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Blade Switches - Stratocaster 5 Way Switch Tricks
Blade Switches - Stratocaster 5 Way Switch Tricks
The humble Stratocaster 5 way switch is a much overlooked part of a Strat (or Tele or
any other guitar!) hardware.
In a normal Strat configuration, the switch happily works away selecting pickups and
tone filters. But once you understand how it works, the Stratocaster 5 way switch
becomes a wonder of custom mod possibilities. The first thing to realise is that each
unit actually contains 2 separate switches, normally electrically connected. There are
2 basic styles, shown in the diagram below, but electrically they are the same.
The diagram above is from a great feature called '5 way switches explained'. Follow
the link below to check it out.
http://alloutput.com/guitar/5-way-switches-explained/
The first task then, is to remove that link between the 'wiper' tags, leaving one
switch half connected directly to the pickups and the other half to the tone pots
(typically just 2 of those in a standardly wired Strat). In the photo the red and
yellow twisted pair are the connections to the tone pots. Ensure the link to the
volume pot is coming from the '4' tag associated with the pickup half. That is the
single red wire in the photo below.
Thats gives you the 2 sparated switches, so the tone pots must now be connected onto
the same half of the 5 way switch as the pickups (and of course to the same relative
pickup positions, middle and bridge). The photo below shows this in practise.
So now the old tone control half of the 5 way switch is completely freed up for
modding use, the other half of the switch handing pickup selection and tone controls
simultaneously.
To understand what can be achieved, you need to consider which of the 5 switch
positions uniquely connect what to what. Referring to the standard switch number
positions and the numbered switch poles in the photos then;
Switch positions 1 (i,e, selecting the bridge pickup), 3 (middle pick) and 5 (neck
pickup), uniquely connects the output tag of the freed up 5 way switch (pole 5) to
poles 6, 7 and 8 respectively.
Switch position 2 uniquely uniquely connects the output tag of the freed up 5 way
switch (pole 5) to poles 6 & 7 (i.e. poles 5, 6 & 7 are all electrically connected
together).
Switch position 4 uniquely uniquely connects the output tag of the freed up 5 way
switch (pole 5) to poles 7 & 8 (i.e. poles 5, 7 & 8 are all electrically connected
together).
In Conclusion:
So there you have some ideas for 'de-constructing' how a standard 5 way switch
operates, and the sort of things that can be achieved.
There are plenty of ideas and schematics on the internet if you hunt them down.
A site that Ironstone have recommended before as a great resource is;
phostenixwiringdiagrams