What does the three position switch on a Les Paul guitar do? All electric guitars have this switch but it varies from guitar to guitar. It is called the pickup selector switch. It is used for.
![Les Paul Pickup Switch Position Les Paul Pickup Switch Position](/uploads/1/2/5/4/125497139/579163255.jpg)
Hey not to hijack, ok thats exactly what it is but anyway, on my Agile AL-2000, with both pickups on, both volume knobs have to be at least a little bit open for any sound to come from either pickup, in other words, if the vol for one is at 0 and the other one is at 5, there is no sound.Is this normal LP wiring? It seems to me that you should be able to solo one pickup with the volume knobs in the middle switch position but you can't.I've been wondering about that for a while and this post reminded me. Hey not to hijack, ok thats exactly what it is but anyway, on my Agile AL-2000, with both pickups on, both volume knobs have to be at least a little bit open for any sound to come from either pickup, in other words, if the vol for one is at 0 and the other one is at 5, there is no sound.Is this normal LP wiring? It seems to me that you should be able to solo one pickup with the volume knobs in the middle switch position but you can't.I've been wondering about that for a while and this post reminded me. Post a picture of the opened control cavity to be sure. But, it sounds normal to me. If you have the switch in the center position and turn down one tone control, It will affect the tone of the blended pickups.
Same with the volume control. The only way to change that is to rewire the guitar with an additional master volume. Then when the tones are all the way up, you can cut an individual volume control and here the volume in the individual pickup change.
However, it acts more like a tone control at that point. A buddy of mine has a 52 Les Paul that recieved all of the typical mods of the 6o's and 70's. Trapeze tail piece, a Tune-o-matic screwed right to the top, Humbuckers replaced the singles 'cuz of bad bar wiring and the incessant hum.
It was all done to this poor beast.Anyway, he had the toggle removed and shovel a cufflink in the hole, but the wiring was master volume and master tone for each pickup. He would roll the bridge down for a clean warm rythmn and crack the neck down for an awesome lead tone.He had it restored a few years ago. Back to it's gold top glory, crappy bridge/tailpiece andall. Volume pots CAN be wired so that when you turn one all the way to zero, the other pickup still sounds - commonly, it's referred to as Jazz Bass wiring, although the Gretschs and Rickenbackers I've worked on are wired that way, as are most modern Epis. You simply switch the 'IN' and 'OUT' lugs on the volume pot, running the 'IN' from the pickup to the MIDDLE lug.Tone pots are ALWAYS parallel to the circuit.
Therefore, when you have both pups on, either tone pot will affect the tone somewhat - no such animal as having one pup 'bright' (without any rolloff) and the other pup 'mellow' (with some rolloff) in a standard passive guitar circuit. How much either tone pot affects the overall tone may be a function of where it is connected to the volume pot, whether it's on the 'IN' lug or the 'OUT' lug.
Most everybody ties it to the 'IN' lug, except the Gibson 'Fifties' wiring scheme, which ties it to the 'OUT' lug. Volume pots CAN be wired so that when you turn one all the way to zero, the other pickup still sounds - commonly, it's referred to as Jazz Bass wiring, although the Gretschs and Rickenbackers I've worked on are wired that way, as are most modern Epis.
![Gibson Gibson](http://www.electricalfun.com/WorkbenchFun/images/guitar_circuits_12.jpg)
You simply switch the 'IN' and 'OUT' lugs on the volume pot, running the 'IN' from the pickup to the MIDDLE lug.Tone pots are ALWAYS parallel to the circuit. Therefore, when you have both pups on, either tone pot will affect the tone somewhat - no such animal as having one pup 'bright' (without any rolloff) and the other pup 'mellow' (with some rolloff) in a standard passive guitar circuit. How much either tone pot affects the overall tone may be a function of where it is connected to the volume pot, whether it's on the 'IN' lug or the 'OUT' lug. Most everybody ties it to the 'IN' lug, except the Gibson 'Fifties' wiring scheme, which ties it to the 'OUT' lug.
Click to expand.This sounds good to me. I am not that bothered about individual tone control.I want to state that the guitar I observed this on can stay as it is. But I want to bring a found les paul back to life which is missing wiring. I want to run a p90 at the neck and humbucker at the bridge.I want to be able to control individual pickup volume as the neck pickup will have less output than bridge pickup. And perhaps just for creative purposes.I started a thread on the project.
