3 pickup SG

Jon

Junior Member
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Hello there.  (I'm sorry if this is a stupid question)  I am building a Warmoth SG with H S H pickups.  With a 3 way switch, I'm not quite sure how it should be wired... I'm mostly just seeing what is possible to do, because I'm most likely not wiring it myself.  Anyway, with a 3 way switch, is it possible to have it go bridge/middle/neck?  Or will I have to find some other way to have it wired?  And also, is it possible to have the knobs 3 volume 1 tone?  Thanks in advanced.
 
Anything is possible . . . look at Seymour Duncan p/u schematics, it's a good place to start :hello2:
                       
                              http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/wiring-diagrams/



 
Jon said:
Hello there.  (I'm sorry if this is a stupid question)  I am building a Warmoth SG with H S H pickups.  With a 3 way switch, I'm not quite sure how it should be wired... I'm mostly just seeing what is possible to do, because I'm most likely not wiring it myself.  Anyway, with a 3 way switch, is it possible to have it go bridge/middle/neck?  Or will I have to find some other way to have it wired?  And also, is it possible to have the knobs 3 volume 1 tone?  Thanks in advanced.

First off.......Welcome to the board.

With a 'standard-wired'  3-way switch, bridge/middle/neck is pretty much all you're gonna get. 
You can go for all sorts of other combinations (with your 3-way) if you think about how you connect various wires.  You can get all sorts of weird and wonderful series and parallel combo's if you wanna get creative.

3 Vol, 1 Tone - No problem.

And I agree with Kreig.  SD's pickup schem's are a great place to start, but be aware that other pickup manufacturers may use different colour codes for their wires, and you may have to bear that in mind when actually connecting up.

My advice would be start simple (bridge / middle / neck on a 3-way), to give yourself a base line of what the guitar and pickups sound like.  If you are happy with the results, leave it alone.  If you want a different layout, rip the guts out and start again.

All the best, and let us know how you get on.
Jim
 
and I'd go 3 HB's w/ a coil split. You'd keep with a stock look, with having a sleeper trick job. :hello2:
 
Assuming you have std. SG control holes drilled, here's a diagram that will give you 3 individual volume controls and a master tone:

wdu_hhh3t22_01
 
Okay, thanks everyone.  I was just wondering, will a Seymour Duncan/ DiMarzio/ Seymour Duncan (bridge/middle/neck) combo create any sort of problem with wiring?
 
Using different HBs shouldn't be an issue, but make sure you balance the outputs; I did a 3 HB "Strat Custom" with a Rio Grande TX/BBQ set in neck/bridge and but an SD Jazz in the middle position to get a different sound, but will will change out the Jazz HB at some point; has nothing to do with the brands involved, it's just that the output of the Jazz is so much less I'd need to up the amp master volume to get the same level as with the Rio Grande HBs.
 
jackthehack said:
Assuming you have std. SG control holes drilled, here's a diagram that will give you 3 individual volume controls and a master tone:

wdu_hhh3t22_01

The toggle positions are:

1.  Neck only
2.  Neck, Middle, and Bridge together
3.  Bridge only

Correct?
 
jackthehack said:
Assuming you have std. SG control holes drilled, here's a diagram that will give you 3 individual volume controls and a master tone:

wdu_hhh3t22_01
Hi, sorry to have to revive this, but I was looking this diagram over.  It looked great, but then I saw where the middle volume was attached to the selector, and the master tone.  I was wondering, wouldn't this force the neck pickup to be on at every position, because wouldn't turning it's volume down cause the whole guitar to go silent?  Or is it not like a Les Paul, where turning from bridge to bridge/neck, with the neck volume off, silences the guitar?  Sorry if this is a bit of a dumb question, and thanks for any help.
 
With this wiring schematic, the middle PU is always on. The 3-way toggle settings would be neck + middle; all 3 PUs; bridge + middle. The individual volume controls allow you to set the volume on each pickup individually. Turning the middle volume (or any of the other volume pots) all the way down affects only the pickup attached to that pot.

Another way to think of this circuit is that it essentially works the SAME as a normal 2 HB/3-way toggle Gibson circuit, but you can dial in the middle pickup to any volume in combination with the regular circuit.
 
it would be
1. Neck Middle
2. Neck Middle Bridge
3. Bridge Middle

But you could control the volume of all pickups so

1. Neck Middle w/middle turned all the way down is Neck only
1. Neck Middle w/neck turned all the way down is Middle only
2. Neck Middle Bridge w/middle turned all the way down is Neck Bridge
3. Bridge Middle w/middle turned all the way down is bridge only

Guess you could get all combination from the middle position and use the volumes to controls the p-ups
 
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