dem00n Posted March 3, 2011 Share Posted March 3, 2011 Im wiring two pairs of GFS Dream 90 humbuckers to a tone and volume control with a three way switch. I wired it all up and it works but it seems that both the pickups are on but when i change the selector switch position nothing happens, it all sounds the same. It also seems tone knob is dead to. Heres a pic of the wiring, excuse my horrible wiring! I soldered the red wire and bare wire to the pot, i put both red and bare on the same spots. I put the bridge white on on the left side, the wire is on both last two posts and for the neck pup i put the wire on the right side of the selctor switch on the last two on both the posts. Thats what it said on the digram, was confusing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stickman Posted March 3, 2011 Share Posted March 3, 2011 What diagram are you using? The hot wire of each pickups hould be wired to opposite sides of the switch, which looks like you've done. Then from the center of the switch to the volume pot. http://www.guitarelectronics.com/product/WD2HH3T11_00/Guitar-Diagram-1-Humbucker-1-volume-1-tone-3-way-toggle-switchView-Download-Free Heres another diagram for reference. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dem00n Posted March 3, 2011 Author Share Posted March 3, 2011 None really, they just told me the white is hot and put the red and bare to ground. I sorta took an educational guess to this... Is the wire post to be on two posts on the selector or on one post? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
surfpup Posted March 3, 2011 Share Posted March 3, 2011 Is the wire post to be on two posts on the selector or on one post? That should be one post (though I have not used switch that looks quite like that before). That could account for the blended signal you are getting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dem00n Posted March 3, 2011 Author Share Posted March 3, 2011 Ok ill rewire it now and see what happens, thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy R Posted March 3, 2011 Share Posted March 3, 2011 Ok ill rewire it now and see what happens, thanks! I might be able to help you .... or should I just send you over the MLP forums as I am sure they have done this before??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy R Posted March 3, 2011 Share Posted March 3, 2011 Im wiring two pairs of GFS Dream 90 humbuckers to a tone and volume control with a three way switch. I wired it all up and it works but it seems that both the pickups are on but when i change the selector switch position nothing happens, it all sounds the same. It also seems tone knob is dead to. Heres a pic of the wiring, excuse my horrible wiring! I soldered the red wire and bare wire to the pot, i put both red and bare on the same spots. I put the bridge white on on the left side, the wire is on both last two posts and for the neck pup i put the wire on the right side of the selctor switch on the last two on both the posts. Thats what it said on the digram, was confusing. So essentially you are using a 5 way switch as a 3 way switch I am assuming? 2 Humbuckers? You want first two positions to be bridge, middle to be both and last two to be neck correct? Right now as you have it from what I can tell is Your pick-up selector output will be engaging all pickups all of the time. Your tone control is completely out of the circuit and your selector switch is not grounded.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stein Posted March 3, 2011 Share Posted March 3, 2011 in the pic it looks like this is wrong: the red wires from the pup, which are supposed to be the ground wires, are connected to the lug on the pot. that is not correct. if the instructions for the pup say to connect both the red and the ground (copper) to the pot, that is telling you they are supposed to both be connected to the same spot on the pot. connect them both to the back of the pot as you have done with the ground (copper). wanted to also add that if that switch is what i think it is, there is supposed to be 2 lugs connected for at least some of it. i hope you remembered what it was origionally, because i sure don't. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silenced Fred Posted March 3, 2011 Share Posted March 3, 2011 I might be able to help you .... or should I just send you over the MLP forums as I am sure they have done this before??? I see what you did there... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stein Posted March 3, 2011 Share Posted March 3, 2011 confirmed also that as andy pointed out, there is no grounds. wiring diagrams often do not show that the pots must be attached by a ground. you may be getting some connection by the black shielding paint, but problably not. you need a ground wire from the back of the tone pot to the back of the volume pot. still on the fence about the switch, though. i do see a ground lug to it, but that should not have to be connected to make it work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dem00n Posted March 3, 2011 Author Share Posted March 3, 2011 Now im lost, im post to get a wire put it to the selctor switch and ground it? Also im post to ground the volume and tone pots all in one? Do i just solder the wires to the trem? On what slot does the wire go to? Also its a 3 way switch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dem00n Posted March 3, 2011 Author Share Posted March 3, 2011 Ok i put the two reds on the back of the pots, now im getting no response from the pickups... