=========================================================================== Tim Stanley's Generic Rewiring FAQ =========================================================================== -------------------------------- Where to get more info -------------------------------- To learn more about re-wiring - check out: 1) the Guitar Handbook by Ralph Denyer - there is a fine section on fundamentals and all of the possibilities. 2) Check out a book that Warmouth and Stew-Mac sells called "Build Your Own Electric Guitar" (can't remember the author, I think it is Foley, but it is not the one by Melvin Hiscock). There are quite a few rewiring schematics in there - nearly all the traditional ones (Strat, Tele, Gibson Les Paul/SG, etc) plus more. Hiscock's book has a few schematics, but is really a (very good) reference on building the actual guitar. 3) The 2/93 Guitar Player magazine has an article summarizing 4 old previously printed rewiring schemes. 4) Also, check out these old Guitar Player articles (sorry, I can't remember the titles, all I have is this list and all I know is that they were interesting enough that I wrote the dates down): GP 3/81 8/84 8/85 3/86 5/86 11/86 2/87 8/87 (Dan Armstrong Super-Strat that you sent) 1/89 (Ultimate Strat Switch) -------------------------------- Where to get parts -------------------------------- The switches you need for the Dan Armstrong modification are available from either Warmouth or Stewart-MacDonalds (one of the switches is not not available at Radio-Snark). Push-pull pots are available at Stew-Mac, too. If you want to get a new pickguard - check out WD Music Products. Lots-o-colors, custom no-problem, be prepared to do some final fitting of edges using your own tools. Depending on color, custom, and size, $20 --- $50+. WD is now at 4070 Mayflower Rd, Fort Myers FL 33916 ph# 813 337-7575. -------------------------------- Overview of some articles -------------------------------- The February '93 Guitar Player has some Strat rewiring schemes in the article that starts on page 98. One of them requires no extra hardware. Or, if you're willing to exchange the 5-way switch for 3 mini switches, the Dan Armstrong ``super strat'' scheme is pretty flexible. It gives you: - each pickup alone - three parallel pairs - three serial pairs - three pickups in parallel - three pickups in series - three pickups in series/parallel The mini switches go in the slot where the 5-way usually goes. You have to drill three holes along the slot to make room for the switch shafts. I did the Dan Armstrong mod last August - it is pretty excellent. I also used potentiometers with push-pull DPDT switches to also add phasing capability. Very flexible and interesting, indeed. This mod has 12 positions of its own, and with phasing, provides 24 different combinations. My favorite is all three pickups in series, with the bridge pickup out of phase - a very funky frequency response notch seems to be generated. I would say that the Dan Armstrong mod is trickier to get used to than the simple/standard 5-position switch. To me, the extra sounds are worth it; to a working axeman, he should think about it before he switches ;-). But, it is not *that* hard to remember the 12 switch positions - they *do* have a logical pattern. In fact, I am currently in the process of wiring up my 3 old Squire strat pickups in this configuration on a new black-pearloid pickguard just for kicks (hey, I am an engineer, I can't help it...spending 4 hours with a soldering iron in my basement is fun for me...). IMHO - the Dan Armstrong mod is the coolest and most flexible (my personal goal - YourMilageMayVary). Also, IMHO, if you are inside your guitar hacking about, shield the cavity and the pickguard using something, I recommend the 3 coats of shielding paint (also at Stew-Mac). -------------------------------- There's another stock-parts-only project in the February '87 issue of GP, if you can get hold of a back issue. It uses one of the tone controls to mix between the usual wiring and some series/phase reverse combinations. "Ultimate Strat Switch". Of course, there really isn't much new in the basic switching of pickups, but it is an interesting way to use a 6-pole 4-throw rotary switch to "configure" the pickups for a certain pre-set of possibilities, and the regular 5-way switch is then used as usual. What is interesting is that: 1. you don't have to add switches to your guitar (if you care about that sort of thing). 2. if you like the 5-way switch because it is so damn easy to understand and grab on to, you can keep it, but still get a new bunch of other series/parallel/phased sounds. 3. one of the "configurations" of the rotary _is_ the original configuration so you don't lose your Stratocaster among the switches. Some of the 5-way positions are repeats - i.e., there are really only two or three different switching modes among the 5 positions. Also, there is an error in the description: it shows the neck pickup being out of phase in rotary position 2 and 5-way position 2, 3, or 4; instead, it should show it out of phase on the next line, which is rotary position 3, 5-way position 1, 3, or 5. Most importantly, with a little thought, you can figure out variations on the theme of the rotary switch and perhaps get more flexibility or something more tuned to your needs. -------------------------------- "I added a new pickup and now my guitar doesn't work right. 's products suck! What should I do?" -------------------------------- One of the earliest things that engineers, builders, tinkerers learn is this: 1) If you make >improvements< on something that works, 2) and the something ceases to function properly, 3) and you are %100 sure that your >improvements< were implemented correctly, Then: 4) There is a %99.9 chance that you are %100 wrong about your improvements. What this means when you encounter problems with a new pickup is this: 5) There is a %0.1 chance that there is something wrong with the pickup you just added and a %99.9 change that something is wrong with what you did. The problem is that early in our experimental experience, we lack the skills to determine for certain what is wrong. Get help from experienced friends, learn the analytical methods needed to debug your improvements. Leave time and room for mistakes and learn to diagnose and fix them. Be precise, careful, and methodical. Take your time. Did I mention, take your time? G'luck, T =========================================================================== Digest of rewiring posts =========================================================================== Newsgroups: rec.music.makers.guitar From: dweber@lark.qualcomm.com (Dan Weber) Subject: Re: Applause (Fender Strat Copy) Repairs Organization: Qualcomm, Inc., San Diego, CA Date: Wed, 9 Dec 1992 18:26:02 GMT In article <1992Dec9.172736.10571@sis.uucp>, naccarat@sis.uucp (Rob Naccarato) writes: |> The |> signal will only get through the Tone when it is set to about 2 - 4. |> So, I believe that I should purchase a new Tone control, but what do I |> buy? At one of the music stores, I saw a couple of them with a label |> that said "500 K" or "275 K" or something like that. What does this |> mean and what should I do? You may want to try some thing new, I recently replaced the middle tone control with a midrange cut pot and rewired the remaining tone control to be a master tone. This enables you to get some vintage sounds. I got the kit from Torres Engineering for about $3.95 and it takes about 10 minutes to install, and I'm no whiz kid either. Write Torres or call for free catalog of kits and such. Torres Engineering 110 Avila Road San Mateo CA 94402 (415) 571-6887 for blues you can use, Dano --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Newsgroups: rec.music.makers.guitar From: lrm28@cas.org () Subject: Followup to pickup mod Summary: What's an overcompensating cap? Organization: Chemical Abstracts Service, Columbus, Ohio Date: Wed, 10 Mar 1993 13:25:42 GMT Some have mailed me the question,"What's this cap you're thinking about adding?" Well, refer to page 153 of the Feb 93 Guitar Player. ASCII graphics editor, activate: From pickups: | |----| | --- 1500pf (Mylar or polypropolene) --- --- |v| | |o| | |l|<----------- to jack | | --- | | | ----- --- - To quote the article: This cap increases the proportion of high frequencies as you turn down the volume control, giving a brighter sound for rhythm parts. -- Luke Mayercin lrm28@cas.org "Why does ear wax taste like it does?" Chemical Abstracts Service is not responsible for these comments. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: rogers@calamari.hi.com (Andrew Rogers) Newsgroups: rec.music.makers.guitar Subject: Re: Followup to pickup mod Date: 10 Mar 1993 10:41:23 -0000 Organization: Hitachi Computer Products, OSSD division In article <1993Mar10.132542.764@cas.org> lrm28@cas.org () writes: >Some have mailed me the question,"What's this cap you're thinking >about adding?" Well, refer to page 153 of the Feb 93 Guitar Player. > > [circuit deleted] This mod has been around since the early 70's; the first place I heard about it was a _Guitar Player_ interview with J. Geils. I've added it to most of my electrics since then; it really does prevent the sound from becoming muddy at lower volume levels. (According to recent product reviews and comparison tests in the guitar rags, this "bypass cap" is standard on a lot of electrics these days.) >This cap increases the proportion of high frequencies as you turn >down the volume control, giving a brighter sound for rhythm parts. I think 1500pf may be too large for most guitars, though; after trial-and-error on many, many guitars, I found that 1pf per K of pot resistance is just about right. So if your volume control is 250K, a 220pf cap would be appropriate. If the cap is too large, it will allow not only the highs but a lot of the midrange to filter through, effectively turning the volume pot into a bass roll-off control over most of its range. "Mylar or polypropylene"? Why, when I was your age, sonny boy, we made our own condensors - none of these new-fangled "capacitors" - out of tinfoil and wax paper! You young whippersnappers don't know how easy you have it! :-) >Luke Mayercin lrm28@cas.org "Why does ear wax taste like it does?" Andrew Rogers old fart at play --------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: mic@emx.cc.utexas.edu (Mic Kaczmarczik) Newsgroups: alt.guitar Subject: Re: Strat Capacitor Change Date: 18 Mar 1993 17:44:47 -0600 Organization: UT Austin Computation Center, Unix Services In article <9303181452.AA13148@deepthought.cs.utexas.edu> ISTS024@UABDPO.DPO.UAB.EDU (Leonard Watkins) writes: >I changed my Capacitor in my Strat from whatever it was (it was old and >un-readable) to an .015 to get a warmer sound. It works great if your >Strat or copy sounds a little too trebly or shrill change the capacitor >it worked for me. You can always change back...I highly recommend it for >blues players, nice tone....L.W. I read about this particular value in a recent Guitar Player (the article about the