|
Post by newey on Apr 2, 2024 5:38:43 GMT -5
Two of the switch's sections go C12345 and the other two go 12345C. stevewf referred to the "Industry Standard" Superswitch. but we should first be sure which type tommyd2 actually has in hand, as there are some variations between types. Just so we're clear, an Oak Grigsby Superswitch has its lugs as follows C 12345 12345 C C 12345 12345 C
|
|
|
Post by newey on Mar 30, 2024 8:37:43 GMT -5
The diagram looks OK except that, by using the 5-way switch to split the coils at positions 2 and 4, you lose the ability to split the coils for N and B at position 3 (unless you want the coils to always be split at position 3, but I don't think you'd want that).
BTW, where did you get that diagram? It's always good to give credit where due.
If you give me a day or two, I can probably pull a diagram together for you with all the options you want.
|
|
|
Post by newey on Mar 29, 2024 7:32:00 GMT -5
tommyd2- OK, that clears things up. So, think of this design as a series of individual modules. You have the module for the phase switch above. If that is to go on the bridge, bridge + and - get wired to the phase switch as shown, first in line after the bridge pickup. The "series junction" of the bridge HB (the 2 "finish" wires as shown on the diagram), instead of being wired to each other only, instead are wired together to one center lug of the coil split switch. The "series junction" for the neck HB gets wired to the other middle lug of the coil split switch. The diagram you have for the coil split switch is for only one HB, and uses only one pole of the DPDT. You will use both poles, such that the neck HB's "series junction" connects to output when pulled and the bridge HB "series junction" connects to ground. This arrangement will then split one HB to the N coil and the other to the S coil so that, when both are split together at position 3, the combo is hum-cancelling. This assumes, however, that your 2 HBs are identical. If they are not, you may need to do some testing to see which coils are the N and which are the S as this will vary from manufacturer to manufacturer. Using the above as a start, you should try to rough out a diagram with the modules you posted. We'll then make sure you're headed in the right direction to get to a final diagram. For the superswitch, there are several different ways to get the combos you want, but I would do it using one pole of the superswitch to control the N and B pickups in positions 1,2,4 and 5, omitting position 3. Another pole switches the middle pup in/out as needed at positions 2 and 4. A third pole is then used to combine the N abd B at position 3. Fourth pole is unused. V and T pots will be just as with any similar wiring. You don't have a blend pot diagram, so let's hold off on that for now and we'll add it in once you get a diagram for the pickup switching worked out. BTW, the link you provided to the "Blend Pot" looks to be just a regular pot, there's no need to buy a specialized pot for the blender, and it doesn't look like there's anything special about the pot in your link (except for a premium price!)
|
|
|
Post by newey on Mar 28, 2024 21:18:26 GMT -5
tommyd2- Hello and Welcome to G-Nutz2!tone push-pull to phase reverse (up) for both pups You have three pickups, so I'm not clear on the "both pups" part. A DPDT switch can reverse the phase of one pickup only. If, for example, you wire it to swap the phase of the the neck pickup, you get the neck OOP with the Mid at position 2, and the neck OOP with the bridge at position 3. You don't get the bridge OOP with the mid, however. If you put the phase switch on the bridge pickup instead, you'll get the bridge OOP with the mid at 4, and OOP with the neck at 3, but you won't get the neck and mid OOP. To get all 3 possible OOP settings, more switching would be needed. But it's probably not worthwhile to worry about getting all 3 OOP combos, pick the 2 that you'd like best. Either option, whether the neck or bridge is the OOP pickup, gives you the N + Bridge OOP, which will be the most useful OOP setting. Either the N OOP with the Mid or the Brodge OOP with the mid is likely to have too much signal cancellation to be really useful. So pick whichever of the two options you want and forget the third. The N + B OOP is the one you want anyway. Just IMO, of course. You would not, IMO, want to phase the middle pickup 'cause then you lose the B and N OOP. Blending . . .what? It does require a Superswitch (or similar), for that neck/bridge combo at position 3, if nothing else. I'm reading this to mean that both HBs will be split simultaneously, both are split or neither is split, correct? Sorry for all the questions. All of this is doable, we just need to nail things down a bit more before we talk specifics.
