What's the ideal control layout for 3 pickups?

[Giraffecaster]

Specifically 3 p90's? I'd like to keep it at 4 knobs or under... How would you have it?

[treeofpain]

I would have a 5 way strat-type selector and one master volume & tone.

[mslugano]

5 way selector, one volume, tone for neck and mid, tone for bridge. I have tried the single tone variety mentioned above and, for me, it doesn't work. I set my amp up to sound good in the neck position (so it doesn't sound dull or farty) and then use the bridge tone knob to take some of the harsh treble off the bridge pickup. If I only have only one tone knob, I have to adjust the tone every time I switch from neck to bridge.

Perhaps you could get by with just one tone with P90s but there isn't much downside to having two tones so I'd have two, anyway, in the name of versatility.

[itstooloudMike]

Three individual volume knobs, one master tone, no switch. Or if you must have a switch, make it a kill switch.

[george4908]

I played an early Thorn prototype with three P-90s that had a brilliantly simple set up: one volume, one tone, and a 3-way Gibson-style toggle. The tone knob was push-push and it switched the middle pickup in or out, regardless of where the toggle was set. So you could go very quickly to quack tone simply by tapping on the tone knob, or tapping it back out. The only setting that was not possible was the middle pickup only.

As I recall, a possible weak link was finding decent quality push-push pots. Don't know if that was resolved and they're easily available or whether they're still hard to come by, but you could always go with a push-pull. Still a pretty quick set up.

[EADGBE]

Three mini on/off switches (one for each pickup). One volume, one tone.

[shane88]

I would have a 5 way strat-type selector and one master volume & tone.
:agree

[kimock]

Neck and rwrp bridge on a 3 position switch with a single volume, and the middle on it's own volume. No tone control.

Two knobs and a three position switch, every possible pickup combination, lots of interesting control interaction.
30 + years on that set up, still finding new stuff to do with it, never missed the tone control. It fattens up when you combine pickups and back the volumes down.

It's like the Thorn set up that george4908 mentioned, with more capability and simpler controls.

[p.j.]

I have my 3 p/u Tele wired like this:

4 Way Switch for neck and bridge is wired to a volume pot. 4 Way lets me get series or parallel combinations with these two p/u's.

Middle p/u is wired to its own volume pot so I can blend it w/ the other p/u's or use it on its own.

Master tone pot affects all 3 p/u's.

This arrangement works for me and it might for you, too.

PJ