Members Jehern Posted October 24, 2014 Members Share Posted October 24, 2014 Been a while since I've done a project and I'm really rusty. I have this great DeArmond m-75 that someone modded heavily. It's been routed to have a strat pickup in the middle position with its own volume. It's not connected to a pickup selector or tone control, it was meant to be dialed in to add some snap and high end. What i don't like is that when I turn down the volumes on the neck and bridge pickups, the middle also cuts off. If it's connected directly to a volume pot to the output, shouldn't it always be active? Is there a way I can make that happen? Or would I need to put in a rotary switch or individual pickup switches? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members WRGKMC Posted October 24, 2014 Members Share Posted October 24, 2014 Been a while since I've done a project and I'm really rusty. I have this great DeArmond m-75 that someone modded heavily. It's been routed to have a strat pickup in the middle position with its own volume. It's not connected to a pickup selector or tone control' date=' it was meant to be dialed in to add some snap and high end. What i don't like is that when I turn down the volumes on the neck and bridge pickups, the middle also cuts off. If it's connected directly to a volume pot to the output, shouldn't it always be active? Is there a way I can make that happen? Or would I need to put in a rotary switch or individual pickup switches?[/quote'] The Volume pot for the two original pickups is wired so the hot wire shorts to ground to reduce volume. This essentially shorts anything else connected to the jack to go to ground as well. Luckily there's a super simple fix for that. Take the hot wire coming from the jack to the pot and the wire going to the pickups and swap them around. Leave the ground alone. This puts the hot wire on an outside lug of the pot and the pickup wire on the center lug. What will happen now is the pickup signal goes to ground and the hot wire remains open/active. This will allow you to use the center pickup independently. The only drawback you'll have is, when you want to cut your volume off, you're going to have to turn both volumes down. If you use a volume pedal this is no big deal. The other thing is there may be a little bit more hum, but with the right shielding this too shouldn't be a big deal. The other thing is the pots need to be clean and in good condition or you may hear any scratchiness. Not sure what the rest of the wiring scheme is. If you have each pickup with its own volume you may want to wire all three that way, this way you can crank any of the three independently. You can also get something like a Freeway switch and wire it up for 5 positions, Plus two more, All three and Bridge and Neck. Or you could use a rotary switch. These two would allow you a single volume yet still get all the pickups independently or in combinations. I wire one of my guitars with independent volumes like I mentioned above. I don't even use a switch, I pulled it out a few weeks ago because I don't use it. I like being able to tweak either pickup this way because they tone doesn't get dull, it remains bright. Its only a problem when I have to turn both volumes. Otherwise it gets some great tones. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Jehern Posted October 25, 2014 Author Members Share Posted October 25, 2014 OK, I decided to break it down and really figure out what's going on here. It was a little intimidating, I used to really understand how the circuits worked and now I seem to have forgotten everything. Anyway, here's what I see. It's a 2 volume, 2 tone configuration. The pickup hot wires are connected to their respective volumes and then from there to the lugs on the 3-way switch. The hot output from the jack is connected right to the 3rd volume control (the strat volume). The same lug on the strat volume is then connected to the hot lug on the 3-way switch. Not sure what I'd have to switch here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members WRGKMC Posted October 27, 2014 Members Share Posted October 27, 2014 I'd wire it like a Rickenbacker myself. http://lespaulelectricguitars.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/les-paul-3pu-mod-schematic.jpg as you can see in the diagram, the pickup wires go to the center lug on the pots, not the outside lug like Gibsons as you can see here. http://www.gibson.com/Files/schematics/sheratonII%20wiring.JPG You can keep your existing wiring and just swap the hot and pickup wires around on the pots and get independent volume controls for each pickup. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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