guitar wiring: non standard guitar wiring advice

[PlanktonSideburns]

any guitar wiring experts on here?

im just putting together a heavy duty, mini electric guitar so i can cycle to rehersals without a load of heavy stuff, - im trying to keep its wiring really minimal, so that theres barely any controls on the body, less things to get knocked in transit. The way i want it set up is as follows:

two single coil pickups,

one 3-way toggle switch like this:



no volume knob, no tone knob. so no pots at all

as it dont got no knobs, none of the usual wiring diagragms ive looked up online seem to apply, and i know nothing about how these things work, i only know how to copy stuff off other peoples diagragms.

anyone on CAB have any idea how such a thing would be wired up?

[NoSleep]

Have you not got a guitar you can take the scratch plate off to examine the routing?

[NoSleep]

So... the jack input is two contacts, which, if you were just connecting a single pickup, the two wires from it would go to that. As you want to select three positions using the switch I would guess (this is all just guesswork) one of the contacts is to the jack input whilst the other two will go to each of the pickups and the other wire from each pickup will both go to the other contact on the jack input. As to which way round on the pickups or which is which on the three-way, I have no idea; one way will be the "proper" way but the reverse probably sounds much the same (but will be 180° out of phase).

I would have gone for a minimalist one pickup.

[PlanktonSideburns]

Have you not got a guitar you can take the scratch plate off to examine the routing?

not in this configuration, and knowing nothing on the first principles of these things, i wouldnt be able to look at something different and transcribe it over to this setting

So... the jack input is two contacts, which, if you were just connecting a single pickup, the two wires from it would go to that. As you want to select three positions using the switch I would guess (this is all just guesswork) one of the contacts is to the jack input whilst the other two will go to each of the pickups and the other wire from each pickup will both go to the other contact on the jack input. As to which way round on the pickups or which is which on the three-way, I have no idea; one way will be the "proper" way but the reverse probably sounds much the same (but will be 180° out of phase).

I would have gone for a minimalist one pickup.

ah great, - will give that a go tommorow morning! very tempted by a single pickup, as thats the only thing i can wire minus diagragm, but just adding one more pickup for some neck and bridge/neck action would be so much more utility for the amount of stuff in it

[NoSleep]

not in this configuration, and knowing nothing on the first principles of these things, i wouldnt be able to look at something different and transcribe it over to this setting

If what I just theorised made sense to you (lots of ifs), then a cursory glance at the wiring of another guitar would really help to confirm a plan of action. All you would need to make note of is how to eliminate the pots from the formula.

ah great, - will give that a go tommorow morning! very tempted by a single pickup, as thats the only thing i can wire minus diagragm, but just adding one more pickup for some neck and bridge/neck action would be so much more utility for the amount of stuff in it

Even with a single pickup it could be wired the right or wrong way around and probably sound OK-ish both ways (and it's a tiny bit worth getting it right).

One important extra bit of wiring is that somewhere along the way (probably off the jack would be best, not sure if either contact would be "right", but I'm going to guess that the sleeve/ring contact will be the correct one) you have to wire this up to the bridge to minimise noise. You'll notice how guitars get noisy when you're not touching the strings; that's why; you have to be connected to the wiring.

[a duncandisorderly]

where did you get the switch? it might be centre-off, which may or may not be how you want the guitar to behave. if you want to run both pickups at once, you'll need a different approach to wiring it than if you want the centre position to be off.

either way, it goes like this: the black wires from both pickups go to the outer (sleeve) contact on the jack socket. this contact also needs connecting to the bridge metalwork.

if the switch is centre-off, you can connect the tip contact from the socket to the centre of the switch, with the two white wires going to the other two contacts.
however, this will buzz at you because the amp isn't connected to anything in the off position.

if it's not a centre-off, i.e. it's a proper guitar pickup selector like you'd have in a les paul or a ricky bass, you'll have both pickups on in the centre position, but no way of muting yourself unless you do that with (say) a tuner pedal.

consider adding a second, much smaller 'kill' switch- a simple two-contact mini toggle switch, between the tip & sleeve contacts of the jack socket. as well as allowing you to mute the guitar quickly, you will be able to mute the guitar quickly during solos & pretend to be johnny greenwood when he was still an interesting guitarist.

see this? just go straight from the switch to the tip contact on the socket. ignore the pots. pretend they're not there. I play bass, & I never ever use the pots anywhere except right on or right off. stupid crackly things. if I want less treble, I'll play closer to the neck & adapt my plucking style. if I want loud, I'll play harder. simple.

[PlanktonSideburns]

Thanks both!

Guitar is all wired up now - just finishing the body tomorrow and it's ready for a coat of paint

It was a 3 way switch, rather than a 1/off/2 one, so I got me three pickup options.

I briefly considered putting an vol knob on it, but didn't bother - got a volume pedal and a tuner for that sort of stuff, and I've made the body about as small as physically possible

[Dex Sawash]

Never gave any thought to what the tone knob does until looking at that schematic.
WTF does the tone pot do?
What is "C" a capacitor?
It's shunting off some available signal voltage to ground?

[a duncandisorderly]

Never gave any thought to what the tone knob does until looking at that schematic.
WTF does the tone pot do?
What is "C" a capacitor?
It's shunting off some available signal voltage to ground?

in this context, the capacitor provides a path to ground for the audio signal, a path that's progressively easier for the audio signal as frequency increases. first, though, it has to find its way through the tone pot. if this is wound all the way down, it encounters no resistance. all the way up, a lot of resistance (& hence no treble-cut).

other guitar schematics use capacitors in different ways. I have a G&L bass that also has a bass tone control, for instance, & the classic rickenbacker 4001 has a cap in series with one of the pickups to reduce the amount of bass from it. the fender VI has a switchable 'strangle' function that sends the entire bass through a cap so that when you play chords on the thing, it's not all mud.

[Dex Sawash]

Thanks, will have to consult F. Mims to refresh my memory on cap function. I always forget the range of things components can do and how they do them.


Edit- fuck my hat... The crossovers you find on 2-way speskers are probably just capacitors aren't they?

Edit Edit- cap and a resistor to tune the xover point innnit?

[The Boston Crab]

Terrible thread, wrong forum, edit bug.

[PlanktonSideburns]

Terrible thread, wrong forum, edit bug.

mate, its a shmup themed guitar, dont be a dick