum-sing.
But it would be a natural for a SSS with the normal 5 selections plus B+N.
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Post by newey on Jun 16, 2017 13:12:18 GMT -5
The sole reviewer at Allparts for this thing said that's what it was used for. I'm assuming that one pole gets the neck and mid selections, and then the other pole is used for the bridge at positions 1 (Br only), 2 (Br + M) and 3 (Br + N)? Or, of course, it could be the other way around, with one pole switching the neck instead.
Once I get it, I'll post the switch logic. As far as using it for my current project, the Motherbucker is a 4-coil (dual rail X 2), so technically not a H-S but more like a H-H-S. So I suppose I could just wire it as if the one-half of the Motherbucker were the middle pup, giving me the SC combined with each 1/2 of the MB.
However, I'm still up in the air on using the motherbucker here as it looks like some body modification will be needed to make it fit. The MB has a rectangular baseplate whereas the rout for the pickups has rounded-off corners, so I would need to remove some wood at the corners- which might then result in the pickup ring not fully covering the rout. I'll have to look more closely at that issue.
Anyway, I was surprised that we had never discussed this switch before. I'm also wondering if Oak Grigsby is going away, and whether these will continue to be available.
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Post by reTrEaD on Jun 16, 2017 14:01:20 GMT -5
I'm assuming that one pole gets the neck and mid selections, and then the other pole is used for the bridge at positions 1 (Br only), 2 (Br + M) and 3 (Br + N)? Or, of course, it could be the other way around, with one pole switching the neck instead. I would guess that in a SSS, only one pole is used to make all the pickup selections. The other is used to make the tone control selections. Same as a 5-way. In your application, perhaps you can use one pole to do the pickup selections and the other side to do coil-shunting taking advantage of the bridging between throws at the 'in-between' positions. idk. One thing that isn't clear. Does the other side of the switch match up with the 'in-between' positions or are they offset? Once in-hand you can determine this. My guess is, they match up. |
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Post by newey on Jun 19, 2017 22:47:35 GMT -5
The switch arrived today, so I got out the meter. RT said he thought the poles would line up, and I thought they would, too. In other words, just like a standard Strat 5-way with an extra position. But we were both wrong on that. With the switch oriented as shown in the diagram, and defining Pole A as the one closest to the flat metal side of the switch, here's what I get with the trusty meter:  Gonna take a bit to wrap my head around that! Also, the Allparts commenter was right, the slot for the lever will need modification. Luckily, the kit git doesn't have the mounting holes predrilled, so there's no problem there, just have to widen the slot a bit. Also note that, with this switch, there is no straight-up-and-down lever position like the middle position on a regular 5-way- which may make switching a bit more fiddle-ly. EDIT: Now that I look at this, I should have swapped the Pole A and Pole B columns on the chart so the chart corresponded right to left with the switch diagram. So perhaps not as clear as it could be. |
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Post by JohnH on Jun 20, 2017 1:24:45 GMT -5
Looks useful. If you hard-wire 1 to 4 and wire the three coils to 1,2 and 3, you can have all three singles and all three parallel pairs. Would need some kind of series switch or other cleverness to get a full series humbucker.
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Post by sumgai on Jun 20, 2017 13:36:29 GMT -5
Sigh. What a wasted opportunity.  |
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Post by newey on Jun 20, 2017 17:17:31 GMT -5
Just a teaser, is that it, sg? No hint on where you're panning in this particular creek?
My off the cuff thought was a sort-of "Deaf Eddie on steroids" approach, but I haven't actually sat down to figure out what this might do . . .
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Post by reTrEaD on Jun 21, 2017 2:34:08 GMT -5
Gonna take a bit to wrap my head around that! Indeed. I'm not sure if the offset between the two halves makes this more useful or less so. Time will tell. |
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Post by sumgai on Jun 21, 2017 12:10:37 GMT -5
Just a teaser, is that it, sg? No hint on where you're panning in this particular creek? My off the cuff thought was a sort-of "Deaf Eddie on steroids" approach, but I haven't actually sat down to figure out what this might do . . . My point was that whoever designed this stopped at 6 positions, when absolutely every 3-pup owning guitarist in the world wants 7 positions. Adding an offset into the mix was nothing more than an attempt to irritate 99% of all modders who don't have the time nor inclination to become Electrical Engineers... a successful attempt at that. IMO, of course.
Yes, my 'bah! humbug!'ness is showing this morning. Must be my meds are wearing off, or sumpin'.....
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Post by reTrEaD on Jun 21, 2017 14:39:36 GMT -5
My point was that whoever designed this stopped at 6 positions, when absolutely every 3-pup owning guitarist in the world wants 7 positions. They all think they do. But when push comes to shove, I have to wonder if 7 positions would be horrendous in operation. End positions are easy. Just slam all the way to one end or the other. Middle and 'notch' positions aren't horrible to find on a five-way. With six, the four across the middle become more difficult to find. With seven? Probably unpleasantly fidgety. In this case, it would appear they're still using the same amount of angular separation between positions as a 5-way and increasing the full angular sweep. I suspect increasing the angular sweep to accommodate seven positions would not be possible. Then the angular separation between positions would need to be decreased. The obvious advantage to having the offset in pattern is that if using one side for pickup selection, the loop-back to Neck+Bridge occurs at the Neck end of the switch. If using the other side, the loop-back occurs at the Bridge end of the switch. The obvious disadvantage is that the 'automatic' coil splitting that was possible in the notch positions of a standard 5-way is no longer present. That was desirable for some folks with a HSS or HSH configuration. What other interesting uses of the second side of the switch might be possible is yet to be determined. Might be lots of fun. Might no fun at all. TBD . . . |
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Post by newey on Jun 22, 2017 17:35:24 GMT -5
Rather than start throwing around diagrams in the coffee shop, I started a thread with a specific diagram here |
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