2-humbucker Schematic Help?

[HerrHerron]

I'm building a strat with two SD humbuckers, and I set it up with PRS-style rotary switching. I thought it would be cool to have a rotary switch, turns out it's not so cool. So, I thought up something else, and was wondering if it's possible, and if so how to do it:

A five-position lever switch, the same as a PRS rotary except for the center position:

1 Bridge humbucker

2 Inner pickup coils, parallel

3 Both humbuckers, parallel

4 Outer coils, parallel

5 Neck humbucker

Then, a push-pull volume pot for series/parallel switching, and a push-pull tone pot for phase switching. Those two things should only affect the positions using both pickups, so I count a total of 14 different sounds.

I'm pretty sure I can figure out the push-pull pots, but when it comes to figuring out blade switches I have no idea what's going on. Any help would be GREATLY appreciated.

Thanks,

Drew

[HerrHerron]

?.. If nothing else, could someone recommend a good website that explains wiring 5-way switches? I can't seem to find one.

[ansil]

well what is your switch. i know its a five way. but you have many different options. for instance a single five way switch will have 6 contacts. one common and five selections. ok you with me so far. now you have multiple poles and throws most common five way blade switches will have double the above mentioned posistions. they move together though so they will still only have five way but now you have in effect two fiveways' glued together for arguments sake.

now depending on the manufactur on a rotary you look at the inner posistions. you will most likely have two lugs inner and a ring of ten outer rings. the two inner are your outputs and the others are your switch posistions. you need to look at the contacts if you can and turn it to the extreme either way and find the contacts touching. one will touch center one will touch outer then move it one posistion and there is your scheme. ps its backwards on the other side due to the other switch being 180 degrees out of sync.

i recently did a six way toggle. send me apic of your switch and i will decipher it for you. i got some time l8r i will see if i can't wire this up for ya.

ed

k now i see that you said lever switch the prs comment threw me off. as most of them are rotary that i have seen that is. i need to know how many posistions this switch has sorry poles. to draw this up accurately. i can draw it for the mega switch. its not that complicated really i have a little diagram i will explain till i can load it.

if you look at the guitar pickups as prewired devices. say two pickups neck pickup has north coil to ground left side of pickups is tied together ie usually the red and green wires. depending on make and models. and then you have your hot wire of the south coil. now imagine the bridge pickup the exact opposite. north coil to switch through south coil to ground. so now posistion one is done. pos two ie the inner coils is the jumping pos one and five togheter and adding a ground wire to each outer coil. pos three is the same as two no ground to the outer coils. posi four is easier just utilize the outer coils tied together. you can also add a ground to the third to pos three to accomplish this.for position four. and pos five is wired. ok that seems hard BTW my keys are sticking on the laptop so please dont' email me on my spelling i am doing this before ii get kicked out of the wifi spot its past closing. its alot easier if you see the pic i will try to finish it and get it up tonight.

ciao for now. btw i have used this wiring diagram before and its verified as working although not eough difference beteen inner and outer coils to warrant having its own setting.

ed

ansilgregory@yahoo.com

[avengers63]

Seymour Duncan's website has a GREAT section on wiring diagrams. I can't say if you'll be able to find that exact one, but then again you might. All of their diagrams are well illustrated, printable, and free. They're always my first place of reference for wiring diagrams.

[HerrHerron]

yeah, I've looked through Seymour Duncan's site, I used one of their diagrams to wire my rotary switch. But they don't have the new wiring I want.

And thanks a lot Ansil, that is a bit confusing but I'm pretty sure I understand it all. I do understand the electronic theory of guitar wiring, but when it comes to making a position on a switch, I have no idea. I'll just look at the diagrams on the Duncan website for a while maybe I'll get it. A picture/diagram would be amazing, and not just for myself but I think this seems like such an awesome wiring for an HH guitar I can't believe I can't find it anywhere... Also, I don't have a lever switch yet - I'm waiting till I find a schematic for this and then I'll buy whatever's appropriate.

[psw]

Thanks...yes definitely check out Guitar Nuts 2 Forum particular the linked page and the schematics area at the top (don't post there though) for more ideas...

The problem generally is that a typical five way will not have enough contact...generally only 2. I am not sure in this case if it is required, but I suspect so. A proper super switch has effectively 4 five way switches so this will allow just about any combination on any setting if you have the time to work out the switching logic.

I think there is a Mega switch thing at stewmac that will do a PRS kind of thing...but the superswitch is better and more versatile (though bigger and more complicated potentialy) ... a possible problem is combining these push pull things into such a switch wothout causing conflicts...

But, yeah...check out GN2 and they can help you through it...they may even have something already drawn up or there may well be something similar with even more "sounds" with such a setup...

pete

[ansil]

not sure i stated this earlier but with a little tooling you can take a standard carvin fiveway switch and give it a budge to make it a sixway. if you get really tricky you can make it a seven way. although it becomes a little trickier to hit the exact posistions.

see if you can get a pic of the switches you will see what i mean.

ciao for now

ed