NGD: Dear God, What Has Science Wrought?

[V_____]

Once I figure out all the bugs I may work with the luthier who co-designed this to put together a kit/pickguard assembly or a DIY guide.

I think a slightly simplified version could be viable for a an easy retrofit.

This particular build required a little bit of routing to fit in the humbucker and the jaguar plate, but if you have a swimming pool route that might not be such an issue.

I think a neat stereo version could also use a double fat strat setup where you have the outer coils of the humbuckers go to one group, the inner to another and could send out either group to stereo. Using a rotary switch, you could achieve the same series/parallel combinations for mono. That wouldn't require any routing.

[Bellyheart]

I meant to tell you it was on loan...so if you wanna give it back in working condition that'd be appreciated.

[V_____]

I meant to tell you it was on loan...so if you wanna give it back in working condition that'd be appreciated.

Ha ha i guess rent for a mexican strat is steeper than i figured.

[Bellyheart]

Hahahah

[magiclawnchair]

that sounds

[jrmy]

Well, as you might guess from the two outputs, this guitar is designed to be used in stereo (or mono, of course). One of the reasons I post it here is it's designed with my stereo pair of custom Wolf Computers in mind.

When can we expect clips of that beast of a setup in action?

[V_____]

Well, as you might guess from the two outputs, this guitar is designed to be used in stereo (or mono, of course). One of the reasons I post it here is it's designed with my stereo pair of custom Wolf Computers in mind.

When can we expect clips of that beast of a setup in action?

Well I am on vacation in connecticut for a couple weeks, but I may try to get my dad to record it a little bit. Unfortunately my mellowtone gear is is New York City, though.

[hatshirt]

man if i was rockin that i'd knock everything outta position mid frenzy.

[nieh]

What's your address?

That depends. Is this a booty call or a burglary?

I lol'd way too much.

[V_____]

man if i was rockin that i'd knock everything outta position mid frenzy.

Ha ha it's a slight concern, I agree. Luckily tele switches are pretty hard to knock out of place. I haven't had an issue with the jag switches so far, but it's possible I might hit them.

I am actually surprised how easy it is to use in practice. Once you get the hang of it it's pretty intuitive.

I think I have solved my wiring issue. I found the problem, anyway, now just need to implement my proposed solution which i will do tomorrow night. It's actually an incredibly simple fix. I just need to move one wire (if I am right).

Incidentally, does anyone (maybe a builder with knowledge of wiring setups) know what happens when you send a signal across two pickups connected in parallel on the input (negative) side and also connected in parallel at the output (positive) side? This is the one position in my wiring solution I don't know how to predict.

Basically the problem is we currently have the negative lead of the bridge single coil connected to the back of the volume pot. This means the bridge sc is never being combined in series with the second group, so you get it working properly with the humbucker and a weird kind of parallel connection where you get output 2 + humbucker in parallel with only the bridge single coil. But if you try the single coil bridge by itself or everything in series the single coil (being first in the second set) never gets any input from the other pickups. Duh.

I need to move it so it's connected to the same point as the negative lead from the bridge pickup selector. In parallel mix mode this is exactly the same as now and always goes to ground. In series mode this gets fed the output from the neck/mid pickups. In all the other pickup positions, except bridgesc/hb in parallel, only one of the two leads really goes anywhere, so it should work normally.

However, if both negative leads are connected in parallel to their input from the other pickup set (Don't worry. It's still grounded through the neck/mid pickup set at all times 'cause that is hard-wired to ground and in series mix you can't turn off the neck/mid set.) and then connected in parallel to the output jack...I don't know how that will act. Should the resistance of the neck/mid selection be split roughly in half and added to that of each bridge pickup, then those values are put into the parallel resistance equation? That seems, to me, like more or less what should happen, but I am just not sure how it will work because of the parallel connection at the input AND the output. It might just not care and kind of act like

Anyone ever dealt with a similar situation? (Most likely not with guitar wiring).

[V_____]

Update:

Everything works properly now as I expected it to!

The question about the weird wiring setup was answered for me by my dad and through testing. It takes the sum of the neck group and adds it to the resistance of the bridge group no matter what.

