5 Way Switch Wiring Question.

[ace_showing]

I have an older Godin LG with the Tetrad pickups. I'm not crazy about them and I'd like to install a pair of spare Ibanez Super 70s I have laying around. My problem is I don't understand 5 way switch wiring at all. I have a 5 way switch installed in the guitar as is and see no reason to change it especially if i can get a selection of something like, Neck, Neck-Bridge, Bridge, and Kill, or some combination thereof. Anybody have any advice for me?

[Keegan]

If you have an american switch, with the big silicon wafers, the best way to figure one out is to look at how the contacts work when you move the switch. Basically, there are 4 lugs on each side: 1, 2, 3, and Common. A 5-way switch is really just a 3-way with "in-between" settings, so you get combinations like 1, 1+2, 2, 2+3, and 3.

Anyways, you just solder the hot of the pickup you want to the lug of the pickup position you want, and then wire the common lug to the input on the volume knob.

So if you wanted a neck, neck-bridge, bridge, kill, and kill, you would wire the bridge to lug 1(farthest from the common, you can physically see which one is the common if you look in the switch), the neck to lug 2, and then wire lug 3 to ground all on one side of the switch. You wouldn't even have to worry about the other side of the switch unless you were getting into coil tapping or stuff like that.

If it's set up like a strat, lug 1 is the one closest to the pickups, looking at it like http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/wirin...1vol_1tone_5way

You'd be wiring it just like that schematic except that your neck would be wired where the middle is on there and then where they have the neck would just be wired to the back of the volume pot. That would give you a switching set-up where if you had the switch pointing to the bridge, you'd get the bridge pickup, then the next position would be neck+bridge, then you'd have just the neck at the middle position, then the top 2 positions would be silent.

Edited November 28, 2008 by Keegan

[ace_showing]

If you have an american switch, with the big silicon wafers, the best way to figure one out is to look at how the contacts work when you move the switch. Basically, there are 4 lugs on each side: 1, 2, 3, and Common. A 5-way switch is really just a 3-way with "in-between" settings, so you get combinations like 1, 1+2, 2, 2+3, and 3.

Anyways, you just solder the hot of the pickup you want to the lug of the pickup position you want, and then wire the common lug to the input on the volume knob.

So if you wanted a neck, neck-bridge, bridge, kill, and kill, you would wire the bridge to lug 1(farthest from the common, you can physically see which one is the common if you look in the switch), the neck to lug 2, and then wire lug 3 to ground all on one side of the switch. You wouldn't even have to worry about the other side of the switch unless you were getting into coil tapping or stuff like that.

If it's set up like a strat, lug 1 is the one closest to the pickups, looking at it like http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/wirin...1vol_1tone_5way

You'd be wiring it just like that schematic except that your neck would be wired where the middle is on there and then where they have the neck would just be wired to the back of the volume pot. That would give you a switching set-up where if you had the switch pointing to the bridge, you'd get the bridge pickup, then the next position would be neck+bridge, then you'd have just the neck at the middle position, then the top 2 positions would be silent.

It's a bizarroland canadian switch. It's got the 8 poles in a row, but it's one big wafer. Plus the old setup had four mini humbuckers so it's wiring galore. These Ibanez pickups are old school, single conductor, braided shield, so things should be going to get a lot simpler under the hood.

[Keegan]

Oh, an import switch. Sorry, as far as I know these things work using magic.

Edit: Hmm, stewmac diagrams seem to indicate that they go 1,2,3,C,1,2,3,C from left to right. Hope you can figure it out from there. You can test that with a multimeter to see if C connects to one of its neighbors no matter what position the switch is in.

Edited November 29, 2008 by Keegan

[Keegan]

Here, I went and drew you up a diagram:

Of course you'll have to wire the braided shield to ground too, so your volume pot is going to be a bloody mess after you're done with it.

I can make a complete diagram if you'd like me to.

Edited November 29, 2008 by Keegan

[ace_showing]

Here, I went and drew you up a diagram:

Of course you'll have to wire the braided shield to ground too, so your volume pot is going to be a bloody mess after you're done with it.

I can make a complete diagram if you'd like me to.

Nope I think i've got it from here. It was just the switch that was giving me fits. I can follow schematics pretty well, but there's no schematic for doing an unknown thing.

I'm not allergic to the idea of buying a new switch for this guitar, as long as it fits in the same hole. Do you think a 3 way would be a better idea or is there a better product out there?

Thanks for all your help btw.

[Keegan]

Actually, I thought about it more last night and I think I might have 1,2,and 3 in the wrong order, so it'd be 3,2,1 and the wiring would go ground, neck, bridge. You might have to try it both ways.

I think a Tele 3-way control would be your best option, since it fits the same hole as a 5-way. Especially since you're using 2-conductor and not 4, so you can't do anything special with the 5-way. And then you could buy an American-style switch and actually know how to wire it, since the workings aren't hidden in plastic.

[j. pierce]

The easy way to deal with unknown switches where you can't see the contacts is to get a multimeter (actually, you just need to check continuity, so a conductivity probe is even cheaper and will do the job.) and pull the switch and start mapping it out.

I make myself a little picture diagram, and label all the connections on the switch. Then make myself a little chart or list to diagram all the connections on the switch and figure out what points are connected. Use the conductivity probe to figure out what connects to what else on the switch. Then move the switch a position and check again. Figure out what's connected in each of the various positions and then you'll know how to wire the thing up however you want. A lot easier than having others trying to guess exactly what switch you have, only to find out, no, that wasn't quite it.