If anyone can help me figure out how to wire it I would be IMMENSELEY grateful. Remember I am a total noob who knows nothing at all about guitar wiring and little about electronics in general. I bought a Gibson 'Goth' Les Paul a few years.back that someone had rewired so it only had a master volume and tone knob on top. The bottom two knobs had been rewired as pull pots activating a phase switch and a coil tap. I liked it so well that I've had all of my 4 knob guitars rewired with that setup. It now includes.6 Les Pauls'2 SGs2 Ibanez Artists1 Epi Sheraton1 Fender 72 Tele Deluxe (2 Fender HB pickups)1 Ibanez ArtcoreSince I'm mostly a Fender player, I like having only one volume and tone control on all my guitars.JH in Va.
Hi guys,I'm new to the Les Paul after being a Strat player until recently when I decided to give a Gibson a try. I love the new Gibson Les Paul Tradioional I purchased but I'm having trouble fathoming the operation of the guitars controls whilst in the middle position (ie; usung both pick ups).I assumed that they would work exactly as they did individually. For example; with the guitar set to the middle position, the neck pick up could maybe be set to volume 7 with the tone set to whatever, then the bridge pick up could be rolled in from 0 (again with whatever tone setting), gradually increasing itself in the mix as the volume is turned up. This could also be used the other way round, starting by setting the bridge pick up volume first and then bringing the neck into the mix.This is how I always imagined it would work, but whilst messing around with my Trad, it doesn't seem to opperate that way?I can't seem to figure out how ths works. One minute, the bridge volume control seems to be opperating the guitars total volume and the next minute (after twiddling around a bit) the neck volume control seems to be controling it.Also, when either of the volume controls are turned down below about 1 or 2, the sound seems to be cut completely?Sorry for being thick guys but can someone please explain the correct operation for this middle pick up selection?ThanksRuss.
Thanks for all the input, but I'm still not clear on the operation of the controls in this middle setting? You would think that Gibson would describe its operation in more depth in the guitars manual.I have been searching around on google, trying to find the exact explaination on how this works and it seems that I am not the only one to be finding this confusing. There are quite a few people asking the same question as me on other forums and question pages etc, but no one seems to give them a very satisfactory answer.I came across this paragraph on the Stewart MacDonald site talking about the controls of a Gibson Les Paul:'The 'middle' position of the pickup selector switch doesn't allow you to individually control the two pickups' volumes.
If you have turned down the neck pickup's volume to '5' and then go to the middle position, both pickups will be at '5'.' Ok, I kind of understand that, but does this mean that whilst in the middle position, the neck pick up volume control becomes the master control?It also goes on to say that the tone controls will not work seperately either. So if that is the case, which becomes the master tone control?So, to summarize if I now have this right (and I would be greatful if someone could tell me if this is correct?); Once in the middle position, both pick ups are in use (unless either one of them is turned down in volume below about 1 and so all volume from the guitar is cut). They will both be at the same volume (which is controled via the neck pick ups volume control) and also, they will both be set to the same level of tone (I am unsure which control becomes the master tone?). So it seems that whilst using the middle position setting, there may as well be only one volume and one tone control which controls both pick ups at once.Do I finally have this right?Sorry to be a pain in the a.!
I think you don't find any satisfying because it's somewhat difficult to explain.If you put the switch in the middle, both volume knobs still work for 'their' pickup except that when you roll either one of them to 0, both pickups are shut off.I'll try it with an example. Let's say you have the switch in the middle position, bridge volume on 0 and neck volume on 10. You'll have the whole range of the bridge volume knob, from 0-10 to blend the bridge pickup into the mix but the neck pickup will be at it's his full volume at around 3-4.
Same applies the other way round. That way you can play with the full fat tone of the neck pickup and add some amount of the bite of the bridge pickup. On the other hand, you can have the full bite of the bridge and blend in some mellow tone fom the neck. The tone knobs still work independently. You can get a great variety of sounds by playing with the controls in the middle position.I hope the was a halfway comprehensible answer! I think you don't find any satisfying because it's somewhat difficult to explain.If you put the switch in the middle, both volume knobs still work for 'their' pickup except that when you roll either one of them to 0, both pickups are shut off.I'll try it with an example.
Let's say you have the switch in the middle position, bridge volume on 0 and neck volume on 10. You'll have the whole range of the bridge volume knob, from 0-10 to blend the bridge pickup into the mix but the neck pickup will be at it's his full volume at around 3-4. Same applies the other way round. That way you can play with the full fat tone of the neck pickup and add some amount of the bite of the bridge pickup. On the other hand, you can have the full bite of the bridge and blend in some mellow tone fom the neck. The tone knobs still work independently.
You can get a great variety of sounds by playing with the controls in the middle position.I hope the was a halfway comprehensible answer!