Anyway, guitar sounds awesome and everything works, it seems. I'm going to see if I can manage to get some clips recorded soon.

To illustrate the possibilities, I will use the notation of // for parallel and + for series.

Mono output options are:

Bridge Group:

Bridge SC
Bridge HB (Series)
Bridge HB (Coil 1)
Bridge HB (Coil 2 Out of Phase)
Bridge HB (Parallel)
Bridge HB (Series Out of Phase)
Bridge SC//Bridge HB (Series)
Bridge SC//Bridge HB (Coil 1)
Bridge SC//Bridge HB (Coil 2 Out of Phase)
Bridge SC//Bridge HB (Parallel)
Bridge SC//Bridge HB (Series Out of Phase)
Bridge SC+Bridge HB (Series)
Bridge SC+Bridge HB (Coil 1)
Bridge SC+Bridge HB (Coil 2 Out of Phase)
Bridge SC+Bridge HB (Parallel)
Bridge SC+Bridge HB (Series Out of Phase)

Neck Group:

Neck
Middle
Neck//Middle
Neck+Middle

So, since you can do series/parallel between the two groups you get these options in mono as well:

(Neck)//(Bridge SC)
(Neck)+(Bridge SC)
(Neck)//(Bridge HB (Series))
(Neck)//(Bridge HB (Coil 1))
(Neck)//(Bridge HB (Coil 2 Out of Phase))
(Neck)//(Bridge HB (Parallel))
(Neck)//(Bridge HB (Series Out of Phase))
(Neck)//(Bridge SC//Bridge HB (Series))
(Neck)//(Bridge SC//Bridge HB (Coil 1))
(Neck)//(Bridge SC//Bridge HB (Coil 2 Out of Phase))
(Neck)//(Bridge SC//Bridge HB (Parallel))
(Neck)//(Bridge SC//Bridge HB (Series Out of Phase))
(Neck)//(Bridge SC+Bridge HB (Series))
(Neck)//(Bridge SC+Bridge HB (Coil 1))
(Neck)//(Bridge SC+Bridge HB (Coil 2 Out of Phase))
(Neck)//(Bridge SC+Bridge HB (Parallel))
(Neck)//(Bridge SC+Bridge HB (Series Out of Phase))
(Neck)+(Bridge HB (Series))
(Neck)+(Bridge HB (Coil 1))
(Neck)+(Bridge HB (Coil 2 Out of Phase))
(Neck)+(Bridge HB (Parallel))
(Neck)+(Bridge HB (Series Out of Phase))
(Neck)+(Bridge SC//Bridge HB (Series))
(Neck)+(Bridge SC//Bridge HB (Coil 1))
(Neck)+(Bridge SC//Bridge HB (Coil 2 Out of Phase))
(Neck)+(Bridge SC//Bridge HB (Parallel))
(Neck)+(Bridge SC//Bridge HB (Series Out of Phase))
(Neck)+(Bridge SC+Bridge HB (Series))
(Neck)+(Bridge SC+Bridge HB (Coil 1))
(Neck)+(Bridge SC+Bridge HB (Coil 2 Out of Phase))
(Neck)+(Bridge SC+Bridge HB (Parallel))
(Neck)+(Bridge SC+Bridge HB (Series Out of Phase))

