Wiring Help Needed

[SpankySpectacular]

Hello, i'm new here and am enjoying reading this site a lot. It's given me a lot of ideas for mods and tweaks.

Wondered if anyone would be willing to help me with my wiring, as I haven't a clue what i'm doing really and put this together by looking at other plans and stuff.

How do i connect the pickups to the switches? Do they need to be connected together before they go to the volume pot? And how does the tone pot connect into the circuit?

If there's anything else wrong with it, could you point it out to me please?

Thanks.

[mammoth guitars]

Run the pickups to your on/off switches then all together at the volume pot. Tone pot then can be wired to the volume pot just like the varitone. You may want to use a SPDT on your kill switch and run one side to ground and the other to the output jack with the output from the volume pot in the middle. This will keep the amp quiet when the kill switch is off.

[SpankySpectacular]

Run the pickups to your on/off switches then all together at the volume pot. Tone pot then can be wired to the volume pot just like the varitone. You may want to use a SPDT on your kill switch and run one side to ground and the other to the output jack with the output from the volume pot in the middle. This will keep the amp quiet when the kill switch is off.

Thanks Mammoth,

Few more questions though.

Would that be the same in the case of the pickup switches then? I mean using spdt switches and grounding them?

While i'm here, do the green wires off the single coil pickups (on my diagram) go to ground? <- Sorted this out.

Where does the humbucker ground come from and go to?

Which lug/s of the dpdt switch are the output?

Sorry if this is really obvious stuff, but i haven't done much like this before.

Edited July 31, 2006 by SpankySpectacular

[mammoth guitars]

No you do not need to ground a pole on the pickup switch.

The humbucker should have 5 wires, 2 for each coil and 1 braded shield. If its a new pickup there should be a diagram that came with it to explain the color code of the wires.

I assume you are using the DPDT to switch to single coil mode? Well you really only need a SPST for this since the middle of the coil be grounded for single coil mode. The DPDT can be used for this as well so there is not really an output from the DPDT switch. Typcially the red or hot can be run straight to your SPST switch.

[SpankySpectacular]

Thanks again, here is a revised version. Is it right? Well its not right because i'm not sure where the 2nd wire fron the single coils goes to, but other than that...

The DTDP switch is there to, supposedly, switch between standard humbucker, coils in parallel and coil tapped. But i'm not certain it's correct.

[JoeAArthur]

Your kill switch only needs to be a SPST like in your first diagram. Connect the other lug to ground. This will keep everything quiet.

If that on/on/on is supposed to be a series/single/parallel it isn't wired correctly. Go over to GuitarElectronics.com they have the appropriate wiring - this page, 4th down, left side:

http://www.guitarelectronics.com/category/...ckerwiringmods/

Yes, the green wire from the single coil pickups should be ground.

Personally, I would move the tone and varitone connections from the center vol control lug to the right side lug - but that's just me.

[SpankySpectacular]

Your kill switch only needs to be a SPST like in your first diagram. Connect the other lug to ground. This will keep everything quiet.

Would it be any different if I did it the second way? Only I have lots of spdt switches and only 3 spsts, it would mean hunting some more down.

Personally, I would move the tone and varitone connections from the center vol control lug to the right side lug - but that's just me.

What kind difference would that make? Is it just easier? Or will it sound different?

Thanks by the way.

[mammoth guitars]

You can use the SPDT in place of the SPST it will not make any difference in sound for this case.

[SpankySpectacular]

Is this all correct then?

[mammoth guitars]

No.

The killswitch needs both red lines connected.

The blue wire on the tone should be on the middle leg.

What are you trying to do with the dpdt on the humbucker?

[JoeAArthur]

If you want to use a SPDT for the kill switch, wire the center lug of the switch to the output jack, the center lug of the volume control to one side lug of the switch, and ground the other side lug of the switch.

Mammoth guitars is correct - the blue wire for the tone control connection needs to connect to the middle lug of the tone control.

[al heeley]

What are you trying to do with the dpdt on the humbucker?

That looks like the wiring for series/single/parallel when you have 2 HB's in the circuit. As such it will just act as a coil tap in your setup.

[JoeAArthur]

What are you trying to do with the dpdt on the humbucker?

That looks like the wiring for series/single/parallel when you have 2 HB's in the circuit. As such it will just act as a coil tap in your setup.

Yep.

Hey spanky, reverse the bottom two connections of the on/on/on switch.

[SpankySpectacular]

Okay,

Is that right?

[mammoth guitars]

Spanky, I am sure this is confusing as it appears you now wired the kill switch back to the way I originaly told you. Either way will work and the idea is to short the signal to ground so nothing is sent to the amp. If you merely used the switch to disconnect the signal from the output jack versus shorting it to ground then it would probably cause hum in the amp when you enabled the kill switch.

You still however have the tone control blue wire on the outside leg and it should be connected to the middle wiper lead of the pot.

[SpankySpectacular]

Spanky, I am sure this is confusing as it appears you now wired the kill switch back to the way I originaly told you. Either way will work and the idea is to short the signal to ground so nothing is sent to the amp. If you merely used the switch to disconnect the signal from the output jack versus shorting it to ground then it would probably cause hum in the amp when you enabled the kill switch.

You still however have the tone control blue wire on the outside leg and it should be connected to the middle wiper lead of the pot.

I mean't to change the killswitch back to this way on the diagram before this one. I like this way better, i think it makes sense to me.

The tone control is wired to the middle, it's just my bad diagram.

[JoeAArthur]

Spanky, I am sure this is confusing as it appears you now wired the kill switch back to the way I originaly told you. Either way will work and the idea is to short the signal to ground so nothing is sent to the amp. If you merely used the switch to disconnect the signal from the output jack versus shorting it to ground then it would probably cause hum in the amp when you enabled the kill switch.

You still however have the tone control blue wire on the outside leg and it should be connected to the middle wiper lead of the pot.

I mean't to change the killswitch back to this way on the diagram before this one. I like this way better, i think it makes sense to me.

The tone control is wired to the middle, it's just my bad diagram.

Ok, yeah but - you didn't swap the total connections on the bottom two lugs of the ON/ON/ON switch. You need to move that purple ground along WITH the ...

I give up.

Look at the link I posted before and make sure this switch is wired up the exact same way. Well, you really don't have to - only if you want it to work correctly.