a 3rd pick up switch

With two pickups you get a three way awitch. That makes sence. But with a third pickup wont you need a seven way switch?

3 pickup guitars typically have a 5-way switch
Bridge || // //
Bridge/Mid (if humbuckers they split) /| |/ //
Mid // || //
Mid/Neck (if humbuckers they split) // /| |/
Neck // // ||

/ = pickup not in use
| = Pickup in use
/| = humbucker split

I count 7 possiblities.

That's how they are.
That's how they're made.
They don't make them any other way (that I've ever heard of)

Ideally you could do neck and bridge, for a telecaster-like sound, yes. You need a special switch to take advantage of all these things. I want one for my Strat that gives you all the combinations and lets you do Out of Phase combinations too.

http://www.guitarnuts.com/wiring/stratlovers.php

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Electronics,_pickups/Components:_Switches_and_knobs/Super_Switch.html?tab=Details#details

Thanks.

One of my professors has a new guitar company called "Coil Guitars". It lets you have access to 15 different pickup setups, varying from series to parallel to out of phase settings. Pretty neat stuff :)

There is a switch I couldn't find an example of that does all the combinations of paralell, in sequence and works with the coil taps too if'n you have humbuckers.

How do you get 15 different pickup setings with three pickups? Or did i confuse what you said?

series to parallel and phase settings would open up a hell of a lot of possibilities

series and parallel: http://www.learnabout-electronics.org/images/series_parallel.gif

The resistors in that diagram (the single rectangles) would be the pickups in this instance.

@jeff that's quite a cool piece of kit and the website has some interesting stuff on it

@DanielM,,,,,,, What would be the sound difference in the two? Series and parallel.

And couldnt you have a switch going from one to the other?

@null I'm not sure about the sound difference I've only experienced changes in series and parallel in synthesisers and if you google coil guitars there's a whole load of info on the switch they use how it works etc that should help with your questions.

That or jeff

Thanks D

are you counting all three pickups on and all three pickups off? these are two mathematical possibilities that don't necessarily have relevance in reality.

a 5-way pickup selector ignores the bridge + neck pickups with the middle pickup off (typically).

realistically you could wire it anyway you wanted to. i just saw a telecaster on craigslist that had 3 pickups and a 7-way selector.

with a SSS guitar and a 5-way switch it's

neck
neck + mid
mid
mid + bridge
bridge

i'm not sure what other possibilities you are thinking of (neck + bridge? neck+mid+bridge? all three off?)

My guitar has two humbuckers with a three-way switch that goes...

Neck~
Neck+bridge~
Bridge~

So neck+Bridge is legit, I just dont know why its not on
a strat..

\M/(*-+)
gs2112

WELL if you want a historical answer for the stratocaster, it's because the first stratocasters only had 3 single-coil pickups and a 3 position pickup switch. you could choose from the neck, mid, and bridge pickup each and only.

it was pioneering and experimental guitarists who discovered that if you "hovered" the pickup selector in between two positions, you could actually pick either the neck+mid or mid+bridge even if it was not a "set" position on the selector.

of course, as musicians go this "hack" become widly popular and it wasn't until several years later that fender finally conceded and included a 5-way pickup selector. another historical fact about fender and leo fender specifically, is that he HATED it when people "misused" his instruments. he designed the strat and the tele and all the amps to make clean sounds. "hacks" like over-driving an amp for an intentionally distorted sounds were NOT the intended use of his instruments.

of course even a stubborn old man like leo fender can appreciate the intended distorted sound of an electric guitar, but he designed his instruments not to be used that way.

also, humbuckers are different because they can be split (look at some of ibanez's pickup selector maps), but a neck + bridge - mid pickup wouldn't be out of the ordinary...

and for that matter with a wiring schematic and a soldering gun you can make a pickup selector pick anything you want... including a kill switch (all pickups off)

The bridge and neck and all three pickups would be the extra two I was thinking.

@gx1327------------Thanks. Cool information.