Everything Axe gets everything switching

[SSS-tonelover]

I had a Seymour Duncan "Everything Axe" guitar with the Little 59, Duckbusher, and JB jr. pickup combination which I never really played much (as I love single coil sound best). 
I've reworked it to give single coil, parallel coil, and series for all 3 pickups. For good measure I added the Free-way 10-way switch and goosed it up to give 11 pickup combinations, plus added in a PTB wiring.

-Due to my repurposing of the existing pickguard (already with 2 DPDT switches) I had some constraints on placement of additional switches.
-For the standard tone pot I ended up using a no-load A250K with a small .012uF capacitor. I think that suits these SD pickups (which don't really need high frequencies brought down much if at all).
-For the bass cut tone pot I used an Alpha C1M pot from Mouser with a .0012uF cap. This cap seems to be the standard G&L value, so was used as a default starting point. I think I should have a bit more cut to thin out the pickups (in some positions) and will need to go to .0033uF or 0047uF to have a bit more dramatic effect. No big deal.
-I have some quick connects installed (jack-volume wiring + bridge ground) so removing the pickguard is a cinch for reworking cap values.
-I used 3 on-on-on DPDT switches to get not only the parallel and series, but the single coil option as well, just to see what the result would be.
-All the DPDT switches have the shortest toggle handles, so don't interfere with knobs or the Free-Way switch.
-I widened the control cavity rout slightly to accommodate all the goodies and get an easy drop-in fit (so wires don't need any coaxing).

-The initial lesson learnt is that there is no appreciate advantage to the extra work in getting the single coil switch position. The sound is virtually identical to the parallel mode setting (at least at the volumes I've tried so far (lowish non-rock star levels). In fact only by using the multimeter and checking DC volts can I really know for sure I am either in single coil or parallel mode. Dispensing with the switches and using push pull would get the same result and a cleaner look.
-There was actually one fringe benefit to doing the single coil option. In achieving the RWRP setup with either of the other pickups for the mid pickup I found transposing the hot and ground leads on the DPDT relative to the other switches solved the hum. In other words just changing the coil on the switch did not reverse coil direction too.
-The parallel sound and the series sound are fine but in some ways I'm still a single coil lover, so I still don't think this guitar is going to become my number one but it is way cooler now and more versatile. A lot more lower end girth, so into HB territory.
-The Free-Way switch is cool as you can get two or 3 pickups in series together (whether or not they are in series or parallel individually). You can achieve some heavy low sounds/chords. To that end I rigged up a further switch to get all 3 pickups in series (whatever mode they are in individually). It's actually not too crazy, and you can lighten the bass if you need to with the bass cut pot anyway. 

Edited May 1, 2023 by SSS-tonelover
spelling

[henrim]

Nice one. Good setup for finding a tone you like. But maybe a little complicated if you actually want to play with it

I keep on thinking about all these variations I could wire on a guitar. But then, I rarely ever use anything but the bridge humbucker. So in my latest build, which has two humbuckers, I only wired switching between them. No ‘both’ option, because I don’t think I ever used that one on purpose.

My next build will only have a single humbucker on bridge. It will have a volume pot, of course. But if I put a tone control, it is just for visual balance on the layout. Personally I could just have a trim pot for each pickup inside the cavity. Since I rarely ever touch that control once set to my liking.

And don’t get me wrong, I do appreciate what you have done here. I have thought about the topic a lot and I have just decided to go to the other direction.

[SSS-tonelover]

Hi Henrim,

No problem knowing what you love and simplifying to the essentials. In my case a neck single coil is the favorite position so if I had to make a single pickup guitar that would be my default.

This electronics build was an exploration into "what if" so had a different premise. I did find lots of positions (soundwise) don't have individual character but sound alike, though others are worth remembering and saving, and this was something I totally expected. In the end most switches can be left in favorite positions, so one is just 'rowing' the 5-way switch in an actual band situation, and that lessons learned can be applied to any such future builds  reflect simplification to the most useful sounds encountered here.
In that context the Free-Way switch is a real winner: simple to use with true differences easily accessed.

