Wiring Help, Esquire w/kill switch

DrBob

I'm currently building an Esquire (well it's actually Telemaster shaped but you know where I'm coming from) for my daughters guitar teacher and rather than the usual switching options that you get on a single pickup Esquire with a 3 way he's asked if it can go Off-Pickup through Volume & Tone- blower position pickup straight to output.
Is that something I can do with a standard 3 way ? & if so any chance of a cheeky diagram ?

Cheers

Rob

WezV

just leave the cap/resistor bit off standard esquire switch wiring. 

That gives 1) just volume, 2)volume and tone, 3)sweet FA

DrBob

WezV said:

just leave the cap/resistor bit off standard esquire switch wiring. 

That gives 1) just volume, 2)volume and tone, 3)sweet FA

So is 'Sweet FA' the kill switch bit ? 

ICBM

It can be done exactly as he wants.

The pickup hot is connected to the volume pot top connection and to one switch rotor. The switch terminals on that side are connected to ground, the tone control and the volume pot middle terminal in that order as the switch moves from front to back.

The volume pot ground terminal is connected to the other switch rotor (*not* to ground) and the switch terminals on that side are connected to nothing, ground and nothing in that order.

The volume pot middle terminal is connected to the jack as normal.

WezV

DrBob said:

WezV said:

just leave the cap/resistor bit off standard esquire switch wiring. 

That gives 1) just volume, 2)volume and tone, 3)sweet FA

So is 'Sweet FA' the kill switch bit ? 

Yeah.  

DrBob

@WezV , @ICBM thanks to both of you, wisdoms duly awarded, I'm off to break out the soldering iron and probably burn something 

DrBob

ICBM said:

It can be done exactly as he wants.

The pickup hot is connected to the volume pot top connection and to one switch rotor. The switch terminals on that side are connected to ground, the tone control and the volume pot middle terminal in that order as the switch moves from front to back.

The volume pot ground terminal is connected to the other switch rotor (*not* to ground) and the switch terminals on that side are connected to nothing, ground and nothing in that order.

The volume pot middle terminal is connected to the jack as normal.

John,

just to clarify a point on this. I'm guessing that 'rotor' is the one that is always connected to the blade irrespective of the position whilst 'terminal' are the ones that get selected by moving the blade switch ?

ICBM

DrBob said:

just to clarify a point on this. I'm guessing that 'rotor' is the one that is always connected to the blade irrespective of the position whilst 'terminal' are the ones that get selected by moving the blade switch ?

Yes, exactly.

Basically the three positions should give you:

Neck - pickup hot connected to ground (mute).
Middle - pickup hot connected to tone control.
Bridge - pickup hot connected to jack (blower).

In order to remove the load and give pickup straight to jack, in the bridge position the ground connection to the volume pot needs to be lifted as well, hence using the other side of the switch to do that. You can get away without doing that, but the blower mode will be less effective.

koneguitarist

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/7440801/Guitar Wiring/Esquire3-Way3.jpg

ICBM

^ Replace the Eldred Mod cap with a wire and that's it. (Or just link that terminal to the grounded one on the other side of the switch.)

Adding the second ground connection in the neck position - the little green link wire on the other side - is actually better since it will ground the pot as well as the pickup.