Wiring a guitar

[MWaldorf]

As Bill says, you can get all seven combinations with two three way switches. I'm not familiar with the ToneStylers, and I'm not one to make much use out of tone controls, so I'm not sure how useful they'd be. You could use one for each pickups, or one for the output of the neck/middle switch and one for the bridge. I think with all the work you're doing on the guitar you might as well use a full size Gretsch standby switch instead of a mini-toggle, but that's purely a matter of opinion.

[vjf1968]

As Bill says, you can get all seven combinations with two three way switches. I'm not familiar with the ToneStylers, and I'm not one to make much use out of tone controls, so I'm not sure how useful they'd be. You could use one for each pickups, or one for the output of the neck/middle switch and one for the bridge. I think with all the work you're doing on the guitar you might as well use a full size Gretsch standby switch instead of a mini-toggle, but that's purely a matter of opinion.

Instead of switches couldn't Sarah use push/pull pots on the tone knobs and utilize the toggle switch for pick up selection. Maybe another push/pull pot for phase/out of phase sounds. I figure that would cut down the clutter on the face of the guitar. More stealthy like.

[Sarah93003]

Thanks Mel. Yes, I'd like it to be as Gretschlike as I can, even with the P90's.

[olrocknroller]

Carvin have some nice circuit options on their website, as does StewMac in their free info section. Also, the EMG and Seymour Duncan websites give excellent diagrams, color coded etc. also check out this website for some innovative ideas...

http://www.guitarelectronics.com/c=gfq6Vp9A8c1F4SOtIbKNVTK4b/category/wiring_resources_guitar_wiring_diagrams/

[Sarah93003]

Carvin have some nice circuit options on their website, as does StewMac in their free info section. Also, the EMG and Seymour Duncan websites give excellent diagrams, color coded etc. also check out this website for some innovative ideas...

http://www.guitarelectronics.com/c=gfq6Vp9A8c1F4SOtIbKNVTK4b/category/wiring_resources_guitar_wiring_diagrams/

Thank you. I'll check that out.

[Sarah93003]

Hi Mel

What if:

1. there was a 6 position 2 pole or 4 pole Rotary Switch to switch between pickup combinations on the bass horn?

2. 250K CTS pot for a Master Volume on the treble horn?

3. ToneStyler pot for the neck pickup
ToneStyler pot for the middle pickup
250K CTS pot for the bridge pickup
These three tone knobs could be just below the two cat eyes on the treble side


The kill switch can go wherever. Would the parts listed above give maximum possibilities?

[MWaldorf]

That should work, the question is really if it will work for you. Do you switch pickup selection often? Have you used a rotary switch for this before? I had a Danelectro with one and found it hard to use by feel only - I always had to look where I was switching to make sure I'd picked the right selection. May be less of an issue on the bass bout.

Same thing goes for the ToneStylers. I haven't used a Varitone, but I suspect personally I'd get more confused than it's worth.

Also, I'd go with 500K pots with P90s to get more of the top end.

Really, you need to decide how much control is enough. The circuit you propose has a lot of fiddling room, but how much would you use? If you think you'd use all the controls then by all means - go for it!

[TerryTNM]

Hi Sarah,
There are many fine How To Wire a Guitar books on Amazon or other places. They make handy reference. Many, many examples. They're great learning tools. Most every thing is explained: why use a 250k instead of a 500K pot. what does .020 cap sound like compared to a .047 things like that. You are really cramming knowledge with this project Keep it up.

[Sarah93003]

Thanks folks! I've been doing a lot of reading and especially taking into considertion your posts. I think what I want to do is outlined below. Please give me a sanity check.

A. On the bass side horn I would like two SwitchCraft 3-Way toggle switches to switch between pickups"
#1 will be Neck / Neck & Bridge / OFF
#2 will be Middle / Bridge / OFF

This should give me every pickup combination except Bridge&Middle, which I never use anyway. It will also give me a kill switch when both are in the OFF position

B. On the treble side horn I want a Master Volume with a 500K Linear Taper pot.

C. On the lower bout near the input jack will be two ToneStyler tone post, wired as one for the Neck pickup and one wired for the Bridge pickup. The middle pickup will not get a tone pot at all.

D. I want to use Mogami W2944 cable with shrink wrapping over the soldered joints.

Okay. Any feedback?

[MWaldorf]

I could be missing something but I don't think you can wire the standard type of three way switch as you describe. If it were me, I'd try and use a push/pull switched pot on the master volume so you could put the kill switch there. I know Dimarzio at least makes a 500K version of this.

Another thing you could consider is using a cable with a built in mute like the Planet Waves "circuit breaker" models:
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/accessories/planet-waves-circuit-breaker-cable-right-angle-straight

Otherwise the circuit sounds cool.