strat lovers strat wiring diagram?

[brianico]

Hello,

I am new to this message board. I just attempted to rewire my guitar following the schematics by John Atchley for the Strat Lover's Strat. I must've totally messed up because my guitar does not work at all now. javascript:add(%22%20:-[%22)

I can manage to wire my guitar so that the DPDT push/pull switch on the volume pot turns on the bridge pickup in parallel to the neck pickup or neck/middle and the push/pull switch on the neck tone pot puts the neck pickup out-of-phase. But, how the heck do you wire it so that the bridge pickup is added in series to the neck pickup or neck/middle.

Does anybody have a wiring diagram for John Atchley Strat Lover's Strat? OR Is anybody willing to post one?

Thanks!

[sumgai]

Brian,

Hello,

I am new to this message board. I just attempted to rewire my guitar following the schematics by John Atchley for the Strat Lover's Strat. I must've totally messed up because my guitar does not work at all now. javascript:add(%22%20:-[%22)

I can manage to wire my guitar so that the DPDT push/pull switch on the volume pot turns on the bridge pickup in parallel to the neck pickup or neck/middle and the push/pull switch on the neck tone pot puts the neck pickup out-of-phase. But, how the heck do you wire it so that the bridge pickup is added in series to the neck pickup or neck/middle.

Does anybody have a wiring diagram for John Atchley Strat Lover's Strat? OR Is anybody willing to post one?

Thanks!

Hi, and to the forums!

Are you asking if someone will "convert" John's schematic into a wiring diagram? That's what it seems to me.

Hmmm, that's a rather interesting question. Could be a bit of a sticky wicket with the copyright and all that jazz. To the best of my knowledge, I don't think anyone here has received permission to do any work of this kind from JohnA, but I certainly could be wrong. Let's give it a few hours, and see what the other members here to say about it. It might be that the diagram already exists, albeit in different form, or it might be that someone could just email it to you privately, that would be no problem, I'm sure.

And I don't know if you reviewed your message or not before hitting the "Post Reply" button, but that part about the javascript.... that won't accomplish anything around these parts. If you added it to show us something posted elsewhere on the web, I have to point out that the forum software allows you to use only those methods presented above the text box on the Reply screen. You can use [/img] tags to show an image, or tags to link to a full-fledged HTML page, but javascript.... uh uh, that's a no-no.

Hang in there, I'm sure someone who can "speak with authority" will be along soon. ;D


sumgai

p.s. Don't be surprised if the Admin moves this message, we have a better place for questions like this.

[JohnH]

Too late! I already did one! - try this

guitarnuts2.proboards45.com/index.cgi?board=schem&action=display&thread=1144451491

John (H not A)

ps - I sometimes think it is better to ask for forgiveness than for permission

[sumgai]

John,

Thanks for that, I wasn't sure if it'd been done or not. At least, I hope it's the one that Brian is asking for!


sumgai

[UnklMickey]

I sometimes think it is better to ask for forgiveness than for permission"


better? maybe.

easier? ................... absolutely!

[brianico]

Hi,

Thanks for the quick response guys. I did not mean for anyone to violate John Atchleys copyrighted schematic. I certainly don't expect anyone to take the credit for the wiring plan. I was just hoping that maybe somebody that has done the same mod or who can understand electronic schematics could help me w/ a diagram.

I would've loved to email John A directly but there is no contact info on his guitarnuts.com site.

John H - I checked out your diagram. I apprecitate the help it also looks like a great mod, but it is not excactly the Stat Lover's Strat wiring that John A has come up with. And since I already have the wiring for it done about 75% I would rather just fix up the errors I did then start something completely different.

Anyway, I understand how to wire everything else except for the volume pot switch which turns on the bridge pickup in series with the neck pickup or with neck/middle pickups.

I have succesfully completed the "Quieting the beast" mod. I was also able to wire the volume pot push/pull switch as an on/off switch for the bridge pickup turned on in parallel with either the neck or neck/bridge and I was able to wire the push/pull switch on the neck tone pot to put the neck pickup out-of-phase.

