Guitarists: Replacing pickup selector switch?

The three-way selector switch went on my Squire M-70 and I thought I could fix it myself. Not so easy I am finding out. There are three wires: red, green, and grey. Each individual wire has two wires under the plastic, one bare the other under white plastic.

I figured out the red and green wires come from the tones knobs and the grey wire seems to be the input signal itself. I just have no clue how all six wires end up on a three slot switch, there's only three solder points!

Before you ask; No I didn't check where the wires were previously before snipping off the old switch

 

[Forsythe]

Uhm, afaik there should be 6 smoulder points, are you sure you haven't overlooked some?

... Kinda stupid question actually, but i'm at a loss regarding what to do if there are only 3. perhaps you'll figure it out. However, you didn't search the internet for keywords?

 

Yeah, did a Google search with a bunch of keywords. Nothing specific. Just taking a potshot here there's a lot of guitar freaks onboard.

 

[ThePresence]

A squire? Just buy a new guitar already!
I kid, I kid.

 

[Forsythe]

Buy a new guitar? No way, playing with a guitar your used to is great.

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

You didn't make note of how it was wired before desoldering all of it?

All you need is a volume knob and one pickup anyways.

 

It's not really a Squire in the cheap Strat clone sense. It's a DeArmond M-80 that Fender renamed when they bought out the company. I don't think they make them anymore but they were pretty nice guitars for a Squire.

 

Originally posted by: BingBongWongFooey
All you need is a volume knob and one pickup anyways.

So true. I only use one setting

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

Originally posted by: dwell

Originally posted by: BingBongWongFooey
All you need is a volume knob and one pickup anyways.

So true. I only use one setting

You can even leave the other stuff in and it'll look just the same. I ripped it all out.

 

[TheNinja]

I will try to find my wiring specs for you. I took my Ibanez, replaced the 2 humbuckers, and replaced the 3 way switch with a 5 way switch, with coil splitting on the humbuckers to get some single coil action.

edit: give me more info on that guitar. I'm guessing 3 single coil pickups with a 3 way selector? If that's the case it shouldn't be too tough. Also, is it 1 volume knob and 2 tone, or 2 tone and 1 volume?

 

[Forsythe]

Originally posted by: TheNinja
I will try to find my wiring specs for you. I took my Ibanez, replaced the 2 humbuckers, and replaced the 3 way switch with a 5 way switch, with coil splitting on the humbuckers to get some single coil action.

edit: give me more info on that guitar. I'm guessing 3 single coil pickups with a 3 way selector? If that's the case it shouldn't be too tough. Also, is it 1 volume knob and 2 tone, or 2 tone and 1 volume?

I'd kill for an Ibanez guitar... All i have is this lousy copy.I hate having many hobbies, i wish i could just stick yo one...

 

[vshah]

Originally posted by: TheNinja
Also, is it 1 volume knob and 2 tone, or 2 tone and 1 volume?

getting late i see

i've also had to repair the selector switch on a squire before...i had a picture of the wiring somewhere....i'll see if i can find it when i get home

i love my ibanez rg570....

-Vivan

 

[thermalpaste]

Is there a possibility that the components are connected serially? like 3 wires are connected to each other and the remaining 3 go to the 3 solder points??

 

[thermalpaste]

please post the picture, may be able to help you out....the tones knob has 3 solder points because it is a potentiometer/variable resistor......now the third point on the tones knob MAY NOT be soldered to anything at all, because the points at the ends (excluding the middle) give the maximum resistance of any potentiometer...

 

[slickcat]

Check out some of the wiring diagrams here some of these may help you. They have diagrams for the most popular configurations.

 

[MacBaine]

I need to fix the switch on my Gibson '66 SG... it's getting pretty sticky.

 

Thanks everyone for the help. I took a couple of pics so you can see the wiring:

http://pics.bbzzdd.com/users/bbzzdd/guitar-1.jpg
http://pics.bbzzdd.com/users/bbzzdd/guitar-2.jpg

In pic 1 remember each wire has two wires. I am 100% sure the inner white wires go to the solder points. I think the other wires were all soldered together. The red and green wires come from the knobs and the grey wire comes from the input. I am tempted to take it in because I don't want to wreck it, but I guess if I can mod and Xbox I can do this.

slickcat: Thanks for the link. I will check that out right now. This one seems like my setup but I can't see where the other wires go.

 

[TheNinja]

Originally posted by: dwell
Thanks everyone for the help. I took a couple of pics so you can see the wiring:

http://pics.bbzzdd.com/users/bbzzdd/guitar-1.jpg
http://pics.bbzzdd.com/users/bbzzdd/guitar-2.jpg

In pic 1 remember each wire has two wires. I am 100% sure the inner white wires go to the solder points. I think the other wires were all soldered together. The red and green wires come from the knobs and the grey wire comes from the input. I am tempted to take it in because I don't want to wreck it, but I guess if I can mod and Xbox I can do this.

slickcat: Thanks for the link. I will check that out right now. This one seems like my setup but I can't see where the other wires go.

So you have 2 single coil, 2 volume, 2 tone, 1 3-way selector switch right?

 

[Harvey]

Originally posted by: dwell
Before you ask; No I didn't check where the wires were previously before snipping off the old switch

In the future, please remember... CAUTION -- Be sure brain is engaged before putting tools in motion.

I just moved into my new apartment so I'm still pulling stuff out of boxes. I probably have a generic schematic for Fender guitar switching somewhere in my piles of stuff. If I come up with it, soon, I'll let you know. Otherwise, any local guitar repair shop will have the diagram you need.

If you don't know how to solder, or you aren't sure you know how to do it cleanly, pay a comptent tech to do it. If you do a sloppy job, you can be sure Murphy will arrange it so that it fails at the worst possible moment.

MacBaine -- Gibsons are easy. If your switch is just getting sticky, try hitting it with WD-40.

 

Originally posted by: TheNinja
So you have 2 single coil, 2 volume, 2 tone, 1 3-way selector switch right?

Correct.

I just moved into my new apartment so I'm still pulling stuff out of boxes. Iprobably have a generic schematic for Fender guitar switching somewhere in my piles of stuff. If I come up with it, soon, I'll let you know. Otherwise, any local guitar repair shop will have the diagram you need.

Thanks for the help.

The best part is the second I went to test the new connection I went to flip the on switch on my amp and it fell off! I couldn't get it back on so it's in the shop now. Bad week for guitar.

 

[Harvey]

Originally posted by: dwell

Originally posted by: TheNinja
So you have 2 single coil, 2 volume, 2 tone, 1 3-way selector switch right?

Correct.

If that's the way your guitar is set up, the schematic is probably the same as for the Gibson setup at my previous link, although the component values may be different.

 

Originally posted by: Harvey
So you have 2 single coil, 2 volume, 2 tone, 1 3-way selector switch right?

Correct.[/quote]If that's the way your guitar is set up, the schematic is probably the same as for the Gibson setup at my previous link, although the component values may be different.[/quote]
Ok. So if the inner wires connect to the solder points, do you know where the outer wires would go and what their purpose is?

 

[TheNinja]

Originally posted by: dwell

Originally posted by: Harvey
So you have 2 single coil, 2 volume, 2 tone, 1 3-way selector switch right?

Correct.

If that's the way your guitar is set up, the schematic is probably the same as for the Gibson setup at my previous link, although the component values may be different.[/quote]
Ok. So if the inner wires connect to the solder points, do you know where the outer wires would go and what their purpose is?

[/quote]

probably for grounding. or if they are generic pickups they could have extra wires in them in case you have 5 way switch in (which would only make sense on humbuckers for coil splitting, or if you had 3 single coil pickups anyway). Were they all soldered together and then soldered to the back of a metal pot or a ground somewhere on the guitar?

 

Originally posted by: TheNinja
probably for grounding. or if they are generic pickups they could have extra wires in them in case you have 5 way switch in (which would only make sense on humbuckers for coil splitting, or if you had 3 single coil pickups anyway). Were they all soldered together and then soldered to the back of a metal pot or a ground somewhere on the guitar?

I think they were all soldered together and they may have been soldered to the switch but not at a solder point *kicks self for not looking*

 

[Harvey]

Originally posted by: dwell
Ok. So if the inner wires connect to the solder points, do you know where the outer wires would go and what their purpose is?

If you're looking at "inner" and "outer" wires, you are describing a shielded wire where the outer wire is wrapped or braided around the inner wire to form a shield. All shields are eventually tied to ground, hopefully in only one place, although in a lot of setups, that can be hard to accomplish.

A really classy way to rewire a pickup is to use wire with two conductors inside the shield. For example, if you have a red and black lead inside the shield, the red lead would be the normal "hot" lead from the pickup, and the black one can be connected as the low or ground side. The shield is wrapped around both leads and tied to ground at only one end. This prevents signal currents from flowing in the shield and gives any interference signals blocked by the shield only one path to ground.

Don't worry if you don't understand the above. It's a little advanced for non-techies, but it can do a better job ofl preventing problems in some hostile playing environments, such as where there is high RF noise or hum fields from computers, dimmers, etc.