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Electronics for a Solid Body Electric
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Author:  JJ Donohue [ Tue Jan 01, 2008 6:29 am ]
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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!

Author:  TonyKarol [ Tue Jan 01, 2008 7:52 am ]
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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.
Author:  David Collins [ Tue Jan 01, 2008 7:57 am ]
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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.
Author:  TonyKarol [ Tue Jan 01, 2008 8:09 am ]
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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
Author:  SniderMike [ Tue Jan 01, 2008 9:01 am ]
Post subject: 
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.
Author:  TonyKarol [ Tue Jan 01, 2008 9:17 am ]
Post subject: 
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.
Author:  FishtownMike [ Tue Jan 01, 2008 12:06 pm ]
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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.
Author:  Brett Faust [ Tue Jan 01, 2008 6:24 pm ]
Post subject: 

 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.
Author:  Bob Garrish [ Tue Jan 01, 2008 8:34 pm ]
Post subject: 
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!
Author:  JJ Donohue [ Wed Jan 02, 2008 2:15 am ]
Post subject: 
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"!

Author:  crazytooguy [ Wed Jan 02, 2008 3:47 am ]
Post subject: 

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!
Author:  martinedwards [ Wed Jan 02, 2008 5:47 am ]
Post subject: 
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.......
Author:  JJ Donohue [ Wed Jan 02, 2008 6:15 am ]
Post subject: 
Thanks much for the schematics!

...great food for thought
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