Just a quick photo of Mike Byrne’s latest build with our Maelstrom fitted in the neck.
Byrner Maelstrom install.
Month: September 2020
Warmanized passive tone filter circuit
Fed up with your tone control simply dumping all your frequencies to ground ? Fancy getting a bit funky with your soldering iron ? Then have a go at wiring up this passive tone filter for your guitar.
3 way lever switches with 8 connection lugs explained
Following on from yesterdays outpourings over the mysteries of the 5 way lever switch I thought I had better also offer up an explanation for the way the 3 way levers work as well.
Physically they look identical to the 5 way lever switches, although we supply ours with a Tele style knob, and again have a row of 8 connection lugs along the bottom edge. Again these switches have two separate banks of 4 lugs that interconnect in various different switch positions. Ive cheated in that the below photo is yesterdays 5 way switch but for sake of explanation in this blurb they look the same.
For wiring one of the switches up as a Telecaster type 3 position switch that selects neck, neck and bridge, or bridge on its own we only need to wire up as shown below.
Below is a diagram of what is happening inside the switch, positions are denoted as Position 1 being the switch as viewed in the above photo with the switch arm thrown to the left Position 3 being the switch arm thrown to the full right and for those dullards amongst you ( I am grinning as I write that so don’t be too offended ) Position 2 is with the switch arm in the middle.
So to connect it up as 3 position selector on a 2 pickup Tele type guitar you just need to.
Solder small jumper wires between lugs 2 and 3, another between 4 and 5, and yet another between 6 and 7.
Solder an output wire from lug 4 to the input lug on your volume pot.
Solder the positive + wire from the bridge pickup to lug 3
Solder the positive + wire from the neck pickup to lug 6.
Thats it – jobs a good ‘un.
5 way lever switches with 8 connection lugs explained.
And now onward to demystify the not so complex world of all those connection points on the bottom of 5 way import lever switches. Be warned not a lot of tech speak used. These switches are used on 3 pickup guitars to give you the classic 5 tonal combinations of bridge pickup on its own, bridge and middle pickups on together in parallel, middle pickup on its own, middle and neck pickups on together in parallel and lastly neck pickup on its own. For the sake of this explanation the bridge pickup is referred to as POSITION 1 and neck pickup is in POSITION 5 .
We are also going to refer to the connection lugs as either SIDE A ( shown left in the photo ) and SIDE B
Although there are 8 connection lugs racked up across the bottom of the switch you need to be thinking of this as two separate banks of 4 lugs that do not connect to each other. So whilst the 4 pins on the left hand side ( SIDE A ) connect up with each other in various switch positions and the 4 pins on the right ( SIDE B ) connect up with each other in various switch positions each side of the switch works independently of the other.
These types of switches operate on the same basis as the old fashioned Strat 4 lugs per side with its just that all the connectors are inline o e bottom edge of the switch.
The diagram below shows which lugs are connected when the switch is in various positions.
To wire one of these switches up in the traditional 3 pickup Start type switching arrangement goes as follows.
First thing you need to do is solder on a small jumper wire that connects the two middle lugs ( 4 and 5 ) so that both sides of the switch now physically connect up a common feed out. You then wire these two lugs up to the input lug of your volume pot ( assuming you are using just the one volume pot as in a Strat )
Now you hook your 3 pickups into the switch by soldering each of the hot / plus / positive – whatever you care to call them – wires into SIDE A of the switch in the position shown so…….
Neck positive wire goes to input lug 1
Middle positive wire goes to input lug 2
Bridge positive wire goes to input lug 3
SIDE B of the switch is where you take the fees out for whichever pickups you want to have tone controls. Typically Strat type arrangements tend to have tone controls on the neck and middle pickup and the bridge doesn’t have any tone control. I’ve shown all the 3 outputs so that you can choose which have tone controls.
If you want just the middle and neck pickups to have tone controls then obviously you don’t need a wire out for the bridge. There are other possibilities, if you wanted the neck pickup to have its own independent tone control but have the middle and neck share a tone control then you’d take the feed for the neck tone from lug 6 and then, to keep the spaghettification to a minimum, you’d run a jumper wire between lug 7 and 8 with a wire out to the other tone pot.
Thats all there is to it really. Told you it wasn’t that complicated.
Wiring two pickups and basic controls
Wiring two pickups and basic controls. It’s not rocket science, and nothing to fear. If you can solder, you can wire your guitar.
Wiring two pickups and basic controls. The schematic below shows a two-pickup setup. It has a 3-way selector switch, one volume, and one tone control.
It doesn’t matter which brand of pickups you use. Wire colours may differ, but the principles stay the same. Here are some quick tips to guide you.
Checking pickup polarity
Pickups follow the rule: opposites attract.
When using two pickups, you want opposite magnetic poles. Hold their faces together. If they stick, you’re good. That’s north and south attracting.
For three single coils:
- Bridge should stick to middle.
- Middle should stick to neck.
With humbuckers, the idea is the same. The screw poles on one should attract to the screw poles on the other.
Wires on single coils
A simple single coil usually has two wires.
Sometimes it’s one cable with inner and outer wires. Sometimes it’s two separate coloured wires.
The inner wire is hot (positive). The outer, wrapped around it, is ground (negative).
It doesn’t matter which you choose as hot. The key is consistency. Use the same wire for hot on all pickups, and the same for ground.
Wires on humbuckers
Humbuckers often have 4 or 5 wires. Here’s the breakdown:
- The bare wire (often soldered to another) = ground.
- Two wires soldered together = coil link. Wrap them in tape or heat-shrink. Ignore them for now.
- The last single wire = hot. This goes to the selector switch or volume input.
That’s all you need for basic wiring. No need to memorise colour codes.
If your humbucker has just one cable, treat it like a single coil. Same rules apply.
Grounding everything
Ground is critical. Miss it, and your guitar will hum like a wasp in a biscuit tin.
Run a wire from the bridge to ground. Make sure all ground points are linked:
- Pot backs
- Switch casings
- Pickup ground wires
Test continuity with a cheap tester. You’ll find them in car parts shops or electronics stores. They have a probe, a light, and a crocodile clip.
Clip to the bridge or a pot back. Touch the probe to each ground point. The light should glow if the connection is good.
A few quid on a tester can save hours of head-scratching.