OK, so I'm working on producing a wiring diagram for my new guitar build. It's pretty complicated due to the fact that it has magnetic pickups, a piezo bridge and a sustainiac. I am basically trying to join a fishman/piezo plan with a sustainiac plan, and here's the thing that I'm not sure of: Is it OK for wires from both 'systems' to go to the same point on the 5-way?
Here's a bit of the diagram. Magnetic and Sustainiac wires are thicker with curves, and Piezo wires are thinner with right angles. As you can see, two terminals currently have wires from both.
Problemo?????
Comments
What output are you trying to achieve - mixing the piezo and magnetics, or separate on a stereo splitter cable?
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
Actually there are only two systems - the Sustainiac works with the magnetic pickups. But in order to combine magnetics and a piezo, you either need to isolate the systems from each other and connect them to different outputs - either two jacks or a TRS/stereo jack - or to use a preamp which can mix them to mono, like the Fishman Powerchip.
I think it still should be possible to do that with a standard 5-way providing you're using one side for each of the systems.
Do you want to mix or separate the magnetics and piezo?
What five settings do you want on the 5-way?
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
When I've seen circuits for magnetics and piezos mixed together, each of the two sources are buffered first then mixed. That way you don't have problems with impedances clashing. This means active electronics though.
These people have debated & written about it several times - see PDF of circuit at the bottom (theirs uses a blend pot though):
http://www.mimf.com/library/MIMF_preamp-05-22-2011.html
...as for the sustainiac, can't it just be permanently wired to the bridge magnetic pickup only? (I'm guessing as I've never used theirs.)
A) 3 pickups (HB/SC/sustainiac driver acting as neck SC), selection via standard 5 way switch as per Strat wiring
B ) Piezo trem running via a Powerchip preamp circuitboard. This is brought in by a small 3 way switch (bypass/blend/piezo). The complication is that the 'hot' signal from the magnetic pickups runs through the Powerchip as part of the wiring.
C) Sustainiac brought in and out with a switch
9 pin jack plug.
QUESTIONS:
In theory it should be doable with the 5 way switch and the 9 pin jack plug. Can anyone explain exactly how a 5 way switch works? eg what the 8 tabs are doing with each of the 5 positions and the 'logic' behind operation.
My other problem is the 9 pin jack plug - getting it to operate as normal with the magnetics, but also with the two battery systems (piezo & sustainiac)
Any advice gratefully received. I'm a long way from wiring still, but as it's all going around in my head at the moment it would be great to nail the problems.
The 5-way is actually really a 3-way with two extra mechanical notches. On each side there is a common rotor and three contacts which are active in positions 1, 3 and 5. In position 2 both contacts 1 and 3 are active, and in position 4 both 3 and 5 are. On a typical high-quality switch the two sides are reversed, ie the rotor terminals are at opposite ends.
What you need to do is:
1. Wire the magnetic pickups and the Sustainiac as normal using the 5-way and the Sustainiac switch which switches the neck pickup from pickup to sustainer mode. This should have its own volume and (if you're fitting one) tone control.
2. The piezo then has its own volume control on the Powerchip which comes *after* the magnetic controls along with the selector switch. The Powerchip is wired to the 9-pin jack and automatically senses whether you're using a mono or stereo cable.
If you get the Sustainiac from Feline Guitars, Jonathan has prepared a set of instructions which are much better than the Sustainiac ones and very easy to follow. The instructions for wiring the 9-pin should be with the Powerchip.
3. Burn the whole thing and build a Les Paul Junior.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein