HH Wiring Issue

dhaywood67

I'm having an issue with the wiring on my Strat. I'm installing a new scratchplate with just 2 humbuckers which I'm trying to wire 2 vol and single tone with a 3-way blade switch. My issue is that in the middle pickup I only get the volume set on the lowest volume control rather than being able to blend the pickups. 

They'e Iron Gear Hot Slag 4-wire pickups. I've got the green and white joined, the red to volume and black and shield to earth. I'm following the Iron Gear diagram for '2 x Humbuckers, 2 Volume, 2 Tone(Switched), 3 Way Toggle'  but without the push/pull on the volumes.

How do I get the volumes to work as I want? Any help would be gratefully received.

Cheers

Funkfingers

dhaywood67 said:

I'm following the Iron Gear diagram for '2 x Humbuckers, 2 Volume, 2 Tone(Switched), 3 Way Toggle'  but without the push/pull on the volumes.

Small wonder that you have become confused.

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The circuit that you are attempting to construct is a hybrid of Telecaster and Explorer/Flying Vee.

The signal path is humbucker > individual volume pot > selector switch > shared tone pot > output jack socket.

The critical element is to connect the signal from each volume pot to the "common" terminal on one (or other) pole of the lever selector switch. 

The collector wire between four of the switch terminals carries the signal to the tone control. The final connection is to the jack socket.

I probably ought to draw this circuit on an envelope, photograph it and upload the photograph.

dhaywood67

Thanks. The circuit looks simple but the switch isn't a standard 3-way if that makes sense it's one of these

https://www.axetec.co.uk/axetec_media/sw002-switching-1000.gif

So I have vol 1 to 2&3, vol 2 to 6&7 and signal to tone/output 4&5

Funkfingers

Yes, what you have described makes sense.

When terminals 2 and 7 are selected, both pickups should be audible and both volume pots should work.

For individual pickup blending to work, each pickup signal should go to the middle contact of its respective pot. The connection between volume pot and selector switch should be from the outer terminal. 

The accuracy of control over pickup volume balance will depend on the quality of the pots. 

ICBM

dhaywood67 said:

Thanks. The circuit looks simple but the switch isn't a standard 3-way if that makes sense it's one of these

https://www.axetec.co.uk/axetec_media/sw002-switching-1000.gif

So I have vol 1 to 2&3, vol 2 to 6&7 and signal to tone/output 4&5

That should work… I don’t think that switch has any extra internal connections. But you could try swapping it to Vol 1 to 7&8 and Vol 2 to 1&2, just in case.

On each volume control, the pickup should be connected to the end terminal, and the middle terminal to the switch. If you really want ‘independent’ volume controls - so you can turn one right down without muting the other, in the middle position - reverse that so the pickup is connected to the middle. That has other disadvantages though.

Funkfingers

ICBM said:

That has other disadvantages though.

Indeedy doody.

With a HH configuration, my inclination would be to have either;
1) Master vol and master tone
2) Volume, neck tone, bridge tone.

I like to be able to switch instantly between neck humbucker with the treble rolled off to bridge humbucker at maximum brightness. Individual tone pots make this possible.

On a HH guitar with a lever selector switch, I would be tempted to upgrade to a Superswitch. Add two more usable sounds from the four pickup coils. For such circuits, MV, MT controls is usually easier to wire up and use.

ICBM

I don’t see a problem with wiring it VVT, but I’d be inclined to just use a proper CRL switch…