First post: help need with master tone toggle, master SPC toggle (strat)

[blake375]

Hi all

This is my first post, and it's a cry for help - hope this is not considered impolite on this forum!

I'm handy with a soldering iron and perfectly competent at following pictorial diagrams, but I must confess I don't have any real understanding of electronics and I was hoping you might be able to tell me if an idea I have has is workable, and how I might go about doing it.

I've just ordered an active EMG SPC control for my strat, though I'll be using it with regualr passive pickups rather than EMGs - the EMG website says this is possible. The SPC control will replace one of my tone controls, leaving me with a master tone (if I follow EMG's diagram - http://www.emginc.com/downloads/wiri...PC-RPC-EXG.pdf - the first one).

I'm not too keen on a master tone, as I like to use the tone quite a lot on just the neck pickup, however, I don't want to lose the ability to control the tone on the other two pickups all together.

I was wondering if it would be possible to wire a mini toggle switch in such a way that I could use it to switch the potentiometer between being master tone control and being a tone control for the neck pickup only.

This got me thinking that it would also be handy if I could use another mini toggle to switch the SPC from being a master SPC to acting on the bridge pickup only, so that (with the SPC set on full and the mini toggle set to SPC on bridge pickup only) I could easily switch between the neck pickup with no SPC effect and the bridge pickup with full SPC effect, just by switching between the two pickups on the regular five-way.

As I said I have no real understanding of electronics so I don't know if this is even possible, let alone how to actually wire it, but I think if it is possible it will be an awesome and extremely versatile setup, so I hope it is possible!

Thanks in advance to anyone who can help!

Cheers

Blake

[David Schwab]

The SPC is more like a midrange control. It boosts the lower mids while reducing the top end. There's no reason you wouldn't want all three pickups running through it, as it gives you the ability to use it with whatever pickup you like. And it doesn't replace a standard tone control.

Why have it wired to one pickup only? Same is true for the tone control. You said you don't like the idea of a master tone, but you want to use he tone on all the pickups... that's what a master tone is.

You can't have just one pickup running through the SPC since it's a preamp type device, so the signal must pass through it.

The stock wiring on a Strat really only has one tone cap, but with two pots. And the bridge pickup normally doesn't have a tone control, which I think is dumb.

I always rewire my Strat type guitars with one volume and one tone.