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How Hugh Manson wires Gibson style Killswitch??


jeananto

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Anyone got any ideas how to wire a kill switch on/off/on with a 3 pole 6 lug DPDT switch? A diagram would be brilliant but an explanation would also be greatly appreciated.

 

 

On a side note: Does anyone know how to wire a strat so that with the flick of a switch (dptp preferably) I can get a combination of all three pickups on in series. I'm thinking this will produce a very hot sound (correct me if I'm wrong people).

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killswitch with a regular switch (it can be SPDT, you don't need the other pole):

 

0 -hot

0

0-ground

 

wire that over the output as with the gibson stylee, and you're sorted :)

 

As for the strat - you'll only get a massive output if the switch has them all in series. in parellel you won't get a hotter sound, just all at once. iirc, I think most people (and Fender) usually have it to just activate the bridge pup and flick the selector to position 2 to get all the pickups. That's cool because you can get other combos like neck and bridge :)

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killswitch with a regular switch (it can be SPDT, you don't need the other pole):

 

0 -hot

0

0-ground

 

wire that over the output as with the gibson stylee, and you're sorted :)

 

As for the strat - you'll only get a massive output if the switch has them all in series. in parellel you won't get a hotter sound, just all at once. iirc, I think most people (and Fender) usually have it to just activate the bridge pup and flick the selector to position 2 to get all the pickups. That's cool because you can get other combos like neck and bridge :)

 

I've already got it modded with a push-pull bringing the bridge in in every combination, so I can already get NB and NMB however I'm after a bigger output without putting a humbucker in because I like the sound and wouldn't want to change it. I have seen mods which allow MB in series which apparently produces a hotter sound. My thinking was all pickups on in series (obviously hot output) which would be great for a cutting through the mix lead sound. Any ideas how to do this?

 

Also I don't think I'm understanding the over the output bit, can you explain a bit more. Sorry it's been a long day ;)

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basically the easiest place to put the switch is in parallel with the output jack, but as long as you connect one side to something hot (after the volume and pickup selectors) and the other to ground you're set. Don't stick it in series with anything though, because it won't work ;)

 

I'm not sure that it's possible to get NMB with just one pull, regardless of the 5 way switch though... What about something like this:

 

5 way:

 

1-neck only

2-neck + mid (parallel)

3-neck + mid (series)

4-mid only

5-off (or bridge only, depending on the push/pull pot)

 

and then 2 push/pull pots, one to turn the bridge pickup on like you already have, and another to select whether it's in parallel or series?

 

This would let you have a full on NMB hot sound in series, but also all the traditional strat sounds and extras. Don't know if you might want something more interesting like a reverse phase somewhere as well? Another option (possibly - I haven't thought it through properly, but it should work) is to have a completely bog standard 5 way, and then three push/pulls which bring in N, M and B espectively, in series with whatever the 5 way is set to. That way you could get NB in series without the middle etc. To get NMB in series just pull out all 3 pots. This way probably has a few less usable sounds, like say NM in parallel with B in series - that'd probably give you a hot output, but NM wouldn't be very loud, so there wouldn't be much point (i think).

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basically the easiest place to put the switch is in parallel with the output jack, but as long as you connect one side to something hot (after the volume and pickup selectors) and the other to ground you're set. Don't stick it in series with anything though, because it won't work ;)

 

I'm not sure that it's possible to get NMB with just one pull, regardless of the 5 way switch though... What about something like this:

 

5 way:

 

1-neck only

2-neck + mid (parallel)

3-neck + mid (series)

4-mid only

5-off (or bridge only, depending on the push/pull pot)

 

and then 2 push/pull pots, one to turn the bridge pickup on like you already have, and another to select whether it's in parallel or series?

 

This would let you have a full on NMB hot sound in series, but also all the traditional strat sounds and extras. Don't know if you might want something more interesting like a reverse phase somewhere as well? Another option (possibly - I haven't thought it through properly, but it should work) is to have a completely bog standard 5 way, and then three push/pulls which bring in N, M and B espectively, in series with whatever the 5 way is set to. That way you could get NB in series without the middle etc. To get NMB in series just pull out all 3 pots. This way probably has a few less usable sounds, like say NM in parallel with B in series - that'd probably give you a hot output, but NM wouldn't be very loud, so there wouldn't be much point (i think).

 

5 way:

 

1-neck only

2-neck + mid (parallel)

3-neck + mid (series)

4-mid only

5-off (or bridge only, depending on the push/pull pot)

 

This would be brilliant, although I think I might change the push/pull to a normal switch, that way I can use my current push/pull as maybe a reverse phrase switch, that would be perfect.

 

However now thinking about it would this be possible.

 

DPDT bringing in the neck at all positions

 

1-off (or neck only, depending on the dpdt switch pot)

2-mid only

3-bridge + mid (series)

4-bridge + mid parallel.

5-bridge

 

and then using the push/pull to change the phase of the bridge, this way I can in theory have a 'humbucker mode' with bridge and mid in series with the bridge phase reversed and therefore hum cancelling. You will have to correct me if any of this is wrong. Anyway is there any chance of a wiring diagram showing me how to do this? I will be in your debt if you could do this for me ;)

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the BM position will be hum cancelling anyway - unless you've changed out your pickups strats always have an RWRP mid so that the signal is out of phase already ;) The phase switch will be cool anyway though methinks :D I'll try to get it done later today then - second option yeah? Do you want the killswitch in too? and are you replacing a tone knob with a toggle, or drilling a new hole for the switch(es)?

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Yeah I'll have the kill switch also, I'll be drilling one new hole for the toggle to bring the neck in in all positions and another new hole for the kill switch and I'll be using my current tone push/pull as a phase switch. Thanks so much, I owe you a big favour after this :D

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no problem, er did you want the neck to be in parallel all the time then? And do you want to keep your current 5 way? I'm struggling to work out how it's gonna work with the series/parallel switch right now, although I'll probably get it soon :)

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ok, there's a little change though...due to the fact that the 5 way strat switch is really a 3 way make-before-break with extra notches, I couldn't do the switch quite the way you wanted, but there's a few options:

 

bridge

BM (parallel)

mid

mid (again)

BM (series)

 

Obviously that's not that good, but the only other options are to have it with all the bridge and mids reversed (so double bridge option), or to have position 4 as an absolute killswitch. That means the neck will be dead as well :( I'm trying to think of a way to push the neck pickup in so that it would just be the neck, but there aren't enough switches :LOL: If you had the neck in series all the time, then it wouldn't be a problem and it would effectively be this:

 

bridge

BM (parallel)

mid

off (or neck only, depending on the push/pull)

BM(series)

 

None of them are really nice though. If you bought a 5 way super switch, then we could do it, or alternatively, you might wanna try an old 3 way style one (and do the oldschool balancing thing to get the parallel position), or a 4 way tele style which would work perfectly, but obviously neither of them will allow you to use just the neck pickup on its own.

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  • 4 years later...
killswitch.jpg

 

there you go

 

Also, Just had a word with an engineer at work who has told me that with this wiring on one of the gibson style 3 way switches he thinks that the middle position would be live and the up and down position would be dead (no signal) can anyone clarify?

 

Thanks!

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