wiring diagram - dimarzio fast track

[KevinF]

I have three dimarzio fast track pickups that I am looking to put in a MIM Robert Cray strat. I'd like to split the coils in position 2 & 4 to get the "quack" sounds. Does anyone have a wiring diagram on how to install these? I looked at the schematics on the dimarzio website and didn't see one that fit this situation. Thanks!

Kevin

[GASattack]

OK, I am looking at this kevin, it appears that the preloaded fast track pickguard gives you these pickup config's with
a standard stratocaster 5 way switch. If you want anything otherwise you will need a different switch.

Pickup Selector Options

1-Bridge pickup
2-Bridge & middle pickups
3-Middle pickup
4-Middle & neck pickups
5-Neck pickup

If you want to have the 'quack' in positions 2 and 4, your gonna need a multipole switch and
here is how you wire it up (ignore the fact that it shows 2 full size humbuckers in the bridge
and middle positions, the number of wires and colors are still the same)

http://www.dimarzio.com//media/diagrams/B2.pdf

Let me see if i can find the schematic for a smaller switch, because I dont know if you have the room under the guard for that big gigantic switch :D

[GASattack]

OK, you gotta use that big megaswitch because:

In position 2 - you have to turn off one pole on the bridge pickup and one pole on the middle pickup

In position 4 - you have to turn off one pole on the neck pickup and one pole on the middle

But still have Full humbucking for the individual pickups in positions 1, 3 and 5



UNLESS you want to start utilizing toggle switches and all that happy poo.


~kevin

[walterw]

you'll also want to shut off the opposite coil in the middle pickup than in the neck and bridge so you'll get hum-canceling in those 2 and 4 settings.

[GASattack]

you'll also want to shut off the opposite coil in the middle pickup than in the neck and bridge so you'll get hum-canceling in those 2 and 4 settings.

I do believe that Dimarzio cheats this with the drawing I posted, by flipping the neck pickup backwards. You can tap
the same respective coil on both the bridge and neck pickups, but by inverting the neck, the active coil is closest to
the middle pickup for maximum 'quacking'.

If you look at a Jem 7V, you will notice that the evolution pickups are just like that, the bridge position Dimarzio logo is
under the treble strings, and the neck pickup logo is under the bass strings.

In theory, with this configuration, the better pickup for the middle position would be a 'stacked' pickup configuration, but,
the OP'er is working with pickups he already has in-hand.

I think the only other way to do this is with a bigger, more elaborate megaswitch, or moving into additional toggle switches,
either of which adds to the complexity of the wiring.

Kevin



Edit: I did go back and pull the Jem7 diagrams, and look over them ... in the Jem, it is a true single coil in the middle position, so, the same pole needed to be shut down on both the neck and bridge positions, hence flipping the neck pickup for quack. For simplicity, when they did up the diagram for three 4-wire pickups, they kept with the same mentality for ease of wiring. Shut down the south pole on the middle pickup in both positions 2 and 4, shut down the north pole on the bridge in position 2, and the north pole on the neck in position 4 and flip the neck pickup upside down.

[walterw]

There's no need to physically flip any of the pickups to get hum-canceling. It's just a matter of wiring the middle one so that the opposite coil stays on in split mode than the ones in the neck and bridge pickups.

This is done by either sending the middle's black/white pair to hot instead of ground like the other pickups, or by swapping around all 4 wires so that red/green get put together and black and white become the hookup leads. (I forget whether black or white goes to hot in this config., but whichever way puts the pickup in polarity with the other pickups will also leave the opposite coil on when split.)

[KevinF]

GASattack / walterw - Thank you very much for the info! Happy new year to you both.

Kevin