|
|
|
Post by newey on Mar 28, 2024 20:55:15 GMT -5
theothersimon- This Board has been trucking along for about 18 years now, and we've sort of developed our own jargon on some things. It's not extensive, so I don't know that a glossary of some sort would really help much. You wondered, you asked, I answered- that seems an efficient way to handle these things. If we did a glossary, people probably wouldn't find it, and they'd ask the same questions anyway. And we would answer if we could. Some of the basics are covered in our references section, though. Just feel free to ask questions as needed.
|
|
|
Post by newey on Mar 28, 2024 5:39:41 GMT -5
I have read quite a lot of conversation about having pickups 'hanging from hot' - and actually I am not sure what this really means or what the impact of it is - I am assuming it might result in noise or loss of signal/ tone in some way? There are four ways to disconnect a pickup so that it is not operating at a given switch position. You can short the pickup to itself, hot to ground. You can disconnect the "hot" connection. You can disconnect the ground connection. Or, you can disconnect both connections. In order of preference, ideally, we would disconnect both wires, taking the pickup out of the circuit entirely. But there are often too few switch poles to do so, and we must then choose another option Shorting the pickup to itself is also OK, but there may be certain wiring schemes where that would dull the tone a bit, so in some situations we wouldn't want to do that, either. Cutting the "hot" connection, leaving the pickup connected to ground, is also fine. We have had some debate here over whether this has any effect on tone or not, the consensus is that it does not. Worst of the four options is to cut the ground connection, which then leaves the coil connected only at the "hot" output side. We say the coil is "hanging from the hot". This is to be avoided as a "best practices" sort of thing as it could theoretically induce more noise into the signal. In most cases you probably wouldn't notice any difference in the noise level, but there could be certain electric environments (i.e., bar gig with dodgy fluourescent lights, fan motors, etc.) that might be noisier. So we try to avoid hanging coils where possible. Sometimes it is not possible in order to accomplish a particular switching, so we elect to live with it. IOW, it's not a major issue, just a preference.
|
|
|
Post by newey on Mar 27, 2024 12:01:51 GMT -5
stevewf- We do, there is a thread from when SD first issued the Triple Shot™ pickup rings where we sussed out the wiring and also discussed possible other wirings which might be done with them. I'll have to search for that thread. But you are correct thet the Triple Shots use what we call the "binary tree" wiring (albeit with slide switches) EDIT: Found it: guitarnuts2.proboards.com/thread/4157
|
|
|
Post by newey on Mar 26, 2024 11:27:33 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by newey on Mar 21, 2024 13:18:50 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by newey on Mar 18, 2024 2:28:37 GMT -5
No ideas on using a speaker cone, you would be the guinea pig on that. I used a 250K pot. I tried 2 piezo elements, in both series and parallel, at varied locations in the box (top, sides, further apart) and heard no difference. That may be the size of the box, though- a bigger separation, I suspect, would give a different sound if the enclosure were big enough to permit it.
|
|
|
Post by newey on Mar 17, 2024 20:14:11 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by newey on Mar 17, 2024 19:43:38 GMT -5
Did you look at the tutorial I linked to?
OK, so a percussive stomp box. That is something I have built, and have some experience. Although I didn't try any mag pickups.
But I did experiment with 2 piezo elements, located at different points on the inside of the cigar box I was using. Using 2 piezos didn't make any difference, and I did try it with a blend control, briefly, before just simplfying things down -one piezo with a volume control. I got the most realistic kind of bass-drum sounding "thump" by dampening out the cigar box with some poly upholstery batting, loosely packed inside. Ran it through a bass amp with the EQ stack turned all the way down to "0".
