Four pickup wiring - with phase switch

[agabinet]

You can't measure capacitance with an ohmmeter. A good cap should show infinite resistance. As said I would assume them to be fine. Just be careful/quick when soldering. Polystyrene can't stand much temperature (70°C max.).

I took the circuit board off the plate. Here are pics. It's clear that there are three cap/resistor circuits. The one with the 2200 pf cap is the "mute" setting . . . https://link.shutterfly.com/Wv25r0IKsX

[Helmholtz]

Do you know if all PUs are working? What is their resistance (DCR). Do you have a guitar to test the PUs (without any circuit connected)? Maybe just one after the other. The way they sound by themselves may help to decide for a suitable wiring.

[agabinet]

In case anyone still is interested, I actually restored this guitar, and decided to keep the original pickup setup because it HAS an out of phase circuit built in!

[bbsailor]

I have a set of pickups, switches and pots from a mid sixties Italian -- probably a Galanti or Eko. There are four pickups, and they are all on a board with a circuit built in, two pickups above the circuit, two below it, so, PUs 1&@ above, 3&4 below. The switching is awesome, six positions -- all four pickups, no pickups,one, 1 by itself, 4 by itself, 1+4, or 2+3. https://link.shutterfly.com/ePOtUkVYlX

As the picks show, it looks like someone divided the leads from the pickups, wired the top two and bottom two so they could then pass through the circuit board, and then the individual pickup signals go out to the switch mechanism.

Because I don't know what the original wiring looked like, and because I have heard that lots of people thought the circuit was not very good, and because I have read that the Galanti Grand Prix 4V was meant to be played with pups out of phase . . . I am considering rewiring all this, so that I can have 1+4 in or out of phase, and 2+3 in or out of phase, and put a cap/resistor pair for treble bleed at the tone pot. I want just single tone and volume, so I can use the pickguard that I had copied from the original.

My question is -- what does this wiring look like -- should I run from the pickups to a phase switch to the pickup switch? With a simple phase switch, I could run PU 1 and PU 3 to the phase switch, so that the polarity of the signal is reversed when it hits the pickup selector switch . . . and from there is goes to tone, vol and out.

FYI -- I am in Providence, Rhode Island, USA

TIA

Ari Gabinet

If this works, I could, in theory, run both phase controlled pickups to the same, single phase switch, right? And that way I could even have all four pickups selected with the pairs in phase or out of phase. Two phase switches would give me more options . . .

I am not an expert in this area, so I am looking for help and advice. I a building a reproduction of a Galanti Grand Prix around these controls . . .

Any help much appreciated.

agabinet,

I did a modification of a G&L Telecaster-like guitar where I modified the Three Position switch (Neck, Both, Bridge, in parallel) with a Four position switch which added to the both position to the pickups being in series.

I also added stacked or concentric volume pots (500K) so each pickup could be individually adjusted even when in series or parallel. Use the volume pots as variable resistors with the pickup ground going to lug 3 of the pots. Make the pickups hot wire go to pin 2 (center) of the pots. Take the output (pin 1) from the pots to go to the selector switch. Now, make the tone pot a push pull pot with a DPDT switch where you can flip the phase of one pickup. I chose the neck pickup but disconnect any grounding to a metal case from the pickup wiring and connect it directly to the output ground after the selection switch.

What will this unique setup allow?

When two pickups are used in either series or parallel but out of phase. A slight variation of either pickup volume control (abut one tenth of a turn) will cause a variable notch effect to change the out of phase sound without needing any extra electronics. This effect is done totally passively. My guitar user of this wiring in the Atlantic City Area of NJ likes the wide diversity of this wiring and gets many comments from guitarist listeners about his unique sound.

Give it a try and let us know what you think about wiring it this way?

Joseph J. Rogowski