guy who has done guitar tech work for SRV, Clapton, and Dylan), and tried it out on my Les Paul with P-90 soapbars. It really does give a nice tone. --mic-- -- Mic Kaczmarczik - Unix Services / UT Austin Computation Center / Never try to outstubborn a cat. remark@{ccwf,emx,bongo} 1-0251 \ -- Lazarus Long --------------------------------------------------------------------------- From META@UNB.CA Thu Mar 25 21:33:45 1993 Newsgroups: alt.guitar Subject: Re: Strat Electronics Organization: The University of New Brunswick Date: Thu, 18 Mar 1993 01:01:07 GMT Thanks to Tim Stanley for his exhaustive collation of pickup rewiring articles in GP. I've had pretty much the same pickup configuration and wiring scheme for the last 12 years or so, and I'm pretty happy with it. One 3-position switch for neck/both/bridge pickups, with its' own volume control. One 3-position toggle to select middle PU off/in- phase/out-of-phase with its' own volume control. One master tone control (these days I just have a 3-position toggle with 3 different rolloffs). The main switch lets me use the guitar in "Telecaster" mode, and ignore the middle PU. The separate volume controls allow one to dial in degree of phase cancellation, and if you can work it with your pinky, get some phase-shifty kinda sounds. In total, it gets 9 basic pickup combinations, but doesn't include any series options (fine for me, I like my playing clean most of the time). Recently, I wired up my nephew's Charvel for him with a 5-position switch and volume/tone. I found that it was possible to configure the switch so that it got the standard N/N+M/M/M+B/B settings (N=neck) but cut the tone control in and out depending on the pickup setting. (tone engaged for N/N+M/M positions but not for M+B/B). This gave a sort of "ready-for-action" capability, in that he could set the tone for a rhythm sound, when using anything but the bridge pickup, and get full treble whenever he engaged the bridge pickup. It strikes me you could do the same sort of thing with the usual Strat configuration, PLUS use the extra tone control as a middle PU volume control. While this doesn't provide all the flexibility of the toggle-switch arrangements mentioned in the GP article, it provides stage-oriented convenience, and a reasonable array of sounds once you wire up the extra volume control. In some respects, the original Strat wiring is intended to let you have two tone settings, however they tend to interact, whereas the arrangement described here provides crystal clear treble on the bridge pickup regardless of where your tone control is set when using the other pickups. As well, the extra volume control can get some interesting sounds (especially if you compensate one volume control with a bypass cap but notthe other). If you get a switching pot, such as Tim d escribed, and use it to switch the phase of the middle PU, there are even more possibilities afforded. The switching pots are expensive, as pots go, but I dare you to get as many new sounds for $7.50 any other way. Mark Hammer --------------------------------------------------------------------------- From kimple@vax.cns.muskingum.edu Thu Mar 25 21:35:24 1993 Newsgroups: alt.guitar Subject: Re: Strat Electronics Date: 19 Mar 93 12:52:08 -0500 Organization: Muskingum College > In article tower@dcl-nxt37.cso.uiuc.edu writes: >>I am looking for as many different tones I can get form my Strat without >>having to buy a new amp or pickups. I would like schematics that people >>have come up with. > Well, I almost tried the Armstrong thing, and then a friend showed me a different way (which coincidentally is the one that Torres' has also put in one of his Perfect Guitar things..) REplace the 5 way with 3 mini toggles, but they have to be DPDT wit a center ON position - not the most common, and you can't find these at Rat Shack, but I beleive Most big electronics outlets will have them (got mine from Newark electronics) and Stewart Mac has them. Now, the switches are wired as phase switches in SERIES, so you can get pickups individually, combinations in series in phase, combinations in series out of phase. About 12 combinations with standard single coils (22 with my HotRails with hum/single switch). Not all of these combinations are incredible - some aren't very different than others, but you get some cool sounds not otherwise possible, and it's a bit easier to use than the Armstrong. Center position for each switch is off. Either up or down is on. Two or more on in same direction are in phase, and in opposite directions they're out of phase. Let's see if I can do this in ascii... (looking at the bottom of the switches) ________ __________ _________ l @ @ l l @ @ l l @ @ l l \ / l l \ / l l \ / l ~----l-@ \/ @-l--------l-@ \/ @-l---------l-@ \/ @-l-----l to l /\ l l /\ l l /\ l l vol. l @/ \@ l l @/ \@ l l @/ \@ l __l__ l_l____l_l l_l____l_l l_l____l_l / / / l l l l l l (ground) l l l l l l l l l l l l (+) (-) (+) (-) (+) (-) bridge pu middle pu neck pu Anyway, does it make sense? I'm doing this from memory, and while I think it's right, I'm not absolutley sure at the moment. Of course, I have it wired to one master volume control, If you want individual volumes/tones, place them between the pickup and the switch. It's really easy to use, and I've found that the coolest lead sound is the Bridge (hotrails, full on humbucking) and the Mid in series, in phase. A great, FAT sound! Bridge is single coil out of phase w/ the neck pu is a cool, almost telly 'funk' sound (it'll never get the 'real'telly sound because it's not parallel, and the difference in pickups - the neck is only 4K) Adding the middle PU to the neck fattens that sound out some. Neck and Bridge (single coil) is a cool sound - mostly the bite and edge from the bridge, but with the low end roundness from the neck. Very cool with lots of distortion, wherethe neck might otherwise sound muddy. jd --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Newsgroups: alt.guitar,rec.music.makers.guitar From: bill@verdix.com (William Spencer) Subject: Re: Phase Wiring and Tele Pickups Organization: Verdix Corp Date: Fri, 16 Apr 1993 19:34:16 GMT skarp@leland.Stanford.EDU (George Marino Skarpelos) writes: >I was wondering how I would put a 5 position switch on my >stock tele as a replacement for the standard 3 position switch. >The idea would be to have two out of phase configurations in the >2 and 4 positions. Is this possible? Could someone post a simple >scematic? Normal 5 position switches have only 3 external connections. This particular arrangement is not possible. The possible configuration is position 2&4 = both pickups, 2 is inphase, 4 is outphase or vice versa. 1&5 are bridge pickup and 3 is neck, or vice versa. You need a two pole type switch (most of them) i.e. DP5T. Connection "0" is the common: bridge + ------------*---------1 \ neck + --------------|---------2 >section 1 bridge - ------------|--*------3 | out + -----|--|------0 / | | | -------1 \ | 2 >section 2 ----------3 | neck - ---- out ground --------0 / Bill s --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Newsgroups: rec.music.makers.guitar From: icrmd@cc.uab.es Subject: Re: strat volume mod Organization: Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona Date: 10 Mar 94 12:29:09 +0100 In article , dab@elan.cc.bellcore.com (dave ballard) writes: > > Hey now- I just put a mod in my strat that smooths out the volume control > so that it actually has some effect below 6 and also keeps the high end up > when the volume is turned down. It comes from an article on modifying pickup > wiring in the 1/89 Guitar World. The whole mod consists of soldering a > 680 PF capacitor and a 1/4-150k ohm resistor in parallel across the "in" and > "out" on the volume pot. Works like a charm. > > Anyone else done this? Why doesn't Fender do it to begin with? I did something similar, but I can't remember the values of the capacitor I used and I don't think I bothered with the resistor (I was aiming at the most dramatic change, cos I was really fed up with the tone disappearing completely below 9). The change is really useful, so most of the time now I use the neck and mid pickups with the volume just below half and get a really nice sound. I read that PRS guitars have this arrangement as standard. Anybody got any other easily done mods ? The only other thing I did was put in a toggle switch adding (or not) the neck pickup into the output, so I can now have all three pickups on at once, or have neck and bridge. The way I did it hasn't made a great deal of difference but I'm sure it is possible to get some good sounds out of this idea. martin --------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: bwh@beach.cis.ufl.edu (Brian Hook) Newsgroups: rec.music.makers.guitar Subject: Schaller's/Stew-Mac's nifty 5-way pickup switch Date: 01 Jun 1994 14:45:42 GMT Organization: University of Florida, Dept of CIS I just purchased that coolie Schaller/Stew-mac 5-way pickup selector switch the other day. It was 14 or so bucks + shipping. I haven't had a chance to install it yet (waiting for my Lawrence XL-500) but basically here's the story: This pickup gives you things like coil tapping and stuff without needing mini-toggles. And, better yet, it gives you a tele sound in position 3, vs. the traditionally wimpy/useless middle single coil. The positions are as follows: S/S/S H/S/S H/S/H Bridge BSC BHB BHB Bridge/Mid BSC + MSC BSC + MSC BSC + MSC Mid BSC + NSC BSC + NSC BSC + NSC Mid/Neck MSC + NSC MSC + NSC MSC + NSC Neck NSC NSC NHB This requires that any humbuckers are of the 4-conductor coil-tapping style. I'm real interested to hear other people's opinions on this setup. I'll post once my guitar gets back together (Fender Strat+, Bill Lawrence XL-500, Fender Gold Lace Sensor, Fender Gold Lace Sensor). I'm kind of worried that my guitar may not fit the mold for what Schaller expects, because the Lace Sensors are typically not available RWRP and I think the switch assumes this (all positions that are not one single coil only are supposed to be humbucking, including the coil tapped modes). Guess I'll find out soon enough. Brian PS No, I'm not affiliated, etc. etc. