JoeAArthur

So, this "save" keeps your theory about strings having to be magnets in order to have a pickup work... intact? Seriously, do you really expect any one to believe that strings are designed to be instant magnets the moment they are put on the guitar... and instantly not be a magnet when they are removed? Some things are not so hard to detect as others.

Joe, you must be thinking that when you move a wire loop through a magnetic field in such a way as to change the flux cutting the loop, you induce a voltage around the loop. In a guitar, the string is not acting as a conductor, it is the magnet. Nope. In my guitars, the magnets are in the pickups - not the strings. A magnetically conductive (or attractive, if you prefer) material - which does not have to be a magnet itself - does attract the lines of flux from the magnet. And in doing so, since we are talking about strings, causes some of these lines of flux to cut through the coil of the pickup inducing a voltage. But heck, if you need to believe that strings are magnets, more power to ya!! Ignore that the poles of this string magnet might have to change over pickups of different polarities. Should I use south pole magnetic strings or north pole magnetic strings. Where on the package of strings is the magnetic polarity specified?

A string does not have to be magnetized to work with a pickup - all it has to do is change the magnetic flux in a manner so that it (the flux) cuts across the coils to induce a voltage. In other words, a string only has to conduct magnetism, not be a magnet itself. Seriously, think about what would happen if the string really needed to be magnetized in order to be picked up by a pickup. Not provable in practice.

Actually I think it has problems. Both of the tone control caps are ground referenced and so is the tap mode. This will probably cause you some problems, unless this is the way you want it. The neck tone will be a master tone in series mode. Series and tap is not exactly independent and it looks like it might result in a parallel out of phase in series mode. The series mode will not work independently of the pickup selector - you must have the neck or both pickups selected to get a series of both pickups. This is how I would wire it. Independent tone control operation in series, no conflicts between series/parallel and tapping, and both pickups will always be on when series mode is selected regardless of selector switch position. I suggest putting the series/parallel on the volume pot - you'll probably wind up adjusting volume during a series/parallel switch more than any tone knob.

Don't underestimate my ability to be easily confused!! This is what I think you are thinking about so far. The red wire is the series link, which for Duncan pickups would be the red and white wire twisted together. It's drawn with the top of the switch boxes being the side where the pot is... so that pulling out on the split on/off turns it on. I'm guessing about the split mode and the way it is wired, it will switch between opposite polarity coils to keep the combination humbucking. You can still use a third switch. Could be a phase switch, or a series/parallel (pickups in series or parallel with each other).... a "blaster switch"... Are you sure about two tone controls instead of two volume controls? With both pickups on, the tone control for one pickup will affect the tone of the other pickup, although you could set them separately for one pickup at a time.

All the push-pull switches I've seen only have two positions. You can't really combine a coil tap (is the coil tap on or off) with a tap mode (am I tapping the north or south coil) onto the same push-pull - at the minimum, this is a choice of three things and you can only choose two. To add in a series/parallel with only two position switches now means you need at least three switches to choose between three options. When you start adding too many options you also run into conflicts. For example, while it is easy to say I want to "control tapping, which coil is tapped, and also have series/parallel", you now have a decision as to which takes precedence over the other. Do you want to coil tap regardless of series/parallel, or do you want series/parallel over coil tapping. You really can't have it both ways. If you really want all of these options, I suggest using a push pull for series/parallel wired according to the diagram and then use a three position on/off/on mini switch to do the coil tap and selection - having the coil tap options only work when the series/parallel switch is in the series mode. To wire the tap switch, the common center terminal would connect to the "bottom" two lugs on the series/parallel, and the two "on" lugs of the tap switch would have one connected to the hot output and the other connected to ground.

You got it... for this diagram. It could also be wired Ground - NF/NS - SS/SF - Output. In a series circuit, the order of the components (in this case the coils) doesn't matter. Good trick to know if you need a certain coil grounded for some reason or another.

I don't know what you are looking at or how you are interpreting it, but I don't see a closed loop anywhere. That is the correct wiring for a series/parallel switch. When the switch is "up" (actually the toggle will be in the "down" position), the center and upper lugs are connected together - separately on both sides of the switch. The right side grounds the north-finish lead of one coil and the south-start of the other is always grounded. The left side then connects the south-finish to the north-start which is the output lead. This puts the coils in parallel.

