How does a Pickup-Switch + Pickup-Blend pot combination work?

[solocan]

Hi everybody,

it's my first post in this board. I have an Ibanez ATK810 bass I'm in love with but I still don't really get how this pickup balancing/switching circuit is working. I know

-Pickup-Switches: They just turn on/off the pickups to combine them hardly.
-Blend/balance pots: They do the blending of pickups continuously.

Now in my crazy bass, there are both! There a 3-way switch and a balance-pot. Empirically, I understood the functionality a little bit but I don't understand the theory or how the circuit is really wired. Because:

-When both switch and pot are both in the middle position I have about 50-50 combination which is comprehensible.
-When the switch is middle (combination) position and the balance pot is to neck or to bridge, I get some blending results which is also comprehensible.
-When the switch is in bridge position or neck position, I can select with balance pot absolutely opposite direction which also has an effect on tone. (brainshag)

Let's say when I switch to neck, I would expect that 100% is coming from the neck so the balance pot wouldn't have an an effect. But it does!

No explanations found on internet.
Here's the description of Ibanez site.

Can someone explain this to me?
Thanks

 

[kgbeast]

You can tap with a steel object on each pickup to understand what is on or off or partial volume, while manipulating the switch and the balance knob.

The bass has 3 pickups so perhaps it selects which of the 3 combination will blend together with the pot.
Like in center, it is neck and bridge, in neck it is neck+centrer, and at last center and bridge... Or something to that effect.

 

[XLunacy]

The confusion seems to come from the use of the words "neck" and "bridge" to refer to different things depending on context.

The "Pickup character switch" acts on the dual-coil pickup and changes its voicing by selecting which coils are active. Here "neck" and "bridge" refer to the coils of this particular pickup, as shown on the chart.

The "Balancer" pot seems to be a blend control that allows you to mix the aforementioned bridge pickup with the (seemingly single coil) neck pickup. Here "neck" and "bridge" refer to the individual pickups.

If this is correct, with the blend control set to 100% neck pickup (usually fully CW), the switch should have little to no effect.

 

[kgbeast]

I see now. So there two pickups however the bridge pickup is actually a dual pickup ( like stingray).
So effectively you have 3 pickups it is just the middle and the bridge are in the same larger housing.
The blend pot, blends together the actual neck pickup, and the whatever the dual pickup is set to with the switch.
In 1, it is just the "middle" pickup, in 2 is the parallel combination of "bridge"+"middle", and in 3 it is just the "bridge".

 

[solocan]

Yes guys, thx. I could have just try&error this. Just didn't notice that the switch is only controlling the internal combination of triple humbucker! The blender blends this triple humbucker with the single coil neck pickup.

Thus: No effect of switch when the blend poti is on neck position.