More holes than I can handle

[dingobass]

Good ole Weirdy to the rescue again!

[WeirdBits]

I've drawn up a couple of diagrams… but, the tricky thing is it depends on how your pickups are wired (internally). Some manufacturers match colours to pickup poles, others match them to inner/outer coils. For example, with some pickups the black 'hot' represents the 'start' of the inner coil for both bridge and neck, but they have opposing poles so they can be linked in a hum cancelling pair. With other manufacturers the black may always be the north 'start' and the green always the south 'start', so you have to match opposing colours when you are linking split bridge and neck coils. As such, without knowing your particular pickup's configuration I've drawn the diagrams like so:

Blue: inner start (hot)
Yellow: inner end (series link)
Red: outer end (series link)
Green: outer start (ground)

Therefore, you'll need to work out which pairs of wires on your pickups are for the inner and outer coils etc. so that you can link them in inner/outer hum-cancelling pairs. Make sense?

Diagram 1:
Push/Pull pairs for volume and tone for each pickup, allowing individual series/parallel/outer coil/inner coil switching. Plus, a separate switch giving In Phase/Out of Phase between the pickups and a kill (mute) position.


BV = Bridge Volume, BT = Bridge Tone, NV = Neck Volume, NT = Neck Tone, up = Push/Pull up, down = Push/Pull down

BV down, BT down: Bridge series humbucker (standard)
BV up, BT down: Bridge outer coil
BV down, BT up: Bridge inner coil
BV up, BT up: Bridge parallel humbucker

NV down, NT down: Neck series humbucker (standard)
NV up, NT down: Neck outer coil
NV down, NT up: Neck inner coil
NV up, NT up: Neck parallel humbucker

The phase switch changes the phase of the bridge pickup only, so you'll only notice it when combined with the neck pickup in the pickup selector middle position. In the 'kill' position on the phase switch it just shorts the jack's hot to ground to mute the guitar. They're a little pricey, but a double-neck style On/On/On 4-pole toggle switch would work nicely for the phase/kill and should fit perfectly in that larger 5th hole (rather than trying to fit a mini-switch). But, the phase switch is just an idea, you could do cap switching or a rotary switch or whatever.


Diagram 2:
Similar to above, but only one pair of push/pulls (neck volume and tone) that switch between series/parallel/outer coil/inner coil for both pickups together. Standard pots for the bridge volume and tone. The 3-way toggle switch still controls which pickup(s) are selected, but the push/pull settings control how both pickups are configured. Again, there's a separate switch giving In Phase/Out of Phase between the pickups and a kill (mute) position.


NV = Neck Volume, NT = Neck Tone, up = Push/Pull up, down = Push/Pull down
(Push/Pull setting affects both pickups)

NV down, NT down: Series humbuckers (standard)
NV up, NT down: Outer coils
NV down, NT up: Inner coils
NV up, NT up: Parallel humbuckers

If you'd rather have a series/parallel setting between the pickups instead of a phase switch it's easy enough to do, but there are some caveats to how it can be used. Let me know if you're interested in that option.


Anyway, that should give you some ideas for using push/pulls for series/parallel/splitting.

[dingobass]

Wow... Thats awesome, Weirdy!

[ihasmario]

Hey WeirdBits, great diagrams. I see how you're doing it now with the push/pulls. Very inventive.

What's the best way to check the wires? Hook them up to a multimeter and tap the coil with a screwdriver?

Is there any alternative to the 4p3t on/on/on? For example, can I use a 3 pos 4 pole rotary instead or is there a problem getting them into hollow bodies up the top?

Otherwise is a Switchcraft Right Angle 'Double Neck' Toggle Switch basically the same thing? Is there such a thing as on/on/mom.on?

Thanks.

[wokkaboy]

nice diagrams Weirdy,
do you sleep buddy, you post at some weird times !

[keloooe]

Nice diagrams Weirdy, do you ever sleep as Wokka asked?
Also how have you done these awesome diagrams, I'd like to start doing my own soon and these look really nice!

[Fretworn]

You could always add one of these

[ihasmario]

I think I'd be more willing to drop the kill switch than I would be to have a dedicated slot to it (if I can help it). I can easily add a killswitch elsewhere in the chain.

I'll go ahead and try it out with a rotary first and see if the wiring still works. I had thought about having a giant kill switch in the big hole, but I think your ideas are better.

[WeirdBits]

What's the best way to check the wires?

What brand and model are the pickups? We may be able to get the info without having to test them. Failing that, a multimeter is the best option. This video guide explains it pretty well.

Is there any alternative to the 4p3t on/on/on? For example, can I use a 3 pos 4 pole rotary instead... ?

To include the kill switch position I needed to use the 4-pole On/On/On (4P3T) with its specific contact sequence for it to work. If you're willing to drop the kill position and just have the phase switching the you can use any old On/On DPDT switch, much simpler and cheaper.

A double-neck 4-pole right angle switch would probably work, but I'd need to check the contact sequence to be certain (I don't have one here, so I'll have to do some research).

You could use a multi-pole rotary if you want, the problem is it may not fit through the f-hole. For example, with a wafer style rotary switch on the ES-1 kits you have to shave down the wafers and bend its lugs to squeeze it through the f-hole (or disassemble the switch, feed its parts through the hole then reassemble it inside the cavity... but I'm not willing to try that). However, it does look like the Starcaster's f-holes may be slightly larger, so it may work. With a multi-pos multi-pole rotary you could do in/out phase switching and series/parallel switching all on the one switch, but it would be a little clumsy as kill switch in my opinion.

Having said that, the volume pots in the above diagrams are wired in the traditional LP style, so when the pickup selector is in the middle position if you turn either volume to 0 it mutes both pickups... so you have a pseudo kill/mute built in, sort of.

Is there such a thing as on/on/mom.on?

It's possible somewhere like Mouser may have something along those lines, but number of poles and contact sequence would determine if it was a viable option. I suspect it would be more cost and effort than it's worth just for a kill/mute setting.

I suggested the phase switching as I thought that would better suit your taste for clean tones, if I'm remembering your tastes correctly. But, the pickup options alone will give you a wide variety of sounds, so if you particularly want a kill switch then I'd just forget the phase switch and put a dedicated kill switch in there instead. You could even use an old 3-way toggle for that, though not ideal.

[gavinturner]

Awesome diagrams Wierdy!! Some great info buried in there. Now I just need time to digest and reverse engineer. Great work dude.

cheers,
Gav.