Wiring/Control options for 3 pup guitar

Bob-Dubery

OK, I just bought some pups. These are from an Ibanez blazer. Many years ago I had one of these and what you got was 3 pups (a la Stratocaster) with
Master volume
Master tone
5 position blade selector
1 mini toggle that controlled the phase of the middle PUP
1 mini toggle that "tapped" the neck and bridge PUPs

So 2 of the 3 PUPs in the set are "tapable"

I bought the entire assembly - pick guard, switches etc. Somebody has rewired and as far as I can ascertain the set up now is
No options for the neck PUP
Tap for the bridge PUP - controlled by a mini-toggle
A 3-position mini-toggle for the bridge PUP that gives out of phase in one position, "normal" in the middle position and tapped in the 3rd.
Then a5 position blade selector with master volume and tone.

I can't just drop this assembly in. The pickguard is not going to fit. So my plan is to buy a new pickguard, mount the pickups in that and then.....

OK, suggestions please.

I will have positions for THREE pots.

I am toying with the idea of 3 volume pots - 1 per PUP. But I have come across a common mod on strats of late - master volume, tone controls for bridge and neck and thus no tone for the MIDDLE pup (a small variation on the standard strat wiring).

I would like to go back to the blazer scheme of having the tappable PUPs at neck and bridge, but it seems that the extra pot would offer a little more variety.

When I played electric many years ago I never found much use for tone pots, and I would be quite happy to go the three volume pot route.

Thoughts? Suggestions?

Warren

X-rated Bob wrote OK, I just bought some pups. These are from an Ibanez blazer. Many years ago I had one of these and what you got was 3 pups (a la Stratocaster) with
Master volume
Master tone
5 position blade selector
1 mini toggle that controlled the phase of the middle PUP
1 mini toggle that "tapped" the neck and bridge PUPs

So 2 of the 3 PUPs in the set are "tapable"

I bought the entire assembly - pick guard, switches etc. Somebody has rewired and as far as I can ascertain the set up now is
No options for the neck PUP
Tap for the bridge PUP - controlled by a mini-toggle
A 3-position mini-toggle for the bridge PUP that gives out of phase in one position, "normal" in the middle position and tapped in the 3rd.
Then a5 position blade selector with master volume and tone.

I can't just drop this assembly in. The pickguard is not going to fit. So my plan is to buy a new pickguard, mount the pickups in that and then.....

OK, suggestions please.

I will have positions for THREE pots.

I am toying with the idea of 3 volume pots - 1 per PUP. But I have come across a common mod on strats of late - master volume, tone controls for bridge and neck and thus no tone for the MIDDLE pup (a small variation on the standard strat wiring).

I would like to go back to the blazer scheme of having the tappable PUPs at neck and bridge, but it seems that the extra pot would offer a little more variety.

When I played electric many years ago I never found much use for tone pots, and I would be quite happy to go the three volume pot route.

Thoughts? Suggestions?

Common option for Strats (and the one I have on mine) is volume, tone/neck, tone/bridge, with the middle wired open. This is useful because you can instantly get a bright middle quack at any time, and positions 2 and 4 always have a nice jangle to them. Neck for me is then almost always wide open too, with tone rolled off heavily for the bridge for thicker solo tones. I find the bridge far too bright otherwise.

Obviously, you could set up some presets on your amp/gear to compensate anyway, only switching to the bridge when you hit your "Marshall" tone and using the neck for your "Fender" tone, depending open your amp / pedal / effects choices.

3 volumes will probably be really fussy for live play, and with recording you're free to overdub and change stuff anyway in between takes. And even so, 1 master volume works great even if you do switch pups mid-song.

I reckon you'll get the most versatility from a single volume and maybe the tone for the bridge + tap or the 2 tone-pot route.

MikeM

Bob, are you any good with a soldering iron? I.e are you going to do this yourself?

If that's the case, I'd suggest buying a couple dpdt on/off/on switches and then doing something to test combinations of pups. I.e neck on hot mode with bridge on cold, etc, middle on or out of phase. Writing down the worthwhile tones, then wiring it up to a 5 way super switch and using one pushpull to swap between 2 different 5 way switch setups, that way you can have all your vols and tones etc, and also only have the most usable tones out the guitar ?

I can help you with this if like the idea ?

djpauw

interesting topic... Oddly enough i'm in the planning stages of something similar. A friend is buying a used Ibanez of some kind, apparently on paper it is a great axe, but the previous owner didn't take good care of it and messed it up somewhat. So my friend wants me to go all out on it in terms of custom wiring....

It's a HSH pup config btw

so i'm leaning toward 1x master volume, 1x blending of the humbuckers and 1x master tone. All or some of the pots will be push pull for pup phase, coil splitting and/or series/parallel selection. Existing 5 way switch will be retained to select the active combination of pups...

Maybe you can use some of these ideas... Or maybe you will come up with something else that inspires me...

Cheers for now

DJ

Bob-Dubery

Ja, I can solder. Indeed I used to do a LOT of soldering. But I don't have decent tools or a work bench any more and am vrek lazy to boot.

So. The job is being done by the excellent Mark at McGibbon's. I proposed a bit of an experimental set up to him, but he didnt think I'm totally mad, thought it might prove useful and pointed out that if life gets too complicated it's only a matter of moving a couple of bits of wire around.

So the pickups will be arranged so that the neck and bridge get the taps - as per the standard Blazer wiring. The middle PUP will get a phase switch.

Then the weird bit. Volume and tone for the front PUPS (IE middle and neck) and then a master volume on the output side of the selector switch. So I can jump volume by moving the selector from middle to bridge, or in the 2 position I can blend the middle pup in with the bridge PUP.

This may be insanity. It may be the start of the next big thing. It may prove to be unworkable, but as Mark says, it's only a couple of bits of wire to move around.

We had a good look at the Cortcaster. We don't know WHAT wood it is, but it's solid wood, not ply wood, so I figure it's worth spending a bit of money on it. No Floyd Roses or anything like that, but the electronics upgrade and a Graphtec nut.

Sebastian

oh great, I was just about to start a similar topic ?

since we're on this already I want to ask my own question...

as far as volume pots go, covention states that humbuckers need 500k pots and that single coils need 250k. (obviously only convention...)

what normally happens or is recommended with H-S-H configurations?

Attila

Hi Bob-x
have a look here http://guitarnuts2.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=schem&field=ordertime&order=desc&page=1

and take your pick ?