Can someone explain how the 6 pin switch in a Jazzmaster works?

[Augs]

I have found various schematics of various wiring mods that people have done. But I'm confused about how the 6 pin switch works in a Jazzmaster. What do the 6 pins do? What is this type of switch called?
Thanks.

[HNB]

The diagram you linked doesn't have any non-standard switch. It just has the rollers wired as tone pots and the two lower pots running as volumes.

[HNB]

If you are wondering how a six position free-way pickup switch toggle works, there is a diagram on stew-mac.

https://www.stewmac.com/electronics/com ... IKEALw_wcB

Also a youtube video on it.

https://youtu.be/kcwSKqSZ0f8

[HNB]

Or are you talking about a rotary switch? It works just like a toggle, but you rotate a knob or dial to select pickups.

[HNB]

Either switch or toggle let you have the normal neck, both, or bridge along with other sound options like series or out of phase and such. Just depends on how you wire them. I really like having a series option with Jazzmasters. It sounds like the middle position, but with more power. (It essentially makes the two pickups act as a humbucker.)

[Augs]

Oh sorry, I meant the Rhythm Circuit Switch.

[HNB]

That upper slide switch is just an on/on switch. It works like below.



You can use those to turn a pickup on or off, you can use it to do a series switch, you can use it to coil tap a humbucker, you can use it for a strangle switch, etc. Kinda can be used for a lot of things. Depends on what you want it to do.

[Augs]

Ah I see, thanks.

[HNB]

Oh you can also use them as a phase reversal switch.

[Embenny]

HNB's pic of the internal connections is great, so I'll just add that the name for this category of switch is Double Pole, Double Throw (DPDT). The number of poles is the number of circuits it controls, and the number of poles is the number of connections it can make.

The DPDT switch can control two circuits (each row of three lugs can connect to independent circuits), and make two different connections per circuit (middle lug to top, middle to bottom).

[timtam]

The way the DPDT switch is used in the standard JM circuit is to do two things at once, when flipped from one position to the other:
1. one pole switches the neck pickup's hot wire between (i) the input to the rhythm circuit pots and (ii) the lead circuit's input - the 3 way toggle switch.
2. the other pole switches the output jack's hot tab between (i) the rhythm circuit's output and (ii) the lead circuit's output.

So it's basically switching between the two completely separate circuits in the traditional JM (and jag) wiring. On most schematic* diagrams a DPDT switch would be drawn in the one location, but the only other JM/jag schematic I had seen split its two functions to emphasize that one half of the switch does the front end and the other the back end of the required switching functionality; so I have always drawn them that way too (the dashed line signifies that the two poles are part of the same switch), as below.



*BTW the diagram you linked is a wiring diagram, not a schematic, although the term is often mistakenly used that way. A schematic shows the circuit.

[Nick and the Noise]

If you are wondering how a six position free-way pickup switch toggle works, there is a diagram on stew-mac.

Haha, how confusing... Does anyone use one of those? I can imagine it's not the best thing live.

[Embenny]

Haha, how confusing... Does anyone use one of those? I can imagine it's not the best thing live.

I have both the 6-way toggle and 10-way blade, each in a 3-pickup guitar. They're incredibly easy to use.

Picture them like regular switches with a "down" and "up" row. It's easier to stay within the row than switch between them.

For the 6-way, it's like a Jazzmaster or Telecaster switch in the "down" row (bridge - bridge and neck - neck). Pull it up to the "up" row, and you have the three middle positions of a strat (bridge and middle - middle - middle and neck). It's perfect for me because I use the JM-like section the most, but on the rare occasion that I want the Strat positions, they're there.

For the 10-way, it's just a regular strat 5-way in the "down" row and gives you a bunch of series tones plus neck & bridge in parallel in the "up" row. It moves really easily within a row and requires a fair bit of force to switch rows, so again, it's super easy to just use it like a regular strat 5-way, and just have extra options if you need them. Some positions are really convenient to switch between, like how pulling up from the neck-only position adds the middle pickup in series - useful if you want a boost for a solo and are going back to the neck pickup afterwards.

They're among my favourite mods for guitars that have enough pickups to make them worthwhile. You lose nothing functionally, but gain a bunch of extra options. And at least for the way I set them up, they're very intuitive. Realizing the 6-way is just a telecaster in one row and a strat in the other made it just instantly click for me.

Edit: typo

[Deed_Poll]

Haha, how confusing... Does anyone use one of those? I can imagine it's not the best thing live.

I have both the 6-way toggle and 10-way blade, each in a 3-pickup guitar. They're incredibly easy to use.

Picture them like regular switches with a "down" and "up" row. It's easier to stay within the row than switch between them.

For the 6-way, it's like a Jazzmaster or Telecaster switch in the "down" row (bridge - bridge and neck - neck). Pull it up to the "up" row, and you have the three middle positions of a strat (bridge and middle - middle - middle and neck). It's perfect for me because I use the JM-like section the most, but on the rare occasion that I want the Strat positions, they're there.

For the 10-way, it's just a regular strat 5-way in the "down" row and gives you a bunch of series tones plus neck & bridge in parallel in the "up" row. It moves really easily within a row and requires a fair bit of force to switch rows, so again, it's super easy to just use it like a regular strat 5-way, and just have extra options if you need them. Some positions are really convenient to switch between, like how pulling up from the neck-onky position adds the middle pickup in series - useful if you want a boost for a solo and are going back to the neck pickup afterwards.

They're among my favourite mods for guitars that have enough pickups to make them worthwhile. You lose nothing functionally, but gain a bunch of extra options. And at least for the way I set them up, they're very intuitive. Realizing the 6-way is just a telecaster in one row and a strat in the other made it just instantly click for me.

This is a great way of looking at it / wiring it!

I was thinking for a time the clearest way would be to wire one row as each pickup individually, and the other row as the *inverse* of the top row. But your way is much more intuitive!

[Embenny]

This is a great way of looking at it / wiring it!

I was thinking for a time the clearest way would be to wire one row as each pickup individually, and the other row as the *inverse* of the top row. But your way is much more intuitive!

I can't take all the credit - those are just two of the stock wiring layouts they give on the web site!

The main thing was just realizing which guitars they were suited to. For me, it was 3-pickup guitars. There are ways to use it for HH or HSS guitars and have various parallel and series coil combinations, but that didn't make sense for any of my guitars.

I had a Bullet Mustang that I bought to mod since it had a swimming pool rout, and three G&L Z-coils that came as a package deal on clearance ($99 for the set!). The guitar is cut for a 3-way toggle, so I started looking at ways to make a toggle and 2 control knobs work for me. The Free-Way fit the bill, and it was only once I had it wired up that it really sank in how it was just a tele and a strat arranged in two rows.

So, when I had a guitar with a 5-way blade that I was modding, I looked up what the blade version was like. I liked what I saw - series combos of N/M, N/B, and M/B, plus N/B in parallel and all 3 pickups in parallel. It's just the "7-way strat" plus the three possible series pairs of coils.

The smart thing about their design is that both switches are stock in the "down" row. If you never pull up, it's just a standard 3-way toggle or a standard 5-way blade, which is frankly how I use them 90% of the time.

It doesn't take long to get used to, and is less annoying than using a series of push/pull knobs or mini/slide switches to accomplish the same thing. One switch to rule them all.