I've never heard of a tube toner.

I think the repair guy just wants to sell you a set of active pickups. Gibson, Rickenbacker and probably several others have been making stereo capable guitars... probably for more decades than your ex-spurt has been alive. A stereo jack in and of itself isn't going to do much for you unless you wire it for stereo, as it can be wired as a mono jack as easily as a standard mono jack. You'll also have to use a stereo cable to receive any benefit. The benefits - you can route each pickup of a two pickup guitar through separate effects, amp channels, and/or separate amplifiers. The sound possibilities are endless. In the old days, BBKing ran his Gibson Stereo ES-355 through both channels of a Twin Reverb. If you only have the single jack, then a separate switch would need to be rigged so the guitar could be used in a standard mono mode. With two jacks, a stereo and mono with switching, you could have the benefits of both depending on which jack you decide to plug into. Or you could accomplish the same thing with two jacks but eliminate the need to use a stereo cable using two standard mono cables instead.

No, it's not normal. Your volume pot is missing a good ground connection. Stop worrying about ground loops. Check your volume pot wiring and insure there is a non-interrupted path from the lug on the volume pot to the ground lug on the input jack. If you bent the volume pot lug that is grounded to make contact with the case of the pot, make sure there is a good physical connection and you are not just relying on solder to bridge the connection for you. If you can put an ohm meter on the middle lug of the volume pot with the volume turned "off" and the other meter lead to the ground lug of the input jack, you should read ZERO ohms. If you read anything else, you need to find where it is located and correct it.

That's a nice circuit to modify. No, you don't need a standby switch, and I wouldn't waste the space - well, that's an assumption. How about a pic of the front? Yes, crystal refers to a phonograph with a crystal cartridge. These were quite high output. I'd put the gain where the source selector is... Leave the volume control where it is, put the gain on the output of V1 feeding V2. Might want to reduce the value of C8 to .022 microfarad, lose C6 and C7, putting the gain control where R5 is now... Hmm, lots of possibilities.

The orange wire goes to the right lug on the volume control - the ground IS the left one unless you want the volume control to work in reverse. Both the white and green wires are grounded. Center terminal of the volume control connects to the tip (+?) connection of the output jack. Redo your diagram like this and we'll check it.

What do you want the volume control switch to do? Is your drawing wrong? 25K values for tone and volume controls is extremely too low. Did you mean 250K? Oh, and if we are looking at the bottom of the pots, the ground on the volume control should be on the left lug and not the right.

It sounds like what you want to do is recreate the Vox Repeat Percussion effect. Check out this page and listen to the sound samples. http://www.ronsound.com/pedals/tremo.html

Yep. The problem with wiring pictorial diagrams is that you must have the exact same parts, especially switches. Otherwise they are completely useless. A real schematic can be wired using any part/switch once the switching is understood.

A ground loop is not possible in a passive guitar. Don't worry about it. It's an internet myth that comes up whenever someone grounds something twice. A ground loop is more than multiple grounds. FWIW, I never ground pots in a tele, other than the output jack ground connection to the volume control. if so, then how do they add noise? A ground loop (according to its real electrical definition) requires that two ground points are operating at some difference in potential (voltage), AND that there is some signal voltage (noise) developed across those two ground points, AND that there is some active device (tube/transistor) that can detect and amplify that signal voltage developed between the ground points. All three conditions have to exist. Despite the name, the definition of "ground loop" simply doesn't apply to multiple paths to ground from the same point in the circuit. There is absolutely no way for multiple paths to ground from the same point in the circuit to cause noise. You can do an experiment to prove it. Take your guitar (a tele works best), plug it in. Now take a wire (a test lead with alligator clips is easier). Connect one end to the bridge (which is grounded) and the other end to the control plate (which is also grounded). You have just intentionally created an internet wisdom ground loop. There will be no difference in noise regardless if the wire is connected or disconnected between the two grounds.

A ground loop is not possible in a passive guitar. Don't worry about it. It's an internet myth that comes up whenever someone grounds something twice. A ground loop is more than multiple grounds. FWIW, I never ground pots in a tele, other than the output jack ground connection to the volume control.

