S/S/H wiring and metal pickguard questions

Hi All,

I am in the process of designing a Harley inspired Strat. I have something in mind for my pickup wiring but I am looking for some input and or advice.

Ideally I would like to replace 5-way switch and use mini on-off toggle s for each pickup. I will be using two Fender Noiseless Alnico singles with a Gibson 498T Hot Alnico for my bridge humbucker.

For the pickup on-off toggle switches I'm hoping just single throw on-off toggle will do the trick. I would also like to find some type of three-way toggle switch (8 pole maybe) to allow me to use the humbucker in full double-coil mode, just the inner coil, and then also just the outer coil.

In a perfect world this would allow me to choose any pickup combination. Plus depending how I have the humbucker toggle set, this would allow me even more combinations.

Is there a way to do this and appease the electronic gods?

Also, I would like to use an aluminum diamond plate pickguard to match all of the diamond plate that I have on my motorcycle.

The person who is helping with the wiring part is worried about the grounding and noise issues that he has experienced when using any type of metal for a pickguard.

Anyone out there using any type of metal pickguard with relative success. If so, any tips on how to work around the potential issues?

thanks,

Craig

From what I've read, along with proper grounding, the aluminum would act as a shield & help prevent noise. I'm just going back to the old "aluminum foil on the pickguard as a shield" trick. Sounds like a cool project.

I know it's more switches than you were wanting to use, but the check this page out, along with other pages he has. I love having options out the wazoo so mine's going to have a "few" switches on it. I have a mini railbucker going into the bridge slot and singles in the mid and neck positions, but I may put a P90 in the mix. That's just the beginning.

I've seen diamond plate pickguards for sale on the net. I don't know how they deal with switches where the raised areas are, but I reckon they're ground down or blank so that you can put switches where you want them. Being made from aluminum, they won't need any shielding foil on the back side.

Another wiring resource I love is guitarelectronics.com. The page I just linked is a good FAQ and the wiring links are at the bottom of the left-side menu panel. Some great info on there and you might come up with your own design between all the options there and on the other site.

katallic,

Thanks for the good info! I'll check out the schematics. One thing that caught my eye yesterday was the Switcheroo setup that Tome Anderson uses.

As far as my metal pick guard issue, I've decided to steer clear and have it airbrushed to give it the sam look. Plus that will allow me a couple more customizing ideas utilizing the tank badge and medallion thta is feature on my Roadking.

As far a switches and tonal choices, the more the better!

I like the way you think. Not having worn out my curiosity for more ways to alter tone (and having a love for gadgets in general), another mod my SX "Strat" will have on it is my own version of a Varitone and separate switches for the humbucker (SSH design. For now.) and single coils with reverse phasing and all that good stuff. I figure that at some point I'll find The Tone I'm looking for and have one switch just for that and probably still other switches for alternate settings.

Sweet! I'm curious to hear about how that turns out!