 

[SSS-tonelover]

Here is a value correction (a typo I missed)

"For the bass cut tone pot I used an Alpha C1M pot from Mouser with a .0022uF cap."

[henrim]

3 hours ago, SSS-tonelover said:

.0022uF cap

Right, I believe that is a fairly typical value for bass cut.

On a side note I find it rather odd that people, especially in guitar community, tend to use microfarads to mark capacitor values. Using nanofarads would be less prone to errors. 2,2nF instead of 0,0022uF. It may be a regional thing too. 

Edited May 3, 2023 by henrim

[Bizman62]

Using microfarads may be part of the luthiery jargon without any specific reason.

Similarly we speak about "tens" or "nines" or any other number between seven and sixty when talking about strings. That may make sense for people accustomed to the imperial measurements - "ten thousandths" shortened to "ten" makes sense. But for us metric people "ten" is just an odd number telling the difference to other numbers. It took me almost half a century of guitar playing to understand what the gauges actually mean!

Another oddity in measurements seems to be brewing: How often do you measure liquids in hectolitres in your normal life? I was stunned to hear that unit from a friend who brews his own beer and he told that it's commonly used among brewers. We mere mortals use litres, or tens or hundreds of litres and for larger quantities we go for cubic metres, don't we?

[SSS-tonelover]

I see people using pF, nF, uF on guitar forums so I totally agree with both of you that it gets confusing. I do find myself looking at the conversion charts on the internet from time to time to keep things real.
I'm not sure why I started using uF, but that's what I became comfortable with quite some time ago, and then became the unit of measurement on my little bags of capacitors too, plus how I double-check values on my multimeter.

As far as the curse of the Imperial system.....and string gauges..... it also occurs on car tires and some other parts too and is so embedded it would take tremendous effort to change to change, so probably never will. I guess we just have to deal with it.
BTW there is a story that when the USA was founded they invited over someone from France to show the (at the time) new metric system, but the ship was wrecked and it took time for the guy to arrive on another vessel (maybe even some years later) by which time the new nation had settled on the English system. However even in this case, there are differences such as in gallons between the UK and USA.  Lots of oddities once you start looking at things closely...

Quote

"In the United States and some other countries, a gallon is equal to 128 fluid ounces or 3. 785 liters. Meanwhile, in the United Kingdom and some Commonwealth countries, a gallon is equal to 160 fluid ounces or 4. 546 liters."

Things could have been much different (and more logical) if the USA had adopted the metric system in the 1780s......and to think it was possibly just all due to a shipwreck

Edited May 3, 2023 by SSS-tonelover

[henrim]

15 minutes ago, Bizman62 said:

Another oddity in measurements seems to be brewing: How often do you measure liquids in hectolitres in your normal life? I was stunned to hear that unit from a friend who brews his own beer and he told that it's commonly used among brewers. We mere mortals use litres, or tens or hundreds of litres and for larger quantities we go for cubic metres, don't we?

I believe hectolitres is closest to what we have for barrel. A handy measurement for a largeish quantity of beverage. Also for some reason here in Finland we use 0.33l and 0.5l in beverage bottles. Otherwise we tend to go with 500ml or 5dl. Depending on the accuracy needed. When you bake, 5 dl may be sufficient for measuring water but if you dose something with more value you want to use millilitres.

String gauges are imperial. Likewise we tend to use imperial for scale length or radiuses. Actually I would rather use 628mm scale instead of 24,750" but that is what I have a template for. I may say I do 12" radius on a fretboard but I actually do 300mm radius.

But that is not all directly related to farads. Farads are the same all around the world. It is about what notation is used to present them. All I'm saying is that the notation with the least amount of decimals and zeros is the easiest to read. And that is how they are usually presented nowadays.

0,000022uF > 0,022nF > 22pF
22000pF > 0,022uF > 22nF
22000000pF > 22000nF > 22uF

[henrim]

5 minutes ago, SSS-tonelover said:

Lots of oddities once you start looking at things closely...

