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I am pulling my hair out trying to figure out how things work before I dive into rewiring my HSS Ibanez. I have gone from initial plan of using a super switch to one of using an ordinary Fender 5-Way switch with a rotary switch for pickup selection. I want to get a hand on the 5-way switch before I make my final schematic and set about wiring it up.
I found a schematic today that helps me understand it pretty well (see Schematic 5-Way Switch). The Switch is actually simple with 2 poles and 3 terminals on each, in addition to the common terminals, 0. The selector tied to the commons is wide enough to tie two adjacent terminals together when it is in an intermediate position (positions 2 & 4, that don't show up in the diagram).
Then I found a wiring diagram for the standard use of the switch to get the usual bridge, bridge-middle, middle, middle-neck, and neck pickup selections (see Standard Strat 5-Way Wiring). That looked pretty straightforward and readily understandable, for the most part, I think.
Then I found a schematic of the Mexican Fat Strat (see Standard Wiring of Fat Strat) and the way the 5-way switch was used on that (see Fat Strat 5-Way), and I found I was totally confused again.
If I am looking at that correctly, it appears the hot lead (usually North start) from the humbucker ties into terminal 1 on pole 1, that both North finish and South finish tie into terminal 1 on pole 2, and that terminal 3 on pole 2 goes off to ground. The other connections look fairly straightforward, I think.
I start out presuming the two poles are electrically tied together, as they must be in the standard wiring. If they are tied together, I find that in position 1, the hot lead (presumably North start) of the humbucker is tied to both wires that tie the two coils of the humbucker together (typically North finish and South finish), and that whatever signal comes from that combination goes off to the volume pot and hence to the tip of the jack. I cannot fathom why you would ever want to tie those three wires together, so that is problem one. Position 2 shares that problem and just adds the middle pickup signal and opportunity to use the middle pickup tone control.
Then, in positions 3 and 4, the primary question is why you want to tie the signal from the middle pickup and/or neck pickup directly to ground. There was no direct patch to ground for the middle pickup in position 2 (so why does it need it in position 3?), and there was none at all on the standard wiring of the 5-way switch. I even ask myself if it is just because the switch needs to be grounded, but then I note that there is no grounding of the switch demonstrated in the standard wiring. This leaves me confused.
I remain confused if the two poles are not electrically tied together. The first pole then looks pretty straightforward--it looks just like the standard wiring, except the connections to the tone pots are wired directly to the pickup leads at the terminal instead of connecting through the second pole terminals. But that leaves looking at pole 2 as a separate entity, and I have no clue what would be going on. If the wires from the humbucker on terminal 1 of pole 2 are not connected to the common on pole 1, then I don't see that having the switch set to position 1 would tie those two wires into anything. I just don't get it.
This may be asking a lot (as if hoping people will read this is not already a lot), but if someone could explain what I'm missing here, I think it would help me get a better handle on the use of this switch.
Thanks in advance for consideration and any assistance. Rob R
I found a schematic today that helps me understand it pretty well (see Schematic 5-Way Switch). The Switch is actually simple with 2 poles and 3 terminals on each, in addition to the common terminals, 0. The selector tied to the commons is wide enough to tie two adjacent terminals together when it is in an intermediate position (positions 2 & 4, that don't show up in the diagram).
Then I found a wiring diagram for the standard use of the switch to get the usual bridge, bridge-middle, middle, middle-neck, and neck pickup selections (see Standard Strat 5-Way Wiring). That looked pretty straightforward and readily understandable, for the most part, I think.
Then I found a schematic of the Mexican Fat Strat (see Standard Wiring of Fat Strat) and the way the 5-way switch was used on that (see Fat Strat 5-Way), and I found I was totally confused again.
If I am looking at that correctly, it appears the hot lead (usually North start) from the humbucker ties into terminal 1 on pole 1, that both North finish and South finish tie into terminal 1 on pole 2, and that terminal 3 on pole 2 goes off to ground. The other connections look fairly straightforward, I think.
I start out presuming the two poles are electrically tied together, as they must be in the standard wiring. If they are tied together, I find that in position 1, the hot lead (presumably North start) of the humbucker is tied to both wires that tie the two coils of the humbucker together (typically North finish and South finish), and that whatever signal comes from that combination goes off to the volume pot and hence to the tip of the jack. I cannot fathom why you would ever want to tie those three wires together, so that is problem one. Position 2 shares that problem and just adds the middle pickup signal and opportunity to use the middle pickup tone control.
Then, in positions 3 and 4, the primary question is why you want to tie the signal from the middle pickup and/or neck pickup directly to ground. There was no direct patch to ground for the middle pickup in position 2 (so why does it need it in position 3?), and there was none at all on the standard wiring of the 5-way switch. I even ask myself if it is just because the switch needs to be grounded, but then I note that there is no grounding of the switch demonstrated in the standard wiring. This leaves me confused.
I remain confused if the two poles are not electrically tied together. The first pole then looks pretty straightforward--it looks just like the standard wiring, except the connections to the tone pots are wired directly to the pickup leads at the terminal instead of connecting through the second pole terminals. But that leaves looking at pole 2 as a separate entity, and I have no clue what would be going on. If the wires from the humbucker on terminal 1 of pole 2 are not connected to the common on pole 1, then I don't see that having the switch set to position 1 would tie those two wires into anything. I just don't get it.
This may be asking a lot (as if hoping people will read this is not already a lot), but if someone could explain what I'm missing here, I think it would help me get a better handle on the use of this switch.
Thanks in advance for consideration and any assistance. Rob R
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