Rones Posted March 15, 2004 Report Share Posted March 15, 2004 A little confused here My guitar is going to have a H/S/H configuration of pickups with a volume and tone knob. My issue is that the 5 way lever switches I have look at all require a caivity depth of 1 and 3/8" but my guitar is not deep enough to offer this depth in the cavity! So i was wondering if there are any other options I can persue to wire three pickups. Will a 3 way switch work? Can I use mini toggle switches? Or do You all have any guidance for me that may help. I could always lose the middle single coil, but wish not to do that! Thanks for any help! rones Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skibum5545 Posted March 15, 2004 Report Share Posted March 15, 2004 If you simply had 3 on/off mini toggles, one for each pup, that would give you as much versatility as a 5-way switch. And, it would be easier to tell what pup config you were currently set to. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frank falbo Posted March 15, 2004 Report Share Posted March 15, 2004 Check out the Mighty Mite style switches from Korea. They are pretty good switches and are quite short compared to a standard switch. I don't know how tall they are, and perhaps that's the one you're looking at. But that's the shortest one I know of anyway. Otherwise I like to do a L.P. style 3-way with a mini toggle that adds the middle pickup to whatever position you're in. You don't get the middle pickup by itself, but statistically that position isn't used much on a 5 way. You do get the "all three" sound which is very compressed and chimey. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stalefish Posted March 16, 2004 Report Share Posted March 16, 2004 Depending on what you want your guitar to look like, you could use 3 push/pull pots instead of the 3 mini-switches that Skibum suggested.. It'll keep your ax looking pretty much normal if you like the 'stealth' sort of thing.. Also, with the extra poles, you can wire up some cool series/split/parallel/phase tricks.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rones Posted March 16, 2004 Author Report Share Posted March 16, 2004 I like that Idea slate How exactly do the push pull pots work? do they control the volume (or tone) and pickup selection? Can you pick which pickups you want to have on at any given time? Thanks! Rones Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theQuestioneer Posted March 17, 2004 Report Share Posted March 17, 2004 a push-pull pot is a pot (so volume, tone, whatever) and an on/on mini toggle strapped together. the operation of one dosn't affect the other internaly. (that is, pull the knob out or push it in to operate the mini toggle, rotate it to operate the pot.) i wired my 3-pickup axe with 3 push-pull volumes (on/off and a volume for each pickup) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rones Posted March 17, 2004 Author Report Share Posted March 17, 2004 Can you wire for a master tone knob for the entire guitar using the push/pull method, or are you restricted solely to volume control? Is wiring with these push/pull pots more difficult or about the same as the standard way? I am concerned about difficulty b/c this is my first project! Thanks again rones Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theQuestioneer Posted March 17, 2004 Report Share Posted March 17, 2004 you can make anything you could with a normal pot, so yes, you can make a master tone control. i used push-pulls on my first project. it wasn't any harder than it would have been, maybe even easier. a push-pull pot, as far as you have to be concerned, has a pot part and a mini toggle half. go for it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rones Posted March 17, 2004 Author Report Share Posted March 17, 2004 Okay, let me pick your brain for a second! My project is gonna be a H/S/H guitar. I would like to have master tone control and volume control(s), along with pickup choice options. How would you set up the wiring, using the push/pull pots? thanks once more! Rones Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skibum5545 Posted March 17, 2004 Report Share Posted March 17, 2004 just a thought, how tall are the push/pulls? Will THEY fit in the cavity? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jehle Posted March 17, 2004 Report Share Posted March 17, 2004 I'd have to vote for the individual switches. I have 3 mini's and they are set to Series/off/tap for the buckers, and on/off for the single coil. This guitar can sound like anything with that config. Pardon the artsy-fartsy out of focus picture. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theQuestioneer Posted March 17, 2004 Report Share Posted March 17, 2004 just a thought, how tall are the push/pulls? Will THEY fit in the cavity? good call. i checked, stew-mac says they require 1 1/8" the advantage of using jehle's config is that you would get coil taps, because you could use more kinds of mini toggles. and rhones, what exactly do you want? how many of each control? 1 tone 1 volume or 1 tone 3 volumes (with 1 tone 1 volume, that's only 2 push-pulls, so it won't work unless you throw in another switch) when deciding, think of a pot as an on-off switch, so you need as many as there are pickups. (mine had 3 volumes, each being on/off, and a switch.) or you could do jehle's idea. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rones Posted March 17, 2004 Author Report Share Posted March 17, 2004 I want as uncluttered a look as possible. I really liked the look of the mini-toggle switches on Jehles project. In that, I want just one volume and one tone. Is the wiring complex for your version Jehle? Also, could you guys go into detail about coil taps and phasing and series for the mini toggle switches?, i am confused on what these actually are! Again, mucho gracias! rones Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jehle Posted March 17, 2004 Report Share Posted March 17, 2004 I want as uncluttered a look as possible. I really liked the look of the mini-toggle switches on Jehles project. In that, I want just one volume and one tone. Is the wiring complex for your version Jehle? Also, could you guys go into detail about coil taps and phasing and series for the mini toggle switches?, i am confused on what these actually are! Again, mucho gracias! rones The wiring is simple once you know the color code for the wires coming from the pickups. *note to self* I really should write up how to do that in a mini-tutorial because this gets asked a lot. Anyway, every pickup has its own switch. That's obvious at this point. The output from the switchs all "trunk line" into the hot wire input for the volume knob (500k). The output from the volume goes to the tone knob (250k and some unknown capacitor). From there it's out to the output jack. I have the coil taps set to humbuck in all combinations but one (middle sc & neck tapped). That was unavoidable but it does not really cause that much problem. In fact, I think of it as a vintage strat tone. I never use that setting anyway. The only negative about using the mini toggles is that I would say it's bad for playing live where you want to be able to switch quickly mid-song. I like to play Steve Morse tunes so this is a huge issue for me. For recording though it's great because you have time to futz with everything to get the perfect tone for what the part demands. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theQuestioneer Posted March 17, 2004 Report Share Posted March 17, 2004 or how bout a completely new idea, a rotary selector switch from guitarelectronics? that's shorter, but woulg give you control like a 5-way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stalefish Posted March 18, 2004 Report Share Posted March 18, 2004 I like the rotary too.. Problem is that if your knob's not right (sounds sick..) you may not know where the hell you are in terms of selection... The wiring's also a tiiiny little bit more complicated than the toggles.. But hey, if you're nuts like me, you can just hop into the deep end first.. The big plus, though, is that you can get a lot of variation at the 'cost' of just one hole in your body, depending on which rotary you choose.. But again, watch out for the control cavity space.. The switch can get quite big.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rones Posted March 19, 2004 Author Report Share Posted March 19, 2004 Jehle Was wondering what mini toggles you used for your guitar. I saw that there are on/on, on/on/on, and on/off/on. Does it make a difference what I use for the H/S/H setup. Again, I wish to be able to control which are on and off at given times!.. thanks again! Rones Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jehle Posted March 19, 2004 Report Share Posted March 19, 2004 Jehle Was wondering what mini toggles you used for your guitar. I saw that there are on/on, on/on/on, and on/off/on. Does it make a difference what I use for the H/S/H setup. Again, I wish to be able to control which are on and off at given times!.. thanks again! Rones For the single coil it was an on/on. I just didn't use the other lug so, in effect, I used it as an on/off. For the buckers I used the on/off/on type. I couldn't find the on/on/on variety so I had to improvise with what I found. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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