Help with wiring mod for Mustang?

The original shortscale guitars; Mustangs, Duo-Sonics, Musicmasters, Jaguars, Broncos, Jag-stang, Jagmaster, Super-Sonic, Cyclone, and Toronados.

Moderated By: mods

Ricey
.
.
Posts: 14
Joined: Mon Aug 22, 2016 6:54 pm

Help with wiring mod for Mustang?

Post by Ricey »

I have a MIJ Cobain Mustang with Duncan JB Bridge and MIJ Mustang neck pup. I would like dual concentric pots so each pup will have independent volume and tone controls. Additionally, would like to be able to split to either coil of the JB, while retaining the out of phase pup option. I was thinking of three potential solutions:

1. Add a mini three-way toggle in between the volume/tone pots to switch between pups and then use one of the existing three way sliders to switch in/out of phase and the other slider to switch the JB between full humbucking, split slug coil, and split screw coil.

2. Use one of the existing 3-way sliders to switch between pups, the other to select in/out of phase options and then add a 3-way mini toggle in-between the volume/tone pots to split coils on the JB, as per above.

3. Basically the same as #2, but flip the function of the mini toggle and the out of phase slider.

Would any of these work or is there another option to achieve my goals?

BTW, I checked under the pickguard and there is no route near the lower horn to install a 3-way toggle like what you see on the current MIM Mustangs and I do no want to route the body.
User avatar
robroe
Bon Jovi Fan Club!!1
Posts: 49936
Joined: Thu Apr 20, 2006 1:00 pm

Post by robroe »

i would do #2.

seems like the easiest way to play
Ricey
.
.
Posts: 14
Joined: Mon Aug 22, 2016 6:54 pm

Post by Ricey »

So I took my KC Mustang in to have the wiring mod done.  The tech installed a mini-toggle in between the volume/tone pots to select pups.  Middle position is both pups on.  The front slider toggles between neck SC pup off and in/out of phase when both pups are on together.  The back slider toggles the bridge HB between full HB, split coil on the slug coil,  and both coils on in series. I can't split to the screw coil of the JB, but I did get a series option on the JB where both coils are on in series, which some people like, but I think I would rather have the option to split to the screw coil to get closer to a Mustang SC bridge pup sound.  I am not sure if that wiring diagram was too complicated for him or if he just went with something he was familiar with, but it is still very cool. I went with dual concentric pots for both pups for independant tone and volume control over both pups. I used 500 k pots on the JB and 250 k pots on the Mustang SC. The JB cuts much better now with the 500 k pots and I can just roll the tone pot back halfway to get the same sound I had with the stock 250 k pots. The neck SC is set up with 250 k pots, same as stock.  For anyone thinking of doing a similar wiring mod, you can't do pinky swells on the front bottom dual concentric pot because your pinky hits the mini toggle, so you have to set up the top dual concentric pot to control volume if you like to do volume swells (or put the switch somewhere else).  If you also want to have the ability to roll back the tone knob on the fly with your pinky, you are out of luck (unless you place the mini-toggle switch somewhere else)  This is not a problem for me because I pretty much set and forget the tone control, with only minor adjustments here and there.  I now can get a good Stratty "in-between" setting tone with both pups on and the JB split.  The top dual concentric volume pot is in the perfect position for pinky volume swells.  I can also get a nice clean sound with both pups on and the JB in full HB mode by rolling down the volume on the JB to clean it up, while leaving the neck SC volume full up.  I can also get a nice "thin" out of phase tone with both pups on and the JB in either HB or split coil mode.  I can also get a good "stutter" effect by turning the neck pup slider off and using the mini-toggle to toggle between the middle and neck position.  It was harder to get that effect using just the stock sliders. Switching pups on the fly is now also much easier than it was using the sliders.

All in all, I am very pleased!