But don't let me stop you from experimenting. I'll see if I can find the thread from when I was building this, it was about a dozen years ago or so.
|
|
|
Post by newey on Mar 17, 2024 16:38:03 GMT -5
choppy- Hello and Welcome to G-Nutz2!You are having trouble posting an image becasue you can't directly link to an image, it has to be hosted elsewhere. Here's a tutorial on using the "post image" button to do this. There is also a button for using Cloudinary to upload images, which most of us use, it is free but does require setting =up an account. The "Post Image" button does not require setting up an account. Your wish list is a long one, and you may, in the end, want to cull it somewhat. For starters, a piezo pickup doesn't sense the strings in the same way that a magnetic pickup does. I doubt there is any real utility in pairing two of them together, it probably won't sound much different than a single piezo alone. Also, a piezo pickup typically needs a preamp, which makes mixing it with a passive magnetic pickup signal a somewhat fraught enterprise, unless the mag signal is likewise preamp'd/buffered. JohnH's thread on "Adding a Piezo Pickup" tackles these issues, and should be required reading before we go much further along, as some of your ideas may change. You may find it a whole lot easier to buy a commercial piezo system like the Ghost Saddles and just install it as specified, then you only have to work out the mag pickup wiring. Another option would be to run 2 output jacks, one for the mag, one for the piezo output, and the 2 then get combined in a buffered footpedal with A-B switching.
|
|
|
Post by newey on Mar 17, 2024 15:40:40 GMT -5
pasqualino63- Great to hear back from you. But sorry to hear the reasons for your absence, sounds like some tough times. Anyway, keep us posted on the projects. Those Epiphone LP copies make good platforms for mods, my Epiphone LP Junior has been extensively modded. The roller bridge was key for intonation. I also replaced the heads with better ones. as well as swapping out the pickup and rewiring it. It plays well.
|
|
|
Post by newey on Mar 17, 2024 8:14:12 GMT -5
theothersimon- Hello and Welcome to G-Nutz2! That link you found to Japanese schematics is great. Thanks for posting that! As for your guitar, several points: First, the original slide switches were "single pole" switches. Your new switches have 2 poles. To wire the guitar with the original wiring, you would simply use just one side of each switch and ignore the second pole. But (hold this thought), you asked for options, and the double-pole switches do give you some other possibilities. Second, similar to many Japanese guitars from the 1960's-'70's, the switching is set up such that, when both pickups are on, they are wired together in series, not in parallel as would be the case with the vast majority of two-pickup guitars. The red and black wires of the pickups are the signal wires, the green wire is shown as being grounded permanently which leads me to believe that it is simply a separate ground wire for the cover/frame of the pickups. This is to minimize noise, it's a shield wire, not a signal wire. The extra shield wire is needed because the pickups are wired in series. Mustang pickups aren't wired in series, typically, and have plastic covers/frames, and so don't really need a separate ground. As for pot values, bear in mind that it's the total resistance of both pots (which are in parallel with each other) that matters. So, one 500K pot and a 100K combined equates to 83.33KΩ Single-coil pickups are usually used with 2 250K pots, which have a combined parallel resistance of 125KΩ. This difference, if audible at all, will probably be minimal. But pots have moving parts and wear out over time- they get scratchy sounding. So it probably wouldn't hurt to replace them if you're rewiring the guitar anyway. 2 250KΩ pots might brighten things up a bit, probably won't be a big difference. Bear in mind that most pots used in guitars are built to a 20% tolerance, meaning 2 250K pots might actually measure out as low as 225K each, 112KΩ in parallel, while the original pots might be as high as 120K and 600K, and so could be as high as 100K in parallel. If that was the case, I'd wager no appreciable difference could be heard. So maybe only a slight difference if all were right on spec. As for options, as mentioned you have only a series combination of the two pickups, If you replaced both slide switches with DPDT slide switches, you could then have both series and parallel options by using what we call Binary Tree Switching. These are more properly referred to as being "DPDT On-On-On" switches or "DPDT Center-On" switches. Technically, the center position is not a separate "throw". Using one or more of these gives any number of added possibilities. But definitely check yours with your meter as there are 2 different types, depending on which way 'round the cener connections are made. I usually mark these switches with a Sharpie so when I go to wire it I make sure to wire it the correct way for the center position.
|
|
|
Post by newey on Mar 12, 2024 21:21:57 GMT -5
tempted to ask what alternatives I could consider {insert evil chortle here} We have found another innocent victim poised to fall into the black hole of guitar modifications!{/chortle}
|
|
|
Post by newey on Mar 12, 2024 21:15:21 GMT -5
rominronin- Hello and Welcome to G-Nutz2!You'll find lots of love around here for Squier guitars. And for myself, love a short-scale Fender. I have a Duo-Sonic reissue that's my main electric these days.
