Help me with a wiring diagram

[waygorked]

I'm a total noob at wiring, so apologies in advance for the following stupid questions. I am currently building a version of a B3 Phoenix, only with a Jazzcaster body and a tele neck. It will be set up similar to a Nashville tele, with Lollar Firebird pickups in the neck and bridge. I'm going with 500K pots, and will use a Monotone Quiet Coil tele bridge pickup. I want to be able to split the coils on the Firebird pickups. The B3 has a coils tapped from a push-pull tone pot. How do I wire that up? I can't seem to find a similar wiring diagram anywhere.

Thanks for the help!

 

[stratamania]

What kind of wiring has the Lollar pickups?

They could have single conductor braided shield lead wire or 4 conductor lead wire.

If it is the first option of single conductor you will not be able to split them.

 

[Verne Bunsen]

Assuming that your Firebirds are in fact 4-conductor, wire them with hot to your 5-way and ground to ground as per normal. Then take your series link wires and run one pair to the middle lug of one side of the push/pull switch and the other pair to the middle lug on the other side. Leave the bottom lugs open and "down" will give you full humbuckers. Connect the top lugs to ground and "up" will split the coils.

Pinterest isn't usually my "go-to" for diagrams, but this is a good representation (disregard the colors, they won't correlate to your Lollars):

Push/pull switches can be a bit finicky to work with, to say nothing of soldering to pot cases (barbaric practice though it is...) so if you are as inexperienced with a soldering iron as you imply, I'd recommend practicing on bits of wire and non-critical components to get your technique figured out. Heck I'm sure that I have junk pots and extra wire about, if you want to PM me your address I'll drop some in the mail and you can practice risk-free.

I want to be able to split the coils on the Firebird pickups. The B3 has a coils tapped from a push-pull tone pot.

Just to avoid confusion, do note that a coil tap is different from a coil spilt. Using one coil of a humbucker is "splitting". "Tapping" refers to accessing different wind counts within the same coil for different output levels. If I've misunderstood your request, let me know.

 

[waygorked]

That's exactly what I needed, thanks!

Any suggestions on quality push-pull pots?

 

[Verne Bunsen]

I've used the Alpha's and the CTS's and there are pros and cons to both.

The Alpha's have the vertically configured switch like in the diagram above, the switch lugs are in close quarters but they're not too bad to work on. The switch internals can over heat and seize up if you get heavy handed with the iron... The actual pot part of the unit is actually a mini-pot which isn't my preference all else being equal. They are tall, but I haven't had many fitment issues. I've used a lot of these.

http://www.stewmac.com/Pickups_and_Electronics/Components_and_Parts/Potentiometers/Alpha_Push-pull_Pots.html

I've only just recently tried a couple of the CTS push/pulls. They are certainly a different animal. They are a full size pot, which is great. I personally find them a bit stiff to rotate. I find most CTS pots a bit stiff to rotate, so take that with a grain of salt. The switch is robust and feels great. The switch terminal configuration leaves a lot to be desired in my opinion though. You get little eyelets instead of lugs and they are right under the actual pot lugs, it gets pretty tight in a hurry if you're using all of them. You have to be careful feeding the wire through the eyelets lest ye contact the grounded pot case.

http://www.stewmac.com/Pickups_and_Electronics/Components_and_Parts/Potentiometers/CTS_Push_pull_Pots_DPDT.html

So, long story short, either one will work for you just fine. Bourns also has push/pulls, but I've never tried one. I'd like to, as I really like their standard pots.