Sorry, but you are wrong. Your assumption seems to be that a mini-toggle on/on/on works in the same way as a leaf toggle - like the pickup selector on a Gibson. It doesn't. The switch pattern is different. Here is an ascii representation of the pattern: 6 3 6 3 6 6 | | | 5 2 5 2 5 2 | | | 4 1 4 1 4 1 [/codebox] You can confirm this for yourself by looking at the spec sheet for any on/on/on mini toggle. Here is a link to one. On the second page of this PDF, you will find a DPDT on/on/on mini toggle - listed as 7211. The switch pattern is presented to the right. The numbering of the terminals is below the table. http://www.ittcannon.com/media/pdf/catalog.../7000toggle.pdf So, if you want to use an on/on/on for pickup 1/both/pickup 2, the easiest way to wire it is: one pickup to both terminals 6 & 3 output from both terminals 5 & 2 second pickup to both terminals 4 & 1.

Cool - a "guess the switch" game!! You're correct - an on on on switch wouldn't work as wired. But an on off on wouldn't work either - not the way it's wired - you'll get both pickups and two off positions. I don't think your diagram of an on on on for neck-both-bridge selection will work. I think it'll just give neck-bridge-bridge. I'd extend all three leads directly over to the same terminals on the other pole - easier to wire that way. Personally I prefer schematics over wiring diagrams - especially when the parts are not indicated.

That would be the way to wire it. But if I'm not mistaken, the switch in the diagram would also have to be an on/on/on type to work as indicated.

You may be having a switch vs diagram problem - depending on who made the diagram and who made the switch. The stew mac three position "tele" switch has it's common poles opposite of what the three position switch normally used for a tele. This trips people up using a wiring diagram since it looks right per the diagram. So either your switch is incorrect or the diagram, and since you didn't post links to either, I can't tell you which.

Then it's not adviseable to leave out right?? It's not necessary. The usual practice is to connect a 100ohm resistor to each leg of the heater winding and ground the resistors. If the amp is grounded properly, it will be quiet. The 35v supply and the method I described do the same thing--reference each half of the heater supply to a stable point. Just as a note--one amp I built has heaters with 2x100ohm to ground and is dead quiet until you get up past 3 o'clock. After that, the noise you hear is unavoidable because the amp is single-ended. Well, it's actually more than referencing the heater supply to a stable point. The theory is that the standard practice sets up a condition where the cathode is positive with respect to the heater which causes it to act like a small plate drawing electrons from the heater causing more hum. Referencing the heater to a positive voltage higher than the cathode makes the cathode negative with respect to the heater, preventing the attraction of hum causing electrons. A properly twisted heater supply and balancing the two sides to ground through resistors (or a wire wound pot) is usually all that's needed. You will also have to use an additional capacitor after the master volume pot leading to the phase inverter otherwise you will mess up the biasing of the phase inverter. I'd suggest doubling the size of C6 for both. It's not unbuffered - it just doesn't have a separate stage to buffer the effects. The effects loop is serial and the effects are inserted into the signal path. Buffering is provided by the emitter follower transistor before the loop and the gain stage at the input to the power amp. Additional buffering wouldn't provide any benefit. You may be thinking of a parallel effects loop that allows you to blend wet and dry signals. A parallel loop needs some sort of extra buffering to prevent the output of the effects loop from being fed back into the input of the effects device. This type of serial loop places that mixing/blending burden on the effects device, not the amp. Edited due to way too many quotes!!

Can't tell much from the picture. But P-bass pickups are wired in series like a humbucker (in fact, it is a humbucking configuration). You will get a lot of hum if you wire them out of phase. Here is a duncan wiring diagram. Just leave out the tone control. http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/schem...dard_pbass.html

Technically, it's not "groundings". Just because a particular color wire is "normally"connected to ground (as in seen that way in other schematics), doesn't mean it's a ground wire. The only "true ground wire" out of a 4 wire humbucker is the fifth bare wire (or shield) that's connected to the case of the pickup. The pickup switching in the schecter schematic does a combination of coil splitting and series/parallel connections. In order to do this, it requires that both "sides" of the pickup coils be available for re-connection by the switch.