Wiring pickup hot leads directly to a switch?

[Mike_IronFist]

I've got a cheap 2013 Indonesian Peavey Millennium (jazz) bass that I've been slowly upgrading over time. My next planned upgrade is to implement a nice little P/J style pickup switcher so I can jump from bridge to neck or both quickly. (EDIT: My bad, I didn't realize what I was implying with my phrasing. I'm not looking to switch back and forth between P and J style wiring, just switching between pickups as simply as possible.)

I've noticed a lot of wiring diagrams for people who try this mod usually recommend re-wiring the outputs of the volume pots in some fashion.

What would be the downside of just wiring the pickup signals to a switch that disconnects the pickups from their pots when not needed? Would this create interference or any other issues? Diagram below for illustration purposes. "in" is the lead from the pickup, "out" would be the input for each volume pot.

 

[James Collins]

A DPDT switch only has two positions. With your writing diagram, it would only allow:

Position 1: Neck only
Position 2: Bridge only

Parallel wiring will be brighter with less volume. Series wiring will be louder and at the cost of lost treble.

If you want all the possible combinations, a 5 position/4 pole rotary switch is the cleanest method (note that you could change the order):

Position 1: neck only
Position 2: neck and bridge in parallel
Position 3: neck and bridge in series
Position 4: neck and bridge out of phase
Position 5: bridge only

 

[Mike_IronFist]

A DPDT switch only has two positions. With your writing diagram, it would only allow:

Position 1: Neck only
Position 2: Bridge only

Parallel wiring will be brighter with less volume. Series wiring will be louder and at the cost of lost treble.

Cool, thanks for the info (and the correction on terminology.) I'm currently looking at three-position switches on Amazon and mistakenly put DPDT and I guess DP3T would be the correct term. I'll update the thread title to reflect the thing I'm trying to figure out.

What I'm wondering about, though, is this: suppose I start with the entirety of the Jazz bass wiring in place, and just put in a switch the cuts off the pickups from their respective pots (but leaves the pots themselves wired to each other in series as most jazz basses seem to be.) Will this cause any issues or does it just raise the tonal considerations you mentioned?

 

[Bodeeni]

A toggle switch for pickups is a pretty standard item. I had one on one of my PJs. It was a bit limited without individual volumes, but with both, it is a kicker way to switch. I would just use a standard full size toggle. Anything else will as slow to switch as turning a knob.
Be advised they do take up some room, a mini toggle would also be the same but a smaller target on the fly

 

[James Collins]

Cool, thanks for the info (and the correction on terminology.) I'm currently looking at three-position switches on Amazon and mistakenly put DPDT and I guess DP3T would be the correct term. I'll update the thread title to reflect the thing I'm trying to figure out.

What I'm wondering about, though, is this: suppose I start with the entirety of the Jazz bass wiring in place, and just put in a switch the cuts off the pickups from their respective pots (but leaves the pots themselves wired to each other in series as most jazz basses seem to be.) Will this cause any issues or does it just raise the tonal considerations you mentioned?

Most jazz basses are wired in parallel. Series wiring would involve connecting one pickup hot lead to the ground of the other pickup.

 

[Mike_IronFist]

Most jazz basses are wired in parallel. Series wiring would involve connecting one pickup hot lead to the ground of the other pickup.

Thanks again, that's good to know.

I just want to emphasize though, I'm talking about leaving everything in place and just modifying the hot leads.

What I want to know is, will putting a switch between my pickup's hot lead and the pot it's supposed to connect to - as in, a switch that breaks the connection when off - will this create any issues? That's my one concern because I don't intend to do anything with the rest of the circuit(s) right now.

 

[Yosbank]

A DPDT switch only has two positions. With your writing diagram, it would only allow:

Position 1: Neck only
Position 2: Bridge only

Parallel wiring will be brighter with less volume. Series wiring will be louder and at the cost of lost treble.

If you want all the possible combinations, a 5 position/4 pole rotary switch is the cleanest method (note that you could change the order):

Position 1: neck only
Position 2: neck and bridge in parallel
Position 3: neck and bridge in series
Position 4: neck and bridge out of phase
Position 5: bridge only

+1
Link Removed

 

[James Collins]

Thanks again, that's good to know.

I just want to emphasize though, I'm talking about leaving everything in place and just modifying the hot leads.

What I want to know is, will putting a switch between my pickup's hot lead and the pot it's supposed to connect to - as in, a switch that breaks the connection when off - will this create any issues? That's my one concern because I don't intend to do anything with the rest of the circuit(s) right now.

It will work like you expect.

 

[Mike_IronFist]

It will work like you expect.

Cool! Thanks again for all of your insights, I'm definitely new to working with guitar circuits and it's great to have this knowledge for future mods.

 

[ofajen]

I'll just mention that you could wire either series or parellel with polarity reversal, or have settings for both. Not sure why one want both (or perhaps either, for that matter). I do still have the polarity reversed series setting on my Ripper but I don't use it much.

Otto