(Middle)//(Bridge SC)
(Middle)+(Bridge SC)
(Middle)//(Bridge HB (Series))
(Middle)//(Bridge HB (Coil 1))
(Middle)//(Bridge HB (Coil 2 Out of Phase))
(Middle)//(Bridge HB (Parallel))
(Middle)//(Bridge HB (Series Out of Phase))
(Middle)//(Bridge SC//Bridge HB (Series))
(Middle)//(Bridge SC//Bridge HB (Coil 1))
(Middle)//(Bridge SC//Bridge HB (Coil 2 Out of Phase))
(Middle)//(Bridge SC//Bridge HB (Parallel))
(Middle)//(Bridge SC//Bridge HB (Series Out of Phase))
(Middle)//(Bridge SC+Bridge HB (Series))
(Middle)//(Bridge SC+Bridge HB (Coil 1))
(Middle)//(Bridge SC+Bridge HB (Coil 2 Out of Phase))
(Middle)//(Bridge SC+Bridge HB (Parallel))
(Middle)//(Bridge SC+Bridge HB (Series Out of Phase))
(Middle)+(Bridge HB (Series))
(Middle)+(Bridge HB (Coil 1))
(Middle)+(Bridge HB (Coil 2 Out of Phase))
(Middle)+(Bridge HB (Parallel))
(Middle)+(Bridge HB (Series Out of Phase))
(Middle)+(Bridge SC//Bridge HB (Series))
(Middle)+(Bridge SC//Bridge HB (Coil 1))
(Middle)+(Bridge SC//Bridge HB (Coil 2 Out of Phase))
(Middle)+(Bridge SC//Bridge HB (Parallel))
(Middle)+(Bridge SC//Bridge HB (Series Out of Phase))
(Middle)+(Bridge SC+Bridge HB (Series))
(Middle)+(Bridge SC+Bridge HB (Coil 1))
(Middle)+(Bridge SC+Bridge HB (Coil 2 Out of Phase))
(Middle)+(Bridge SC+Bridge HB (Parallel))
(Middle)+(Bridge SC+Bridge HB (Series Out of Phase))

(Neck//Middle)//(Bridge SC)
(Neck//Middle)+(Bridge SC)
(Neck//Middle)//(Bridge HB (Series))
(Neck//Middle)//(Bridge HB (Coil 1))
(Neck//Middle)//(Bridge HB (Coil 2 Out of Phase))
(Neck//Middle)//(Bridge HB (Parallel))
(Neck//Middle)//(Bridge HB (Series Out of Phase))
(Neck//Middle)//(Bridge SC//Bridge HB (Series))
(Neck//Middle)//(Bridge SC//Bridge HB (Coil 1))
(Neck//Middle)//(Bridge SC//Bridge HB (Coil 2 Out of Phase))
(Neck//Middle)//(Bridge SC//Bridge HB (Parallel))
(Neck//Middle)//(Bridge SC//Bridge HB (Series Out of Phase))
(Neck//Middle)//(Bridge SC+Bridge HB (Series))
(Neck//Middle)//(Bridge SC+Bridge HB (Coil 1))
(Neck//Middle)//(Bridge SC+Bridge HB (Coil 2 Out of Phase))
(Neck//Middle)//(Bridge SC+Bridge HB (Parallel))
(Neck//Middle)//(Bridge SC+Bridge HB (Series Out of Phase))
(Neck//Middle)+(Bridge HB (Series))
(Neck//Middle)+(Bridge HB (Coil 1))
(Neck//Middle)+(Bridge HB (Coil 2 Out of Phase))
(Neck//Middle)+(Bridge HB (Parallel))
(Neck//Middle)+(Bridge HB (Series Out of Phase))
(Neck//Middle)+(Bridge SC//Bridge HB (Series))
(Neck//Middle)+(Bridge SC//Bridge HB (Coil 1))
(Neck//Middle)+(Bridge SC//Bridge HB (Coil 2 Out of Phase))
(Neck//Middle)+(Bridge SC//Bridge HB (Parallel))
(Neck//Middle)+(Bridge SC//Bridge HB (Series Out of Phase))
(Neck//Middle)+(Bridge SC+Bridge HB (Series))
(Neck//Middle)+(Bridge SC+Bridge HB (Coil 1))
(Neck//Middle)+(Bridge SC+Bridge HB (Coil 2 Out of Phase))
(Neck//Middle)+(Bridge SC+Bridge HB (Parallel))
(Neck//Middle)+(Bridge SC+Bridge HB (Series Out of Phase))