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: rogers@sasuga.Hi.COM (Andrew Rogers) Newsgroups: rec.music.makers.guitar Subject: Re: An EASY Guitar Mod Date: 11 Oct 1994 14:24:32 -0400 In article gwatts@cv.hp.com (gary watts) writes: >: >Lastly, you can tie a very small cap across pot to allow the highs to >: >pass when you turn down the pot. Experiment with different values but >: >I like a .22pf with humbuckers. > >: 22pF I assume? .22pf is, err, kinda small!! > >Yes that (.) decimal just slipped in there... I first read about the bypass cap modification in a Guitar Player interview with J. Geils back in the early 70's; he recommended something like .01mf, which is *way* too high (it let so many of the highs through that it almost turned the pot into a *bass* rolloff control). The basic idea sounded worthwhile, though, and after some experimenting I settled on ~1pf/Kohm: 220pf for 250K pots, 470pf for 500K pots, etc. (A lot will depend on the impedance of your pickups and capacitance of the cable you use, but these values have worked well for me.) Andrew --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Newsgroups: rec.music.makers.guitar From: till@netcom13.netcom.com (Don Tillman) Subject: Re: Any alternative pickup wiring schemes? Reply-To: don@till.com Organization: NETCOM On-line services Date: Wed, 26 Oct 1994 07:40:33 GMT From: stubbs@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu Date: 25 Oct 94 11:09:15 CDT Organization: University of Kansas Academic Computing Services I have noticed on guitars with two pickups that althought there are two volume controls, when I turn one pickup down(part or all the way) the other pickup goes down two.. I have looked at the wiring and I guess it is because the volume shunts the signal to ground and as they are connected in parallel they both get grounded. Yup. I wonder if anyone has come up with a wiring scheme to allow a blending of the two pickups (without resorting to active electronics,e tc.) Sure, reverse the pot connection so the wiper goes toward the pickup and the clockwise side goes to the output. Rickenbackers and the Fender Jazz bass have always done this to allow for a more controllable pickup mix. A downside of this approach is that at lower volume levels there's more noise and more of the high end gets shunted off. -- Don J. Donald Tillman Consultant; Software Engineering, Analog Electronics Palo Alto, California 415 327-6234 Internet: don@till.com --------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: mic@uts.cc.utexas.edu Newsgroups: rec.music.makers.builders Subject: Re: Strat+ tone circuit? Date: 20 May 1994 19:59:57 -0500 Organization: UT Austin Computation Center, Unix Services In article <2rguir$hk5@staff.cs.su.oz.au>, James Uther wrote: >I was wondering if anyone knows the wiring for a strat+. The blurb says that >it is a passive circuit that boosts as well as cuts frequencies (?). Anyway, >I have fender-lace sensors on my home made chunk of noisy sculpture, and >was hoping to add some worthwhile circuitry to it. Any help would be >appreciated. > thanks > jim The Strat Plus and Plus Deluxe models use a Fender TBX circuit for the bridge/middle pickup tone control. I think the American Standard does too. It's available for $25-$35 from Fender dealers, according to a phone call I made a few weeks ago for another reason. There's a circuit diagram for the TBX in A. Duchossoir's book _The Fender Telecaster_. It uses a dual ganged pot with 250K audio/1M linear resistances, an 82K resistor and a .22 MFD tone capacitor. From 0 to 5, it's a normal 250K treble rolloff circuit. From 6 to 10, the 1M resistance keeps some of the highs normally lost by the 250K circuit. I guess ``add'' means ``doesn't lose as many as usual'' here. There was a posting here a few weeks ago about using higher resistances in tone and volume controls to increase the volume and highs you get from a pickup. The TBX is a clever way to apply this principle in a single, relatively intuitive control. I like having the TBX, but I find that if I want my Strat's 2-pickup combinations to sound ``twangy'' to my ears, I have to stay in the 0 to 5 range. I guess 250K pots are a subtle part of the traditional sound. --mic-- -- Mic Kaczmarczik | ``Now, blues music is simple music. And simple Unix Services |music is the hardest music in the world to play.'' UT Austin Computation Center | - Albert Collins, ``Ain't Nothing But The Blues'' --------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: spangler@hpsdde.sdd.hp.com (Kevin Spangler) Newsgroups: rec.music.makers.guitar Subject: Re: Pickups for coil tapping Date: 7 Dec 1994 12:27:55 -0800 Organization: Hewlett Packard, San Diego Division >Does anybody have any good recommendations on some >humbucking pickups that would sound good when tapped >for a single coil configuration? I love a nice >warm, mellow Gibson like tone, but I would also like >to be able to switch to a more Strat-like tone when >a song needs the extra clarity. I've done it to a number of guitars that could safely and sanely be drilled out for toggle switches. (Don't do it to that '59 Les Paul under Grandpa's bed). I've not noticed that any particular model of humbucker gives a particularly "better" single-coil sound than another, but have noticed that those designed for more high-frequency output (say, a Duncan JB) definitely sound brighter, while a more low-frequency emphasized pickup (say a Duncan '59 or Dimarzio PAF) will have a slightly warmer and less cutting tone. But it's been hard to predict the single-coil sound by listening to the double-coil sound. ***Please note that you can do this operation by replacing one of your volume/tone controls with a push-pull pot; you don't need to drill toggle-switch holes unless you want to do more elaborate set-ups like the one discussed below.**** :-) If DiMarzio and/or Duncan are not online here, you can call them and ask if they have any recommendations (of course there are lots of other pickup manufacturers besides those two). One thing I would suggest is considering a parallel-coil configuration. This will give you *very* close to the same sound as going single-coil, but it is fully humbucking so you won't get nasty noise and hum. Putting a humbucker in single-coil mode will give you hum!! The parallel-coil sound is slightly higher output (two coils vs. one) and slightly less trebly than single-coil, but IMHO it's worth it to avoid hum. I buy three-way mini-toggle switches from Stewart MacDonald and wire them so the three positions give me series-coil (normal humbucking mode)/ single-coil (non-humbucking)/parallel-coil (alternate humbucking mode). The DiMarzio and Duncan pickups should come with diagrams that show you how to wire this. This way you can have all the choices. I use two of these switches - one dedicated to each of the two humbuckers in the typical 2-pickup guitar. This gives you three sound per pickup; when you start combining the two pickups, you can get a lot of neat variety. I've posted this in case anyone else was interested in the answer. If you need more details just reply to me through e-mail. - Kevin --------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: ez004557@rocky.ucdavis.edu (George Kaschner) Newsgroups: alt.guitar Subject: Re: 7 String Pickup Info Neede Date: 21 Dec 1994 20:36:46 GMT Organization: University of California, Davis Rich Beerman (rbeer@starcore.cris.com) wrote: : Is there any one out there with information on pickups for 7-string : guitars? Have you considered blade-type pickups (vs pickups with defined polepieces)? If they are sufficiently wide for your string spacing, there may be no need for custom units. Regards, George Kaschner --------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: till@netcom8.netcom.com (Don Tillman) Subject: Re: Getting a "neck-pickup" sound out of a guitar withonly a br Organization: NETCOM On-line services Date: Mon, 2 Jan 1995 03:05:14 GMT From: jps@cup.portal.com (John P Sheehy) Date: 1 Jan 1995 06:00:38 -0800 >Is such a thing possible? I have a sneaking suspicion that the reason I >can't get certain types of distorted sound is that there is no neck >pickup. Turning the tone knob down just cuts ALL high sound down, and >isnt what I want. I want only harmoncics cut down. Is there a way to do >it, or must I buy a guitar with a neck pickup to do that? I think that >turning tone down cuts out all highs, and that using neck pickup cut s >out harmonics. Am I right? Pretty close. The neck pickup doesn't cut out harmonics, but rather, it emphasize the fundamental, so harmonics are weaker as a percentage of total volume. Well no, actually. You know how a string vibrates, right? Like a jump rope for the fundamental frequency. For the second harmonic it looks like a figure eight with jump rope action on each side and a non-vibrating node point in the middle. For the third harmonic it looks like three jump rope regions with two nodes between them. And so forth. And these patterns all squeeze together when you play notes higher up the neck. When one of the node points is centered over the pickup, that harmonic won't come through. And when the vibrating region is centered over the pickup, it'll come out in full force. For example, on a Strat the 4th harmonic on the 5th fret on any open string creates a node right over the neck pickup and can't be heard unless you switch to one of the other pickups. So the frequency response variations of a pickup due to it's placement will be like a comb filter. It's even pretty easy to calculate: Response = sin (pi * PickupDistanceFromBridge / VibratingStringLength) It's the tuning of all these notches and peaks, all different for each string, that gives us the warm sound of a neck pickup and that brash sound in a bridge pickup. (Folks with plotting facilities might want to do a log-log plot of the response curve for fun. Then plot it for different pickup distances. Then plot it for two pickups summed. Two pickups out of phase. Three pickups. It's pretty cool, and gives you an interesting look at what's going on. For extra credit do a 3-d plot. Ooh, aah.) So there's nothing you can do to make a bridge pickup sound like a neck pickup (other than playing up around the nineteenth fret where the pickups are equal distances from the ends of the string!) The best you could do would be to wack at it with a graphic equalizer until you come upon something acceptably close. -- Don -- J. Donald Tillman Consultant; Software Engineering, Analog Electronics Palo Alto, California 415 327-6234 Internet: don@till.com --------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: leiter@panix.com (Philip Dahl) Newsgroups: rec.music.makers.guitar Subject: Re: Pickup swapping tips? Date: 18 Jan 1995 22:02:14 -0500 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC Tim Victor (timv@well.sf.ca.us) wrote: : Has anyone tried any sort of : quick-disconnect system for pickups? The quick-disconnects used for telephones come in a six-conductor version; enough for four leads and the shield. Raido Shack has 'em. I haven't put any in yet--I'm afraid of what it'll do to my wallet. Maybe we can set up a standard and have a pickup exchange? Phil Dahl leiter@panix.com --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Newsgroups: rec.music.makers.guitar,alt.guitar From: phillip@flagstaff.princeton.edu (Phillip Charles Saunders) Subject: Re: NEW PICKUP WIRING! Organization: Princeton University Date: Fri, 27 Jan 1995 04:20:15 GMT I like the Feb 89 Guitar Player mod that allows you to mix the middle pickup into the circuit to get humbucking configurations. It converts the third tone control into a fader that mixes in the third pickup. When this control is at 10, you get the stock tones. When its at zero, you get humbucking configurations in the 1 and 5 position and true out of phase sounds in the 2 and 4 positions. When the fader is in intermediate positions, you get blended tones. A most superior modification that uses all original parts. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Jeff.Vineburg@f705.n2614.z1.fidonet.org (Jeff Vineburg) Newsgroups: alt.guitar Subject: All pick-ups on switch a Date: Wed, 01 Mar 1995 00:00:48 -0500 PS>I saw in a magazine a few years back that one guy was trying to have a >switch put in his Fender Strat (5 way switch) so that he could have all >the three pickups on.How do you do that if your not an electronic genius ? It's not that hard, when you think about it. The existing switch will already allow 2 at the same time, so all you have to do is install a switch to turn the remaining one on. The best bet is a push/pull pot in place on one of the tone or volume knobs. * SLMR 2.1a * Who voted these clowns in anyway? --------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: jjourard@aol.com (Jjourard) Newsgroups: rec.music.makers.guitar Subject: Re: Feedback/Harmonics Date: 31 Mar 1995 02:50:34 -0500 OK here's my take on feedback. Feedback is a function of gain, not volume. If you have scads of gain from overdrivers, overdriven amp channels, compressors, etc - anything that really cranks up the gain, you can get feedback at an astonishingly low volume! So, item number one is a source of mondo gain. A RAT pedal will do, I still use my modified (for durability) Big Muff Pi with a lot of gain cranked in. The other thing is filtering of some kind. Roll off some or all the highs on the pickup, you can do this on the fly as needed. I have a secret trick which has served me well for 15 years and I will reveal it here for the first time anywhere: On the treble pickup I have substituted a .005 capacitor for the original tone control capacitor, which bumps the effective frequency peak way up into the midrange and gives a solid, boxy, chewy sound to the lead pickup when a lot of overdrive is in use. It also encourages more musical-note type feedback, in my experience. The other, main thing for affecting the note that chooses to feed back is Where You Stand, and At What Angle, compared to the amp's speakers. This is 100% unique to your setup. You have to settle on an equipment arrangement, a pickup, tone setting, volume level, etc and try different spots. I used to do this in the afternoon during soundcheck, and put a piece of tape on the floor where "X" marked the spot. Then, during the show, I could count on getting something useable if I stood in that same spot. My experience has been that these are the most important things, the other things like strings, wood, etc are all included in this method because the only practical approach is to "see what it'll do" for a specific setup, and then repeat that scenario to get similar results. As far as the horrible screech feedback type, that means too much high frequency activity. Roll off the highs, use a dark-sounding distortion setting, and/or avoid microphonic pickups that reproduce physical rather than magnetic vibrations. That translates into a pickup that will amplify the sound of being tapped with a neutral object such as a pencil or comb, rather loudly...this effect is "bad" and will create problems. We Don't Like It. High quality (=$$) pickups rarely have this problem. Hollow body guitars feedback much better than solids! --------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: charlier@cs.tamu.edu (Charlie Richardson) Newsgroups: alt.guitar Subject: Strat SC Pickup Loading vs. Sound Date: 30 Mar 1995 18:02:55 GMT Organization: Texas A&M Computer Science Department, College Station, TX Howdy - this is just an observation/tip I found out quite by accident during a rewiring project on my Strat clone. The clone is a Peavey Predator (amazingly nice for the money IMHO). The stock PV single-coils seem to be in the "vintage" or "American Standard equivalent" category - DC resistance on them is about 6K to 6.1K with slight differences between all the three PU's. I rewired the two tone controls so that the first tone becomes a master tone and the second becomes a dedicated bridge pickup volume control . Works as advertised - but due to the way I wired the switch and bridge P/U, with the hot lead of the pickup to the pot wiper, whenever I turn the dedicated volume control down, it shunts the pickup with a variable resistance, going from 500K (this guitar has 500K's instead of 250K's) to 0 ohms. Anyway, fooling around with this combination and a (Classic) SansAmp, I discovered that shunting the bridge pickup with anywhere from about 5K to 15K radically changed the sound of the pickup without changing the volume as much as I would have expected. When shunted, the highs and (somewhat) lows are attenuated in an interesting way. The midrange sound that is left is PERFECT for getting a tight, fat distortion from the SansAmp. Sounds like a humbucker but better in that by slightly playing with the pot I can bring in the characteristic Strat bridge pickup bite/jangle/twang in varying amounts. The reduced output level of the pickup when it's shunted is easily compensated for by dialing in more gain on the preamp/distortion pedal/etc. I had not been very happy with Strat-type single-coil bridge pickups through the SansAmp - the sound wasn't as hot and fat as I wanted and had a lot of high-end clashing jangly distortion. The shunted bridge sounds just great. Haven't heard this kind of distortion sound from anything but a Gibson-sized humbucker before. The next step is to possibly put a Vintage Rails or some other aftermarket humbucking Strat pickup into there and try the same sort of thing with the advantage of not having to deal with the bloody 60-cycle hum in the sound. I like the shunted sound so much I am considering building in a simple FET preamp to bring the signal back up when the shunt is engaged on the bridge. Comments and suggestions welcome... -Charlie -- Charlie Richardson (409) (W) 845-9470 (H) 693-8056 Systems Analyst, Computing Services Group Dept. of Computer Science, Texas A&M University --------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: goldtop@ix.netcom.com (goldtop ) Newsgroups: alt.guitar Subject: Lindy Fralin Strat mod - check this out ! Date: 6 Jun 1995 01:25:28 GMT In "L. Jackson" writes: > >I think they're called Lindy Fralin and they are highly regarded >whether or not they would suit your guitar depends on the sort of >sound you want from your guitar.... LJ > I think that guy lives in VA. Frank at Atlanta Vintage guitars gave me his number once. Lindy told me about a mod he does to Strats that involves that last, essentially useless, tone control on a Strat and replacing it with a 1 meg ohm pot. The pot is placed (electrically) between the neck and bridge pickups. When you turn to pot off (zero resistance), it effectively allows both outer pickups on, giving you this Tele kind of tone. Turn the pot to max (1 meg) and the other pickup is effectively shut off due to the resistance and the normal pickup plays alone (depending on whether the selector switch is up or down). I tried it and it was a real cool sound, especially in clean modes. Give it a try! goldtop --------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: mgarvin@panix.com (Mark Garvin) Newsgroups: alt.guitar Subject: Re: Lindy Fralin Strat mod - check this out ! Date: 7 Jun 1995 17:53:27 -0400 In <3r0aq8$39u@ixnews3.ix.netcom.com> goldtop@ix.netcom.com (goldtop ) writes: >> >>I think they're called Lindy Fralin and they are highly regarded >>whether or not they would suit your guitar depends on the sort of >his number once. Lindy told me about a mod he does to Strats that >involves that last, essentially useless, tone control on a Strat and >replacing it with a 1 meg ohm pot. The pot is placed (electrically) >between the neck and bridge pickups. When you turn to pot off (zero >resistance), it effectively allows both outer pickups on, giving you The pots Lindy sells are modified so that extreme counterclockwise rotation turns the pot off completely. Infinite resistance. That way the mod can be taken 'out of circuit'. Mark Garvin --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Newsgroups: alt.guitar From: gwatts@cv.hp.com (gary watts) Subject: Re: Lindy Fralin Strat mod - check this out ! Date: Wed, 7 Jun 1995 22:26:51 GMT Mark Garvin (mgarvin@panix.com) wrote: : The pots Lindy sells are modified so that extreme counterclockwise : rotation turns the pot off completely. Infinite resistance. : That way the mod can be taken 'out of circuit'. You can easily do this yourself. All it is is scraping off a small section of the resistive material at the end of the fiberboard. The wiper will roll across the "resistor" until it runs off the end of the material onto the non conductive backing. All that is requiresd is a prying tool to open up the pot cover and a sharp instrument like an Xacto knife to do the scraping. Gary Watts --------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: COLLINS_JIM@tandem.com (Jim Collins) Newsgroups: rec.music.makers.guitar Subject: Re: Tone circuit on new Telecasters? Date: Thu, 29 Jun 1995 19:20:13 -0700 Organization: Tandem Computers, Inc. In article , dbetz@dvorak.amd.com (David Betz) wrote: > Question for y'all out there -- > I've got a '93 Am. Telecaster. The tone knob has kind of > a "midway" point that you can feel as you are increasing > the tone. A guy at a guitar store was telling me that > this is Fender's special "tbx" circuit or some such thing, > and he claims that past the "midway" point, this circuit > kicks in and adds a treble boost. To be sure, this > guitar is supremely trebly with the tone cranked -- > good for "cutting through" as it were. Anyways, does > anyone know the lowdown on this? > > Also, how much of the "twang" of the Tele is caused by > the circuitry? Can anyone post some cool circuitry > modifications w/ comments? I was thinking that it would > be cool to add like a "Rock/Twang" switch to de-twang > the guitar if I wanted. > > Of course, this is all moot if the twang is in fact a > result of the standard Tele pickups which my guitar > has. I have thought of replacing them with some Seymour > Duncans or something, but I'm afraid of killing the > trademark twang completely. Plus, this guitar really > sounds good through a loud Marshall, I think due to > the low output single coils. Anyways... David, The twang of the Telecaster is not really because of the TBX circuitry -- Teles twanged long before the TBX was invented. The pickups and the bridge contribute a great deal to the twanginess of the Tele. There is a way to add a sort of rock/twang switch to a Tele, but it involves replacing the pickups. Seymour Duncan makes a bunch of different Tele pickups, but one set you might be interested in is the HOT Tele pickups, with the tapped bridge pickup. The HOT Tele bridge comes in either tapped or untapped flavors. For this to work, you need the tapped bridge. Once you get these pickups, you also need a five-position switch, such as the ones found on Strats. When properly wired, the HOT Tele pickups with the tapped bridge pickup give you five distinct, and very useful, sounds. The sounds are, from the most forward switch position (toward the