5 way Super Switch question

[Crusader]

Hi, I have a Strat 5-way Super Switch and I've googled for answers but I'd have to read a few days worth of material

All I want to do is get Neck and Bridge instead of Neck and Middle

You can get this by wiring the Bridge to the middle position but it would lead to confusion

So can the Super Switch get the desired options and keep Bridge pu in back position?

 

Cheers

[Bizman62]

I used to have a Fender Frontline magazine explaining how to get the "Tele mode" to a Strat using a push-pull pot. But I lent that magazine to a guy who modified the idea to a mini switch and never got the magazine back...

Later I built a Strat (just the body) and instead of middle tone I used a blender pot for mixing the neck and bridge pickups. It bleeds a little to every direction but to me that just adds some personality to any single pickup option. And that's just using a standard 5-way switch and a standard pot.

[Crusader]

Thanks Bizman, I have only two controls but I will study the diagram to see what I can get from it

cheers

[Alex M.]

 Sometimes I do it by simply swapping the middle and bridge pups. No soldering, just a screwdriver.
The super switch is not the usual 5-way switch that is installed on standard strats. But soldering while maintaining positions is also possible on a standard switch.

[curtisa]

3 hours ago, Alex M. said:

Sometimes I do it by simply swapping the middle and bridge pups. No soldering, just a screwdriver.

Except that the bridge and middle pickups then end up swapped relative to the switch positions, which @Crusader wanted to avoid.

The following will make the 4th position on the switch 'bridge + neck' using a Super Switch, while retaining the logical standard switching pattern on a Strat for the remaining switch positions. Just drop it in place of your standard Strat wiring diagram:

 

[Alex M.]

19 hours ago, curtisa said:

Except that the bridge and middle pickups then end up swapped relative to the switch positions, which @Crusader wanted to avoid.

 

I noticed, but I don't care, nor do the people who asked me to do this.
They operate their guitars without any issue.  ;-))

[Crusader]

On 7/9/2023 at 4:32 AM, Alex M. said:

 Sometimes I do it by simply swapping the middle and bridge pups. No soldering, just a screwdriver.
The super switch is not the usual 5-way switch that is installed on standard strats. But soldering while maintaining positions is also possible on a standard switch.

Hi Alex, I tried the Bridge in the Middle position but I kept knocking it and it was just weird so I used a Push-Pull switch and currently have 6 combinations. This is okay but it has the ability to have all 3 pickups on at the same time, which I don't like

Being my own guitar I can try different things as much as I want. I haven't tried Curtisa's wiring suggestion yet, but can you really get the desired combinations with a regular switch?

[Alex M.]

Right now I am unable to test the schematics. There are at least 2 types of superswitch that allow for a wide variety of combinations. The curtisa scheme looks fine.

[curtisa]

15 hours ago, Crusader said:

but can you really get the desired combinations with a regular switch?

Only if you're comfortable with the bridge and middle pickup positions appearing at odd locations on the switch. If you swap the leads of the bridge and middle pickups on a standard Strat switch it will yield:

1. Middle

2. Middle + bridge

3. Bridge

4. Bridge + neck

5. Neck

This is the same outcome as physically swapping the middle and bridge pickups in the scratchplate.

The scheme I provided uses an Oak Grigsby-style Super Switch which should be relatively easy to get from the usual suppliers, including cheaper knock-offs. As @Alex M. indicates there's at least one other product branded as 'Super Switch' out there that might be able to do it - I think it's made by Schaller, but it's a slightly more complicated beast with its own unique switching pattern. I haven't looked in to whether it would do the job.

[Crusader]

On 7/11/2023 at 5:06 AM, curtisa said:

The scheme I provided uses an Oak Grigsby-style

Yes after a Google mine looks the same. I took one look at it and scared the crap out of me LOL! so I used a regular switch thinking its "just for now" but........

When I was putting this Strat together the Push-Pull pot was literally the only 250k pot I had so it went in and its doing the B&N job for me. I had all sorts of ideas (ie.) that I might chuck the Tele bridge out in favour of a Humbucker one day, but now its all together, no way, that Tele Antiquity is staying right where it is! And this monster of a switch will go into some future project! 

[mistermikev]

with a super switch... you can get any combination.  it's not clear to me what you are trying to do but if you look at a super switch as just 4 switches... each switch has a common and 5 lugs for positions 1-5.  in your case... you could consolidate and probably only use two parts of the super switch... but to keep things simple... you could just use 3 and wire the live to the common on each of those three... then wire your pickup live to whatever positions you want it to be on in.  you of course can replace mid+neck with bridge+neck... just wire the 4th lug for your bridge and the 4th lug for your neck on in those positions.  have I explained it well enough?

[mistermikev]

 

note that this assumes the direction of this switch moves from left to right... you may check your switch to ensure it matches up and flip things if not.  In fact looking at an example apparently the lugs go 54321 from left to right so this is likely backwards but you get the jist.

edit edit edit... looking at your switch pic there... they way I have drawn it here matches up w your switch fyi... i see you found another solution but... good info for the next guy anyway.