3 Humbuckers with some tricks

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

I think having all of these options available is very nice, but I would add that I would likely only use these options for recording.

Live, I just want a 3 way p/u toggle, a volume knob, and the truth.

I'm already doing lead vocals, lead/rythym guitar, and launching samples, start/stopping backing tracks.

I need simplicity in there somewhere.

 

[Cagey]

Live, I just want a 3 way p/u toggle, a volume knob, and the truth.

That's the best, although I can understand the desire for a tone control as well.

I still have a couple guitars that have three on/off switches for pickup selection instead of the traditional 5-way blade, and they're a pain in the shorts. Seemed like a great idea at the time, but if you're playing the bridge and you want the middle/neck combo, you have to turn one switch off and two on. Even the simplest move, such as going from the bridge to the neck means you have to fiddle with two switches. And all that assumes you don't have to adjust volume/tone, which of course you always do. It's too much. I can't imagine having to deal with phase inverters and series/parallel on top of pickup selection, level control and filtration. it would be a nightmare. The band would have to stop and have a beer while you got out the cheat sheet to figure out how to reprogram your guitar.

 

[Hasselhoof]

I do understand where you guys are coming from, and this probably will simplify with time and reality, however I am not in a band, or likely to play live anywhere, this is for me to have fun with at home, or jamming with a few mates and mimicking some sounds on tracks I like. This set up will give me the ability to do most of that with only one guitar and at a price an can afford, and with practice the system will become easier to use.

 

[Jumble Jumble]

I don't think you're doing anything wrong. I think maybe you could set a long term goal though: find the 5 combinations you like the best, and then design a wiring scheme that will put them on a 5-way switch. Then you have the best of both worlds.

I currently have a guitar much more stupidly set up than you're suggesting. If I want to switch from the bridge to the neck pickup, I have to unscrew a bunch of block terminals, move wires around inside the guitar, and screw them back up again. There's no switch on there, it's all just manual wiring. Obviously it's not my long term ideal for the guitar, but it sure gives me a lot of flexibility.

 

[guitartom]

I don't think you're doing anything wrong. I think maybe you could set a long term goal though: find the 5 combinations you like the best, and then design a wiring scheme that will put them on a 5-way switch. Then you have the best of both worlds.

I currently have a guitar much more stupidly set up than you're suggesting. If I want to switch from the bridge to the neck pickup, I have to unscrew a bunch of block terminals, move wires around inside the guitar, and screw them back up again. There's no switch on there, it's all just manual wiring. Obviously it's not my long term ideal for the guitar, but it sure gives me a lot of flexibility.

Jumble - what did you use for terminal blocks?  I've thought about this option for solderless pickups swapping.  The ones I looked at seemed big for the cavity.

Thanks in advance,

Tom

 

[Re-Pete]

The only wrong you can do is the type of wrong where no sound comes out at all!

Let's face it, guitar control circuits are only about 80 years old. Not a stringent set of rules either, once you get past the basics, except for the one about it must make a sound.

But like what Cagey alluded to, advice is based upon known things that might happen/will happen.

My own view is this: every time you add a capacitor, resistor, pot or switch you increase the inevitable problem of one day picking up the guitar to play it & it won't make a squeak. Components will fail. It is just a matter of when, not if.

If you are going to do a complex circuit I would suggest getting the best quality components you could source & ensure you know your soldering skills real well, so that the solder joints are professional grade. By getting good quality components you may reduce your risk of failure.

 

[mark1178]

Y'know... assuming you can find room on the face of the guitar for 8 SPDT switches, you'd only have 255 different settings available. Of course, you can add the nearly infinite variability of the volume and tone pots, but are you sure that's enough?

What? No kill switch?

 

[Jumble Jumble]

I don't think you're doing anything wrong. I think maybe you could set a long term goal though: find the 5 combinations you like the best, and then design a wiring scheme that will put them on a 5-way switch. Then you have the best of both worlds.

I currently have a guitar much more stupidly set up than you're suggesting. If I want to switch from the bridge to the neck pickup, I have to unscrew a bunch of block terminals, move wires around inside the guitar, and screw them back up again. There's no switch on there, it's all just manual wiring. Obviously it's not my long term ideal for the guitar, but it sure gives me a lot of flexibility.

Jumble - what did you use for terminal blocks?  I've thought about this option for solderless pickups swapping.  The ones I looked at seemed big for the cavity.

Thanks in advance,

Tom

Just these things:

They are pretty big, yeah. But they fit in. I have, I think, 4 terminals in there, total. One block of two  connects the volume control to the jack, and the other block of two connects the pickup wires to the volume control. When I'm wiring weird humbucker combinations I just shove all the wires into one hole and screw it down. It's not for the long term but it works for my prototyping/demonstration purposes.

 

[guitartom]

Thanks