Wiring: H/S with 5-way & volume

[m2pmd70]

I opened up the Avenger yesterday, planning to check the resistance of the Invader in the bridge since it sounds weak. I went looking online (here included) to see which wires I needed to be testing... >lo and behold< the previous owner wired it wrong.

The guitar has what I assume is the stock inline (8 contacts in a row) 5 position switch. The Invader's Red and Green wires are soldered to the first and second lug of the switch with the Black and White connected together and taped off. The single at the neck had one of its two wires half-ass soldered to the third lug, but it fell off when i moved it.

From looking at >this< diagram at SD's site I'm pretty sure it's wired wrong. I've looked at a bunch of diagrams online but none of them are drawn with the inline switch so that throws me off a bit. I'm assuming I can wire it like HSS and just leave out the connection for the 2nd single?

Basically what I'm asking is: how should I wire up my Invader, single (stacked hum I hear), 5-way and volume? Thanks guys.

[jacksonaxes]

1st position, Neck pickup. 2nd position,neck pickup & outer coil of hummmer. 3rd, neck & hum. 4th, neck & inner coul of hum, or just one coil of the hum by itself, & 5th, hummer alone, put a rail hum in the neck, add a push pull pot, oh well I better stop.

[m2pmd70]

OK, I've done a bunch of research and head-scratching, and still haven't really figured out how it should go. Would someone mind to play connect the dots with my little hacked seymourduncan.com diagram? (Yellow=white btw)

[Newc]

Typical Import 5-way, and each contact has a "twin", which means you only need 4 of them.

The numbers below represent switch contacts:

1 Bridge Black (Green if the sound of the split bridge and the neck pickup sounds "quacky")
2 Bridge Red & White if you want it split when both pickups are active.
3 Neck White
4 Output to Knobs
5 Nothing
6 Nothing
7 Nothing
8 Nothing

If this exact wiring scheme makes your switch work backwards (closest to neck is bridge, closest to bridge is neck) swap the pickup leads at 1 and 3.

A typical/standard 5-way switch is just a 3-way switch with bridges between 1 and 2, and 2 and 3 (those bridges become 2 and 4), so you only use 4 contacts total - 3 for the pickups and one for the Output.

For Duncan pickups, Red and White are soldered together on the same contact to tap/split the pickup, and Green and Black are interchangeable between Ground and Full Humbucker depending on how they Phase with other pickups when split.

The Black of the single and the Green of the Duncan go to Ground (unless, as stated before, you get unwanted honkiness when using the split bridge and neck pickup together, in which case you swap the Green for the Black of the bridge).

[hippietim]

well, unless you plan on using a 5-way super switch to do some coil taps or something, it's kind of pointless to have a 5-way switch. just get a 3-way.

[straycat]

+1

[MountainDog]

If you don't want any coil tapping of the Invader, wire up as Newc says (red & white soldered together and taped out of the way) and want to use your 5-way switch as a 3-way (until you can locate and install a 3-way), then wire up the switch as follows:

http://www.sullyville.net/crap/switch.pdf

[m2pmd70]

If the switch works as you described then wouldn't the first four lugs have continuity with their mates on the other side of the switch? None of the first four lugs show continuity with the last four. Here's what my meter says:

 
  sw pos.           Cont.
1 (forward)       1&4, 5&6
2               1&2&4, 5&6&7
3                 2&4, 5&7
4               2&3&4, 5&7&8
5 (rear)          3&4, 5&8

Is this to support the weird triple-single setup that the Avengers and Fusions originally came with? Thanks for your help guys.

[MountainDog]

Not sure how to answer your question other than knowing that wiring up a 5-way the way shown on the Sullyville diagram works as a 3-way (Switch position 1 & 2 give you neck pickup, pos 3 gives both pickups, pos 4&5 give you bridge.

These switches with the mutliple contacts are to support multiple pickups and also coil-tapping options within those pickups. Here's an example from Ibanez website (the switch has 8 lugs, but they are arranged in a row, but you can see the theory about the coil tapping options available:

http://www.ibanez.com/wiring/diagrams/2005/RGA121.pdf

http://www.ibanez.com/wiring/diagrams/2005/RG2570.pdf

As others mentioned earlier, if you don't need any coil tapping options, it would be best to get a 3-way switch, the diagram I gave was just to get you so you can be playing until you locate and install the 3-way.

[m2pmd70]

If I can do nifty coil-splitting and such with this switch shouldn't I? Y'know, while I've got all the wires yanked out anyway.

[Newc]

It's been a while since I actually wired one of those, but IIRC that's how they went. The "top" 4 lugs were repeated in the "bottom" 4.

Is your meter saying lug 1 is the same as lug 5, 2 is the same as 6, 3 is the same as 7, and 4 is the same as 8? Meaning do you have the same reading at 1 as you do 5 and so on?

And you won't be able to do too much special wiring with that switch. You'll need the Jackson Special 5-way for that - it's easy to spot - it has 3 layers, and 16 lugs.

[m2pmd70]

Well the meter showed none of the first four lugs to be connected to the last four... the two sets paired up in the same ways among the two sets. Does that make any sense? LOL

[Newc]

Not really LOL

Lemme see if I have one of those lying around in my junk box.

[Newc]

Nope, none here.

This is one of those with the white plastic cover on one side and all 8 pins in a row, correct?

When you checked them with the meter, did you move the switch to see which one lit up when another one was hot?

[hippietim]

When you split a humbucker, you are basically sending the north/south finish pair (red/white for your Duncan) to ground.

So for that to work, the switch has to allow two independent signal flows - one for the pickup "hot" signals. And one that routes the north/south pairs to ground as desired.