neck) to the most rearward position (towards the bridge) are: tapped bridge, tapped bridge + neck, neck, neck + full bridge, and full bridge. The full bridge sound is a big, fat, loud sound, not very twangy. The tapped bridge sound is very much like a vintage bridge sound. The HOT neck pickup is very much like a vintage sounding Tele neck, but it is louder. The inbetween positions are interesting. They are each different from the middle position of a standard Tele. Obviously, the full bridge + neck is different, but even the tapped bridge + neck is a bit different, mostly because, I suspect, the neck pickup is louder than a vintage neck. By the way, when I use the term vintage in this comparison, I'm referring to the Seymour Duncan '54 neck and '54 bridge pickups. This particular setup is a pretty cool one -- very versatile. You get the traditional twangy Tele, plus a beefier one. Jimmy --------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: COLLINS_JIM@tandem.com (Jim Collins) Newsgroups: rec.music.makers.guitar Subject: Re: Tele Pick-ups ? Date: Wed, 05 Jul 1995 10:06:02 -0700 Organization: Tandem Computers, Inc. In article <3tc4a1$ind@fountain.mindlink.net>, Michael Kent wrote: > I also own a Tele with Joe Bardens, and am satisfied. It is a good > idea, though, to replace the standard 250K volume pot with a 500K pot. > > This will ensure that the pickups do not get loaded down. You can > really, really hear the difference--brighter, fuller, more responsive > to player dynamics, more tonal depth. > > Anyone might consider putting a 500K pot in place of their 250K pot, > I just did that to my strat and again I'm very pleased with the results. > > --Mike. I put 500K volume pots in my Teles with Bardens, and I noticed a big difference, myself, especially when the volume pot is full on. That last little eighth turn really brightens it up. I notice it most when I select both pickups in parallel. Just knocking the volume pot off a tad -- about that last eighth turn -- seems to give the same effect as a 250K volume pot full on, so that last bit is only there when I need it. I will say, though, that putting in the 500K volume pot forced me to install a tiny treble-boost capacitor on the volume pot. I didn't really think I needed it with the 250K pot, but I do with the 500K pot. With a 500K pot and no treble-boost cap, I found that when I played with the guitar's volume pot significantly less than full on, too much brightness disappeared. With the 250K volume pot, the loss of brightness at lower volume pot settings was still there, but nowhere near as noticeable, at least to me. Joe Barden recommends a 120 picofarad cap as a treble boost. I couldn't find any 120 picofarad caps, but I was able to find some 100 picofarad caps at the local Radio Shack, and one of these works just fine. I found that the little cap that Fender used as a treble boost -- the very cap that they include in the '52 reissue update kit -- was much too large. At lower volume pot settings, the tone was much too tiny. When I turned the guitar's volume pot closer to full on, I got a nice, full tone, but this was not gradual. It was more like an on/off switch. Jimmy --------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Steven Milberger Newsgroups: alt.guitar,alt.guitar.amps,rec.music.makers.guitar Subject: Book: Build a Universal Coil Winding Machine Date: 7 Aug 1995 14:21:05 GMT Organization: Information Handling Services I recentlyl came across an excellent book on building a device to wind coils. This book would be usefull for anyone wanting to wind their own pickups or even transformers. The coil winder in the book does require some machine shop ability, just as a warning. Build a Universal Coil Winding Machine by David J. Gingery PO Box 9123 Springfield, MO 65801-9123 $8.95, 24pp. No ISBN # This book looks like a "DIY" job, ie, self published, but the info in the book is worth the $9.00, IMHO. Enjoy, Steve Milberger --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Newsgroups: rec.music.makers.guitar From: BRodrick@world.std.com (William R Rodrick) Subject: Re: Lace Sensors / 5-way J.D. switch for Telecaster Date: Wed, 13 Sep 1995 17:42:27 GMT Jim Vence ISSC (jimv@mailroom.itc.kodak.com) wrote: : I own a U.S. standard Tele, and started looking into replacing the stock p/u's : with Lace Sensors and rewiring with a 5 way switch as is done on the Donohue : models. I'd like a lower hum, and don't mind sacrificing a bit of the trebly : sound of the stock p/u's, provided the resulting sound is still distinctly : Telecaster. Has anyone performed such surgery that would not mind sharing their experience? Thanks. Here's something I posted some months ago (by the way, I would think the Lace Sensors would give a somewhat anemic sound in this configuration, but I'm only guessing. In my experience, it's best to reconcile yourself to a little hum for the sake of a nice, full sound): JERRY DONAHUE TELECASTER WIRING =============================== According to the Fender schematic for the U.S. Jerry Donahue model, this is how the pickups are connected to achieve a "Strat-like" sound (when the 5-position switch is in position #4 or second from Bridge-end). Note that the two pickups are wired out of phase. + _________________ .01 uf/100 V --------| Neck Pickup |------||-------| | ----------------- | | \ | / 6.2k Ground \ | / | | | _________________ + 6.2k | --------| Bridge Pickup |-----/\/\/\------> Volume ----------------- I suppose the two resistor values could be tweaked in order to balance the relative levels of each pickup, depending on what kind of pickups you're using. I have tried these same values (actually 5.6k for the resistors) in my Tele, which has a Duncan Hot Tele bridge PU (I'm using the tapped output, which gives about the same sound and output as a stock Tele bridge PU) and a Rio Grande Strat PU in the neck position, which sounds very similar to a stock "vintage" Strat PU but has a higher output. I don't think using the stock Tele neck PU would give very good results, but I may be wrong. The sound is quite similar to a vintage Strat in the bridge+middle "in-between" position, but of course not exactly like it, so that if you have a choice and it's really the Strat sound you want, you will want to use the Strat. But if you only want to bring one guitar along, the Tele with this configuration will do a pretty good job. Besides, the sound is nice in its own right. It's basically the sound heard in "King Arthur's Dream" on the first Hellecasters CD. It's interesting to compare it to the same song on JD's album "Telecasting", where I'm 99% sure he used a Strat. It is possible to order the JD switch from Fender, but it costs something like $45, I'm told. I think this will clarify the matter. BTW, the resistors don't seem to be necessary, or have minimal effect. Bill --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Newsgroups: alt.guitar,rec.music.makers.guitar From: BRodrick@world.std.com (William R Rodrick) Subject: Re: Strat - Phasing mid p/u? help.... Date: Mon, 30 Oct 1995 13:37:32 GMT Mahatma Kane-Jeeves (mkj@world.std.com) wrote: [snip] : You might get some mileage out of wiring a phase switch onto the : BRIDGE pickup; because it covers a narrower, higher spectrum, it tends : to cancel less of the useful sound of other pickups, creating some : interesting quacky tones. I especially like an out-of-phase bridge : pickup combined with the NECK pickup (but that, of course, requires : yet another switch installed). One way of getting a _useful_ sound out of two single-coil pickups wired out of phase is to insert a capacitor with a value between .047 and .1 uf in series with one of the pickups. This "recaptures" some of the volume and bass normally lost with the out-of-phase wiring. This seems to work especially well with the bridge and neck pickups on a Strat or Tele, and is in fact the "secret" to the Jerry Donahue Telecaster's "Strat middle position" tone. I still much prefer the sound of the bridge or neck PU in parallel with the middle PU on a Strat, but if you're going to try wiring two of the PUs out of phase, then you should try this. Bill --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Newsgroups: rec.music.makers.guitar Organization: Paul Guy Guitars From: Paul Guy Subject: Re: Comments on Fender Lace Sensor Pickups Date: Mon, 12 May 1997 03:30:00 +0100 Mark Delsing wrote: > > On Fri, 9 May 1997 15:49:56 -0400, rpeek@iag.net (Richard E. Peek) > wrote: > > >What the difference between the Lace pickups and the old Fender Pickups? > > Lace Sensors are entirely different beasts. They are not pickups per > se, but "acoustic sensors." That's what their marketing copy says, at > least. There's more info about them at: > > http://www.agi-lace.com/sensor.html > > Basically, they use a different magnetic material and arrange thses > wacky magnets in such a way as to signifcantly reduce hum, while still > sounding like a single-coil. They sound pretty darn good in general, > and I think they work well with distortion and have enough bite to cut > through a heavily-effected sound. Clean, I think they sound a little > lackluster. > "Acoustic sensors", my butt. I'm not arguing with you, Mark, but with the advertising hype, which a lot of people who should know better have swallowed - like A.R. Duchossoir in the (otherwise excellent) book "The Fender Stratocaster (40th Anniversary Edition)", p.61 (quote): "...Lace Sensors are not electromagnetic pickups but "acoustic emission sensors"..." (unquote). He goes on to say (quite correctly) that the sensors are shielded from noise and hum. It's a pity we guitar people aren't shielded from _humbug_. I took one apart. It contained a coil of copper wire and 5 pieces of flexible magnet material ("particulate barium ferrite magnets") - one each side of the coil, and three stacked underneath. The coil was wound around two back-to-back "U"-profile channels with toothed edges ("flux concentrators"), and it and the magnets were mounted in a steel "U"-profile ("ferromagnetic channel"). Magnets and a coil of copper wire make an electromagnetic pickup in my book. There's no way these units can sense "acoustic emissions" (= air movement), they have no moving diaphragm like a microphone. The only real difference between these and ordinary pickups is that the coil is inside the magnets instead of vice versa. (Okay, they have a cleverly-shaped magnetic field too.) As to their sound I would pretty much agree with Mark. (I don't particularly like them myself, but I have customers who love them - and other customers who hate them, much like any other pickups really...) The reason Lace Sensors have a low noise level (no argument, they are very quiet compared to traditional designs) is that the coil is very small (not having the magnet or polepieces inside) and well-shielded (by the magnets and steel "U"-profile). They sound like single-coils because they are single-coils. Indeed, the Gold Lace Sensor has almost the same D.C. resistance, inductance and "Q" factor (all well within 10%) as old Strat pickups. (The Sensor does