|
|
|
Post by newey on Mar 11, 2024 17:05:26 GMT -5
Perhaps I’m reading this wrong You are. No series between 2 pickups. No parallel coils in a HB.
|
|
|
Post by newey on Mar 7, 2024 6:11:12 GMT -5
jerryj- Hello and Welcome to G-Nutz2!We're going to need some more information. Can you post the diagram you used to wire it? Not only will this alleviate any assumptions as to the wiring, it will also allow someone to review it in this thread, without having to open it elsewhere and toggle back and forth.
|
|
|
Post by newey on Mar 1, 2024 21:07:28 GMT -5
Newey solved it first try! Not hardly, I didn't do a darned thing. Yogi B and reTrEaD did the work on this one.
|
|
|
Post by newey on Feb 29, 2024 16:42:41 GMT -5
Stew Mac doesn't make anything, they're just a retailer. Anything with their brand on it was made by someone else and rebranded. Your switch is an EYB Megaswitch which, AFAIK, are identical to the Schaller ones, Schaller just rebrands them. Not 100% sure but pretty sure. Someone else will probably supply that extra reassurance. Anyway, here's a link: www.eyb-guitars.de/Eyb-English/products/megaswitch.html
|
|
|
Post by newey on Feb 29, 2024 5:54:40 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by newey on Feb 28, 2024 22:17:03 GMT -5
Well, there are various flavors of Megaswitch™, and they are most certainly not created equal. We'll need to get the complete pinout for it, not just position 3. You'll need to go position by position, checking for continuity between the various pads. But before we go down that road, let's see if maybe we can find the info elsewhere.
|
|
|
Post by newey on Feb 28, 2024 22:08:07 GMT -5
I'm not doubting that you can hear a difference, I question whether it's enough to merit changing a pot. But, hey, pots are fairly cheap, you can certainly go up to a 1 Meg and see if you like it. If it's too bright, I think dialing a 1 Meg pot down to about 7 puts you about 500K anyway. I have a single-pickup Strat-ish guitar with a GFS Dual Lipstick tube humbucker at the bridge. The lipstick tubes are bright as single coils, and bright as a humbucker as well, and I was going for maximum brightness. I used a 1 M volume pot with a 500K tone pot, so 333K combined, as opposed to 250K with two 500K pots. I got all kinds of bright, some might say "icepick" . I usually play it with the tone rolled off a bit to tamp it down, it is a bit over the top even by my weird standards.
|
|
|
Post by newey on Feb 28, 2024 21:51:27 GMT -5
An Avatar is just an image tied to your username. Mine is to the left, a picture of me standing in the snow playing my guitar. You can upload a photo as your avatar by using the "modify profile" feature when looking at your account page. If you don't want to be bothered with uploading a photo, or don't want to look like a damned idiot like me, there are some generic avatars available as options. There are size limits for the avatar image so you may have to resize your chosen image. BBCode is "Bulletin Board" Code, which is the type of coding used for forums like ours. Forums used to be called "Bulletin Boards" in the early days of the internet. (Well, they are still called that, too- after all this is a ProBoards forum.) Using the square brackets and the backslash on either end of a sentence, to quote it, change the font, resize it- all those are accomplished by that tagging, as reTrEaD describes it throughout this thread and its links. Those are all examples of BB Coding. There is also extensive BB coding for inserting scientific and math symbols, currency symbols, geometric shapes, all sorts of things.
