Blower switch / passing lane

BlueStrat

Does anyone know the type of mini toggle switch used by suhr for their blower switch? 

I’d like to wire a similar customisation on to my strat, fender call theirs a passing lane but i prefer the look of the mini toggle

uksaint7

When I asked Charlie Chandler to put one in my guitar in 1991 he called it a 'cut to lead' switch. That used a mini toggle, don't Suhr use a little push button? And sorry no I don't know the type of switch used.

FelineGuitars

You need a 4 pole switch to do it properly, and to do it properly the earth path gets disconnected from the rest of the circuit too

BlueStrat

Thanks @FelineGuitars  do you sell these switches?
I’m too far to make the trip to your site, more’s the pity!
 If not, is this the type of switch?
https://www.gear4music.com/Guitar-and-Bass/Guitarworks-Mini-Toggle-Guitar-Switch-Chrome/1BSN

ICBM

You can do it with a DPDT switch if you just want to bypass the controls and leave the pickup selector working. You need at least a 3PDT if you want to select one pickup, or 4PDT if it has a coil-split that you want to prevent operating.

You don't need to break the ground connection, it makes no difference if the signal path is routed directly to the jack.

BlueStrat

Thanks @ICBM - i’d like to have the switch select the bridge humbucker in full hb mode so that must mean a 4pdt. 

A toogle sounds a better solution than fender’s passing lane as then i could simply screw it to the pickguard rather than gluing it like fender’s  button

ICBM

Actually, my mistake - you can do that with a 3PDT.

I thought the Fender switch was mounted on a bracket that clamps under two of the pots, not glued on? I could be wrong about that as well though!

BlueStrat

From what I can find out the fender passing lane push switch is glued on to the pickguard, but you need to use a special glue which may then cause problems if you change your mind on it in the future.

So I'd prefer a two position mini toggle; position one would be whatever the strat's five way was set at,  then position two would be the bridge humbucker at full volume and full tone.

 

FelineGuitars

ICBM said:

You can do it with a DPDT switch if you just want to bypass the controls and leave the pickup selector working. You need at least a 3PDT if you want to select one pickup, or 4PDT if it has a coil-split that you want to prevent operating.

You don't need to break the ground connection, it makes no difference if the signal path is routed directly to the jack.

Thankyou ICBM - that is what I was trying to recall and had some confusion about the earth path .

I may have been thinking about the Steinbrger Jack Pot that acts like a blower switch 

I investigated it on a Tom Anderson years ago with a broken blower switch and had to get a replacement and remembered the 4 pole /2 way switch .

Just looked through my stuff and found the diagram I made of the circuit and as you said the other half of the switch was to deal with the coil tap/series parallel if any were used

FelineGuitars

Just for clarity - this is the Ned Steinberger Jack Pot

https://thinkns.com/introducing-the-new-jackpot-feature-for-nxt/
Conventional controls in self-powered (passive) pickups reduce the volume level by bleeding a portion of the output signal to ground. Rotating the knob counterclockwise increases the portion that is connected to ground, thus reducing the output level until it is fully grounded and the volume is zero. However, when the knob is rotated fully clockwise for maximum volume, there is still a portion of the signal that bleeds to ground, and as a result the output level never reaches the full level the pickup would achieve if it were wired directly to the output jack.

The JackPot’s rotary switch clicks open when the knob reaches the end of its full on (clockwise) rotation. The open switch lifts the ground to the pot, eliminating the load on the pickups and allowing the full signal to reach the output jack. When the knob is rotated counterclockwise, the ground to the pot is reconnected so the pot returns to standard operation. In this mode the sound and function are exactly the same as an ordinary control.

With the JackPot, players can run full on, with the pickups wired directly to the output jack, yet still have a trusty volume knob to back off instantly to a lower level when needed.

ICBM

That's a neat thing . It's an adaption of the type of pot you would usually find on old radios, TVs etc, but with the switch at the other end of turn.

That Buckeroo wiring is quite complicated! Although of course by making it complex on the inside it makes it simple and intuitive to use on the outside.

But one thing that puzzles me is why people consistently wire bypass switching like this wrongly - not just for this application, it's the standard way of wiring true bypass pedals as well... they run the bypass path through *both* switch poles in series - the straight jumper wire across the end of the switch. This simply increases unreliability, since a failure in *either* switch pole breaks the signal path. Instead of a wire joining both end terminals, it should be only one of them to the opposite middle terminal. You can actually make it even more reliable by connecting them in parallel instead, with an 'x' linkage - that then requires a failure in both poles at the same time to stop it working. It's just a little detail and doesn't make any difference most of the time - but it really would at a gig if you click to 'solo' and get... silence.

BlueStrat

Huge thanks to both @ICBM and @FelineGuitars - very kind of you to post the wiring diagram!

I'm very much a novice with a soldering iron so will be going very carefully when my components arrive

BlueStrat

does anyone know where you can buy a 3pdt or 4pdt mini toggle that has the dress nut to make it look professional like suhr or anderson mini toggles in this pic

 

https://www.andersonguitarworks.com/switcheroo