Rones Posted July 8, 2004 Report Share Posted July 8, 2004 Well, was about ready to wire my project. I am using three Duncan pickups, a single and two HB, but the single is wired like a HB. I need to send these each to there own switch (mini toggle on/off/on). I believe I know how to wire to the switches, but was wondering if I need to wire the switches to each other to make them functional? Also, When I run the pickup wire to the vol pot, where should I soldier each individual pickups wire? What is the best method for connecting the vol pot to the tone pot, then to the jack? I am using a shotgun jack, unfortunately I hear, because that is all my layout wil allow! Any information will be greatly appreciated, as I find myself somewhat lost on an aspect of my project I thought would be easy! rones Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
litchfield Posted July 8, 2004 Report Share Posted July 8, 2004 That is basically a Kramer Focus 5000 wiring. Basically, each pickup has its own on/off (no need for on/off/on) then to the volume. Assuming you only have one vol, each switch should essentially be a kill switch (grounding the hot) and all to the volume as if they were all one pickup, if that makes sense Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lovekraft Posted July 8, 2004 Report Share Posted July 8, 2004 The pickup hot wires go to each switch. Connect all the pickup ground wires to the star ground point, usually the back of the volume pot. I'd set up the switches to disconnect the pickups ( open the circuit) - I'm afraid setting them up to short to ground will kill all three when any one switch is closed, but it's easy enough to try both ways and see what happens. Wire the volume and tone pots just like you would for a single pickup, and connect all three switch outputs where you would connect the pickup in a single pickup setup. I loved my Kramer Focus, but I never opened it up, so I can't tell you how they did it. Here's the Pacer Custom, which was similar. I have no idea why they used the DPDT switches for this, they could have done the same thing with SPSTs. No tone pot, but you can just use a standard tone setup. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
litchfield Posted July 8, 2004 Report Share Posted July 8, 2004 The focus was a true killswitch...at least the one I worked on. I suppose thats whYy it had dpdt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rones Posted July 9, 2004 Author Report Share Posted July 9, 2004 LoveKraft- What would be a standard tone setup? Just wire the volume into the tone, with a cap? The cap, if i am not mistaken, should go with the tone, right? Am a little cofused b/c this is my first project! Thanks for all the info... rones Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lovekraft Posted July 9, 2004 Report Share Posted July 9, 2004 This is how I usually do it: Just connect the wire marked To Volume to the center lug of your volume pot in that first diagram. The cap on the volume pot is a treble bypass cap so you don't lose all your high end when you turn down the volume. I usually use a 110-150 pF cap for the volume, and .047 or .1 µF for the tone cap , but that's a personal preference. There's a tutorial on caps and their sounds in the tutorial section (Tone Capacitors, values vs sound) that you might want to read. HTH Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rones Posted July 10, 2004 Author Report Share Posted July 10, 2004 LoveKraft- Should I ground the soldered green/white wires or should I leave them free standing? I think I am getting the hang of it! Again, thanks for your help... Rones Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lovekraft Posted July 11, 2004 Report Share Posted July 11, 2004 No, just tape them off and tuck them away from harm. Let us know how it sounds when you get it working. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rones Posted July 11, 2004 Author Report Share Posted July 11, 2004 I am getting no signal to the amp when i plug in, must have wired something wrong! hehe... My mini toggles are all 0n/off/on, would this alter my wiring arrangement? I didn't think that it should, but really don't know. I ran a shielded wire from the jack to the middle connector on the volume, then another to the star ground on the volume pot. Ran the tone into the right connector of the volume pot. Have all grean wires grounded, as well as the master ground into the bridge post. Should I ground the humbucker lead shield wires as well? Not sure if that will effect the signal, though. Have a conncector wire from middle of the toggles into the left volume slot. All hot (black wires) connected to the toggles as well. Any idea what may be confronting me as an issue? Must be something with my volume pot or my toggles, no? thanks again Rones Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lovekraft Posted July 11, 2004 Report Share Posted July 11, 2004 Yes, wire the pickup shields to ground - and tell me what kind of pickups you're using, so I can get a handle on the color codes. It sounds like you've either not grounded the pickups or you've shorted the hot side to ground somewhere. I ran a shielded wire from the jack to the middle connector on the volume, then another to the star ground on the volume pot. Make sure that you haven't wired the tip lug on the jack to the star ground - only the sleeve should be grounded. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rones Posted July 11, 2004 Author Report Share Posted July 11, 2004 LoveKraft- I noticed that I may have had the wires from the jack in the wrong order. So i switched the ground and the wire to volume, and.... It worked, for the most part! The only thing I noticed was the neck and bridge pickup are much quieter than the middle pickup. The only thing I couldthink of as the root of the problem would be poor solder joints on the neck and bridge pups. Does this sem logical, or should I look in another direction. It is not the pickups, because they have the same outputs, roughly. they are seymour Duncans, the Jazz in the neck, JB4 in the bridge and the classic stack single coil/ hum canceller in the middle. Again, Thanks! rones Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lovekraft Posted July 11, 2004 Report Share Posted July 11, 2004 OK, they're Duncans, and i'm a nimrod for not remembering that! So let's go over the wiring - green and shield to ground, red and white soldered together and taped off so they don't short against anything else, and black to the switch. Wire from the switch to the LH volume pot lug, tone control and hot lead to the jack on the center lug, and RH lug to the ground. That should be right. Make sure that the red/white pairs are connected and not shorting against anything, and make sure you've got good ground connections throughout. That's about all I can think of - maybe that'll get you up and running. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rones Posted July 12, 2004 Author Report Share Posted July 12, 2004 LoveKraft- I am still losing volume and I think that all my grounding is good, they are all tight and snug. The front pickup is the loudest, then the middle is less loud, then the bridge is even less loud.... hmmmm. Any new ideas? Rones Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lovekraft Posted July 12, 2004 Report Share Posted July 12, 2004 Are they all the same distance from the strings? Sorry, but I'm out of ideas - I'd adjust the heights to what the factory recommends, and then I'd start tweaking by lowering the loudest. If that doesn't do it, hopefully somebody else has some ideas. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rones Posted July 16, 2004 Author Report Share Posted July 16, 2004 LoveKraft- sorry about the delay in response... The middle single coil is the quiet pickup, and the pole pieces sit almost under the cover. Is it possible to raise the poles from the bottom of the pickup individually? The wiring schematic you set up for me worked awesome, it is really smooth. I really appreciate the help you've given me. Thanks, and i'll try to put up a picture soometime in the near future. Rones Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lovekraft Posted July 16, 2004 Report Share Posted July 16, 2004 Glad you got it working! As for the single, it's always gonna put out less than a hiumbucker since it's only half as much coil ( all other things being equal). If you're looking for those "in-between" (2 & 4) Strat sounds, just rewire the hums so you can split the coils - if you wire the red/white wires that we taped off earlier to the other end of the switch, you'll have your coil split, so those switches will now work like this: hum-->off<--split So far as I know, most Duncan single coil pole pieces are not adjustable, but I'm not terribly familiar with Seymour's singles, so don't take my word for it - check your installation instructions. Or you could throw a Duckbucker, a JB Junior, a Little '59 or a Screamin' Demon in that middle slot (OK, maybe the George Lynch is a little over the top ). HTH. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rones Posted July 17, 2004 Author Report Share Posted July 17, 2004 LoveKraft- I noticed that thesingle coil is actually a double stacked single coil, so in essence a humbucker, right? Should I attach the red/white wires to the black to increase output? Can't raise the pole pieces, unfortunately... Still very weak in the output area... Rones Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lovekraft Posted July 17, 2004 Report Share Posted July 17, 2004 Should I attach the red/white wires to the black to increase output? No, that will actually lower the output by shorting out one coil - it should be wired exactly like the other pickups. I'm afraid your only option is to raise the pickup as far as you can without interference and "Stratitis", and either learn to like it or replace it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coolcat Posted March 10, 2005 Report Share Posted March 10, 2005 The pickup hot wires go to each switch. Connect all the pickup ground wires to the star ground point, usually the back of the volume pot. I'd set up the switches to disconnect the pickups ( open the circuit) - I'm afraid setting them up to short to ground will kill all three when any one switch is closed, but it's easy enough to try both ways and see what happens. Wire the volume and tone pots just like you would for a single pickup, and connect all three switch outputs where you would connect the pickup in a single pickup setup. I loved my Kramer Focus, but I never opened it up, so I can't tell you how they did it. Here's the Pacer Custom, which was similar. I have no idea why they used the DPDT switches for this, they could have done the same thing with SPSTs. No tone pot, but you can just use a standard tone setup. That was very informative! Thanks for the chart! Can I ask you another question, however? Being a complete newbie to wiring, I've decided to make my life difficult by completely rewiring my Strat using three small SPST Slide switches from Radio shack. I want to be able to turn on/off each pickup independently. Your chart show this , but I'm not sure what to do with all those wires coming from the tone/volume pots that go to the 5-way switch right now. Can you explain the setup for a standard Strat Volume/Tone/Tone? Thanks for your input!!! [G] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.