Standard 5-way and two splitable humbuckers

[BrotherJack]

So, this post is half question and half 'what I did to make my Ibanez RG more to my liking'.    I replaced the 3 way switch with a standard (import) 5 way switch, and tried to get the following:

Pos1: Bridge
Pos2: Bridge + Neck
Pos3: Neck
Pos4: off
Pos5: Neck with coil split

Or any variation that gives me all 5 of the options above.  I tried a couple three or four things that I thought would work, but I kept overlooking some element of the wiring and would end up with either coil split in more positions than I wanted, or off in more positions than I wanted, or no coil split option.  So my question is, if anyone knows how to get what I want out of a STANDARD 5 way switch?  If so, pls to explain.

Failing at getting what I really wanted, I wired up as follows (standard import 5 way switch - see here for great diagram on what's hot and what's not in what position, 2nd one down the page covers the import 5 way I used: http://guitarwiring.blogspot.com/2011_01_01_archive.html):

1 = Neck Pickup Hot
2 = Bridge Pickup Hot
3 = Neck Pickup Hot
C = Output
C = Ground
3 =  Secondary coil wires for neck
2 = open
1 = open

That gets me close, except the switch positions start at 5 and work back (which is fine, I don't find it particularly un-intuitive that we start in position 5 with the neck pickup and work back):

Pos5: Neck
Pos4: Neck + Bridge
Pos3: Bridge
Pos2: Bridge + Neck w/ coil split
Pos1: Neck w/ coil split.

I had thought about adding a 200k resistor wired to the output wire where "1 = open" above, which would should dampen the output just slightly for neck and neck+bridge positions, leaving the bridge only and all single coil options wide open/direct to output jack (ie: hotter signal when in bridge-only, or any of the single coil positions), but since I already have an on/off/resistor 3 way switch on the same guitar, I skipped that part.

Anyway, there she be - for your information, or if you know the answer to my first question, for your thinking about. 

Thanks,
Jack

 

[stratamania]

To get the combinations you are after and the potential for more that you could go for I would suggest a superswitch.

Also if the switch is working the opposite way to what was intended it's good to remember that a lever switch from the players perspective has the contacts engaged at the opposite end as it were.

Here's a link to a good set of articles by one of the Forum members

http://www.seymourduncan.com/blog/the-tone-garage/guitar-wiring-diploma-course/

And a good set of wiring diagrams to study or adapt here.


https://sites.google.com/site/phostenixwiringdiagrams/

 

[BrotherJack]

No, it works as expected, I was just commenting that the way I had to wire it up so as to have my neck pickup standalone and coil tapped at one of the switch positions left it set up so that the pickup starts with the neck at Position 5 (exactly like a normal strat switch), and then back one is neck+bridge, and center is bridge only, and then my two 'special settings' are what would normally be the bridge and bridge+middle positions on a standard strat.  So I'm not confused about that.   

And I actually don't think I'm confused about anything else either, but I kept hoping that there was a way to have one position be off and one be coil tapped neck.  The closest I got was this:\

1 Neck
2 Bridge
3 Neck
C Hot
C Coil split wires for neck
3 Ground
2 wired to 2 on the hot side
1 Open

I thought - hey this should work great, ground comes in on leg 3, so there is no ground in the circuit except in the last 2 positions, just like we want, and we only get ground attached to hot output in position 2, yes, and position 1 leaves us with the coil split wire grounded just like we want... but then I tested and saw the error of my ways - I get the coil split  wires for the neck attached to the hot wire on the bridge in positions 4 and 3, thus (unexpectedly to me?) leaving the neck pickup split in all positions.  I had some other ideas I tried, but they all failed in one way or another (mostly because I kept forgetting where other parts of the circuit besides the one I was focused on were connected).

 

[stratamania]

Ok, understood.

I still think you need to explore a Superswitch or 1/2 superswitch as you then have more independent poles to play with.

On the numbering there seems to be a difference in which way some count this versus others.

 

[BrotherJack]

Yeah, I looked at the more advanced 5 way switches, but I can buy regular switches for about $1, and super-switches with more poles start about $13 and go up (a lot) from there.    For just experimenting, I was willing to invest a buck, but not much more than that.

 

[stratamania]

True there is a price difference.

I suppose to experiment if you used a second separate switch to simulate one of the poles you could test before investing more cash.