(Neck+Middle)//(Bridge SC)
(Neck+Middle)+(Bridge SC)
(Neck+Middle)//(Bridge HB (Series))
(Neck+Middle)//(Bridge HB (Coil 1))
(Neck+Middle)//(Bridge HB (Coil 2 Out of Phase))
(Neck+Middle)//(Bridge HB (Parallel))
(Neck+Middle)//(Bridge HB (Series Out of Phase))
(Neck+Middle)//(Bridge SC//Bridge HB (Series))
(Neck+Middle)//(Bridge SC//Bridge HB (Coil 1))
(Neck+Middle)//(Bridge SC//Bridge HB (Coil 2 Out of Phase))
(Neck+Middle)//(Bridge SC//Bridge HB (Parallel))
(Neck+Middle)//(Bridge SC//Bridge HB (Series Out of Phase))
(Neck+Middle)//(Bridge SC+Bridge HB (Series))
(Neck+Middle)//(Bridge SC+Bridge HB (Coil 1))
(Neck+Middle)//(Bridge SC+Bridge HB (Coil 2 Out of Phase))
(Neck+Middle)//(Bridge SC+Bridge HB (Parallel))
(Neck+Middle)//(Bridge SC+Bridge HB (Series Out of Phase))
(Neck+Middle)+(Bridge HB (Series))
(Neck+Middle)+(Bridge HB (Coil 1))
(Neck+Middle)+(Bridge HB (Coil 2 Out of Phase))
(Neck+Middle)+(Bridge HB (Parallel))
(Neck+Middle)+(Bridge HB (Series Out of Phase))
(Neck+Middle)+(Bridge SC//Bridge HB (Series))
(Neck+Middle)+(Bridge SC//Bridge HB (Coil 1))
(Neck+Middle)+(Bridge SC//Bridge HB (Coil 2 Out of Phase))
(Neck+Middle)+(Bridge SC//Bridge HB (Parallel))
(Neck+Middle)+(Bridge SC//Bridge HB (Series Out of Phase))
(Neck+Middle)+(Bridge SC+Bridge HB (Series))
(Neck+Middle)+(Bridge SC+Bridge HB (Coil 1))
(Neck+Middle)+(Bridge SC+Bridge HB (Coil 2 Out of Phase))
(Neck+Middle)+(Bridge SC+Bridge HB (Parallel))
(Neck+Middle)+(Bridge SC+Bridge HB (Series Out of Phase))

To any of these settings, you can also add a bass cut/tightening static eq (which may deserve a little tweaking). You can also mix the volume of the neck group relative to the bridge group and then use the bridge volume as a master volume to control overall volume without changing that ratio. Unfortunately this means that the neck can never be mixed higher than the bridge, but it does have the option of being output to a second amp so, in that way, you can mix whatever balance of the two you want between the amps.

The Bridge Group is always output through output 1 (the bottom one). The Neck Group can be output through either jack. Of course, sending one group out to a second amp renders the mix function between the groups useless.

[Bellyheart]

Whoa that's a lot of different tones from a guitar. I never wanna see the inside of the pickguard! Now go forth and make crazy stereo music.

With those two WCs and a Hardwire tremolo, or any dual input tremolo, and two amps you could do a lot of weird things.

[V_____]

Whoa that's a lot of different tones from a guitar. I never wanna see the inside of the pickguard! Now go forth and make crazy stereo music.

With those two WCs and a Hardwire tremolo, or any dual input tremolo, and two amps you could do a lot of weird things.

Yeah, I just picked up a "Looker" for this exact purpose. Now to hook up two more amps and two stereo pulsars and quad pan!

[V_____]

I think, if my numbers are correct, this thing should have 210 sounds.

There are 5 options for the humbucker, so the bridge selector has 16 options (5+5+5+1).
The neck/mid selector has 4 options.
16x4 = 64
Those two can be combined in either series or parallel, so double that number to 128.
Then you also have the option to turn either set off, so add the 4 settings on the neck by itself and the 16 settings on the bridge but subtract one because one of the humbucker options is series out of phase which should sound the same just by itself. So, add 19 and you have 147. That's all the mono options.
Now, for stereo, you have all the same (64) options except you can't mix between the two groups, so you don't multiply by 2 cause they're always output separately. Also subtract one option for series out of phase on the humbucker again cause when the hb is by itself it isn't mixable with anything this time. So 63 stereo combinations.
147 + 63 = 210.

So...42x the output options of a regular strat?

I guess if you want to really be silly about it you can also double the number for adding in the bass cut control on every setting. That would be 420...

[magiclawnchair]