Installed a Freeway 3X3-08 prewired switch in my Custom 22 (with Demo) and Tele mod too!

[Rockabilly69]

A few days ago I replaced the single coil Nocaster Cavalier Holy Grail pickup in the partscaster Esquire that I built with a Seymour Duncan Billy Gibbons BG-1400. I love having a great sounding single coil sized humbucker in it, especially because it's humbucker quiet! The Nocaster Holy Grail was great sounding too, but I hated dealing with the single coil noise when recording by my computer monitor.

And then last night, I finally got around to replacing the rotary 5-way switch in my PRS Custom 22. I never liked that switch, as I never knew what position I was in. And grasping the 5-way switch with sweating hands while under the stage lights is a pain!

Fortunately there's a company "Free-Way" that makes a great 6-way toggle switch that is fairly straight forward to install. I used model Number 3X3-08

Here's the guitar with the Free-Way switch installed...

The switch has 2 banks of pickup selections.

There's a left and right side of three postions each...

Left Side (looking down on the guitar in playing position)

position 1: neck
position 2: neck and bridge In Parallel / In Phase
position 3: bridge

Right Side

position 1: neck and bridge In Series / In Phase
position 2: neck and bridge In Series / Out Of Phase
position 3: neck and bridge In Parallel / Out Of Phase

So here's a demo of the Esquire as the rhythm guitar, and my PRS with me switching through the switch positions starting with position 1. I'm also playing bass, snapping my fingers, and I mic'd the floor so you can hear me tapping to the beat

https://soundcloud.com/daniel-weldon-1%2Ffrankie-bag-a-bagels-demo-of-prs-with-freeway-6-way-switch-and-tele-with-bg1400-pickup

 

[d^rren]

I had a first-generation Free-Way switch in a prototype guitar I built, and it was super cool, but the first ones had a design flaw that caused the internal connections of the switch to come apart if too much heat was applied when soldering. They fixed that with the newer switches, and I've been dying to try one again.

Interesting choice of pickup selections. Why do some positions have a "middle" pickup active when your guitar only has neck and bridge?

 

[Rockabilly69]

I had a first-generation Free-Way switch in a prototype guitar I built, and it was super cool, but the first ones had a design flaw that caused the internal connections of the switch to come apart if too much heat was applied when soldering. They fixed that with the newer switches, and I've been dying to try one again.

Interesting choice of pickup selections. Why do some positions have a "middle" pickup active when your guitar only has neck and bridge?

Because I'm an idiot, and posted the wrong thing, here's the right pickup selections (edited my original post)...

Left Side (looking down on the guitar in playing position)

position 1: neck
position 2: neck and bridge In Parallel / In Phase
position 3: bridge

Right Side

position 1: neck and bridge In Series / In Phase
position 2: neck and bridge In Series / Out Of Phase
position 3: neck and bridge In Parallel / Out Of Phase

As for the soldering, this was prewired so I didn't solder directly to the switch, and the model number was called 3X3-08

You could also use the 3X3-07 and get the same selections on the left side, but on the right you would get

Position 1: single coil (outer coil) neck
Position 2: single coil (outer coil) neck & single coil (inner coil) bridge
Position 3: single (inner coil) bridge