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stein Posted March 3, 2011 Share Posted March 3, 2011 i'm afriad the switch is the culprit. that switch does not follow the same wiring as what you will find in your standard wiring diagrams for pups. it looks as though the wiring for the switch was changed judging from the solder i can see on some of the unused lugs. gotta backtrack: did you change anything about the switch? did you wire the switch by following a diagram? or did you remove the wires from the old pups and put the wires from the new pups in the same place as the old ones? if you remember where at the switch the wires from the pups were and on which lugs, and also the wires from the switch to the pot was, put them as they were. if cannot remember, then either try and figure out what the lugs for the switch does to try and make it work or get a new switch were you can know where to hook it up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dem00n Posted March 3, 2011 Author Share Posted March 3, 2011 Alright ill go mess around with it a little, if i cant figure anything out ill just buy a new one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dem00n Posted March 3, 2011 Author Share Posted March 3, 2011 Sigh, i messed around i got nothing. I have a few 5 way switches anyway i can turn it into a 3 way? Rather not wait a other a week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dem00n Posted March 3, 2011 Author Share Posted March 3, 2011 Took a pic of the selector switch if it can help Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy R Posted March 3, 2011 Share Posted March 3, 2011 Sigh, i messed around i got nothing. I have a few 5 way switches anyway i can turn it into a 3 way? Rather not wait a other a week. Ok here's is what you do. Try this I think it will work: Looking at the switch as in the picture think of the pin labels as from left to right 12345678 This will make it work as in bridge position 1 = bridge only, position 234 = both and position 5 = neck Hook the Hot lead of your Bridge pickup to lead1 of the switch and jumper pin 1/2 together Ground the red and bare wire of your bridge pickup together to the top of the volume control... Now hook the hot lead of the neck pickup to lead 8 and jumper pin 7/8 together and solder the bare and ground wire to the top of the volume control Now jumper pin 3/4 and 5/6 (Separately) and run a wire from each to the bottom lug on your volume control ( bottom side of the picture opposite side of the lug grounded to the pot) Now hook your lead going to your tone control back to the bottom lug of the volume pot so hots from the switch and tone control are on same lug... Then ground the lug of the switch that's on the case of it to the top of a pot... This should eliminate switch clicking and buzz This works I just did it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy R Posted March 3, 2011 Share Posted March 3, 2011 By the way your switch should work like the following without any jumpers or anything: ( Slash indicates isolated sets, They are on at the same time but not connected to the other set) Bridge - Position 1 - 12345678 = 1,4, / 5,6 Mix - Position 2 - 12345678 = 1,2,4, / 5,6,7 Middle Only - Position 3 - 12345678 = 2,4, / 5,7 Mix - Position 4 - 12345678 = 2,3,4 / 5,7,8 Neck Only - position 5 - 12345678 = 3,4 / 5,8 Hope this helps... Andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy R Posted March 3, 2011 Share Posted March 3, 2011 I see what you did there... I couldn't resist Although he was absolutely right and I even gave him a +1 for it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silenced Fred Posted March 3, 2011 Share Posted March 3, 2011 I couldn't resist Although he was absolutely right and I even gave him a +1 for it. Hahaha, I know. dem00n, like myself, doesn't always have the popular opinion, but he says some good stuff. Tons of people like you. I don't have the balls for that, to show my whole work in progress and document it. Open on the internet for complete scrutiny. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
