Post by ssstonelover on Mar 30, 2022 19:15:58 GMT -5
I know there has been a lot of discussion on getting more out of the Free-way switch 5B5-01, so I took a (small) crack at it, and by using a DPDT I was able to get 11 instead of 10 pickup combinations. Specifically I'd be able to get the series of BxMxN plus the series of BxM.
Edit: I just tested the circuit today 31/March and it works as drawn.
On this particular guitar, I combined the Free-way switch with the Artec EXP and BCU (as master tone controls), meaning I discarded the usual tone controls and mapping which pickup(s) they go to. The nice thing about the Artec push-pull pots is that by pulling up on the EXP, you take it out of the circuit, whereas for the BCU, pushing down takes it out of the circuit, so in actual practice you can run the guitar with a dead battery (if you need to) and get the same effect as keeping the tone controls at "10", and get a a perfectly playable guitar.
So here is the background: The solder points "A" and "B" control the difference between the 2 available SSS versions
As far as the Artec pots, here is their info:
My particular combination has the DPDT (down position, position 6) giving BxM. Pulling up on the switch gives BxMxN in position 6.
Edit: In my first trials, there is a good amount of tonal difference between pickup selections so I believe using normal tone controls would be fine. The Artec pots don't really add that much, given the wide tonal range already
Edit: I just tested the circuit today 31/March and it works as drawn.
On this particular guitar, I combined the Free-way switch with the Artec EXP and BCU (as master tone controls), meaning I discarded the usual tone controls and mapping which pickup(s) they go to. The nice thing about the Artec push-pull pots is that by pulling up on the EXP, you take it out of the circuit, whereas for the BCU, pushing down takes it out of the circuit, so in actual practice you can run the guitar with a dead battery (if you need to) and get the same effect as keeping the tone controls at "10", and get a a perfectly playable guitar.
So here is the background: The solder points "A" and "B" control the difference between the 2 available SSS versions
As far as the Artec pots, here is their info:
My particular combination has the DPDT (down position, position 6) giving BxM. Pulling up on the switch gives BxMxN in position 6.
Edit: In my first trials, there is a good amount of tonal difference between pickup selections so I believe using normal tone controls would be fine. The Artec pots don't really add that much, given the wide tonal range already