Wiring Diagram For HSS Strat W/3 Mini Switches

DrBob

Evening All,

I’m hoping a friend resurrect his first electric guitar. It’s an 80s Hohner Superstrat. He took it apart 15 years ago with thoughts of modding it. 

He then moved house 4 times and lost quite a lot of the parts.

Sooo I’ve done the fret dress, ordered a new nut and now we’re on to electrics 

It’s an HSS config with holes for mini toggle switches for each pickup, master volume, master tone.
I know that you can have a myriad of options with three toggles but having discussed it with him what he wants is simple on/off for the neck & middle singles & on/off/split for the bridge humbucker.
so two questions what mini switches do I need ? Is it spst for the neck & mid & spdt ? Or dpdt for the bridge ?
And could anyone point me to a wiring diagram for this ?
I don’t really understand how the switches work and whether you then sum the 3 outputs to the lug on the volume pot ? 

As ever, any help gratefully received 

ICBM

You need SPSTs for the front two and a centre-off DPDT for the bridge. (There is a way of doing it with a SPDT, but it’s not as good.)

You simply connect one terminal on the front two switches and one of the middle ones on the bridge switch to the volume control, and the hot outputs of each pickup to those switches. The other side of the DPDT is used to connect the humbucker coil split connection to either hot or ground (using the opposite end terminal from the hot) depending on which coil you want to remain active.

Also, each switch connects the middle to the opposite end terminal from the direction the toggle is pointing in.

Does that make sense?

Funkfingers

DP3T on/off/on switches can leak in the off position.

I would use 3 SPDT switches for engaging the pickups plus a push-pull pot for the humbucker coil splittage. Might even be better to have a partial/tuned split.

ICBM

Funkfingers said:

DP3T on/off/on switches can leak in the off position.

I don’t think I’ve ever come across that.

I would still use one, it keeps the switching simpler.

I did forget one thing though - on the first side of the DPDT, you need to connect *both* end terminals to the pickup hot. I’ll draw a diagram if it’s more useful.

DrBob

. I’ll draw a diagram if it’s more useful.

If you get a chance that would be a tremendous help. Thanks !

ICBM

You can use SPDTs (often easier to buy) for the front two, just leave the extra terminal unconnected.

That scheme will give you the bridge-side coil of the humbucker when split, assuming standard Gibson/Duncan pickup wiring.

DrBob

@ICBM Thanks for doing that that’s great, the bridge pickup is a PRS if that has any bearing on the DPDT switch wiring.

Can I ask why you join all the hot outputs across the switches rather than running the hot outputs separately from the 3 switches to the volume pot ? 

ICBM

DrBob said:

@ICBM Thanks for doing that that’s great, the bridge pickup is a PRS if that has any bearing on the DPDT switch wiring.

I can't remember which way round they are, but cross that bridge ( ) when you come to it, if it even matters.

DrBob said:

Can I ask why you join all the hot outputs across the switches rather than running the hot outputs separately from the 3 switches to the volume pot ? 

Because it's easier . You can actually do it with one straight piece of plain wire if you prefer. If you want to use three separate wires it will work exactly the same though.

DrBob

Bit of a thread resurrection here but @ICBM ivd got a further question(a) if that’s okay ?
Right I’ve 
finally got hold of the mini toggle switches and I’ve mounted them to a bit of board to make soldering easier than trying to do it inside the control cavity. My mate ended up going for an Oil City Blackbird in the end and what we’re going for is switch up = coil split, centre = off switch down = full humbucker. So to do that would I be wanting to solder the blue & green wires from the pickup to point A or point B ?

https://i.imgur.com/kkoTTCe.jpg

Also, final question, we ended up going for On/On switches for the neck &
middle single coils as we couldn’t get SPDT On/Off in black so in that instance given that I’m using it as a straight on/off I’m guessing there’s 3 connectors on each switch anyway and in then For switch up = off, switch down = off am I wiring pickup hot to top tab & output to centre ? 

I think that makes sense ?

Sorry to keep asking 

ICBM

I don't know the colour coding on the Oil City pickups, but you want the full output of the pickup connected to the bridge hot, and the split connected to the terminal on the side of the switch furthest from the strings when it's assembled.

These mini-switches always connect the centre terminal to the one in the opposite direction from where the toggle is pointing, so if you want down = on for the neck and middle, use the terminals closest to the strings.

DrBob

Wisdom awarded thanks as always John. 

normula1

Ash uses the samw colour code as Gibson