Wiring options on a Superstrat . 3 Micro Switches

musicalstash

Any ideas on the best / most versatile wiring options on a superstrat style guitar.

The current layout is HS wit a

Bridge - Seymour Axis Humbucker

Neck- Seymour Duncan Axis Stacked Singlecoil

volume - Tone

3 Way Switch


The previous owner installed 3 additional micro switches

1st  - Kill Switch

2nd -  Split the neck

3rd  - Split the bridge


The Kill switch is more of a hindrance than of any use and the splitting the neck loses half the volume and sounds very weak .


Any help would be appreciated
S

ICBM

Phase switch - probably to ‘half out of phase’ to get more of a traditional Strat in-between sound.

Coil split for the bridge pickup.

’Blower’ switch - full bridge pickup irrespective of other switch settings.

flying_pie

IMO the best wiring options for a superstrat is a 3 way switch with both pickups only ever in full output mode and no fancy microswitches (although I like killswitches and would keep it)

Funkfingers

musicalstash said:

splitting the neck loses half the volume and sounds very weak.

You have to wonder whether the mode switch is splitting to the lower coil rather than the upper one. 

Another possibility is that the neck pickup mode switch is series/parallel. Does the pickup still reject hum in the low power mode?

musicalstash

Thanks for taking the time out to reply,

The "blower" switch for the bridge sounds like a great idea , need to figure out how to wire it and retain the Coil tap .

For future reference is it possible to split a stacked pickup like a normal humbucker  ?

normula1

As long as you have 4 conductor cable which I believe yours has then yes it is possible to split it. Whether it sounds any good is another matter, and you'd ideally want to voice the upper coil as the lower one will br too far away from the strings.

ICBM

musicalstash said:

The "blower" switch for the bridge sounds like a great idea , need to figure out how to wire it and retain the Coil tap .

It can be done with a DPDT - it's not that intuitive, it needs a 'trick'.

One side of the switch disconnects the coil split connection, that's the obvious bit. The other side selects either neck pickup or bridge pickup going to the 'neck' side of the selector switch, so that when it's in 'blower' mode the selector switch is selecting bridge pickup in all positions.

musicalstash said:

For future reference is it possible to split a stacked pickup like a normal humbucker  ?

Yes, but the result isn't what you expect - you will lose the hum cancellation and the pickup will get *louder*. This is because in normal hum-cancelling operation, the coils are out of phase so there is some volume drop.

If it gets a lot quieter, as Funkfingers suggested it's probably selecting the lower (mostly hum-cancelling) coil not the upper (mostly string-sensing) one.

musicalstash

Will attempt the rewire on the weekend 

Switches  - Coil Tap Bridge - Phase  -  Blower  



Thanks for everyones help