stupid wiring question!

[ashdown]

herro all, i have a strat i have been meaning to mess with and i have also come into 3 nice tele pickups. what would be the easiest way to just wire all 3 pickups to 1 vol and 1 tone? or a cool way to wire them using the 5 way switch so i could go from all 3 on to some weird out of phase thing?

much thanks in advance!

[eatyourguitar]

you need to decide what exactly you want before you ask for a schematic. or are you just asking us which is best? I'm confused.

[peps1]

If your after 3 pickups, one Tone and 5 combo options?

[ashdown]

you need to decide what exactly you want before you ask for a schematic. or are you just asking us which is best? I'm confused.

i'm asking how can i wire 3 pickups to 1 vol and 1 tone without using the typical strat 5 way switch, so that all the pickups are on all of the time

[McSpunckle]

That's way super easy.

Take the ground wires of all the pickups and wire them together (Hint: They were already wired together).

Take the wires from the pickups that went to the switch, and wire them together-- then run that to the typical volume and tone controls.

Fair warning, pickups do interact with eachother, so the sound you end up with will likely be pretty bright, and maybe with some mid scooping.

You could also wire them in series. Take one of the grounds (doesn't matter which), and put it to ground. Then run the hot (which is what I'll be called the not-ground wire) of that pickup to the ground of another. Then run the hot of that one to the ground of the other one. Then run the hot of that to the volume control. Basically, chain them together.

Again, the pickups interact, but they'll do it just the opposite way-- so you'll end up with a loud, dark sound.

Or you could chain just two of them together and run the other one in parallel.

If you want something fancier, I can try and work up a diagram and find the right switch(es) for you-- just depending on the settings you want. 3 pickup setups can be really complicated.

[eatyourguitar]

a fair amount of mucking about goes into any guitar with a totally unique wiring setup. in the case of luthiers working with clients that want something done right, its not uncommon to rewire it 2 or 3 times before the customer is happy. the client plays it, the tech plays it. they talk about what they like and what they don't like. a lot of times guitars with all the push pull pots AND a 5 way switch have so many combinations that two or three of them will sound exactly the same or close enough that you decide they are not really needed. you still rewire for 18 positions but you make sure that you don't have a neck only and middle only if both positions sound the same. you just pick one of the positions and reuse it for something else. one of the reasons you can't guess your way into the perfect pickup and wiring combo is that everything affects the sound. the wood the hardware, pots, cap, wire, everything. I would say that if your not using the switch for anything, make it a killswitch in the middle position or remove it and get a pickguard. another nice little trick is to wire one position of the switch to bypass the volume and tone controls. your bypass becomes a lead boost. then your turn the volume down for your other setting. now you have a volume boost/cut on a switch. super easy to go in and out of solo without touching a knob. you could also wire it for (kill - volume - boost) pos 2 and 3 are both volume, 4 and 5 are both boost on a standard strat 5 way switch. if you have a better 5 way switch like the dimarzio, you can use all 5 positions to do whatever you want. Brook posted one with the fancy 5-way switch.

[ashdown]

That's way super easy.

Take the ground wires of all the pickups and wire them together (Hint: They were already wired together).

Take the wires from the pickups that went to the switch, and wire them together-- then run that to the typical volume and tone controls.

Fair warning, pickups do interact with eachother, so the sound you end up with will likely be pretty bright, and maybe with some mid scooping.

You could also wire them in series. Take one of the grounds (doesn't matter which), and put it to ground. Then run the hot (which is what I'll be called the not-ground wire) of that pickup to the ground of another. Then run the hot of that one to the ground of the other one. Then run the hot of that to the volume control. Basically, chain them together.

Again, the pickups interact, but they'll do it just the opposite way-- so you'll end up with a loud, dark sound.

Or you could chain just two of them together and run the other one in parallel.

If you want something fancier, I can try and work up a diagram and find the right switch(es) for you-- just depending on the settings you want. 3 pickup setups can be really complicated.

pretty much what i am looking for. pretty sure i can figure this out on my own.. i'll be back if i fuck it up haha