Volume, tone and toggle. What can I do thats interesting whith these?

Hertz32

For my next GAS I am looking to have some interesting internals to play about with. Its getting converted Active to passive, so is there any way I could have some kind of bypassable active circuitry I could have fun with I could stick in there? Control wise I have 2 knobs and a toggle switch, but I'm having four conductor pickups made, so I can coil tap. Is there any kind of way that I can adjust the level of coil tap through an internal micro pot in the control cavity, so that I can control how single coiley they actually are? Could i have the coil tap on a push pull log volume pot, and then have a push/push Linear tone pot for in phase/out of phase too? If you can think of how to make this needlessly complex, but jammed full of wacky sounds I am all ears.

koneguitarist

You could use a push push pot for phase reversal on the volume pot, and use tone as a coil tap. For instance if you are using SD pickups the red and white leads get twisted together and you use the tone as a volume for those coils.

rpr

You could turn the knobs into variable coil splits- this would give you full HB at one end of travel and full split at the other, with all the variations where of in between, for each pickup

The toggle switch could be used to select which coil of the humbucker is split-From what I've read this is less effective on the neck,  but in the bridge, apparently, changes the split tone from a Strat-ish to a more Tele-ish tone.

koneguitarist

Check this switch out though, it can do everything. http://www.stewmac.com/Pickups_and_Electronics/Components_and_Parts/Switches/Free-Way_Pickup_Switch.html

ICBM

Hertz32 said:

Is there any kind of way that I can adjust the level of coil tap through an internal micro pot in the control cavity, so that I can control how single coiley they actually are?

Yes, very easy. Just wire the trimmer in series between the coil split connection and wherever it normally goes to.

Hertz32 said:

Could i have the coil tap on a push pull log volume pot, and then have a push/push Linear tone pot for in phase/out of phase too?

You want a Log for tone or it tends to act like a switch. No problem with using a push-pull for phase though.

Hertz32

@koneguitarist I've been looking for those! I have a good idea of what I'm after now, cheers chaps. Current plan is 6 way toggle for switching, and switching w coil tap. Push/push volume pot for a killswitch Push/pull tone control for... Would I be able to use the tone control to bypass everything and send the "full-fat" signal from the bridge pickup straight to the output jack regardless of the rest of the electronics?

ICBM

Hertz32 said:

Would I be able to use the tone control to bypass everything and send the "full-fat" signal from the bridge pickup straight to the output jack regardless of the rest of the electronics?

Yes. 

http://cdo.seymourduncan.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/ModifiedWiring.png

Basically one side of the DPDT toggles the bridge pickup to either the normal electrics or the second side of the switch, and the second side of the switch toggles the jack to either the normal electrics or the first side.

Don't make the link like that 'u' wire though - that runs the bypass through both poles of the switch in series… possibly unreliable. Make an 'x' between the lower four terminals with two wires.