By Ed Malaker
Posted 09/16/2024
Question
Hey! I’ve been searching everywhere for an answer or ideas for a pickup related situation.
I’m trying to wire up a Partscaster with a neck single coil (Strat style) and bridge humbucker (DiMarzio Super 3) using a Fender style 5-way selector (8-lug).
I’d obviously like to be able to use the humbucker in series and the neck on its own, and would like to utilize the three other positions however possible with combinations of the two pickups in series, parallel, or whatever’s possible.
I’ve attempted to try a few of the few-and-far-between diagrams I’ve come across with this combination of pickups and selector, but so far nothing has seemed to work and thought I’d reach out. Thanks in advance; hope this finds you well!
Answer
Hello Alec, great question!
I tried to think of a way to solve your problem and even looked online but could not find a satisfactory solution. The problem is that the standard five-way switch is actually a three-way switch. It sounds strange, but in vintage times, the Strat only had a three-way switch, and they would stick business cards or something similar in the switch to hold it in between these positions to create the “two” and “four” positions. Soon after companies started to add those stops for convenience, but did not change the inner mechanics. Another problem is the way the switch works. It only allows you to choose between A, B, or C. In most cases, this is the neck, middle, and bridge pickup.
Since you only have two pickups, one part of this switch will go unused or be duplicated. Either it will go neck, neck + bridge, bridge, bridge, off, or neck, neck+bridge, neck+bridge, neck+bridge, bridge.
Luckily, the switch is a two-stage (two sets of 4 lugs) which means it’s two switches in one, which gives you three options as I see it.
Option # 1
You can leave your guitar configuration as is, and we can set it up with the off position I mentioned earlier. It cuts down redundancy and makes the switch more useful. I would then convert the tone so instead of having two tone controls, you only have one. You can then use the second tone control as a volume control that turns down one of the coils in the humbucker, instead of splitting it as a switch would. You would have a much wider range of tones this way.
Option # 2
If you want to convert one of your tone controls to a push-pull pot, you definitely have the option to. The first position would be the neck, the fifth position is the bridge, and two, three, and four would be neck+bridge. One neck+bridge can split the humbucker, and the push-pull pot can switch between series and parallel humbucker wiring.
Option # 3
The best way is likely to convert to a three-way switch like a Telecaster to give you neck, neck+bridge, and bridge selections. You can then set it up so each pickup has a dedicated tone control. You can convert both tone controls to push-pull pots and use one to split the coil and the other to switch between series and parallel.
If you like any of these, you can let me know, and I’ll set up a diagram for you.