I am building a custom J Bass, and I am in need of a wiring diagram for a very odd electronics configuration I have in mind. I hate the location of the jack on normal Js, because the cable sticks out and gets in the way. I routed my body for a Stratocaster jack plate so I don't have to mess with that anymore, so now I have an extra hole on the control plate to do something with. My idea is to put a toggle switch there to switch between series and parallel, with the center position just be off, or mute. I can't find a wiring diagram anywhere that doesn't just use a push/pull pot for the switching, because I have never seen another J with a Strat jack plate, so I guess no one makes diagrams with that in mind. I have searched the Seymour Duncan website and all the other normal locations with no luck, and I don't know enough about electronics to figure it out myself. If anyone knows how to do this, or knows where I could find out how, I would really appreciate it!
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Unusual wiring idea for a J Bass... need some help!
- Thread starter Tacopastorius
- Start date
Is the jack the little box that everything runs into on the left side? Also the ground gets soldered to my bridge, and the little black line between the two bottom connectors on the switch is just a piece of wire to bridge across them, right?
Ok, that's much better. I copied this off another thread, does it look like this makes sense and it's describing what's going on in this diagram?
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What I did was pretty easy, the terminals on the switch look like this in a 6 terminal switch:
B A
D C
F E
Its not labeled so when you look at it upside down or right side up it will still work the same way.
First thing I did was solder E anf F together.
Then I unsoldered the black wire from the neck pickup from the neck pot. Its the ground wire so its soldered to the back of the pot instead of to one of the pots terminals. I soldered that wire to terminal C.
Then I soldered a wire from A to the place where I unsoldered the neck pickup ground wire on the neck pot.
Then I unsoldered the Bridge pickup signal wire (white) from the center terminal of the bridge pickup pot and soldered that to terminal D.
The I soldered a wire from the center terminal of the bridge pickup (where I just unsoldered the signal wire for the bridge pup) to terminal B.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
What I did was pretty easy, the terminals on the switch look like this in a 6 terminal switch:
B A
D C
F E
Its not labeled so when you look at it upside down or right side up it will still work the same way.
First thing I did was solder E anf F together.
Then I unsoldered the black wire from the neck pickup from the neck pot. Its the ground wire so its soldered to the back of the pot instead of to one of the pots terminals. I soldered that wire to terminal C.
Then I soldered a wire from A to the place where I unsoldered the neck pickup ground wire on the neck pot.
Then I unsoldered the Bridge pickup signal wire (white) from the center terminal of the bridge pickup pot and soldered that to terminal D.
The I soldered a wire from the center terminal of the bridge pickup (where I just unsoldered the signal wire for the bridge pup) to terminal B.
- Aug 5, 2005
- 7,243
- 92
- Disclosures
- Endorsing Artist: J.C. Basses
I didn't read more than the first two lines, but it looked okay (just the top and bottom sets of terminals are flipped). Why do you ask? If you follow the last diagram posted by xaxxat, when you flip the switch up, it's parallel, and down is series.
Also, you'll want a standard DPDT on-on toggle switch. They're cheaper and easier to find than the on-off-on too.
I am looking at dpdt switches online, and they are all for 1/4 or 1/2 inch mounting holes.... I need a 3/8 one! Ugghhh.....
Yup. You just discovered one of the facts of life. The good news is that you can turn a 3/8" hole into a 1/2" hole with a hole expander (drill). The bad news is they don't make a hole-shrinker to reduce a 3/8" hole down to 1/4".
If you want a center mute position you just need to use an on-off-on DPDT switch instead of an on-none-on one. The bad news is that it's much easier to find on-off-on DPDT in 1/4" mini switches than in the larger ones.
One thing I've done to shrink holes for mini switches is you go to lowes (or other hardware store) and in the hardware for mirror mounting you'll find some very nice stamped decorative shiny washers that are supposed to go over the mounting screws on large mirrors. If you drill out the center hole to 1/4" they don't make too bad a looking plate that covers the 3/8" hole.
I have seen the three hole plates, but I do want the switching capability.
And I don't think I can drill through a metal control plate... I may try to use some sort of bushing and put one of those large washers over it... with your washer deal, does that secure it? I had already thought of something like that, but the switch is going to jiggle quite freely if I don't do something to stabilize it.
And I don't think I can drill through a metal control plate... I may try to use some sort of bushing and put one of those large washers over it... with your washer deal, does that secure it? I had already thought of something like that, but the switch is going to jiggle quite freely if I don't do something to stabilize it.
You could get a new control plate, one made for the stack knob configuration (3 holes), that way you can keep vvt controls and your strat jack, which looks pretty awesome btw.
edit: nevermind I see you've considered this already. Still, great idea on the jack!
edit: nevermind I see you've considered this already. Still, great idea on the jack!
I always thought the three hole plates looked weird... and I don't really like push/pull pots. At any rate though, I seem to have the switch problem solved, and really dig the way it turned out cosmetically too. My knobs and tuners are supposed to be here monday, unfortunately my neck won't be here for four weeks because Warmoth is too busy to get right on it. But it's still almost done!
