Wiring Plans Checkup

[B'Lark]

Hey guys,

I've made a build diary about the Mockingbird Kit I'm working on, with a bunch of absurd wiring plans. I've naturally had to sit down and conjure my own diagram for it as it's nowhere near any that I could find, so I'm wondering if anyone with a more keen wiring eye might be able to take a look at the diagram and let me know if it seems all right. I am fairly confident in most of it after having wracked my brain over a couple of weeks with it, but I've never had to work on a wiring setup this complex so I would like some feedback and corrections if needed.

I've lifted a lot of the individual switching pieces from the Seymour Duncan Wiring archives, but a couple of other bit from various bits of Googling (the Varitone for example)


The Setup: Warman G-Rail Pickups in both Neck and Bridge


1> Series/Split/Parallel: 3-Position Mini Toggle for each Rail Coil
2> Single Coil/Parallel/Rail Coil/Series: 4-Position Blade Switch
3> Neck Pickup Phase Reversal: 2-Position Mini Toggle
4> Neck Pickup/Parallel/Bridge Pickup/Series: 4-Position Rotary Switch for Pickup Selection
5> Varitone Selector: 5-Position Rotary Switch
6> 1 Volume, 1 Tone 330K Pots
7> Killswitch: NC Momentary Switch



I kind of compartmentalised things like this when I was planning it, made it easier for me to follow since there was so much to deal with. Also Wire Codes included because I needed them there myself to follow them, plus SD Comparison Colours for the same reason.

Imgur link out to it, since it'd probably be a bit too squished at 1500x1500

Let me know if I've left any important info out. And massive thanks in advance to anyone who is able to help double check the monstrosity that I've created here hahah. I hope the colour-coding somewhat helps.


For Reference, or Bibliography?? In case it helps anyways:
Series/Split/Parallel
4-Way Switching
Phase Switching

[fender3x]

I feel you may be a kindred soul. As evidence, I am including my "everything" wiring for my G&L ASAT bass, which now serves as a bit of an object lesson for me....

I could not decide which mods I had read about that I wanted or did not want, so I tried to get them all.... In the end, it had stacked volumes, two push-pulls, two 2-way micro switches, and three 3-way switches. The good news is that I can dial in a ridiculous number of sounds. The bad news is that on the fly I can't always remember which switch combinations create the sounds I like. Hope you don't end up with the same problem! When I have played out with this bass, I pretty much just use two or three settings that I know I can remember ;-)



All that said, will take a closer look at your mod. I know I could not have created this one without help. For now I just know the kill switch, for sure will work where you have it ;-)

[B'Lark]

I feel you may be a kindred soul. As evidence, I am including my "everything" wiring for my G&L ASAT bass, which now serves as a bit of an object lesson for me....

I could not decide which mods I had read about that I wanted or did not want, so I tried to get them all.... In the end, it had stacked volumes, two push-pulls, two 2-way micro switches, and three 3-way switches. The good news is that I can dial in a ridiculous number of sounds. The bad news is that on the fly I can't always remember which switch combinations create the sounds I like. Hope you don't end up with the same problem! When I have played out with this bass, I pretty much just use two or three settings that I know I can remember ;-)



All that said, will take a closer look at your mod. I know I could not have created this one without help. For now I just know the kill switch, for sure will work where you have it ;-)

I was going to say that I'm not sure on being a Kindred Spirit with this as I don't know if it's going to be something I ever come even remotely near in future, but then I remember that I plan to build a guitar with 4 pickups and switching with the vibe and excessive nature of the Teisco Spectrum 5 (for reference) and I guess it might be so.

Dear lord, that's definitely a diagram, I do not envy your work puttin' that one together in any way. I feel like you've got me beat on complexity though. Crazy impressive stuff haha

Yea the on-the-fly switching is why I generally prefer to keep it simple. Like Series/Parallel is almost mandatory for me personally nowadays if I can get it, but I am always paranoid of it getting too convoluted for that exact reason. I am curious though how I'll end up feeling about it after it's completed though, which is part of why I'm excited for it

And finally, thanks for taking a look, massively appreciated!!

[fender3x]

I just took another look at your diagram and realized I don't really know how the 4 way selector work... I have an Oak Grigsby 3 way, but it looks a little different, so I looked up the 4 way...and it looked like this...



...I am dyslexic...so the fact that the "0" soldering tabs on the chart above are backwards from the 0 tabs in your diagram through me for a bit of a loop. Then I realized that probably not all blade switches are equal...

I have another three way blade switch that is configured like yours...So I think I now know how yours works...will get back to you about that.

The two rotary switches look like they are actually blade switches in the diagram. The Varitone switch looks wired properly, assuming the red tab is "0." Normally these come 5-way-2-pole as you have represented it so that should be fine.

