HSS wiring diagram needed

daveyh

So, building a HSS strat for my son and he wants a seemingly simple wiring scheme but can't find a diagram for it anywhere. Going to be a SD JB and as yet undecided singles. Anyone help?

what he wants is this:

1: bridge
2: bridge and middle (auto split, out of phase)
3: middle
4: middle and neck (out of phase)
5: neck

seemingly normal there, but the trouble is with the switch/pots. He wants master vol and two tones, with the tones for 1) bridge humbucker and  2) neck and middle single coils.  Any thoughts forcpot values with this compromise? I've heard the JB was designed for 250k so that might be fine

thanks in advance 

CasperCaster

If you want to use a standard five way switch then the tone controls will have to be wired in parallel with the pickups (as an example, one wired to bridge pickup input of switch and one wired to neck pickup input of switch). This is necessary as the second wafer of the switch needs to be dedicated to the coil split. In the example above the tone controls will operate on any pickup selections where the bridge pickup is selected (so positions 1&2 of the switch) and where the neck pickup is selected (positions 4&5 of the switch). Where the middle pickup is used alone (position 3) there is no tone control. This is the limitation of a standard switch, but it might be a compromise your son is able to make? (As an aside, many 80's HSS guitars only have one tone, which is wired off the volume control - this probably came about because of the common practice of using one of the poles of the 5-way switch for the auto coil-split).

To do what you have suggested should be possible with a 4-pole superswitch, as you can dedicate a pole to the tone controls. The only compromise might be in position 2 (as you have described it above). In that position, does your son want both tone controls to operate (since both bridge split and middle are selected), or just a single tone control (either the bridge OR the neck/middle control)? If it is the latter then it is definitely achievable. For example it would be easy to have the bridge tone control operate only in position one, with the other control operating on any or all of the other switch positions. Or alternatively to have the bridge tone control operate on positions 1&2 and the other tone control on the remaining positions). In essence, with a single wafer of the superswitch dedicated to the tone controls either of the tone controls can be dedicated to any discrete switch position, but no switch position can have both tone controls operating (hence the query about position 2).

Off the top of my head, the remaining 3 poles of the superswitch would be wired to switch the pickups (bridge and neck pickups on one pole, middle pickup on another pole), with the coil tap on the third pole. There maybe a more efficient way to do this, but i don't have time to think about it more right now! Perhaps over the Easter weekend...

Next, pot values: 250K is fine, especially with a JB, as they work particularly well with that value, and is one reason why they are a popular pickup choice in HSS guitars.

Finally, if you haven't already done so, take a look at this wiring site. Lots of info and probably something close to what you want.

https://sites.google.com/site/phostenixwiringdiagrams/home

steamabacus

A question -

Are you certain you want positions 2 and 4 out of phase?

Positions 2 and 4 on a Strat are commonly called 'out of phase' but in fact they're not really. They are parallel in phase.

I have an Ibanez Blazer with a phase switch on the middle pickup and, when truly out of phase, the 2 and 4 sounds are not the most usable - thin and nasal - ok for some recording uses but not a sound I've ever really used live.

Jalapeno

http://bfy.tw/BCoh

CasperCaster

@steamabacus you are correct about the out of phase terminology. For clarity, in my response I assumed that the out of phase to which @daveyh refers is in fact in parallel in phase i.e. the regular Strat sounds in positions 2 & 4.

@Jalapeno the SD site has lots of useful diagrams, but unless I missed something it doesn't specifically have one which addresses the OP's query.

daveyh

Jalapeno said:

http://bfy.tw/BCoh

See the bit where I said I can't find a diagram for it anywhere?