Strat with Super Switch and Push/Pull - 9 Sound Strat

Pickups, wiring schemes, switch techniques and onboard active electronics for guitars and basses
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trjones1
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Post by trjones1 »

I posted a chromacaster workalike using a six position rotary switch on here a couple years ago which I installed in a couple of my guitars. I never really got used to it. I could never remember the different settings and only really used a few of them anyway. I decided to simplify things by just having a push/pull with the pickup selector to get the series and parallel sounds I wanted. I couldn't find a schematic for what I wanted out there, so I put this together. It uses a Super Switch and push/pull. You get the normal Strat sounds with the pot down, and get four new sounds with the pot up. I haven't actually installed it yet, so if you see any problems please let me know. Should work though.

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GuitarlCarl
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Post by GuitarlCarl »

Looks good to me.... :blackeye
I want it to sound like bees buzzing around in a 55 gallon drum...

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phatt
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Post by phatt »

I have stock setup, except for one tiny switch which gives me series in bridge position.
That effectively gives me 6 positions to cover humbucker type sounds without the stuffing around trying to find a wizz bang HB that matches my SC's.
Guarantees the pups are well matched and the guitar looks stock.
Any more I'd get confused. :block:
Ed; Oh forgot to add,,,, I hate those push pull switches on control knobs they are to clumsy for fast changes. :evil: :blackeye

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trjones1
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Post by trjones1 »

I installed the switching from my first post in my Strat and it works as designed. One of the problems I have with that setup is that only one of the positions is hum-canceling, and I wanted to see if I could up that number.

This is my new design. It has two hum-canceling positions and each position gives you a different sound compared to a stock Strat. I'm going to install this next time I open up my guitar and try it out.
Screen Shot 2013-04-18 at 12.12.02 AM.png
This one's a little more complicated and doesn't make as much sense to me intuitively, but I've looked over it a bunch and I think it should work. As always, comments and corrections are welcome.

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trjones1
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Post by trjones1 »

I finally got around to installing this second version and it's works great. The middle position tone is especially nice. The bridge and middle in series gives a really nice humbucker-ish tone, but the neck and middle in series is way too muddy to use. My next move may be to change position 4 to make it neck+middle in series, parallel with the bridge. All you have to do is connect the unused tab in the Bridge + section to the green wire. This should help with the mud and if it sounds anywhere as nice as the middle position, I think I'll be happy and can stop tweaking.

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phatt
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Post by phatt »

Ha guitar players are never satisfied,, :lol:

Here is all I did,, Mounted a small toggle switch between Volume and 5 way.
FWIW,, If you have guitar switching too far from obvious then it makes life so much harder to remember the combinations if you have many guitars. :shock:
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Simple but effective
Simple but effective

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trjones1
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Post by trjones1 »

Aww, why go simple when you can be so much harder on yourself?

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