Need Help With a Double Neck Build: Wiring

[Max Pratt]

Ok so a build I am working on at the moment has a very odd arrangement of pickups and two necks, and therefore has wiring that is a bit strange.

Ok so it will look like this; A 3 pickup guitar, and a 2 pickup guitar, 4 knobs: a vol and tone for each guitar, a 3 way switch for the two pickup guitar, a 5 way switch for the three pickup guitar, and finally a 3 way On/On/On for selecting which neck to use.

The actual wiring of each guitar independently should not be too difficult, it is connecting them to one jack through a 3 way switch that worries me. I have a lot of experience wiring instruments, but this is definitely the most complicated thing I have done so far. So, any help you could give would be STELLAR.



Max Pratt

[InternetAlias]

What exactly do you have a problem with? Just as you'd wire hot and ground from a pickup, pot or tone to a 3 way switch, you're supposed to wire two separate guitar systems to one output jack.

Also, I'd advise you to put three outs on the guitar, it'd be way more useful in a multi rig setup if you have/use one. So basically, just wire guitars independently to their own output jack, then continue wire from output jacks to a central output jack, but through a 3 way switch.

[Max Pratt]

I did think about that, and in fact I left an empty jack plate on the guitar in case we ever wanted to add more outputs, however the client only requested one and he only ever uses one amp so it would be unnecessary. Maybe I will drill for a third jack and add a plate just for kicks, but I am pretty sure he doesn't want to run any more money on another switch, two more jacks, and a plate. Thanks a bunch, my question was really whether or not I could just wire it to the three way switch like a normal 6 pin switch and then to the output jack.

Thanks again,

Max Pratt

[BarkerBass]

if you're keeping it to one out put jack then just wire each guitar output to one side of a standard guitar 3-way switch and the middle lug is your output, simple as any other 3 way switch.

[pklima]

Originally Posted by BarkerBass

if you're keeping it to one out put jack then just wire each guitar output to one side of a standard guitar 3-way switch and the middle lug is your output, simple as any other 3 way switch.

Yup. Had a bass like that - just volume and a 3-way switch - and this is exactly how the switch was wired. Just pretend one neck is a neck pickup and the other a bridge pickup, and wire it like a pickup switch.

[Smilodon]

Won't there be problems with loading when there is that many pickups connected together, though? In a worst case scenario you will be running five pickups in paralell.

Oh, and i now hate you a bit. Now i want a double neck bass/guitar...

I really can't play neither, but i may have to build one anyway.