Brian May wiring schematic

[Mike Simpson]

Wire it like the Brian May guitar with an on off and a phase switch for each pickup. All pickup possibilites will be available with a master volume pot and a master tone pot and then add a Big D Varitone switch for even more tone variation. I have a Big D Varitone on my 3 P-90 Tele and it has proved to be useful for me.

[Matthew Wiebe]

Can the knobs be push/pulls? Or could the knobs be the switches and the switch be an no tone/half tone/full tone switch. Or the knobs could be infinite rotarys that controlled an internal microcontroller that would allow every switch combination in the world. If you'll allow for a USB port you could also reprogram at will. Each pickup could have an LED next to it that specified if it was on/off and if it was in/out of phase. It could also have series/parallel LED's. Should be easy enough.

[Andrew Armstrong]

LOL, Thanks Matt, point well made!

[Joshua Levin-Epstein]

I saw this a while ago and something bothered me. If one were to follow this schematic, when one pick up was turned off, the input to the volume control would be grounded (so no pick up coould be on). I would have the leads from the pick ups going to the center lug of the on/off switch, with the ground and out put leads where the pick up leads are now.

I do a simplified equivalent of this wiring with 3 on/off/on switches, each wired as a phase switch. This fits easily in place of the 5 way switch, is intuitive to use and can be manipulated with one hand.

Or am I missing something?

Joshua

[Jeff Mills]

Am I missing something? couldn't this be wired with only 3 on/off/on switches (1 per pickup) ?

Center position PU is off, top position phase, bottom position normal.

Thanks

[Jeff Mills]

Wouldn't this work the same with just 3 on/off/on switches instead of 6 switches?

Thanks

[Jamie Unden]

Wouldn't this work the same with just 3 on/off/on switches instead of 6 switches?

Thanks

Except that the Brian May wiring has the pickups in series and yours has the in parallel.

[Joshua Levin-Epstein]

I was missing something. Thanks for the clarification. Still a lot of switches, though.

Joshua

[Jeff Mills]

Wouldn't this work the same with just 3 on/off/on switches instead of 6 switches?

Thanks

Except that the Brian May wiring has the pickups in series and yours has the in parallel.

Which is better series or parallel? I'm asking because I really don't know which is better.

Thanks

[Bill Hicklin]

Wouldn't this work the same with just 3 on/off/on switches instead of 6 switches?

Thanks

Except that the Brian May wiring has the pickups in series and yours has the in parallel.

Which is better series or parallel? I'm asking because I really don't know which is better.

Thanks

Parallel is normal. May and his dad used series wiring in their homebuilt which is one factor in the distinctive "Queen sound."

You can still use 3 On/Off/On switches, but the center positions have to be wired as bypasses, not grounded.