How to Wire a Blend Pot?

If you're looking for some new, unique tones with your old two-pickup guitar, this mod project will be helpful. In this article I will show you how to wire a pickup blend potentiometer together with a classic 'volume+tone' stack. It is a guitar wiring system without common pickup selector. The blend pot will take its function, in quite original way.

Diagram:

Dick Dale Stratocaster Wiring

Dick Dale signature Stratocaster guitar is a very uncommon Fender's construction. It's got only one pot (as a master volume control), a 3-way pickup selector and a special toggle switch for activating the bridge and the middle pickup only. It's a very handy and "crisp sounding" configuration. Surf guitar enthusiasts know what I mean.

Diagram:

Super Switch Connections - 5-way, 4-pole

This is about how Super Switch works. The diagram shows terminal connections and pin-out.

It's a 5-way, 4-pole, lever-action guitar pickup selector. If you will use a Super Switch in your axe, you will get 4 poles, where every lever position has got its own pin (5 + 1 common per pole).

If your guitar has got 2 or 3 pickups, you will get more than you need for just typical 5-way selector wiring. You will get a possibility to make some extra connections.
For example, with a super-switch, you can make a Stratocaster wiring with the bridge+neck position, or some coil split – if you have a 4-wire humbucker. There's a lot of options.

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Pickup Selector Switch Connections - 5-way

How 5-way guitar pickup selector switches works:

The diagram shows pin-out and terminal connections, according to toggle or lever positions. There are three examples of popular 5-way pickup selectors. They are frequently used in Stratocaster style and 'HSH pickup set' guitars.

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Pickup Selector Switch Connections - 3-way

This is about how 3-way guitar pickup selector switches works.

The diagram shows pin-out and terminal connections, according to toggle or lever positions. There are four examples of popular 3-way pickup selectors. These switches are used in Fender Telecasters, Gibsons and many other 2-pickup electric guitars.

Posts about other kinds of switches are coming soon.


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George Lynch's Guitar Pickup Selector - Stupidly Wonderful

Did you seen George Lynch's Kamikaze or Skulls and Snakes guitar? They are two-pickups guitars, and they don't have any toggle or lever-action switch. How is George Lynch selecting the right pickup?

Everything is made in a very simple way. These guitars are equipped with a push-pull potentiometers. The volume pot is also a pickup selector switch.

This is how it looks like:

Neck Pickup Switch (Gilmour's Strat)

In this post I will show you a wiring diagram of the neck pickup switch. This is something uncommon, what David Gilmour has got in his signature Stratocaster guitar - Black Strat. It allows him to switch-on the neck pickup, when the selector is connecting only the bridge or the bridge and the middle single-coils. In this way, he can play on the „neck + bridge” pickup configuration, or even on all single-coils together.

Diagram: