Simple Wiring in the Music Man Axis Style

Sometimes simple is best. This is what you can think when you're looking on the Music Man Axis or some Charvel guitars. The MM Axis is a two pickup guitar with a simple, 3-way toggle pickup switch and one pot – volume. This is completely enough if you want to get just clear, distinct signal – especially if your guitar is made from some high-grade wood and got some nice pickups.

This is the wiring diagram for that kind of axe:

Telecaster Direct-Through Mod

A direct-through mod is a very useful tone shaping tool. It will help you make your Telecaster tone brighter and more dynamic when you will need that. It's based on a DPDT switch (push-pull), used to connect pickups directly to the output, by omitting pots.

Diagram:

Brian May's Red Special Wiring Diagram

Brian May's Red Special has got some great futures as a 3-pickup guitar. All p-up configurations are possible, you can reverse the phase of every coil, and there is also a classic volume+tone control. It means a lot of cool tones to reach. All of them can be useful, there's no mambo-jumbo waste of space.

The original May's RS guitar wiring was made from quite „vintage” parts. Fortunately, today you can also build something similar, with modern electronics.

This is my Red Special wiring diagram:

Simple and Popular „Volume + Tone” Guitar Wiring

This time I would like to show you some very popular guitar wiring. It's based on two humbuckers, two pots (volume and tone) and a 3-way pickup selector in the „import style” (China, Korea). This is a very common configuration, especially in guitars made in Asia.

How a DPDT Switch Works? (DPDT in Guitars)

You can use a DPDT (Double Pole, Double Throw) SW in your guitar wiring in many ways. You can base on this thing many kinds of tone switches. You can use it as a pickup selector. It can switch coils in your guitar pickups (series/parallel, split humbucker, reversed phase, on-off etc.). It's also a good part to make a switchable signal bypass or a loop.

This diagram will show you DPDT connections in a few, popular examples:

RG Strat – How to Wire a Stratocaster in Ibanez Style

In this article, I would like to show you an quite simple method of wiring a Stratocaster or a Fat Strat guitar, to reach some functions of the Ibanez RG construction. It's a great proposition for all fans of Fender Strat shape and feel, who would like to get some modern, more Ibanez-like tone and functions.

Diagram: