Switching on 3 PUP guitar

[guitar_ed]

Howdy,

Silly question of the day.

If I put 3 PUPs on a guitar there are 7 options: Neck, Middle, Bridge, Bridge/Middle, Bridge/Neck, Neck/Middle, Bridge/Middle/Neck. The standard way to do things is with a 5 way switch. I don't want to do things the normal way. I wanna do things my way!

Does anybody make a 7 way switch? Does anybody know what the wiring configuration would look like? Am I out of my f&^%ing mind?

This is for my walnut body guitar, so I will be using humbuckers. I do not plan on splitting coils or stuff like that, but I would like a vol & tone for each PUP.

Thanks in advance for the help.

Guitar Ed

[Rocket]

Never heard of a 7-way switch. You could use a 5 -way & then add mini switches for the other pickup options. Or use a mini switch (on/off) for each pickup.

[Brian]

Even weirder option I can get you a 3-way and a 4-way switch and you could cross link the contact's.

Then again your in a world of when it come's time to actually switching sound on the fly

[Jehle]

There are actually more possible pickup combinations when you consider phase choices.

Anyway, I had the same problem with my strats. I wanted to do everything. What I did was use a standard 5-position switch and a rotary switch (replaced on tone knob). I got the rotary switch from Radio Shack.

The way it works is that all pickups go to the rotary switch. It has 6 positions. Each position goes as: neck in phase, neck out of phase, middle in phase, middle out of phase, bridge in phase, bridge out of phase. The output of the rotary switch goes to what used to be the middle pickup input of the 5-position toggle.

It's hard to explan without a schematic. But, I can get any combination of pickups this way. Out of phase sounds are great for doing a mock Brian May sound.

[DaveK]

Jehle:

I am trying something very close with my latest Relic

Can you e-mail me the schematic????

Dave K

[GEdwardJones]

I've given some thought to this.

Anybody know how to wire up a push/pull pot that adds the bridge p/u to any combination? I've seen it done before. When the pot is "off" it's a bypass and the switching works as normal. But when it's "on" the bridge p/u is added to whatever is selected.

[Jehle]

Jehle:

I am trying something very close with my latest Relic

Can you e-mail me the schematic????

Dave K

Yo Dave...

Here's the schematic. I replaced the middle knob with the 6-position rotary switch, and worked the rest of it for a master volume and master tone. The 5-position strat swtich is set to over ride to the stock neck and bridge pickups at positions 1 and 5.

My favorite combinations are

Neck and Bridge for a Tele sound,

Neck and Middle out-of-phase for Eric Johnsons "Koto effect",

Neck and Middle out-of-phase and tone rolled all the way off for Brian May "Killer Queen" sound.

Have fun with it.

[Jehle]

I've given some thought to this.

Anybody know how to wire up a push/pull pot that adds the bridge p/u to any combination?  I've seen it done before.  When the pot is "off" it's a  bypass and the switching works as normal.  But when it's "on" the bridge p/u is added to whatever is selected.

Should be simple. Usually push pull pots are DPDT. At least the ones I've seen are.

You should have 6 contacts on the switch:

*(in1a) *(out1) *(in1b)

*(in2a) *(out2) *(in2b)

To hook up that as a hot/bypass switch for your pickup you would do this...

Bridge Hot wire (from where it's connected to original switch) -> in1a

out1 -> volume control (where everything else goes into it)

Or you could even do

out1 -> output jack (no volume, no tone, just BTTW).