Musician Gear & Tech Discussion

I routed out the middle of my Randy Rhoads / Jackson for a 3rd pick up. I'm using 3 concentric (2 in 1 knobe; volume on top, tone on the bottom), a 3 way switch that u on 3 humbuckered Les Pauls/SG Custom and .50 tone capacitor. I looked at other sites that had common pots . Can any one help me ?

I can help but I'm not sure what you are asking.
you have three 2in1 potentiometers?
lets see...
you don't have to go tone on bottom volume on top...
they sound like simple dbl pots.

how do you wanna go? I'd suggest a master volume overall... then three pickup level volumes... then two tone pots... so you'll need another capacitor (you can really do it with one but it's much better with more).

OR

you could do any combo of things. with a three way les paul switch you could have it select a pickup in each position or you could just have the std les paul switch wiring with a main volume on the third humbucker.

I'm not sure if I am able to get a diagram up here but could def describe the wire connections you would need.

I'll assume you want three vols and three tones and three way selecting middle p-u in middle pos...

I may have to do this in two posts to give time...
your gonna need a solder gun, solder, flux, and good wire(not from radio shack if possible). scratch all the backs/side of the pots to make a spot where the ground will go(just scratch it up to make it ruff on the outside or bottom of each potentiometer). Then throw some flux on the the spot you ruffed up... then use the solder gun to put a few drops of solder on that spot. take the third prong of each volume (3)pontentiometer and bend it back so that it touches the body of the pot or the bottom. then throw some solder on it to make a good connection with the body of the pot.
then wire the third prong of each tone to a capacitor and then to gound(body).

IMPORTANT: if you wire the wrong prong to the ground your pot will work backwards...
you may wanna look at a working gtrs pot to see which one is the three prong(it will be wired to ground).

I'd go get a stereo 1/4 inch jack for the guitar(the stereo ones hold a cord better - worth the extra cpl of bucks).

Wire both the clips(use black wire) that are going to the shield (ie not to the tip) together and then run that to the ground on the paul switch and then to the back of any of the three volume pots... and ground those three pots together.

the les paul switch is problematic... the black beauty and the sg custom had a special 6prong switch... I'll assume you couldn't get one of those and you just have the std paul switch... witch means a vol would have to control the middle p-u...

run the tip (use red wire)of the 1/4 jack to the middle two prongs on the les paul switch (assuming the lever type and not the "box with three leads type").
wire one of the other prongs (on the paul switch) to the 2 prong on the vol of your choice, wire the other prong on the paul switch to the 2 prong on the other vol pot of your choice.
wire the #1 prong on one vol to the hot for the bridge p-u, and wire the other #1 prong on the other vol to the hot wire for the neck p-u. wire these two pickups' grounds to the volume pot (ground/body) of your choice. almost there...
wire the middle on the last/third vol pot(unused so far) directly to the tip of the 1/4 inch jack. wire the #1 prong on that vol to the middle pickups' hot wire. wire the middle pickups hot wire to that volumes ground.

at this point you have three working p-us if youv'e followed my instructions.
The only thing left to do is wire in the tone pots... but I'd make sure you got it going the way you like at this point....

then, wire the middle prong on each vol pot to the #2 prong on it's tone pot counterpart... and that's it!
feel free to ask questions... I'm sure I was unclear in several places... cheers.

http://www.stewmac.com/wiring101/3way_t ... tches.html


here you'll find a diagram for the les paul style toggle switch... they prob have the switch too..
you could just attach the live wire form the third pu to this switch and get the "one p-u per position" setup.

ooops, (head down)... rookie mistake...

you are gonna wanna remember to wire the ground from any pot or the three way or the jack to the trem... otherwise you'll get a buzzing sound even when your hands are on the strings. you have to run a wire and make sure it stays in contact with the bridge.

mv

what the... I go through all that trouble to give you exactly what yer askin' for and yer not even gonna respond? Was my explanation too complicated? Did you think it was much easier than that? Forgive my frustration but I just gave you what I would have loved to have been given -prior to reading several hundred books on electronics (to achieve). Please tell me it wasn't a waste of my unbelievably vast intelligence.
mv

........Well, if it makes you feel any better, I found all that very interesting, and well rounded. ............................ although it seems kinda like cutting a hole in the dash of a Lambo to mount a trash can

Great tech