Official Luthiers Forum!

Owned and operated by Lance Kragenbrink
It is currently Fri Mar 29, 2024 11:55 pm


All times are UTC - 5 hours





Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 13 posts ] 
Author Message
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Tue Jan 01, 2008 6:29 am 
Offline
Brazilian Rosewood
Brazilian Rosewood
User avatar

Joined: Mon Dec 27, 2004 3:50 pm
Posts: 4662
Location: Napa, CA
My son has been designing his ultimate shredder and wants the following humbucker pickup usage options:

Switch #1

Position #1...Neck PUP in humbucker mode
Position #2...Both Neck & Bridge PUPs (HB mode)
Position #3...Bridge PUP (HB mode)
Position #4...Off

Switch #2

Position #1...Neck PUP in Single coil mode
Position #2...Both Neck & Bridge PUPs (SC mode)
Position #3...Bridge PUP in SC mode
Position #4...Off

Switch #3

Position #1...Neck PUP in HB; Bridge PUP in SC
Position #2...Neck PUP in SC; Bridge PUP in HB
Position #3...Off

I only show these as switches because I want to highlight the various PUP permutations. Has anyone ever done such a system and are there commonly used wiring diagrams that can help me through the design. TIA

I only hope we can leave some room to have strumming and picking access to the strings!


_________________
JJ
Napa, CA
http://www.DonohueGuitars.com


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Tue Jan 01, 2008 7:52 am 
Offline
Contributing Member
Contributing Member
User avatar

Joined: Fri Sep 09, 2005 7:51 am
Posts: 3786
Location: Canada
Uhmmmmm .... thats insane. I have never seen switches that would do that (4 posn ??). Other than using a micro processor to switch them, here is the EASY way to get all those options - simple les paul or 3 way strat switch, that gives you all the pickup selection options needed (either or both HBs), then either using push pull pots, or dedicated switches, do the coil tapping. way less complicated, and you never have to worry about whether a sw is off or not.

_________________
Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Tue Jan 01, 2008 7:57 am 
Offline
Brazilian Rosewood
Brazilian Rosewood

Joined: Sat Dec 03, 2005 10:04 am
Posts: 2060
He's way off - the ultimate shredder guitar should have one pickup and either a volume or kill switch.

I'm not sure I understand what he wants there though. If that's three separate switches its seem as though they'd conflict with each other, and would only perform in particular arrangements.

I personally think it's way way way too many options. I'm an advocate of running jumpers to a separate board and trying all the options off board. Then pick your favorite 5, 4, or preferably 3 positions and wire those in. 3 starting points, then make the rest of the tonal changes in your volume, tone, fingers, pedals, whatever. That's my thought anyway.

If he really wants all this stuff on board I would go with a 3-way switch (or 4 if he wants a kill). Then wire a push/pull volume to split the neck and a push/pull tone to split the bridge. Keeps it simple, and much more intuitive to the player I would think. Even then, I'll bet he finds before long that he rarely uses more than 2 or 3 of the 8 positions that would allow him, but at least this way it could be simplified later without leaving extra switch holes in the guitar.

_________________
Eschew obfuscation, espouse elucidation.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Tue Jan 01, 2008 8:09 am 
Offline
Contributing Member
Contributing Member
User avatar

Joined: Fri Sep 09, 2005 7:51 am
Posts: 3786
Location: Canada
Oh .... and for the ultimate shredder .. put in a sw that jumps the vol and tone (if there even is one) ... straight to the jack ... its LOUDER from the guitar for free

_________________
Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Tue Jan 01, 2008 9:01 am 
Offline
Koa
Koa
User avatar

Joined: Tue Mar 14, 2006 4:08 pm
Posts: 1018
Location: Denver, Colorado
Yipes, you'd need a manual to operate that thing! I agree with David and
Tony. Go with a 3-way and some push/pulls. You might also check out a
5-way Mega switch. You can do quite a few configuations with one of
those things, though it would still make more sense to me to use the 3-
way.

_________________
Mike

"The Dude abides. I don't know about you but I take comfort in that. It's good knowin' he's out there. The Dude. Takin' 'er easy for all us sinners. Shoosh." The Stranger


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Tue Jan 01, 2008 9:17 am 
Offline
Contributing Member
Contributing Member
User avatar

Joined: Fri Sep 09, 2005 7:51 am
Posts: 3786
Location: Canada
upon further thought JJ ... the option with a HB and half the other in SC isnt very useful .. the SC in parallel with the other PU in full HB will get lost. IMO, the absolute best option is one of these - either a straight les paul 3 way, or the 5 way mega sw if he wants some single coils in 2 and 4 position.

_________________
Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Tue Jan 01, 2008 12:06 pm 
Offline
Koa
Koa

Joined: Sat Aug 04, 2007 10:37 am
Posts: 590
Location: United States
First name: Michael
Last Name: Shaw
City: Phila
State: PA
Zip/Postal Code: 19125
Country: United States
David Collins got it right. I pickup + I vol= shred. I got my les paul flametop wired this way and all my electrics are setup this way. Add a Seymour Duncan Invader pickup and it will shred your head off. I prefer to get various tones from my pedals and amps.