That worked fine but I really wanted it to work like John A's mod so I re-wired everything in attempt to wire the push/pull volume pot switch to turn on the bridge pickup in series with neck or neck/middle postions. My guitar does not work now. I noticed also that the solder point for the ground wire on the tremolow claw has melted and come off due to the improper wiring.

If someone could help with a simple diagram, even of just the push/pull tone pot wiring for the volume pot and where the wires go that would be great! ;D
*BTW, I was interested in just the basic strat lovers strat diagram, not the one with the optional tone switching. My guitar is an American Series Strat and was already wired to have the second tone pot to control both the middle pickup and the bridge pickup anyhow.

If all else fails, I guess I'll just wire it back as an on/off switch for the bridge pickup.

Thanks

[sumgai]

brian,

I think I see where your problem most likely lays.

I don't have upload abilties right now, or I'd post a diagram for you, but from what I've just read, I think I can describe your potential solution.

You said "I managed to wire the vol pot push-pull switch so that it turns on and off the bridge pickup in parallel, but I can't make it do so in series with the other pickups."

Well, if I'm not mistaken, I'll bet you've left the negative lead of the first two pickups in place, and you've merely switched the bridge hot lead over to that "parallel" neck/middle combo. The quotes are because you forgot to remove the parallel combo's negative lead from ground - it's not tied to a switch, is it? Go check, we'll wait right here.

You've got switch both the negative of the parallel combo away from ground and to the bridge hot lead, and you must switch the bridge hot lead away from the output. That requires a DPDT, which I think you already said you have.

One pole, three connections:
upper - par combo negative lead
common - bridge positive lead
lower - hot output (presumably the pup selector switch)

Other pole, two connections:
upper - (empty)
common - par combo negative lead
lower - ground

Almost obviously, but just in case..... the bridge negative is always grounded, and the par combo hot leads always go to their respective selective switch points. With this DPDT switch, you are disconnecting the bridge hot lead from the output, and sending it to the par combo negative lead. You are simultaneously disconnecting the par combo negative lead from ground. That last part is what I think you forgot to do.

HTH


sumgai (the image-challenged one)

[brianico]

Thanks Sumgai,

I finally figured out where I went wrong.

Thanks to your statement: "Almost obviously, but just in case..... the bridge negative is always grounded, and the par combo hot leads always go to their respective selective switch points. With this DPDT switch, you are disconnecting the bridge hot lead from the output, and sending it to the par combo negative lead. You are simultaneously disconnecting the par combo negative lead from ground. "

I had everything wired correctly as per John A's schematic except for one wire. Instead of wiring the brige (-) lead to signal ground, I wired it to the lower bottom connector of the right side pole of the DPDT switch. I thought that the schematic was saying to do that. I assumed the negative electrical current would flow from the (-) bridge lead back down the wire from the bottom right pole connector to signal ground. But after reading your suggestion I studied the way the current flows thru the DPDT swithch and realized that it wouldn't work that way.

All I have to do is detach the (-) bridge lead from the bottom right pole connector and attach it to signal ground instead. This simple adjustment should make the guitar work the way John A's Schematic says it will.

[brianico]

Yup!

It was just the (-) lead from the bridge pickup that was wired wrong. Guitar works great now except volume pot is now acting up. Sound comes on and off. Sprayed some contact spray on contacts. Hopefully that will fix it because it worked awesome for 2 minutes and then volume level went very faint.

Thanks for the support! This is an excellent site!

[sumgai]

brian,

Score 1 for the good guys! Remote diagnosis of problems is difficult at best, but you're bound to win at least once in awhile

Assuming that your volume and tone pots are wired correctly, then you might try bypassing your vol pot entirely. If everything works, then insert a pair of resistors tied together in series. Hook one end to ground, the other end to the pup selector switch, and the junction of the two to the output jack. The total value of the two resistors should be the same as the pot value, and they should be the same size, or close to it. An example: For a 250K pot, you'd want a pair of 120Kohm resistors. Settle for a pair of 100K units, it'll be close enough for our tests.

If the sound dies out with this lash-up, then you have a serious problem with one (or both) of your pickups - it can't stand to be loaded down with a resistor of more than a few K ohms. If the sound remains good, but about half of the full output, then your vol pot has gone gunny-sack. You know what to do in that case, I'm sure. ;D

HTH


sumgai