The pickup selector switch as you have it represented is a four way blade, like the other two blade switches, but you say you want this to be a rotary? You may want to represent it as a rotary in the diagram. Most of the ones I have found that fit roughly where a pot goes are 3 pole. A four way rotary will work, but it will look different.

[B'Lark]

Unfortunately the program doesn't have Rotary Switches in it, so I've had to put them in as Blades. It's a little annoying but I think I understand Rotary switches and these Blades enough that I should be able to translate them, as long as the base diagram is all correct.

The connections on the 4-way Blades in my diagram should match up with the one you've posted here, just with the left side shifted up. So Bottom on Left side and Top on Right should be the 0 lugs.

[JimC]

I prototyped up something rather less complex a while back, and debugging it was an absolute nightmare. Are you sure you want to try everything at once? Might it be worth working up a number of much simpler arrangements, and working through them in turn and discarding the combinations that don't seem to offer very much? Then you might end up with something a little simpler to work with.

[B'Lark]

I prototyped up something rather less complex a while back, and debugging it was an absolute nightmare. Are you sure you want to try everything at once? Might it be worth working up a number of much simpler arrangements, and working through them in turn and discarding the combinations that don't seem to offer very much? Then you might end up with something a little simpler to work with.

I do want to try and put everything in at once. For most of my builds I do like to keep it simpler, but this one I do want to go silly with options, and the idea of an overly complex switching setup is part of the charm for me with this build

[WeirdBits]

I just had a quick look at this version of your diagram (I shrunk it to 1500x for convenience):


On the Neck Series/Split/Parallel mini-toggle, the 'bare' shield wire from the pickup should go direct to a ground point and instead of having a fixed ground connected to the toggle's 'white' lug it should instead come from the Neck Phase mini-toggle's 'switched negative'. That way the Neck pickup stays shielded correctly and the phase-reversal will affect both the SC and Rail coils, whereas it's currently only reversing the SC. It's probably easiest just to run a link for the switched negative from the blade's connection down to the Rail mini-toggle.

The wiring on the blade switches looks ok, and the rotaries shouldn't be a problem. So, apart from the phase reversal, I think you're good to go... just as long as you can fit everything in and handle spaghetti in your cavity.

The only other issue the leaps out is coil selection when split, and paired with other coils. That is, are the two SC's a RWRP hum-cancelling pair when combined? The Rails both currently split to North coil, from what you've indicated, so will that work with the bridge & neck combo's you're likely to use? Are you expecting to use the Rail coils split or mainly as Series/Para etc.?

[B'Lark]

I just had a quick look at this version of your diagram (I shrunk it to 1500x for convenience):


On the Neck Series/Split/Parallel mini-toggle, the 'bare' shield wire from the pickup should go direct to a ground point and instead of having a fixed ground connected to the toggle's 'white' lug it should instead come from the Neck Phase mini-toggle's 'switched negative'. That way the Neck pickup stays shielded correctly and the phase-reversal will affect both the SC and Rail coils, whereas it's currently only reversing the SC. It's probably easiest just to run a link for the switched negative from the blade's connection down to the Rail mini-toggle.

The wiring on the blade switches looks ok, and the rotaries shouldn't be a problem. So, apart from the phase reversal, I think you're good to go... just as long as you can fit everything in and handle spaghetti in your cavity.

The only other issue the leaps out is coil selection when split, and paired with other coils. That is, are the two SC's a RWRP hum-cancelling pair when combined? The Rails both currently split to North coil, from what you've indicated, so will that work with the bridge & neck combo's you're likely to use? Are you expecting to use the Rail coils split or mainly as Series/Para etc.?

I believe I follow the suggestions. I do understand the why for the changes too! Let me know if I doofed the change haha. Glad to hear the rest of it seems to be in order though!! And thankyou for the feedback and help!!!

Ah yea, that was another little thing I thought of a few days ago: The pickups don't seem to have Neck and Bridge versions, so as far as I can surmise the SCs will not be RWRP unfortunately (but I'm also of the understanding they will still function together fine but without the hum-cancelling?)

I think I'm also leaning towards wanting to match the Rail's Split Coil with the Singles, rather than wanting them to match up with the opposing pickup's Rail. I'm not totally sure whether I'd need the North or South coils for that, but since the SCs are not RWRP then I will want it to be the same coil when Split on both Rails.

I do think I will mostly be using the Rails in Series/Parallel, and fall back on the SC coils for actual Single tones.

lord i hope my tiredness does not make this too much of a mess to read haha

[WeirdBits]

The switched (reversed) ground has to come from the middle lug (light green?) of the phase switch down to the Rail mini-toggle. You currently have the light grey wire on the bottom right lug of the phase switch, which is the ground 'input' lug, it needs to connect on the middle lug above it for the phase reversal to work. That way the 'ground' going to the blade switch also goes to the Rail mini-toggle.

The bare shield wire is correct.