wiring help....

poopot

Morning pickles...

my strats are wired up thusly:



works really well... but... I love the middle position on my teles...

So.... any bright ideas how I can keep the above but have the lovely tele middle type sound?

Roland

Fit a five way superswitch?

ICBM

You’ll need an S1 switch for that I think - it needs at least three switch poles as far as I can work out.

A Superswitch would also work since that has four poles, but you’ll need to lose one of the existing settings. (Perhaps you don’t use the middle pickup by itself...)

Funkfingers

poopot said:

any bright ideas how I can keep the above but have the lovely tele middle type sound?

Tricky. The essential ingredients in that "Telecaster, both pickups on in parallel" sound are;

1. The differences in construction between the two pickups. (Magnets, wire, coil dimensions and the metal cover.)
2. The differences in their relative output.
3. The body mounting of the neck/Rhythm pickup versus the bridge/Treble pickup suspended through a stamped steel bridge/tailpiece.
4. The reflector plate on the underside of the bridge/Treble pickup.
5. The absence of a vibrato cavity.

Having made extensive use of the Seymour Duncan Twangbanger and Custom Shop Strat-Tele pickups, I regret to report that extracting a convincing Tele-like sound from a Stratocaster is never entirely successful - not even when Lowell George tried it. 

I find that the Twangbanger pickup provides more edgy twang when paired with a No-Load tone control. 

Roland said:

Fit a five way superswitch?

The simple approach would make possible the neck + bridge in parallel sound in selector switch position number 3 ... at the expense of losing the middle pickup only option.

The complex approach requires a DPDT switch or push-pull pot to divert the neck pickup signal to the volume pot input lug whilst the bridge pickup is selected. 

If I understand the Dan Armstrong schematic correctly, the lower "Fader" pot should still perform its series blending function. This will provide a continuously adjustable range of parallel and series "middle position" sounds.

The upside of this is plenty of sonic variety. The downside is that you will sometimes need to make rapid adjustments to the Fader control when switching between some of the pickup combinations.

poopot

Need to keep it as the dan armstrong set up. It works really well to be fair... sudo humbucker sounds as well as normal strat tones... I use the middle pickup a lot tbh so that needs to stay...

I know the new proposed switching wont have that proper tele spank but, for the funk stuff we do Im guessing it'd work.

ICBM

If you want to keep the middle pickup alone (which I entirely agree with ) then I'm pretty sure you're going to need an S1 or another type of 3PDT/4PDT.

poopot

ICBM said:

If you want to keep the middle pickup alone (which I entirely agree with ) then I'm pretty sure you're going to need an S1 or another type of 3PDT/4PDT.

Ok, have one I can nick from a baja... any ideas how to wire it into that set up?

ICBM

That may take some time to work out...

Funkfingers

poopot said:
have one I can nick from a baja.

The Telecaster version of an S-1 switch pot has a solid shaft rather than a splined one. It only works with a flat-topped metal Tele style S-1 control knob.

For a plastic volume knob, you need the splined shaft "Strat" version of the S-1.

poopot

Funkfingers said:

poopot said:
have one I can nick from a baja.

The Telecaster version of an S-1 switch pot has a solid shaft rather than a splined one. It only works with a flat-topped metal Tele style S-1 control knob.

For a plastic volume knob, you need the splined shaft "Strat" version of the S-1.

Fair point... will work as a tryout tho... 

ICBM

The simplest way of wiring it will be as a 'one sound only' option switch. There are four poles in the S1, so...

1 - neck pickup to 5-way switch (normal) or volume pot (down)
2 - bridge pickup to 5-way switch (normal) or volume pot (down)
3 - volume pot to 5-way (normal, no connection down)
4 - centre terminal of blend pot to ground, bypassing blend (down, no connection up)

That will give you everything you have now, but with the 'Tele' sound when you push the S1 down.

The positions of the terminals on the S1 are a little complex - two go one way and two the other, clockwise and anticlockwise - but you can work it out easily enough with a multimeter.

Adding a baseplate to the bridge pickup will also get you a little closer to the Tele sound without stopping it sounding like a Strat normally.

poopot

ICBM said:

The simplest way of wiring it will be as a 'one sound only' option switch. There are four poles in the S1, so...

1 - neck pickup to 5-way switch (normal) or volume pot (down)
2 - bridge pickup to 5-way switch (normal) or volume pot (down)
3 - volume pot to 5-way (normal, no connection down)
4 - centre terminal of blend pot to ground, bypassing blend (down, no connection up)

That will give you everything you have now, but with the 'Tele' sound when you push the S1 down.

The positions of the terminals on the S1 are a little complex - two go one way and two the other, clockwise and anticlockwise - but you can work it out easily enough with a multimeter.

Adding a baseplate to the bridge pickup will also get you a little closer to the Tele sound without stopping it sounding like a Strat normally.

Cheers fella...FYI, if any one does the dan Armstrong wiring and adds a base plate to the bridge pup, it need to be grounded separately... or the blend pot will kill the guitar... been there done that!.