Wiring help please: SSH, autosplit, 2 volumes, 1 tone

[Pierre]

Bridge bucker to 500K volume pot
Middle/neck single coils to 250k volume + tone pot
Autosplit in position 4

I have a standard 5 way switch and I've been working it through http://www.seymourduncan.com/pdfs/su...v_2t_5w_as.pdf but I still can't get it right; I need the 2nd volume + tone harness to only work on the middle + neck pickups.

A master tone would be an acceptable compromise; 500 or 250k. But I need separate volumes for neck/mid and bridge.

Any ideas..? Thanks

[idsnowdog]

I guess I'm not sure what part you are having problems with or how you have things wired. However this should work.

I tend to have the same wiring with a master tone and a separate volume for neck/middle. I don't have a guitar I can open up right now, but this is similar to what I have.

[Pierre]

Thanks bud, this is good stuff and will allow me to progress a bit further

I actually also found an easier way, involving a tone control for the bridge humbucker only. Let's face it, I don't ever use the tone control on the middle or neck so it's good for me and will make things easier.

I'll also have a treble bleed on each volume pot (100K + 0.001mf).

[ArtieToo]

Hey ID; that won't work. You have the neck and middle hot wires shorted together through the 2nd volume pot. The electrons don't know that they aren't supposed to go down that wire when the 5-way is in any particular position.

Pierre; Using a standard 5-way, you will have to sacrifice the auto-split function. You need one side of the switch to do the neck/middle thing, and the other side to do the bridge thing. A Superswitch would work, however.

Diagram coming shortly.

[Pierre]

Hi Artie! Glad to see you around here

I was planning on using this diagram here which doesn't use a SuperSwitch... does it seem unachieavable then? I'll order a superswitch to be safe... The Autosplit is at the heart of my wiring schema.

Before this I had volume neck, volume bridge and tone neck + middle (middle pickup alwyas full on). It's not 100% what I wanted to have but it was easier with the standard switch.

[ArtieToo]

The trouble with that, is that the bridge will be routed to both volume pots when in the bridge position. You need to do it something like this: (Done quik-'n-dirty.)

[ArtieToo]

Now, what you could do, is run the bridge direct to the bridge volume pot, and just turn it up and down in any position.

But . . . let me chew on this whole thing a bit more. There may be a solution here somewhere.

[Pierre]

Aye, what I currently have done is the bridge pickup's hot wire is going straight to the 500K volume pot and THEN to the switch. As in the SSH wiring for autosplit, but with a volume pot between black wire and switch.

[ArtieToo]

My brain's starting to hurt.

A Superswitch would be the logical, and simple, solution.

[Pierre]

It's ordered! Should get here Friday...

I really believe in this wiring by the way... When I was in a punk band I had seperate volumes for bridge and neck and I got a perfect clean tone from my old Laney just with the volume pot down on the neck pickup, while my bridge pickup on full brought the metal. Fantastic stuff with a clean amp.

So I'd just need:

Bridge pickup, autosplit with 500K volume pot -> tone pot
Neck + middle pickups with 250K volume pot

Now to wait for the weekend without my Strat...

[ArtieToo]

Cool. I'll whip up a diagram soon.

[Pierre]

Ok I thought about this a little:

I'd use THIS diagram:

And use one of the two spare side of the superswitch to re-direct the red/white wires to ground when in position 4.

Seems fairly straight forward put this way...

[Pierre]

Argh but superswitches have 5 lugs + 1 common, not three + 1 common... Raaah I'm so lost. Grumblegrumble. Time to whip out the notepad.

[Funkfingers]

With the regular eight contact switch, you take the tone control feed cables from the same terminals as their respective pickups. There is no way to share the lower tone pot between the bridge and centre pickups like a Fender Am Std Stratocaster. You have to decide to have one or the other. Personally, I'd have bridge and neck tone controls.

[Pierre]

Mhmm to be honest the tone pot is very un-critical to me. What IS is to have the bridge humbucker running its own volume pickup. That's very easy; the black wire goes to the volume pot and the pot's output becomes the pickup's hot wire.

[Pierre]

Alright so I figured out the following, with the help of a diagram I found on the net:


This allows me exactly what I want: independent volume pot for the bridge pickup, and for the neck pickup.

Added bonuses:

Position 3 is split bridge + neck
Position 2, 3 and 4 act as if the relevant volume pot is a master volume!

Then there's a Master Tone and I don't lose my Straty sounds.

Only issue is that the TB59 is too low in output, so position 4 loses a little of its strattiness that I had with the BK Crawker. But I prefer the sound of the humbucker on its own, really a great match. It's got this bit of aggression that I wasn't expecting!