My favourite must be pipes and fittings which have nominal imperial sizes. A 1" pipe doesn't measure 1" inside or outside. And I don't even want to start with pipe threads!

[SSS-tonelover]

Quote

pipes and fittings

That's a good one. I think the answer there is "nominal vs actual" measurement. And if you think that is bad, that's why we all have to try on shoes, clothes, etc., as those numbers are even worse and based on no high standard. Nowadays a 'medium' T-shirt is what a "large" was ~20 years ago (just to keep up with so many people getting overweight in recent times)

Edited May 3, 2023 by SSS-tonelover

[Bizman62]

7 hours ago, SSS-tonelover said:

we all have to try on shoes, clothes, etc., as those numbers are even worse and based on no high standard.

When I was a little boy our class visited a glove factory. Since then I've known that gloves are measured in Parisian inches which are a tad shorter than the imperial ones.

Speaking about shirts, our math teacher told that he had worked in a factory making sweater shirts to be imported to the USSR. They didn't have enough of L sized shirts for the next batch to be imported so they relabeled the XL ones to L with the explanation that it was a new model following the latest fashion that is a bit wider than the previous one.

[SSS-tonelover]

Quote

Parisian inches

That's a good one!

You both are full of good info!

In Japan they measure room size using 'tatami'....the woven straw mats put on the floor that are 0.88 x 1.76 meter. Yup lots of strange measurement systems out there.

Just slightly off topic, I know another guitar-crazy Finn but from Facebook, Ari Hukkanen, https://www.facebook.com/ari.hukkanen.1/music, who build guitars and basses and lives in Lahti. He plays in Turo's Hevi Gee https://www.facebook.com/groups/104510922915642 and in an Eagles cover band. I wonder if he is also on this site....or if either of you know him or that band, though I can understand if you don't. He has some very far out guitar and pickup designs (and some normal ones too). Here is one of them.
 

[henrim]

8 minutes ago, SSS-tonelover said:

slightly off topic

What was the topic again  

I know that band. Honestly didn’t know they still existed, though. I remember them from 80’s. Don’t know the man but that is definitely an interesting looking pickup arrangement.

[SSS-tonelover]

Yes, I think they still play, but don't quote me on that!  Ari has other (more conventional) wiring too, including these, but as you can see he likes to think 'outside the box' and be adventurous.

[Bizman62]

I know the band as well (Turo's) but haven't studied who plays there. They're a cover band playing well known hits with humorous translations some of which got quite a lot of airplay in their time.

Those drawings make my brain hurt! I know what series and parallel mean but it would take me forever to figure those out in any drawing. Not to mention how they affect sound! But the scratchplate arrangement makes sense if there's no hidden pole pieces under the plastic. Supposedly the three switches are simply on-off for bridge-mid-neck similarly to my Eko. If so, especially the bridge-neck combination should provide warm low end and a snappy high end. Interesting!

[SSS-tonelover]

1 hour ago, Bizman62 said:

I know the band as well (Turo's) 

Those drawings make my brain hurt! I know what series and parallel mean but it would take me forever to figure those out in any drawing. 

Yes, I figured that they were kind of like Weird Al Yankovic, he made lots of hits reworking lyrics of popular songs and making them really funny (though in English)

In this context series means like a standard humbucker (but a very skinny one that really does not sound 100% humbucker) and parallel means like the 2 and 4 position on a Strat (but with the coils placed next to each other, so without the 'quack'). 
One of the combinations I get (using the 5-way, or actually 10-way switch) does give that snappy high end with good low so is a really good one you can't get on a regular Strat.

It takes a lot of time to learn diagram language and how pots, caps, pickups and switches interact and then use it creatively. There are people with far more knowledge on this, I am not a novice but far from the top of the field. It take motivation and interest to bother learning it. This site, https://guitarnuts2.proboards.com/ is pretty pretty core and I learned a lot from them. There are a lot of experts there.

Edited May 4, 2023 by SSS-tonelover