_________________
Guitars, guitars and more guitars.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Tue Jan 01, 2008 6:24 pm 
Offline
Walnut
Walnut

Joined: Sat Nov 24, 2007 7:48 pm
Posts: 12
Location: United States

 JJ you might try this.


Get an oak -Grigsby#0338 switch (4 way).(Allparts ,Fender,WD ect...)


Before you send the pickups to the switch ,run a stacked pot .One pot to turn down the full on humbuckers leaving the single coils.


The pots can be concentric if you want the single /humbucker combos.


Use one side of the switch for each pickup taking up two contacts leaving the fourth contact a kill position.


This way gives you all the combos with minimum  of switch noise and fewest holes


Good luck, hope this helps.



Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Tue Jan 01, 2008 8:34 pm 
Offline
Brazilian Rosewood
Brazilian Rosewood
User avatar

Joined: Tue May 02, 2006 9:02 am
Posts: 2351
Location: Canada
First name: Bob
Last Name: Garrish
City: Toronto
State: Ontario
Country: Canada
Status: Professional
My second electric had three mini switches on it, a three way and two two-ways. Two ways switched the pickups between single and humbucking, and the three way did the normal three way thing. I didn't put pots on that one because I don't really use them, so there was no option for push-pulls, but those would be the most elegant solution for a guitar with pots on it.

What you have above on my guitar would be:
Switch 1 : Both toggles up, all positions of 3-way
Switch 2 : Both toggles down, all positions of 3-way
Switch 3 : 3-Way centred, toggles inverse to one another in both positions

For the playing effects, I'm thinking of using a momentary kill switch on my next one (so as soon as I let go the sound cuts back in). The wiring isn't hard for the setup I used, there'd be a lot of splicing involved if you wanted three switches with three settings each!

_________________
Bob Garrish
Former Canonized Purveyor of Fine CNC Luthier Services


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Jan 02, 2008 2:15 am 
Offline
Brazilian Rosewood
Brazilian Rosewood
User avatar

Joined: Mon Dec 27, 2004 3:50 pm
Posts: 4662
Location: Napa, CA
Thanks guys...my immediate suggestion was to do the LP configuration and include a push-pull tone knob to accommodate the single coil activities...ala Jimmy Page. Frank's initial reaction was to assume that the knob would get inadvertantly pushed down in the middle of a killer riff...hence his request for switches. Part of my service could include lessons on how to avoid indavertantly pushing down the knob!

Hopefully, after reading your professional recommendations he'll realize that he may have more to learn. In my case, I'd prefer to do the LP setup...and that's going to swing a lot of weight in the project.

Hey Tony...you'll already have more credibility Frank than since you quoted Yngwie...one of his guitar heros!

Soooo...what humbucker pickups do you recommend? For the other electric I'm building I recently bought the Seymour Duncan '59 style HB's. Seems like I should look at something more contemporary for this one.

In case you haven't noticed..."Electro-JJ" really needs a lot of help on the electronic side of these builds. Just when I was starting to get comfortable with being "Acousto-JJ"!


_________________
JJ
Napa, CA
http://www.DonohueGuitars.com


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Jan 02, 2008 3:47 am 
Offline
Mahogany
Mahogany

Joined: Sun Sep 17, 2006 5:47 am
Posts: 45
Location: United States

This may not get you the specific switch combinations you listed, but these diagrams show a setup I use with humbucking pickups to get just about every sound out of one that is possible. Connect two of these (one for each pickup) to a three way selector and you'll have a very wide variety of sounds to choose from, including the ones on your list. Here's the schematic of the switch:



And here's the PCB layout for it:



Hope that helps some!



Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Jan 02, 2008 5:47 am 
Offline
Koa
Koa

Joined: Sat Jun 17, 2006 8:29 am
Posts: 960
Location: Northern Ireland
First name: Martin
Last Name: Edwards
Focus: Build
Status: Amateur
I have a strat with 3 slimline H/Bs

these run to 3 push on/push off poys which operate coil splitting and individual volume.

then a master tone to the jack

No switch

I can have Bridge H/B at 10, mid single coil at 4 and neck single coil at 2 or whatever.......

Oh yes, theres a LR Baggs Piezo bridge too.......

_________________
My soundclick xx luthier blog xx luthier soundclick


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Jan 02, 2008 6:15 am 
Offline
Brazilian Rosewood
Brazilian Rosewood
User avatar

Joined: Mon Dec 27, 2004 3:50 pm
Posts: 4662
Location: Napa, CA
Thanks much for the schematics!

...great food for thought

_________________
JJ
Napa, CA
http://www.DonohueGuitars.com


Top
 Profile  
 
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 13 posts ] 

All times are UTC - 5 hours


Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 12 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot post attachments in this forum

Jump to:  
Powered by phpBB® Forum Software © phpBB Group
phpBB customization services by 2by2host.com