Tyler Posted June 6, 2007 Report Share Posted June 6, 2007 (edited) Does anyone know how to wire pickups and selector switches in a guitar or where I can find how to? I have a gibson 3-way right angle selector switch of which I am puting into a strat style guitar and I want to take my start style guitar and hook up a gibson 3-way right angle selector switch and volume control (as I have removed the 2 tone controls) to 3 strat style single coil pickups and I want the neck pickup to be the treble or lead and the bridge pickup to be the rythm and the middle pickup to only work when you select all on. I need to get a schematic of this if possible or if someone can tell me how to do it would be great.. please e-mail me at romancing_the_butterflies_21m@yahoo.com or messege me here and let me know how I can do this. If hooking this up in this fashion is not possible then please by all means give me different variations that will work such as only hooking up 2 pickups instead of 3 or hooking up 2 of the pickups to work together instead of seperatly and therefore having 2 pickups working together and the third one seperate. for example: here are a list style of the different variations that I would like.. the first variation is the style that I want but if that cant be done then I have provided some other variations. I would like the other variations as well cause I might change it. 1. neck pickup - hooked to the volume control & the lead or treble part of the selector switch middle pickup - hooked to the Volume control & Selector switch but only works when all pickups are selected Bridge pickup - hooked to the volume control & the rythm selector part of the switch 2. neck pickup & middle pickup - hooked to the volume control & treble part of the selector switch bridge pickup - hooked to the volume control & the rythm part of the selector switch 3. neck pickup - hooked to the volume control & treble part of the selector switch middle pickup & bridge pickup - hooked to the volume control & the rythm part of the selector switch 4. neck pickup - hooked to the volume control & treble part of the selector switch bridge pickup - hooked to the volume control & the rythm part of the selector switch NOTE: no middle pickup is used in this modification now I dont know if I need a different style of gibson selector switch to be able to do what I want as I have seen looking on the net, a couple different or what is believed to be different 3 way selector switches.. 1 for two pickup gibson guitars and another for 3 pickup gibson guitars. but they both to me look the same. any help in this is much appreciated Tyler Edited June 6, 2007 by Tyler Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GregP Posted June 6, 2007 Report Share Posted June 6, 2007 A Gibson-style 3-way switch won't do what you want. To be honest with you, I can't tell exactly what combination of pickups you want, or if it would be possible with any 3-way switch at all. The extra-large font is making for distracting reading, too. You're describing what you think you want the pickups attached to, rather than listing the combinations you want. It's tough to sort out. You might want to rephrase more like this: pos 1: bridge + middle pos 2: all pickups together pos 3: neck pickup only (or whatever) But truthfully, I don't know that a gibson-style 3-way all by itself is going to do what you want. At best, and if they even MAKE such a thing, you would need a "4-pole" switch of some variety. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psw Posted June 7, 2007 Report Share Posted June 7, 2007 Gibson style switches are very simple...they are not good for custom wiring like this...they are nice to have on the guitar...I used one on my sustainer strat... This guitar uses a gibson switch (you'll need the angled SG/explorer style as a strat doesn't have the depth of an LP) under the neck pickup. It uses a series of mini toggles to control pickup phase, replacing the lever switch. Thes kind of act to program how the pickups interact with one another (combined/middle position) and so the gibson is what is used when playing the guitar...simple. The first tone however, has been wired as a volume control for the mid pickup that adds this in any position. The only combination that you don't get then is the mid pickup alone. I can get the combinations you want, but it is done with this volume control...you could simply use a switch to turn the mid pickup on and off. To get the neck pickup to be in the lead, down, position, just wire it back to front or reverse the switch...I believe this is how EVH likes his selector set up... So...no, you can't get this combination with such a simple switch. You will be able to do this with a strat style lever switch with a "super switch"...I will be playing with one of these soon for my next guitar... pete Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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