Pickup Wiring

[Bit Confused]

I am building a scratch build using pit bull and real parts to get my hardware, I was just wondering if it’s possible to wire two tele style pickups to a 2-way mini toggle switch (on-on) just need a yes or no answer.
P.S A diagram would be nice but it’s ok you can’t find me one.

[Simon Barden]

Just to confirm, you want just two positions, so that it's either the neck or the bridge that's on, but not both at the same time?

[Bit Confused]

yeah, pretty much, an on-on-on mini switch is also an option, it's just a bit more expensive.

[McCreed]

yeah, pretty much, an on-on-on mini switch is also an option, it's just a bit more expensive.

For all intents and purposes, a standard 3-way tele switch is an on-on-on switch. What am I missing?

[Bit Confused]

https://www.realparts.com.au/electro...ch-chrome.html
A mini switch is like a smaller version of a standard Gibson style switch, I just prefer the feel of the mini switch over the tele, but I love the twangy sound of a tele, that's why i'm asking the question.

[Simon Barden]

Assuming you want an up/down switch position, with down being bridge and up being neck, then you'd wire it like this:



With the pickup ground wires going to the back of the volume or tone pot. DPDT on-on-on switches come in two types, but it doesn't matter which one you have for this application. Just strip the pickup signal wires and the wire to the volume pot back enough so that you can solder across both sets of terminals. Otherwise everything else will be standard Tele wiring.

Obviously you'll need to get a blank control plate so you can drill the holes yourself in the positions you want. You may want to consider a 'volume, switch, tone' arrangement for best control accessibility rather than the standard 'switch, volume, tone' arrangement.

Note: wire colours used above are just for clarity and are not meant to be the actual pickup wire colours.

[Bit Confused]

Thank you so much this has been really helpful, and for the arrangement I was actually gonna do something like a late 50s fender duo sonic,

[JimC]

I used those mini switches on my ESB-4, but I got them from a general electronic parts store rather than a guitar shop, often cheaper that way. I liked the look of the levers on those against the more common round ones.

[Bit Confused]

Parts are hard to get and expensive here in Australia, the thing you’re looking for is usually cheaper online.

[Simon Barden]

Jim was just saying to have a look at some online electronics shops, rather than a guitar parts seller like Realparts. Realparts are great for some things, but you should be able to get basic electrical/electronic components like that DPDT switch for less if you look elsewhere.