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I rarely use the middle pickup alone but would be wary of sacrificing it all together in case I want it some times.
Google Stratocaster Seven Sound Mod. I prefer to have the neck pickup be the one that gets switched.
First, I feel duty bound to ask, how often have you used the neck + bridge sound on a Stratocaster type guitar?
The middle pickup alone is something I barely use but ideally I'd like to leave it as an option if possible.
So it would only take a switch? I'd have thought the middle position I want would also require a super switch?
It's much easier to use the standard wiring and a switch to get the bridge+neck, there are several ways of doing this depending on exactly how you want it to work.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
In my opinion, it is easier to add the Neck Pickup On switch to the conventional wiring harness than it would be to break and remake a bunch of connections to employ a Superswitch and, then, have to add a more complex on/on switch to flip between the neck + bridge pairing and the centre pickup alone.
From your perspective, the downside of the simple approach is that the neck + bridge combination requires the flipping of a switch or the pulling up of a push-pull knob.
Maybe replacing the blender with an on off switch would solve those problems in an easier way.
Ideally the middle position would be the b+n with the switch activating the middle pickup but I take your points that it's significantly more complicated to implement that.
Thanks for the advice.
The blend mod negates a good deal of what was posted earlier because there are several ways to wire up a blend control. (You have omitted to mention which pickup gets blended in or where.) Until the starting point is known, remote wiring problem solving is next to impossible.
The mod I have blends in either the neck or the bridge pickup into the other one. It only involved moving a couple of wires around and adding 1 extra wire in, took about 5 minutes to do and could be reversed to stock in the same time so it's irrelevant really.
Was really just wanting to know if the setup I want is impossible or unrealistically complicated to implement.
After reading the replies I'm thinking using an S1 switch instead of the blend knob might solve the problems I was having. Unless it's reasonably easy to do it the way I ideally want?
Swap the neck and middle pickup wires on the switch to give neck and bridge instead of middle and bridge in the 2nd position.
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"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
ICBM that's actually a thought, I wouldn't like the switches but an s1 switch for each pickup could be an interesting idea.
Couple of trivial downsides would be that the s1 switches only come with volume printed on them and also having the redundant blade switch.
Firstly, a Schaller Megaswitch model 'E' is a doddle to wire and gives sounds exactly like a stock 5-way Strat except position #3 is neck and bridge together - easiest way if you could sacrifice middle pickup alone (I know you said you want access to the middle pickup alone, I'm just putting the easy option out there!)
Next, with respect to the neck adder switch, think carefully about what sounds you want accessible easily. For me, I always need to be able to get to the bridge pickup alone easily, so I have used the bridge adder switch instead - identical concept to the neck adder, so dead easy to do, identical seven sounds too, but in 'adder' mode the sounds are arranged differently and the bridge adder works better for me.
Final point. Although I've never used them, Northwest Guitars sell a metal bracket to hold a mini toggle switch (recessed) and matching pickguards with a small slot for the end of the toggle. Very discrete and very Gilmour. I was happy with a regular toggle, but if it gets in your way then this may help. Mini toggle switches themselves are cheap, and importantly, reliable. I wouldn't necessarily say that of S-1 switches or push-push pots.
http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/89942/caspercaster#latest
Does anyone foresee any problems with wiring up a super switch like that and connecting the output of it to one side of a toggle switch then connecting the other side of the toggle switch directly to the middle pickup? Would that allow me to select between just the middle pickup or the output of the super switch?
What you propose r.e. the Superswitch + toggle should be easily achievable.
http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/89942/caspercaster#latest
CasperCaster - I still couldn't find anywhere to get a Goldo/Eyb switch - I found one of the ones that link the b + n pickups in series but not parallel. Oh well, at least the superswitch seems easy enough to wire up manually.
Thanks to everyone who posted advice and suggestions
https://www.premierguitar.com/articles/24551-mod-garage-strat-prs-crossover-wiring
For the superswitch, I saw the Schaller Model E mentioned:
https://www.allparts.uk.com/products/5-way-switch-schaller-model-e-blade-megaswitch
As it's out of stock, would this do the same job? If so is it as good or would it be better to special order the Schaller?
https://www.allparts.uk.com/products/4-pole-double-wafer-5-way-superswitch-for-guitar-w-screws
Thanks
Clever as its design is, no variant of the Schaller Superswitch can perform the task.
Some of the OTAX 4-pole switches associated with Ibanez would suffice.
In my opinion, there is a downside to the DW circuit. Only four of the ten selections will sound right. Any permutation involving a split humbucker will sound fake. (Dirk pretty much admits this in the article. "Depending on the humbuckers, this can work quite well." Faint praise, methinks.)