Freeway Switch Backwards Question

joelorigo

Junior Member
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I installed the Freeway 5 position 10 way switch on my left handed 1993 Fender American Standard Strat. Testing it with the screwdriver on the pickups, I am getting the switch operating in the opposite way. Position 1 is what position 5 should be, position 2 is what 4 should be, 3 is the same, 4 is what 2 should be and 5 is what 2 should be. Same with the extra 5 positions on the upper bank - opposite.

I have checked and double checked the wiring and it seems right. At this point I only disconnected and removed the original switch, installed the Freeway switch, and connected the appropriate wires according to the provided diagram.

Is there something to do with the left handed-ness of the original wiring?  For example, my volume pot is wired opposite of the one on the Freeway diagram. And, not sure if this would matter but, the cap on the middle tone is connected to the opposite lug on mine compared to the Freeway diagram. The lower tone pot looks the same.
 

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The sad truth is that this switch, its labeling, and what little reference materiel there is for it, is right handed. We may be able to fool it (scroll down), but some features (Bridge Tap/Coil Split) are right-handed wiring only.

Best I understand their labeling...
  • NG = Neck Ground Wire
  • NH = Neck Hot Wire
  • OP = Output
  • GD = Ground
  • B = ????
  • A = ????
  • MH = Middle Hot Wire
  • BG = Bridge Ground Wire
  • BT = Bridge Tap/Coil Split Wire
  • BH = Bridge Hot Wire

But, you shouldn't be out of luck with a simple SSS guitar, I'm 90% confident it's as simple as the Bridge and Neck wires....


  • Connect Bridge PU HOT wire to NH on the switch
  • Connect Bridge PU TONE POT to NH on the switch
  • Connect Bridge PU GROUND wire to NG on the switch
  • Connect Neck PU HOT wire to BH on the switch
  • Connect Neck PU TONE POT to BH on the switch
  • Connect Neck PU GROUND wire to BG and BT on the switch
  • Leave the Middle PU wired "as is" for now, but if it doesn't work right, maybe move it from B to A?

The actual layout of B and A are a mystery to me, I only know it most be for the series connection to the Middle PU.

If you ever needed to use a Bridge Tap, you would have to move up to the 5B5-02 which offers Neck Tap and Bridge Tap connections and then we have to figure it all out again.
 
DuckBaloo said:
The sad truth is that this switch, its labeling, and what little reference materiel there is for it, is right handed. We may be able to fool it (scroll down), but some features (Bridge Tap/Coil Split) are right-handed wiring only.

Best I understand their labeling...
  • NG = Neck Ground Wire
  • NH = Neck Hot Wire
  • OP = Output
  • GD = Ground
  • B = ????
  • A = ????
  • MH = Middle Hot Wire
  • BG = Bridge Ground Wire
  • BT = Bridge Tap/Coil Split Wire
  • BH = Bridge Hot Wire

But, you shouldn't be out of luck with a simple SSS guitar, I'm 90% confident it's as simple as the Bridge and Neck wires....


  • Connect Bridge PU HOT wire to NH on the switch
  • Connect Bridge PU TONE POT to NH on the switch
  • Connect Bridge PU GROUND wire to NG on the switch
  • Connect Neck PU HOT wire to BH on the switch
  • Connect Neck PU TONE POT to BH on the switch
  • Connect Neck PU GROUND wire to BG and BT on the switch
  • Leave the Middle PU wired "as is" for now, but if it doesn't work right, maybe move it from B to A?

The actual layout of B and A are a mystery to me, I only know it most be for the series connection to the Middle PU.

If you ever needed to use a Bridge Tap, you would have to move up to the 5B5-02 which offers Neck Tap and Bridge Tap connections and then we have to figure it all out again.

Actually I was just about to reply to my own post. Not long after I started this thread I checked everything again and it hit me. It was because I put the switch physically like it is in the diagram, which is opposite directionally in a left handed guitar. So I unsoldered everything flipped the switch around and re-soldered it and it seems right now. It's just that the UPPER bank is the traditional Strat selections and the LOWER bank are the new ones, which I can live with. But using the screwdriver to test, the positions are correct and tone knobs seem to do what the diagram says. If I did what you suggest, it would have the proper positions and the bank selections?

As far as the future coil splitting, oh shoot! So with the switch I have, I can install a humbucker but won't be able to split it? I was thinking of putting a stacked humbucker in bridge. I should have thought about that.

Also, for anyone doing this in the future, I had to add some of hookup wire to my original pickup wires to reach the pads on the new switch. On a couple of others too, but I now realize I could have just replaced the entire wire.
 
No, I don’t think we can swap the upper/lower aspect of the switch, that would be one of the right-hand only aspects of the design.
 
A = ????
B = ????

As far as I have been able to ascertain regarding A and B looking at the various Freeway schemes is that there are probably two main internal circuits called A and B, and these terminals act as a kind of common or tap point into those circuits. They sometimes in some diagrams are used and in others not used at all.

It would be useful if they actually just published this information rather than having to take a reverse engineering approach.

 
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