software

Right now my guitar has 3 pickups, each controlled by a different mini switch. It also has a volume/tone/midboost control system. What I want to do is make the bridge pickup bypass ALL the electronics. Have it full on directly to the output. How do I get on doing this? Should I just unwire the switch's wire that goes to the control loop and put it on the hot lug in the jack? Would this be safe at all? I'd like the other pickups to stay connected to the controls.

Pleaaaase... I have to leave in 2 hours and I'd rather have it done by then :P

Pleaaaaase...

Mhmm ok I wired the pickup directly from output to ground, and well... it was VERY bassy and less clear. Not good at all for some reason I put it back to how it was.

Hey Pierre; I've been looking at this all day long, wanting to answer, but I can't log-on at work any more.

Here's what you want:
Break the connection between the hot wire and the pup selector, and also from the pup selector out, to the output jack, (where the dotted lines are), and insert a DPDT in those quot;cutsquot;. That will give you bridge direct.

Works with whatever pup you cut the hot wire of.
Don't forget to jumper the two terminals on the quot;otherquot; side of the DPDT.

Artie

btw - Your Cool Rails is in the mail. I'll PM you the details.

Ohhh thanks! I'll remember this. I have individual on/off switches for each pickup. So I basically just disconnected the bridge pickup's switch, and connected the hot wire of the bridge pickup directly to the correct sleeve (I had to try 2 sleeves before finding the correct one )
Thanks a lot for everything man

Did you want the quot;direct-modequot; to include the volume and tone, or not? You may need to do it differently depending on how you answer that.

Artie

At first I wanted it to include the switch, but I didn't have enough lead. The idea was to bypass all electronics so I could hear the pickup by itself. So no volume or anything.
I have passive electronics with weird pots values, so I wanted this out of the equation. The pure pickup sound was pretty bad... But with the electronics it's good again.

Ok, then its important that the wire thats on the right-hand side of my diagram, be the one that comes off the output jack. In other words, you want to interrupt the final wire that goes out, bypassing all switches and pots.

Does that make sense?

Artie

Yep I think... I.e that wire being the hot wire of the pickup itself?


Originally Posted by PierreYep I think... I.e that wire being the hot wire of the pickup itself?

Not exactly. Left side of the diagram is the hot wire off the pickup itself. Right side is the wire off the output jack. You must switch both, or you'll leave some components still in the circuit. Its like a pedals quot;true-bypassquot; function.

Consider the block that says quot;Current 3-way/5-wayquot; to be the same as all the present electronics in the guitar.

Artie

Give me a little time, and I'll redraw that diagram.

Oh.... I think I see. What's a DPDT...? Double Pole Double Throw I think, but I only ever heard of these for pots.

Just a basic toggle switch, like this:

Stew-Mac toggle switch

Model #1219.

Ohh I see. Maybe I'll do just that. The diagram you made allows me to switch the pickup in and out of the circuit right?

Exactly. Think of it like this: You have your bridge pup, and an output jack. The DPDT switch allows you to bypass all the other quot;stuffquot;. Just like the bypassing the guts of an effects pedal. That requires two switching actions, thus - a DPDT switch.

One side of the switch disconnects the bridge pup. The other side disconnects the output jack. Then the switch connects those two loose ends together. Thats what the quot;jumperquot; on the top of the switch diagram does.

I'll try this someday then! Thanks a bunch dude! Would it be possible to use a on/off/on switch instead of the on/off I have now and wire it as on/off/bypassed electronics? I don't want to have an extra knob or switch there...

I think so. Let me chew on that a bit. You mean, to allow the current bridge switch to double as the bypass switch, right?

Well not the current one as it's on/off only, but replace it with another miniswitch which has 3 positions, yeah.

Gotcha. Let me quot;doodlequot; a couple things, and I'll get back to you soon. Probably tomorrow.

Thanks so much dude! I'll try and read up on wiring one day.