|
|
|
Post by newey on Feb 28, 2024 21:19:00 GMT -5
maxm- Not sure that the Megaswitch S is the one you want. The "M" model is the one that is equivalent to a Superswitch, no questiuon you could get your "wish list" with that switch. But don't lose hope, what you want may be possible with what you have. The "S" version, as the instructions you posted show, is primarily meant to be used to implement the standard Strat wiring scheme. But there are unused terminals, and other possibilities may exist. What you want is the standard Strat wiring for 4 of the 5 positions, only the middle position changes, from middle only to N + B. We know the S switch can do the other 4 positions, so if we can figure out how to get what you want at the middle position, you're good to go. To find out, we will need to dig into the switch logic of the Megaswitch S. And, while I know we have, somewhere buried in the Forum here, the switch logic for the M model, and probably for the P model (a PRS clone), I don't recall anyone posting the switch logic for the S. I may have to go root around in the basement, which I can't do at the moment. Other options would include, since it uses a transparent circuit board, visually tracing out the connections. But that can't realistically be done over the web, only you have it in hand. The better option would be for you to use a multimeter to check the switch logic. If you don't have a multimeter, well, as I said, I'll root around a bit. I'm about to go on a bit of a rant here, and this is not in any way directed at you, maxm. For all I know, you have a multimeter and use it daily. But I am continually amazed ("'round these parts", as they say) that we hear from guitarists who are perfectly willing to dismember an instrument (often costing upwards of a grand or so) to modify it, but can't be bothered to spend a lousy $15 or so to get the basic tools needed to do the job properly. Rewiring one's guitar without a multimeter is, to my mind, like trying to land a Cessna blindfolded. Good luck. OK, rant over.
|
|
|
Post by newey on Feb 28, 2024 20:29:07 GMT -5
You won't even get that if you don't ground the cover.
As for pot values, I wouldn't think that adding a cover would make enough of a difference to warrant changing the pot.
Keep in mind that only certain resistance values are readily available, and in sizes suitable for guitars. From 500K, next step up would be 1M, I think some 750K ones may be available but if so, they're not common. In the other direction, 300K or 250K are basically the choices. Just off the top of my brain, I'd think the gaps between those standard values would be too large for the change with the cover added. I'd stick with the 500K.
Also consider that there are many dozens of similar HH guitars being made by a slew of manufacturers. Some use covered HBs, some uncovered. But regardless, they virtually all use 500K pots with their HBs. HH guitars have been made since the 1950's, and if there was a better value to use, we'd likely have seen one or more manufacturers using it. They've been at this for a while.
But, I've never done an "ear-to-ear" comparison, so grain of salt and all that . . .
|
|
|
Post by newey on Feb 28, 2024 6:37:28 GMT -5
Doesn’t that mean the middle single coil pickup will be out of phase with either the bridge pickup or the neck pickup, causing a volume drop and thin tone from one or the other? No. The middle pickup will be hum-cancelling when combined with one coil from each HB, and not hum-cancelling with the other coil. When the middle pickup is combined with both coils of a HB, it may be partially hum-cancelling, more or less, depending on the variations in pickup windings and other factors. All three pickups will be in phase with each other in all settings (assuming it's wired correctly). If a pickup were reverse polarity (i.e., magnetic poles swapped) only, and not reverse wound, it would be out of phase with a "normal" polarity pickup. If a pickup were reverse wound (i.e., positive and negative wires swapped) only, and not reverse polarity, it too would be out of phase with a "normal" wound pickup. But if we do both things, we swap the magnet to reverse the polarity and wind it in the opposite direction (or swap the wires around, which amounts to the same thing), we have a RWRP pickup which will be in phase with a "normally-wound, normal polarity pickup". Note that I have put "normal" in quotes because a pickup is only RWRP with respect to another pickup, the labels are all relative. We could just as accurately describe the RWRP pickup as the "normal" one, IOW. Hope that helps
|
|
|
Post by newey on Feb 27, 2024 22:42:05 GMT -5
could i wire it split with one coil to be in phase with the neck pickup, and the other coil to be in phase with the bridge pickup? the polarity of the 2 opposing coils would be flipped, correct? Not sure I follow what you mean here. Your triple shot rings give you the option to select either coil from each HB by itself. So you can always slelect the appropriate coil for hum-cancellation with the middle pickup.
|
|
|
Post by newey on Feb 27, 2024 6:45:41 GMT -5
dont know why i had to 'Quote' your whole passage just to ask that. You don't have to quote the whole thing. Just drag and highlight the part you want to quote, copy it, paste it into your reply and hit the "quote" button (next to the smilie button) in the reply box. Or, you can simply use the BBC quote tagging- copy and paste what you want to quote, and put "quote" in brackets at the beginning and the same at the end but with a backslash before "quote". You can use the "preview" function in the reply box to see what you've got before you hit "create post".
|
|