have a lower resonant peak, which is probably the reason Mark thinks they sound - clean - "a little lackluster".) I think the Lace Sensors are a clever design and do a very good job of cutting down on single-coil noise. But I do object to that advertising hype! I know a dead parrot when I see one... Paul -- "I remain, Sir, your most humble and obedient servant." ;-) Paul Guy Guitars (Handmade – Custom Shop – Repairs) Katarina Bangata 65, 116 42 Stockholm My homepage – http://home3.swipnet.se/~w-37192 Check out the leading Swedish guitar magazine FUZZ http://home1.swipnet.se/~w-12337/fuzz.html --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Newsgroups: alt.guitar,rec.music.makers.guitar From: look in the text for my address Subject: PRS 5-position switch wiring [was Re: ? about PRS] Date: Sat, 05 Jul 1997 16:07:46 GMT On 3 Jul 1997 01:23:59 GMT, in alt.guitar, "Chuck" wrote: > ...It is a five way rotary... Not exactly sure what the specifics are here (even > though I play one!) but I know you have bass pickup, treble pickup, outer > coils in parralell, then two single coil settings.....I could be wrong but > I'm close there. You are correct about these selections, which were offered on specific models of the PRS guitars. Over the years, PRS has used several variations in wiring of their 5-position switch. Some of these changes were apparently forced upon PRS in a legal action brought by Gibson; other changes were for reasons of marketing and/or convenience. The "new" PRS 5-position switch is wired in this manner: 10 - Treble, two coils 9 - Outside coils wired in parallel 8 - Inside coils wired in series (or outside) ("Series single-coils" in PRS literature) 7 - Inside coils wired in parallel 6 - Bass, two coils [#9 and #7 *may* be reversed on some models.] As an owner of several PRS guitars, I have found it necessary to re-wire the 5-position switches to lose the two (or three) weak, crummy sounds, and release five excellent sounds available from the two humbuckers. My current 5-position wiring plan is based on pickup selections offered separately on two earlier model PRS guitars plus the current McCarty model, and yields the following improved combinations: 10 - Treble, two coils 9 - Both Pickups wired in a series plus out-of-phase ("Power out-of-phase" in old PRS literature) 8 - Both Pickups in parallel (McCarty/Gibson wiring) 7 - Outside coils wired in parallel 6 - Bass, two coils Since all versions of the PRS 5-position switch wiring offer the requisite bass HB only and treble HB only positions, the three "middle positions" are the only ones in question. Here are my opinions about the pick-up sound combinations offered on the various PRS models: A) The "Outside Coils wired in parallel" combo is very similar to, but better than, the "Inside Coils wired in parallel" combo. "Outside" provides a *little* more bass & treble than the more mid-rangy "inside" tone. Lose the "inner" choice when both are featured on the same guitar, and make room for a different and better sound. B) The #8 Inside (or outside) coils wired in series (AKA "Series single-coils" in PRS literature) REALLY SUCKS! I have no idea what they were thinking about when they came up with this useless tone. Regardless of the guitar, this middle position sounds muddy and thin on clean amp settings, and even worse when overdriven. This tone should be taken out back and shot. Luckily, this is easily remedied by re-wiring the switch to connect both HB pickups in parallel mode, just like the center position of the Gibson 3-position toggle, also featured on the new PRS McCarty model. C) The old #9 - Both Pickups wired series out-of-phase ("Power out-of-phase" in PRS literature) is a great sound, one that is offered on the older PRS guitars as well as Gibson's ES-345 & ES-355 in their vari-tone 5 position switch. This is a classic sound that was apparently lost due to legal bickering with Gibson. PRS now claims that this sound "appealed to customers at point-of-purchase, but was rarely used in the real world". Personally, I think it is a cool tone - similar to a wah-wah set half way (Zappa), and is best enjoyed "on eleven", although on clean settings you can get a vintage B.B. King style tone. The strength & effectiveness of this last wiring position is wholly dependent upon the pickups used and their adjustment height. I have found it to be most prominent when the HFS & Vintage pickups are used, and more subtle when the Dragon and/or Artist series pickups are used. I recommend that every 5-position switch owner tries out the other possible pickup combinations, by simply disconnecting the two pickup wires from the switch (make a map so you can get home), and hard-wiring them to each other and to the output terminals as needed. Play the guitar with the plate off and the wires hanging out - it's no big deal. You can change to every possible combination with a quick touch of the soldering iron. When you find the tones you love, then permanently re-wire the 5-position switch to give you those sounds. If you can't solder, or are otherwise electronically-challenged, then this procedure is not for you - ask a qualified friend to help. Any PRS owner can first verify the wiring of their guitar by simply tapping a metal object on the individual pole pieces, and taking notes while running through all five positions and pull-pot switch combos. For out-of-phase (thin/hollow) vs in-phase (full/rich) combos, use your ears. In this way, you can see if you will want to change anything. For those interested in releasing the tones trapped within their PRS guitar, the standard color coding for the PRS split humbuckers is: Bass pickup: White=Hot, Red=Center, Black=Ground Use White=Hot & Red=Ground for Outer coil only, and Red=Hot & Black=Ground for Inner coil only. Skip Red for both coils. Treble pickup: Black=Hot, Red=Center, White=Ground. Use Black=Hot and Red=Ground for Outer coil only, and Red=Hot & White=Ground for Inner coil only. Skip Red for both coils. Question: "Why did PRS swap the polarity (phase) wiring colors and magnetic pole orientation on their bass & treble pickups?" Answer: I have no idea! All I know is that when you wire the Bass pickup's black to Hot, and white to Ground, plus the Treble pickup's White to Hot, and Black to Ground, the pickups are "parallel in phase". If you mistakenly wire both blacks to hot and both whites to ground, the pickups are "parallel out-of-phase"; this is an unmistakable condition, and also sounds stupid. The last remaining possibility is "series in phase" (contrasted to old #9 series out-of-phase). I did not care for this particular sound, as the tonally-similar McCarty "parallel in phase" sound was superior. Of course, you can pull a "Brian May" and make the individual coils of each pickup individually phase switchable and splittable, but this is tonally redundant and/or tonally stupid, unnecessary, and requires dozens of DPDT switches and holes in the guitar! In conclusion, the new McCarty model likely has the highest number of useful tones offered by PRS, although the PRS 5-position switch has offered single tones that are unavailable on the "two-switch" McCarty. Have fun, make a map, and don't fall asleep with a hot soldering iron in your hand! Best regards, Don don2@instanet.com --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Newsgroups: alt.guitar,rec.music.makers.guitar From: look in the text Subject: Advanced Dual HB Pickup Wiring [was: Re: Parker Fly] Date: Sat, 12 Jul 1997 20:52:14 GMT On 12 Jul 1997 06:52:40 GMT, in alt.guitar, andyboof@aol.com (AndyBoof) wrote: > I have some questions about the Parker Fly. The first thing that bugs me is > that I read you can't > get the 2 humbuckers on pickup selection. You can get either neck or > bridge, but the middle position is the two inside coils together. Is that > correct? The middle position on a Les Paul is like the most magical sound > for me. Anyone know why this sounds so good? It is the perfect example > of a whole being greater than the sum of its parts. The two pickups seem > to come together and make this perfect sound! > Andy Chu > andychu@juno.com The standard Gibson 3-way reed toggle switch, as used for years on the Les Paul, SG, ES335, etc, wires both humbuckers together "parallel in-phase" [hot+hot, shield+shield]. You like it because it is THE BEST WAY to connect two HB pickups! (IMHO) This was way before coil-splitting, tapping, etc., was in vogue. The traditional/vintage two-conductor output cable does not allow these new sounds or features. Coincidentally, "parallel in-phase" is the same connection created by the two "in-between" positions on the Fender Stratocaster, which old-timers could only get by jamming a piece of matchbook cover into the switch. It apparently took a rocket scientist to file two new stops on the disk to create the 5-position switch we now take for granted. I mention this only because the Strat's "in-between" Neck/Middle and Middle/Bridge sounds are erroneously referred to as either "series", or more strangely, "out-of-phase" sounds - they are neither. But, I digress... In regard to Parker's AND Paul Reed Smith's bizarre notion to delete the vintage parallel (Gibson) sound, they must be stopped! I had to re-wire two of my PRS 5-position rotary switches to forever lose the muddy & stupid-sounding position of the two full (or split) Humbuckers switched in series, in favor of parallel switching connections. Well at least PRS gave the sound back on the McCarty wiring! Now, to the advanced stuff: The standard wiring WITHIN one vintage/standard humbucking pickup (two conductor cable) is both bobbins connected together in series, and "musically in-phase". I say "musically", because within a standard HB pickup, the two bobbins are electrically out-of-phase, with reversed polarity magnets to compensate. This is how noise/hum is canceled without any musical response curve cancellation. "Out-of-phase" magnets plus "out-of-phase" coils equals "in-phase" sound, while "out-of-phase" noise & hum drops out of the summed signals. [Very clever concept by Seth Lover!] But, whenever a phase reversal of any two separate coils results in tonal cancellation, a thin "out-of-phase" sound results. For simplicity, this specific musical tone is what we're calling "out-of-phase" in the chart below. A four-conductor output cable on modern HB pickups allows six INTERNAL connection possibilities: 1) Both bobbins in series in-phase (vintage HB wiring) 2) Both bobbins in series out-of-phase 3) Both bobbins in parallel in-phase 4) Both bobbins in parallel out-of-phase 5) Outside bobbin alone, normal phase 6) Inside bobbin alone, normal phase When this pickup is connected to another pickup, then the electrical phase of one pickup's output can also be reversed for a new tone. This yields six more "reverse phase" variations on the above six "normal phase" output combinations. These wiring possibilities do not include bizarre hybrid combinations created by re-pairing each pickup's split coils, such as: Outside neck coil "parallel in-phase" with inside bridge coil; Connect this