Couple wiring questions....

[gunslinger_burrito]

I'm making another thread just to get y'all's attention.

I'm making another guitar, but I think I may be a tad bit lost on the wiring scheme.

Would it be possible to have a setup like this:

-Bridge and Neck humbuckers, each with their own volume controls
-Bass pickup in the middle position, with its own volume control
-a switch to allow the bass pickup either to be blended with the guitar pup's signals or to go to its own stereo out
-a switch to kill the guitar signal, leaving only the bass signal. NOT a momentary kill, but a toggle of some kind.
-no tone controls (I never use them)
-How would I wire the splitting/combining switch?

Would I wire it something like this? And where would I put a kill switch? Sorry for the crap pic, I just whipped it up here before I head off to work.

[ryan summit]

i like your style burrito
your outcome is definately
gonna influence my next project guitar
keep drawin them sketches
let us know what works and doesnt
cause even with my teisco/hb setup
i could use a blend
its either one or the other for me
and stereo outs is just an awesome idea
you inspire me my friend

[skullservant]

Well, the killswitch would have to cover both of the leads for both of the guitar pickups, so you could use a 4PDT switch and wire it up like two dpdt switches- neck volume and bridge volume to the first and third middle lugs, then the second and fourth middle lugs would go to the pickup selector.
the top row you would leave empty, but then the bottom row, you would connect poles 1+2 and 3+4 together. So essentially with one switch you're connecting and disconnecting the path of BOTH pickups

[gunslinger_burrito]

Thanks! Any idea how i wouldwire the split/blend switch?

[skullservant]

The blend pot is a dual shaft/stereo pot-
http://www.stewmac.com/freeinfo/Electro ... -4137.html

TONS of info there about different wirings!

[gunslinger_burrito]

Thanks, again. I don't want a blend as much as just a simple switch for "stereo, to two jacks" or "all three pickups to one jack." I did a basic search under a few different queries and can't find info about anyone who did something like this. All the info I find is for people installing one stereo jack into their guitars, not two separate jacks.

As for the kill switch, would it be placed in between the pups and the neck/bridge selector then? Or between the pups and their volume controls?

Edit: Am I thinking right that I'd have to wire the bass pickup and the guitar pickups all to the stereo selector switch (after the volumes and pickup selector for neck and bridge positions, and before the outputs), which would have to be wired to direct things to their intended outputs for whatever position?

[Gone Fission]

I haven't looked into the specifics, but look for schematics for the Rick-O-Sound stereo wiring and the old Gibson ES models with stereo outs (ES-345 and/or 355 maybe?). I've never played those setups but my understanding is that they do neck pickup to one output and bridge to another, but I think they would still work in mono. This implies using a switching jack setup of some sort on the extra output. Don't know if a TRS will do or if another contact is required. You digging? Plugging in the bass output is the switch.

[skullservant]

So you're wanting the bass pickup to work ONLY in the middle position? Would it not be a bit easier for the bass pickup to just have it's own switch where it is inserted completely seperate from the guitar toggle switch? So you have the guitar pickups going to their volume controls, to the killswitch, then going to the pickup selector switch, which would then go out to the main jack, and then the bass pickup going to it's volume control, then going to a killswitch, then going to a stereo selector switch which could either go to either bass output or both bass and guitar output? Drawing up a diagram for it now, but it seems like it would be SO much easier that way

[skullservant]

So you've pretty much got it right. But my idea is like this:

The middle position where you have the hot of the bass pickup going to an then also going to the stereo switch- take the hot bass wire to a different 2 position switch (spst) and wire that as a bass kill toggle. Then send that out to another spst switch, wire both outputs on one side, the bass output on the other side, and the hot from the killswitch center lug to the selector switch center lug.

That way the bass pickup can be inserted in ANY guitar position, has its own volume control, and can be sent both places

[gunslinger_burrito]

So you have the guitar pickups going to their volume controls, to the killswitch, then going to the pickup selector switch, which would then go out to the main jack, and then the bass pickup going to it's volume control, then going to a killswitch, then going to a stereo selector switch which could either go to either bass output or both bass and guitar output? Drawing up a diagram for it now, but it seems like it would be SO much easier that way

Yeah, that's what I planned. Although I hadn't originally intended two kill switches, just one for the guitar side. I guess I could do two. I should be able to use mini toggles, right? I don't want a momentary switch.

So you've pretty much got it right. But my idea is like this:

The middle position where you have the hot of the bass pickup going to an then also going to the stereo switch- take the hot bass wire to a different 2 position switch (spst) and wire that as a bass kill toggle. Then send that out to another spst switch, wire both outputs on one side, the bass output on the other side, and the hot from the killswitch center lug to the selector switch center lug.

That way the bass pickup can be inserted in ANY guitar position, has its own volume control, and can be sent both places

That sounds cool! Are you talking about using a three or five-way selector? I'll doodle up another diagram after I get home from work today, but am I correct assuming this (for the bass side):
bass pup > middle position selector > bass kill > bass stereo ?

So that way, it would work like a 5-way strat selector, right? I'd have to have it in positions two or four to get guitar AND bass?

I think this will be easier with a diagram....

[skullservant]

Yeah I've got a diagram drawn up. But it was using mini non momentary toggle switches.
You'd have your guitar 3 way switch, guitar killswitch, bass kill switch, and bass stereo switch
That way you have access to everything all at once without having to cycle through a 5 way and potentially missing something

You could group the guitar and bass killswitches together, have the stereo switch near the jacks, and then have the guitar pickup selector switch wherever. I'll take a picture of this diagram that I drew up

[skullservant]

Here is the diagram-
3 knobs (bridge bass and neck volume)
4 different switches (guitar pickup selector, guitar signal kill [which honestly could be simplified if you went the bass toggle route], bass kill, and bass stereo output)
2 jacks

You could just run the middle wire that would be coming out of the guitar pickup selector and make that a guitar signal killswitch instead of killing both of the pickups before they hit the 3 way pickup switch. It's not necessary to kill the signal before the pickups hit the switch if the bass pickup has its own toggle.

Almost think of it as 'adding' the bass pickup whenever you want, or taking the guitar pickups out whenever you want

REMOVED THIS DIAGRAM TO PREVENT CONFUSION

[skullservant]

Shit, now I'm realizing I drew the guitar pickup selector wrong. Let me redraw it

[skullservant]

Alright here we go. This would be the most simple way to do it in my eyes, with the most amount of control

[skullservant]

I also didn't draw ground wires on this diagram cause I knew they were self explanitory