damian Posted March 3, 2011 Share Posted March 3, 2011 Andy is right, as always.........All I can add is, " Don't cut the blue wire." :unsure: ....Good for you learning this wiring stuff dem00n, +1 for ya.. . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dem00n Posted March 3, 2011 Author Share Posted March 3, 2011 Ok here's is what you do. Try this I think it will work: Looking at the switch as in the picture think of the pin labels as from left to right 12345678 This will make it work as in bridge position 1 = bridge only, position 234 = both and position 5 = neck Hook the Hot lead of your Bridge pickup to lead1 of the switch and jumper pin 1/2 together Ground the red and bare wire of your bridge pickup together to the top of the volume control... Now hook the hot lead of the neck pickup to lead 8 and jumper pin 7/8 together and solder the bare and ground wire to the top of the volume control Now jumper pin 3/4 and 5/6 (Separately) and run a wire from each to the bottom lug on your volume control ( bottom side of the picture opposite side of the lug grounded to the pot) Now hook your lead going to your tone control back to the bottom lug of the volume pot so hots from the switch and tone control are on same lug... Then ground the lug of the switch that's on the case of it to the top of a pot... This should eliminate switch clicking and buzz This works I just did it Ok i tried that but that switch is a 3 way (the one pictured), the 5 way switch i have has 7 ports and ive tried what you said on that and it still does work this guitar ****ing hates me... Heres an updates pic of what i did... Selector with 5 way switch. Volume pot Tone pot I'm about to give up... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TommyK Posted March 4, 2011 Share Posted March 4, 2011 The tabs on the selector switch, are they shorting on the metal case? I vote you send it to Andy R to fix. My best friend's Dad was a mechanic. My buddy and I were in the garage working on his 1966 Pontiac Executive. Something went wrong and my buddy threw his wrench. His dad, the professional mechanic, appeared in the door way between house and garage and said, "You oughtn't to be messin' with something you oughtn't to be messin' with that you don't know nothin' about." or something like that. or maybe he was talking about girls... I dunno... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bluemoon Posted March 4, 2011 Share Posted March 4, 2011 Demoon, I would take a break and sleep on it. Revisit it tomorrow and go back through it and follow andy's suggestion. Pots can fry if you heat them up too much. Worst case scenario...take it to a tech and have them fix it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy R Posted March 4, 2011 Share Posted March 4, 2011 Ok i tried that but that switch is a 3 way (the one pictured), the 5 way switch i have has 7 ports and ive tried what you said on that and it still does work this guitar ****ing hates me... Heres an updates pic of what i did... Selector with 5 way switch. Volume pot Tone pot I'm about to give up... That first switch is only a 3 way? Are you sure? never seen so many connectors on a 3 way switch like that... What you really need to invest in is a cheap volt meter that has a "continuity tester" on it. It's purpose is just to tell you where you are getting connections by emitting a beep sound. If you connect one lead of the tester to one part and you connect the other lead to another part and it beeps then you know you have a connection there. This could be good if the connection is wanted but it could also tell you where you are getting a connection you don't want. Anyway they are especially handy for multi switches as they will tell you what connections are "Tied together" in what position. Every switch should like this should have a pin (or 2 ) that is always engaged no matter what position the switch is in. This is the Hot lead(s) pin from the switch that would go to the 1st lug on the Volume pot(s) ( not the lug that is bent back and soldered to the volume control case) You can think of this as the "Input" of the volume control. The middle lug on the volume control is pretty much the "output" and usually has the main lead of the output Jack soldered to it. So back to the switch... By finding out which lug(s) is always Hot meaning that in any position it is still connected you know what your switch output is. When you change position this hot lead should connect to 1 or more pins of the switch. This tells you where your switch inputs are and in what position. Your switch inputs will be where you hookup the hot leads of your pick up and determine when They are active and in what switch position..... You should never have a bare unshielded wire going to a lead on a volume control unless it is the one that is grounded to the pot. Looking at your current picture it looks like you have the tone control lead and it's ground soldered to the middle lug of the volume control. The tone control lead should be soldered to the 1st lug on the volume control ( the input) and the bare wire should be soldered to the top of the volume pot. Remember sending something to ground kills the signal..... That's why the one leg of the volume pot is soldered to the case and grounded. So when you turn the volume control down you are gradually sending more signal to ground and killing the volume... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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