Jens Posted January 18, 2006 Report Share Posted January 18, 2006 Hey everyone! I'm planning on building my my first guitar and I know exactly how I want the shape...but I have a problem with how I should wire it. You see this is the kind of guitar I want to copy: Gackt's signature guitar, the Caparison Marcury! But when I checked out the specs on their site, http://www.kyowashokai.co.jp/caparison%20j...%20marcury.html, I noticed this: Controls: 3 Way Mini Switch First of all, I know nothing about how you can wire guitars but how the heck is the guitar wired anyway? It doesn't have any tone/volume knobs, pushpull pot or anything...it just has the 3 way switch. So does anyone know how I should wire it if I want to make a similar guitar? Can you just wire pickups directly to the switch and then to the output jack or something? I would really appreciate if someone could find or draw me a wiring diagram... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tasty Posted January 18, 2006 Report Share Posted January 18, 2006 A 3 way switch is the same as on a les paul or sg. It would appear that there is no other wiring (tone/vol controls) so you just need to wire up the 3 way. Here is a site where you can find information regarding wiring. Guitar Electronics.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jens Posted January 18, 2006 Author Report Share Posted January 18, 2006 A 3 way switch is the same as on a les paul or sg. It would appear that there is no other wiring (tone/vol controls) so you just need to wire up the 3 way. Here is a site where you can find information regarding wiring. Guitar Electronics.com Ok, so it is possible to just wire the pickups using a 3-way switch. Sweet, that will save me some money on my first build! haha But if I just wire the pickups to the switch how will it effect the sound? I don't really use the tone knobs or the volume knobs on my other guitars...they are usually on max all the time. Do you guys recommend against it or is it ok? I would still appreciate a nice picture for how to wire though... I'll just continue with the information search now! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tasty Posted January 18, 2006 Report Share Posted January 18, 2006 Well, at minimum most guitars have at least one volume knob. You could get away with none and just a switch, but your pickup selections would be limited. What I am saying is that with no volume you are just going to have full blast neck, full blast bridge, and full blast combined. What if the combined position sounds too bassy ...you just can't roll down the volume on the neck..its stuck. There is quite a lot of debate whether not installing volume/tone control will make you have a better, louder tone. Personally I can live without tone knobs, but you probably should put at least one volume in. If you play a tube amp, you will lose the "backing off the volume" sound...you know with slight breakup in the overdrive. That link should have plenty of info for you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tasty Posted January 18, 2006 Report Share Posted January 18, 2006 The more I think about the config, perhaps that guitar was something like this.... UP = single coil MID = Tapped 1/2 Humbucker DOWN = whole humbucker This way you won't have any blending issues, and the need for a volume is not entirely a must have. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jens Posted January 18, 2006 Author Report Share Posted January 18, 2006 Ok thanks! I'll probably try to make it with just the switch at first and see how it goes...heck the original guitar had only a switch so it should work. But I guess it depends on the balance between the 2 pickups. Anyway, thanks alot! I'll see if I can buy some nice alder tomorrow! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeAArthur Posted January 18, 2006 Report Share Posted January 18, 2006 The need for a volume control depends on your playing ability. On the one hand, if you just blast away it's not really necessary. On the other hand, if you prefer to control your dynamics via your picking ability, a volume control is not necessary either. Without the extra loading of a volume and tone control on your pickups, the only loading will be the input impedance of your amp. With most amps having roughly a 1 meg input impedance, the resonant peak of the pickup will be high... in both frequency and emphasis. This is not necessarily a bad thing if you like lots of treble. There are many switching schemes that offer either a tone bypass (partial like the TBX, or full like the no-load) to bring out the treble frequencies. There is also the ever popular bypass or blaster switch that provides for the bridge pickup only without tone and volume controls. With a mini-toggle, the pickups can be combined in a variety of fashions. An on-on-on toggle will allow you to have neck, bridge or both in parallel. A typical combination and not bad at all. If you want, you could also use an on-off-on toggle switch providing neck, bridge... and both pickups in series. Just because one pickup is a single coil and the other a humbucker doesn't necessarily mean that the pickups will be out of balance... or even if they are, that it will somehow sound bad (A lot of people just love the sound of a neck humbucker with a bridge single coil on a tele). Besides... you could use a hot single coil with a not so hot humbucker if balance between the two is of any importance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.