Help with a mod-wiring diagram, please!

[thearabianmage]

Hey y'all. I finally caved in and bought all new electronics for my Aria Pro II 335-style giddy. Right, so basically, here's a run-down of the new kit:

P-90 for the bridge (alnico V)
Sweet looking humbucker in the bridge (alnico V)
250k and 500k audio and linear CTS pots
wax and cloth coated wire
and following a few members advice (thanks y'all!) I got some NOS Soviet paper-in-oil caps (a .22mf for the bridge and .47mf for the neck)

Now, I can't upgrade a guitar without modding it, so I pulled out a few spare switches I have and decided to do the following:

one on-on-on for a series/shunt/parallel for the bridge pup
one on-on phase switch for both pups
one on-on series switch for both pups

Now, here's where it gets sticky. . . I've got a diagram for when I added these mods to my Jackson, but that guitar had master tone/volume - the 335 has dedicated tone/volume per pup, and I'm not exactly sure how to appropriate that. . .

I've taken the exact same diagram I used for the Jackson, coloured out the s/s/p switch that was on the neck, and I'm gonna attach that. If anyone can help me out with this, I would be greatly appreciative! The pups should be arriving tomorrow (even though I've still got to give the frets a minor do-over. . . there's a couple of dud frets O_Q )

I have ideas, but am just not sure if they'll work, so I left them out.

Thanks in advance for any help you may be able to give me!

 

[duhvoodooman]

IMO, having parallel & shunt (by which I assume you mean a coil-tap) on the same pickup is a waste of effort. They sound too much alike to bother. I'd stick with just the parallel, since it's still hum-cancelling.

If you do that, you can use the method described HERE, just skipping the push-pull switch on the neck pup, since you have the P90 there. You can do it all with push-pull pots, so no actual guitar alteration necessary.

 

[thearabianmage]

IMO, having parallel & shunt (by which I assume you mean a coil-tap) on the same pickup is a waste of effort. They sound too much alike to bother. I'd stick with just the parallel, since it's still hum-cancelling.

If you do that, you can use the method described HERE, just skipping the push-pull switch on the neck pup, since you have the P90 there. You can do it all with push-pull pots, so no actual guitar alteration necessary.

Thanks a lot for the tip!

I've thought about that, but, the main reason I am using the s/s/p (and yes, I do mean 'coil tap', though I've heard from Deaf Eddie that a 'true coil-tap' is actually something else altogether. I'm no expert so I go with what I'm told ) is because I have two on-on and two on-on-on switches and both on-on's are taken for the series and phase switches. I can't afford anything else. I got the bare minimum of what I needed (to the point of using old black tele knobs instead of buying new gold ones)

I've already wired up my Jackson with this mod (adding a s/s/p switch on the neck bucker as well) and am fully aware of similarities, but it'd still be nice to have the option, I think.

Would you have any idea how to wire the extra tone and volume in? That's my big problem at the moment

Cheers!

 

[mrmudcat]

What is the linear pot for?? They realy suck I would of used audiotaper pots all the way around.Im assuming the 250 k pot is for the p-90.The cap at the neck should be a .15 for neck tone .22 at bridge ...my opinion of course as there are millions of others.

 

[Ch0jin]

Sorry mate, I tried to sketch out a wiring diagram for what you want, but I got a bit lost trying to work out what exactly you want the switches to do so I'm no help.

MrMudCat, isn't is common practice to use linear pots for tone? I'm not saying they are better than audio taper in that application because I've not tried it myself, I just thought it was generally accepted that Vol=Audio and Tone=Lin when it comes to guitars.

 

[mrmudcat]

I use audio taper on every pot always have. Not sure about how common etc.etc. it is but Gibson use linear on volume pots all the time! Others too.Some use linear on all pots .I guess a general rule could be audio taper for volume and linear for tone.:whatever:

 

[duhvoodooman]

Would you have any idea how to wire the extra tone and volume in? That's my big problem at the moment

The Seymour Duncan wiring diagram page is always a great place to go to see how various combos of pickups, pots and switches should be wired. Just keep in mind that your pickups' wire colors are probably different.

...I guess a general rule could be audio taper for volume and linear for tone.

That's the combination I always use.

 

[thearabianmage]

Most excellent! Thanks for your help ChOjin, Mr. Mudcat, and DVM!!

Yes, Mud, the 250k's are for the P90 and I'm trying out the different cap-types and linear pots as an experiment. I usually use all audio-taper myself, but have recently found that I may not be getting as much control over the tone knob as I could get. And I think I got the cap values mixed up (as I usually do) when I explained them in the first post. I know one's for the bridge, and one's for the neck =D

DVM - thanks for the link, although I've already got it bookmarked =D I've had a look at that and I'm afraid I'm still not sure about the adding the extra volume and tone. He has diagrams if you wanted to wire the pup's coils out of phase, but none for actually wiring the bridge o-o-p with the neck and neck in series with the bridge, with each pup having it's own tone and volume knob.

I looked at your Full Boat mod and was wondering, since it is similar, if that could be arranged for what I'm after?

Thanks everyone!!

 

[duhvoodooman]

I looked at your Full Boat mod and was wondering, since it is similar, if that could be arranged for what I'm after?

Yes, exactly. The actual switch wiring will differ a bit, but the basic layout should be the same.

 

[tunghaichuan]

(and yes, I do mean 'coil tap', though I've heard from Deaf Eddie that a 'true coil-tap' is actually something else altogether.

A true coil tap is just that: there is an extra wire attached somewhere along the length of the coil. So you have two hot leads and one ground lead. With the tap engaged, the pickup is lower output. I had a set of 80s Schecter single coils that had coil taps. They work pretty well.

tung

 

[thearabianmage]

Thanks a lot for your excellent help and advice, everyone. As always

Gee, this forum is great. . .

I've just drilled the holes on the guitar and fitted everything just to make sure it's all good to go - and it was a success. I should be starting on the soldering later on tonight!

If all works well, I should have some clips up soon.

 

[duhvoodooman]

A true coil tap is just that: there is an extra wire attached somewhere along the length of the coil. So you have two hot leads and one ground lead. With the tap engaged, the pickup is lower output.

Yup. The more accurate name for what you want to do is a "coil cut", 'Mage--a switch that shorts one of the two coils to ground and leaves the other one "hot". A true coil tap is a variable control; a cut is on or off.