Traveler Posted April 21, 2008 Report Share Posted April 21, 2008 I'm in need of a diagram for a single vol, single tone, hum and 2 single coils utilizing a 3 way lever switch. I want pos 1 to be hum, pos 2 to be mid and neck and pos 3 to be neck only. I've not yet found a diagram for this as most use a 5 way and I don't know if that's what's throwing me off. any help appreciated. I didn't have luck with forum search on this btw. thanks, Matt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djhollowman Posted April 26, 2008 Report Share Posted April 26, 2008 I'm not sure this is gonna be possible with a 3-way. A 3-way is usually a 5-way anyway, just with added stops for the inbetween positions ie: instead of 1,2,3 for a 3-way, it becomes 1,1+2,3,3+4,5 for a 5-way. There are only 4 contacts on each side of the switch, one of which is the output, so I think that's why 3-pickup guitars normally have to use a 5-way lever switch. I think you may be able to wire it so that you permanently combine the middle pickup with either of the other two, but I don't see how you could do what you're asking about, sorry! Then again, there is Malmsteen's Strat wiring, which has 3 single coils and (so I'm led to believe) a 3-way lever. Here's a diagram: http://www.fender.com/support/diagrams/pdf...7100_02APg2.pdf but I think that's showing a 5-way, not a 3-way! Hopefully someone more knowledgeable can shed some light here!! DJ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psw Posted April 26, 2008 Report Share Posted April 26, 2008 Traveler... Hi there...I mean't to reply earlier...it is an odd request. These three position options are generally typical with a standard five way wiring in positions 1 2 and 5. Generally 3 way fender style switches are reserved for teles and depending on the switch, this may not be possible, the middle position alays trying to combine the two outer positions. This certainly true of a standard 3 way gibson style toggle which I initially thought that perhaps you were considering. The question obviously arise, if you are using a lever switch, why you would want to limit it to these sounds only, when you can get these combinations as standard plus too others with a five way? It was for this reason I initially assumed a 3 way gibson style toggle. Now, I can agree that these three combinations are "classic" sounds and surprisingly the middle and bridge full HB can send up sounding a little like a bright bridge tele pickup, not the classic strat hollowed quack. There are other combinations though that you may also like that you could access from something like a super switch. For instance there are the neck and bridge and all three in parallel that can be attractive and are rarely heard. Thinking about this a while ago, I thought up a mod which is a little weird but may be of interest. Substitute the middle and neck pickup connections on a five way. This gives neck only in the middle position (the weird part) and so position 4 is bridge and neck, position 2 is middle and neck and position 1 is middle alone. At the least, this is one way to access these sounds and see if you like them, possibly not that practical or logical in use. Another option that I have tried is a pot that controls the amount of middle pickup applied to a three way neck and bridge...this can give all combinations except middle alone and was used on my sustainer strat with a three way gibson style toggle selector. Another common one is the use of a switch or pull pot to add the neck into any position regardless of selection. This would give you most combinations one way or another I think. It is unlikely that you will find anything drawn out for this particular combination and so much depends on the actual switch contacts for the switch you are proposing to use. Perhaps some more details might inspire someone or check out the guitarnuts2 forum for which this kind of thing is their specialty... good luck... pete Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djhollowman Posted April 27, 2008 Report Share Posted April 27, 2008 Another option that I have tried is a pot that controls the amount of middle pickup applied to a three way neck and bridge...this can give all combinations except middle alone and was used on my sustainer strat with a three way gibson style toggle selector. Another common one is the use of a switch or pull pot to add the neck into any position regardless of selection. This would give you most combinations one way or another I think. It is unlikely that you will find anything drawn out for this particular combination and so much depends on the actual switch contacts for the switch you are proposing to use. Perhaps some more details might inspire someone or check out the guitarnuts2 forum for which this kind of thing is their specialty... good luck... pete Yeah, I tried something very similar to this on my old Westone Spectrum LX. It has neck and bridge humbuckers but also a middle single coil. Switching is via a Gibson-style 3-way toggle, and there's 3 pots. I wanted to wire it so that the 3-way controlled the humbuckers in the normal fashion: bridge/both/neck. I wanted the pots to be a master volume, master tone, but wasn't sure what to do with the 3rd one. I thought I could use the middle pickup, with this 3rd pot acting as a separate volume just for that pickup, but I wanted it routed through the master volume pot so that when it (master) was turned off then it stopped all noise. But when I wired it like that, what happened was unexpected, and undesirable! The "2nd" vol pot ended up acting like a 2nd master vol, you had to have (I'll call it..) Vol 2 turned up to get any noise at all from any pickup selected! So, in desperation, I tried wiring the single coil middle pickup through Vol 2 and then straight on to the jack (thus bypassing my master "Vol 1" knob), but the same thing happened! Huh?? Sorry, Traveler, I'm not trying to hijack your thread here man! I really do have a vested interest in seeing how to get around this one!! +1 for guitarnuts2 forum, immensely helpful! http://guitarnuts2.proboards45.com/index.cgi DJ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lvs Posted April 27, 2008 Report Share Posted April 27, 2008 Hi Traveler, If I understood exactly what you would like to have, With a 2 pole 3 position Strat/Tele Selector it's possible. They can be slightly different depending on manufacturer. The top diagram is a schematic with numbered connections, the bottom diagram is an example of how it translates to a switch layout, after identifying the switch's lug numbers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Traveler Posted April 28, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 28, 2008 thanks for the thoughts and info fellas....after no replies the first couple days I figured I was hunting the white elephant on this request so I just the simple fix and went for the 5-way. Since my weakest point in this hobby is the electronic side, I wasn't sure if it could be done with the original 3-way lever anyway. I was after pure stripped down and dirty functionality with the 'simplified' selections but actually found the 3rd pos of mid alone a rather nice warm sound which I wouldn't have if my original evil plan actually worked-which they usually don't. thanks again Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lvs Posted April 28, 2008 Report Share Posted April 28, 2008 (edited) went for the 5-way Nothing wrong with changing your mind. djhollowman, A good way to start I think is keep the Middle pickup out of the equation, wiring up your guitar the classic way with N and B pickups switched by the toggle and controlled by master vol and tone. Then to add the Middle pickup so that it mixes in smoothly in parallel with whatever Bridge/Neck selection, and following the master volume without overriding it, you can use this simple diagram. The Middle pickup's volume connected this way actually works like Fralin's Strat blender pot, which imo is a very good way to do it. He sells this pot separately. It probably will work ok with your pickups, but you might wanna contact him first to make sure. You don't strictly need Fralin's pot however : what you basically need for a usable result is an audio tapered one. Btw it's what Kinman uses in one of his "wirograms". There are a few considerations though. - The pot should be reverse log taper if you want to fade in the Middle pickup turning clockwise. If you think turning it backwards would be no problem, log taper can be used. The latter not counterintuitive if you see "basic guitar settings" as "all pots open". - When the Middle pickup is silenced an extra resistance will now always be in parallel with your other pickups, taking away some brightness. The larger the pot's resistance, the smaller this loss. With a no-load pot that resistance is ideally infinite. There are also ways to compensate like larger volume and/or tone pot, or a no-load tone pot, but first better try to avoid that. - The pot's resistance must be large enough so that it's able to shut off the Middle pickup completely. Linking the unconnected pot lug in the diagram to ground would make this irrelevant, but that doesn't fade as smooth. 250K might be too small, 500K is probably ok, 1M safe and a no-load pot ideal. - The pot's resistance must not be so large that the pot's hearable action happens within a too small part of it's rotation. I'd say possible candidates to join Fralin's pot are 500K-1M log or antilog, or 250K no-load. Edited May 4, 2008 by lvs Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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