pair of split coils, in "series in-phase", with the remaining paired split coils, wired inside neck coil "series out-of-phase" with outside bridge coil..... sheesh! You get the idea! That sound might suck, but you'll never know until you hear it wired up - right? I think we can all agree that this is WAY TOO MANY CHOICES - sort of like 121 cable television channels. So, we need to pick out the very best sounds, using the fewest number of switches with the fewest number of positions per switch. For example, with only one 3-position toggle and one coil-splitting switch, you can get six really good sounds from two humbuckers. But tragically, some of our manufacturers ARE NOT GIVING US ALL THE BEST SOUNDS! Sadistically, they are substituting some STUPID SOUNDS for some good ones easily obtainable on their guitars if wired correctly! So, how about telling us your favorite wiring combinations? How did you FIX that Parker Fly or PRS custom? Tell us the sounds you actually use, not the novelty sounds! What vendors sell the best and most flexible drop-in switch upgrades? The best pull-pots? Speaking of which, what should the penalty be for drilling a 1/4" hole in your guitar (OUCH!) to install a DPDT toggle switch, when you could have used a pull-pot? [I suggest mandatory attendance at a Spice Girls Concert] Thanks in advance for posting your ideas and parts sources to this thread! Best regards, Don don2@instanet.com --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Newsgroups: rec.music.makers.guitar,alt.guitar From: xpozur@earthlink.net (xpozur) Subject: Schaller megaswitch... installation tips Date: Sun, 09 Feb 1997 15:42:25 GMT Hey gang... I just put one of the "original megaswitches" in my Strat, noticed a few points that weren't spelled out exactly in the insert... If you have a s-s-hb setup with a splittable bridge hb and install the switch as per the directions you get the following results pos.1 - bridge hb, no split option pos. 2 - standard strat quack, humbucking pos. 3 - neck + ONE COIL of the bridge, also humbucking Installing as per the directions for s-s-s yields pos. 1 - (as above) pos. 2 - both coils of bridge + middle... semi-quack, a little more balls, not humbucking pos. 3 - neck + BOTH coils of bridge, non-humbucking (this is the sound I REALLY liked!) I already had a JB jr. in the bridge with a mini-toggle for splitting... so I installed in the s-s-s mode... now I have ALL the options listed above PLUS a single coil only available at the bridge Also, reallocating the lower tone pot to the bridge pickup gives you tone control over EVERY pickup combination... have a little extra wire on hand for this as I found the lead from the pot was too short to reach to the far pin of the megaswitch Hope this is not too confusing, feel free to e-mail me for clarification Steve --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Newsgroups: rec.music.makers.guitar,alt.guitar,rec.music.makers.builders From: justpete@a.crl.com (Pete) Subject: Re: volume knob mod on tele..Thanks Date: Sat, 18 Jan 1997 07:43:57 -0800 In article , ericb@sover.net (Ericb) wrote: > Hi, and thanks to all who gave me ideas re: volume knob mod on my tele...I > ended up just adding a .001microfarad capacitor between the in and out > lugs on a 250k audio taper pot...This extremely easy task(even for me) > resulted in my being able to turn down the volume while using the neck pu > and still getting a great tone, not just mud..It lets highs through and > cuts some of the bass..Hey, now if anyone can help, are there any secrets > to making this tele's tone pot much more useful...There's a 500kaudio > taper pot in there(original I'm sure), but once again, like many tone > pots, if you turn it down the sound gets muddy...Also it doesn't yield > much in the way of variety in its range...I'd very much appreciate any > more info, and thanks again for the help...ERIC do the same mod on the tone pot...I did...it works...pete -- The dog ate the part we didn't like. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Newsgroups: rec.music.makers.guitar Organization: Boston College From: jamesk@hermes.bc.edu (Kevin James) Subject: Re: Jimmy Page Signature LP wiring/SG rewiring and shielding Date: Mon, 16 Dec 1996 03:23:59 -0500 In article <592l9v$lpt@parlor.hiwaay.net>, paulgray@HiWAAY.net (David Gray) wrote: > I'm working out a wiring plan to put four push/pull pots in an > Epiphone SG. I plan to have it set up so that with all the pots down, I > have the stock sounds, but with some/all of them up I can get coil-tapping > on both humbuckers, phasing, and series/parallel. I have a plan written out > on paper that should work, but my experience is limited. I would assume > that the Jimmy Page LP would have a similar wiring scheme since it has > four p/p pots in it. Does anyone have the JP LP (does it come with > instructions? would anyone ever open one up if they had the cash to buy > one?) or have any experience with a similar rewiring job? > Also, I'm gonna shield it with copper tape. If I shield the > control cavity with tape, will just the mechanical connection to the tape > be enough to connect it to whichever piece of hardware I use as a ground > lug? If I wire the pot cases to a ground lug that is physically in contact > with the tape, is there potential for a ground loop (tape-pot case-wire- > ground lug-tape again)? or can I just let the tape carry interference from > the pot cases and switch cases to the ground lug? The faqs say this is a > no-no, but they all deal with shielding paint, so far as I can tell. Tape > should have less resistance than paint and be able to carry the interference > to ground ok. Help! > David Gray > paulgray@hiwaay.net I'm sure some of our regulars here could wire it up, but personally I've opened up the back plate on mine, but to me it's too scary to consider ever touching it! But I can tell you what the pots do. Both volume pots can pulled up to split their respective pickup's coils. The treble tone pot controls whether the pickups are in or out of phase. The rhythm tone pot controls whether the pickups are in series or parallel. The "21" variations are different combinations of these. In practical use, I have gravitated to the following combos: Treble full humbucking alone Rhythm in single coil mode alone Both pickups in parallel; both in humbucking; sometimes in phase, sometimes out of phase Both pickups in parallel; Treble in humbucking, Rhythm in single coil mode and backed off slightly, both in and out of phase Both pickups in series; both in single coil mode It's a goof playing and watching the guitar players in the audience wonder how you are getting that many sounds out of a regular Les Paul! Kevin --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Newsgroups: rec.music.makers.guitar Organization: The Internet Access Company, Inc. From: Dan Stanley Subject: Re: Telecaster Capacitor question Date: Wed, 04 Dec 1996 21:12:17 -0800 Jeff Weir wrote: > > I've got a 52 reissue tele, that is using a 1 meg volume pot with a .001 > disc capacitor on it. when I turn the volume down the sound becomes > very thin/bright. Is there anything I could do to this setup that would > make the tone fuller/wrmer when the volume is turned down? I tried > replacing the 1 meg pot with a 250 but it lost some of the brightness at > full volume...went back to the 1 meg. > Thanks in advance, > Jeff Umm...try a 500k pot? Also, I usually put a resistor in parallel with that hi-f bypass cap ( in this case I'd use a 500k resisitor...less thinking involved!). This sort of makes the control useful over a wider range. It makes a bigger difference with 250k vol pots, to my ears, anyway. Then, if that doesn't do the trick, try different size capacitors 'til you get one that pleases you. My default value is 2.2 microfarads, but this isn't rocket science...try a value, if you don't like it try something a little bigger/ smaller next time you change strings. Dan Stanley --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Newsgroups: rec.music.makers.guitar From: rogers@star.Hi.COM (Andrew Rogers) Subject: Re: new Am Std Strat ? Date: 29 Oct 1996 15:28:53 -0500 In article <555huc$f1p@chile.earthlink.net> mheustis@earthlink.net (Mark Heustis) writes: >>#2: what's with the 2nd tone control? Is it the TBX thing? Doesn't >>seem likely as I thought TBX had a detent in a center position. This >>one detents in the full on pos'n. >If your TBX has the detent at one end of the knob's travel it is either >screwed up or is something new that I never heard of. Could indeed be something new - perhaps the detent takes it out of the circuit completely at the "10" position. If so, it's about time - I did this over 20 years ago by removing the back cover, breaking the conductive trace at the "10" position using an X-Acto needle file, and reassembling the pot. If the discontinuity caused an audible click when going from 9 to 10, I'd add a 10-meg resistor from the wiper to ground, an idea I stole from Gibson's Varitone circuit. So the circuit was effectively pickup----------------o--------> out | 10 o | trace broken -> | 9 \ | / | \ | 250-500K /<-----o \ \ / / \ \ 10M 0 / / o \ | | ----- | .02-.05 uf ----- | | | --- --- /// /// Andrew --------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: matt223@mailbag.com (m. mattson) To: djm@va.pubnix.com (David J MacKenzie) Subject: Re: linear vs audio taper? Date: Tue, 27 Aug 1996 01:07:15 GMT djm@va.pubnix.com (David J MacKenzie) wrote: >Can anyone give the lowdown on the effect of linear vs audio taper >pots in guitars? Is one or the other preferable for volume or tone pots? >I've played guitars (an Ibanez RG something) where I could go from >clean to distorted by going from about 8 to 10 on the volume knob, and >others where it didn't clean up, just got quieter (a Les Paul >Standard). Similarly, some guitars seem to get sweeter when the >treble is rolled down on the neck pickup, but others just seem to >sound muffled. Is this due primarily to the pots, the wood, the >pickups, or something else, like capacitors? You're talking about a number of issues here, and not all are related to the pots. To answer your initial question, linear taper pots are not generally used because they will give you a very short span of control. It will go very quickly from loud to soft, with the rest of the span of control doing very little. Mark The truth as I perceive it to be. Your perception will be different. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: sefstrat@aol.com To: djm@va.pubnix.com (David J MacKenzie) Date: Mon, 26 Aug 1996 11:52:55 -0400 Subject: Re: linear vs audio taper? <<<>>>>>>>>>> Audio taper pots usually have a very sharp rise high in the sweep. For instance, you've played guitars where the volume pot did little from 1 to 8, then went crazy from 8 to 10. Those are audio tapers; the taper varies from brand to brand, value to value. Play a Yamaha Pacifica on the bridge humbucking pickup; you'll get the idea. Liner taper pots are more even throughout the range. Play a PRS, or a guitar with active pickups, for an example of this. Of course, not all audio tapers are real severe...they vary. IMHO, the inclusion or lack of a capacitor isn't the issue (it will affect tone when you roll off the volume). The value of the pot has a lot to do with it though, in combination with what pickups you're using. For instance, there's a huge difference in volume pot response between humbuckers with a 500k volume pot and the same humbuckers with, say, a 250k pot. For a good example of this, play an Ibanez or Yamaha that has humbuckers and single coils. Note the difference in volume pot taper between the humbuckers and the single coil, when you select them individually. You see, the value of the volume pot is a compromise, because the guitar includes humbuckers and singles, too. I compromised on my Yamaha Pacifica (hum/single/hum), and put in a 300k pot. It still has a pretty severe audio taper, though. Steve SEFSTRAT@AOL.com --------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Pete To: "David J. MacKenzie" Subject: Re: Amp Recommendations for Slide Guitar Date: Thu, 20 Nov 1997 07:51:04 -0800 >On Wed, 29 Oct 1997 09:00:31 -0800, justpete.no.spam.4.me@a.crl.com (Pete) >said: > >> Even when cranked, the PJ can be cleaned up by rolling off the volume on >> the guitar. All my guitars have 220pfd caps in the volume circuit to >> retain the highs. > >I'm planning on doing this mod soon myself. >I've seen values from 100pfd to 1000pfd recommended. How did you >decide on the value you chose? Do you use single coil and/or >humbucking pickups? A tech I know recommended the value. I've done this to three of my guitars and two or three friends' guitars and they all love it. All were single coils. mostly Telecasters. I've had the same results with a Strat...pete --------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: fulltone@aol.com (Fulltone) Subject: Re: Why does my axes vol. pot also affect tone? Newsgroups: rec.music.makers.guitar,alt.guitar Date: 14 Dec 1995 21:06:35 -0500 The value of the volume pot will affect the tone because you always have the Pot's value (ie.500K) resistance going to ground, even with the pot turned up full. You can experiment using say a 1 Meg Pot w/ humbuckers instead of the usual 500K, and you'll get less drag on the signal resulting in a brighter and louder tone. Usually, people use 250K pots with single coils...you might try 500K instead. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: sywlau@acs4.acs.ucalgary.ca (Stephen Yiu Wah Lau) Subject: Re: Why does my axes vol. pot also affect tone? Newsgroups: rec.music.makers.guitar,alt.guitar Date: 16 Dec 1995 06:09:57 GMT Organization: The University of Calgary Charles Held (cheld@vnet.net) wrote: : In article <4aooj2$j9j@luotsi.uku.fi>, : Jukka Hayrinen wrote: : >Turning the volume pot down takes away most of the top end. The : >pickups are active EMG's (SA & SM-81?) but the pots are original Ibanez : I have an Ibanez and it does the same thing, whether it was the original stock : pickups, or what I have in it now (Duncan Pearly Gates bridge and '59 Neck). : Are Ibanez pots just crappy? What's a good replacement? Not your pots' fault. High frequencies "leak" to ground easier than low frequencies, thus as you back off your volume, the sound gets muddier. To prevent this, use a "treble bypass" capacitor. Generally, a .001 micro farad cap between the input lug and output lug does a good job for all types of pickups. Good luck! -- Stephen Lau, Department of Chemistry, University of Calgary e-mail: sywlau@acs.ucalgary.ca -=- www site: http://www.ucalgary.ca/~sywlau/ "I need to know more particle physics. I wish I'd read the book by that wheelchair guy." - Virtual Homer Simpson --------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: sefstrat@aol.com (SEFSTRAT) Subject: Re: Why does my axes vol. pot also affect tone? Newsgroups: rec.music.makers.guitar Date: 17 Dec 1995 18:53:33 -0500 >I was about to ask this question as well. What value and where do you put it? I'd go with a 500k audio taper push-pull tone pot.......and a .022mf, 100v capacitor, wired to the "up" position. Then you'd retain the current guitar tone range in the "down" position, and engage the capacitor in the "up" position. When you turn down from full volume in the "up" position, the treble will remain unchanged. Treble roll-off isn't necessarily always all bad; sometime's it's cool to add a little treble for leads, when you turn up, and have it roll off a little when you turn down for rhythm. By the way--a bonus of the push-pull pot arrangement: when I engage the capacitor in my PRS EG and roll the tone pot down to about "3", I get a real humbucking kind of sound. Interesting. Steve SEFSTRAT@AOL.com --------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: bagneski@mail.ctenet.com (Mb) Subject: Re: Why does my axes vol. pot also affect tone? Newsgroups: rec.music.makers.guitar Date: Mon, 18 Dec 1995 02:23:13 GMT Organization: Institute for Information Industry On 17 Dec 1995 12:29:24 -0500, smn2@Lehigh.EDU wrote: |In article <4atnrl$sdc@ds2.acs.ucalgary.ca>, sywlau@acs4.acs.ucalgary.ca (Stephe |n Yiu Wah Lau) writes: |>Charles Held (cheld@vnet.net) wrote: |>Generally, a .001 micro farad cap between the input lug and output |>lug does a good job for all types of pickups. | | Isn't that a nanofarad capacitor? Nope. .001 microfarad. Attached to the volume pot between the center lug and the remaining lug that is *not* grounded. Mb / *** / C3==# --------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: mgarvin@panix.com (Mark Garvin) Subject: Re: Why does my axes vol. pot also affect tone? Newsgroups: rec.music.makers.guitar,alt.guitar Date: 17 Dec 1995 21:46:03 -0500 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC In <4aooj2$j9j@luotsi.uku.fi> Jukka Hayrinen writes: >I wonder if anyone could explain me the following: >Turning the volume pot down takes away most of the top end. This never >happened with a Carvin 100W tube combo; only with a Marshall JCM900. The Hi Jukka, I thought I had covered this pretty extensively in a post last month. But here goes again: Guitar cables and sometimes inputs of guitar amp circuitry are usually very capacitive. This means that they have a tendency to roll off high frequencies. The tendency gets worse if you have a high 'source' impedance. Just happens that when you turn down the volume control on your guitar, you putting some resistance in series with the guitar pickups. Yep, you are 'increasing the source impedance'. The HIGHER the value of the pot, the more exaggerated this effect will be. If you turn down a 500k pot it will cause a higher source impedance than turning down a 250k pot. The counterbalance to this is: The lower the pot value when it is TURNED UP FULL, the more treble will be lost. But usually not much will be lost after 250k for a single coil or 500k for a humbucker. So there is a balance point between losing treble when the pot is up full vs losing treble when it is turned down. The 250k/500k values are a good compromise for non-active pickups. Many guitarists use this to their advantage. Rolling of treble for playing rhythm. If you don't like the effect, a small cap may be soldered between the 'hot' and 'wiper' of the volume pot. Try cap values in the range of .002 maybe. Just guessing at this value, cause it depends what you want to hear. Your active pickups do *NOT* need a high value pot. Using lower value pots on your active pickups should help. Regards, Mark Garvin Composer/Design Engineer New York City --------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: sefstrat@aol.com (SEFSTRAT) Subject: Tone roll-off when volume is down (was "why does...") Newsgroups: rec.music.makers.guitar Date: 17 Dec 1995 20:00:37 -0500 >Is the capacitor to ground or in series with the output? To ground. Sorry I didnt make that clear before. Steve SEFSTRAT@AOL.com --------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: rogers@star.Hi.COM (Andrew Rogers) Subject: Re: The Unthinkable Telecaster Newsgroups: rec.music.makers.guitar Date: 19 Dec 1995 19:29:20 -0500 In article Steve Richter writes: >>Andertons book "Do It Yourself Projects for Guitarists", while not >>highly recommended, does have a few good things in it, one of which >>is a Tele rewiring scheme using a Strat 5-way switch. This also appeared in the February '93 issue of _Guitar Player_. >>This in addition with a phase switch (perhaps done as a pull-pot using >>the tone control) gives you every combo known to man out of two pickups. Tip from someone who's done it: replace one of the jumpers that criss-cross the phase switch with a .05 mfd cap. This has the effect of restoring some of the bass that would otherwise be lost when the pickups are in parallel and out-of-phase, an idea that I stole from the Fender J.D. Tele. (It'll be out of the circuit when the pickups are in phase, and its effect is be negligible when they are in series and out-of-phase.) >If anyone has this book would you condider posting a rough >"sketch" of this wiring? I stared at this switch for 2 days >and could visualize or hack anyway to get these combinations. OK, in order to do this correctly you need the CRL Strat five-way switch sold by Allparts and others (the Stew-Mac switch will work, but not with the pictorial below - the common terminals are at the opposite ends of each row). Hold it so you're looking at it from the underside, with the spring to the right: (a) | | | | (B) (b) | | | | (a) (c) | | | | (b) (A) | | | | (c) The terminal codes correspond to those in the original article. You first need to separate the ground from the negative lead of the bridge pickup. On a traditional Tele pickup, this means that you cut the jumper from the copper bottom plate to the negative terminal, and run a separate wire from the bottom plate to ground. Once you've done that, the connections are as follows: Side A, terminal a: Bridge pickup (positive) jumper to Side A, terminal c Side A, terminal b: Neck pickup (positive) jumper to Side B, terminal c Side A, terminal c: jumper to Side A, terminal a Side A common (A): to hot lug of volume pot Side B common (B): Bridge pickup (negative) Side B, terminal a: ground .005 mfd cap to Side B, terminal b Side B, terminal b: .005 mfd cap to Side B, terminal a Side B, terminal c: jumper to Side A, terminal B ... and the remaining pickup connection, the neck pickup (negative), stays connected to ground. Have fun! Andrew From: rogers@star.Hi.COM (Andrew Rogers) Subject: Re: The Unthinkable Telecaster Newsgroups: rec.music.makers.guitar Date: 22 Dec 1995 16:20:49 -0500 In article <4b7ld0$kne@star.Hi.COM> rogers@star.Hi.COM (li'l ol' me) writes: >OK, in order to do this correctly you need the CRL Strat five-way switch... > > [diagram deleted - see original posting] Actually, the diagram I posted works better if you use (B) as the left side of the switch and (A) as the right. The jumper between sides is shorter, but more importantly the cap is on the side away from the spring, where there's more room for it. Andrew ---------------------------------------------------------------------------