Official SE Swamp Ash Wiring Diagram (can someone explain something)???

[Nathan Shane]

Greetings Swampers, PRSers and Wiring Brainiacs,

Okay, I’ve posted photos of the SE Swamp Ash Pickup Selections as well as a beneath the hood photo of the official wiring diagram. I’m fairly decent at figuring out signal flow and other such details…but this has me stumped and I’m sure some of you could understand it in an instant. Take notice that when the Tone control is pulled up, it introduces the Middle SC pickup as well as coil splitting the humbuckers. What confuses me is how the heck the Single coil signal gets “added” into the overall signal. From what I can guesstimate, since the Single coil pickup is not “directly” soldered to the 3-Way toggle, it appears to me that its signal enters via the Tone control (or via the Push/Pull part of the pot?

Part of the reason I’m going down this Swamp Ash rabbit hole is because I really don’t like the factory wiring’s pickup selection. I guess I’m stuck in my ways, but I’m going to rewire this Swampy for B-B+N-N and also SplitBridge-MiddleSC-SplitNeck. Basically wiring it like it’s a Les Paul and Strat. Anyway, I’m just throwing my thoughts out there.

 

[5Springer]

Same here... love the guitar but hate the pickup switching options in single coil mode. Im a lifelong Strat guy and virtually never use #2 position, #4 position only gets used for like three songs in my lineup but I could easily do without it.. That center pickup always in the mix has got to go.

Charles

 

[Mahz]

Yes, same here. Rock on. I want to change push pull function also - however, bridgeSC, SC, neckSC - splitting no humbuckers.

I upgraded to 2 - 58/15 LTs and a Fralin Blues Special in the middle.

Came across this thread when searching for wiring schematic.

 

[John F]

The 3 position switch always connects Neck, or Bridge or both to the vol pot. consider the bridge and neck in parallel when in position 2. The push pull when down does nothing. Push pull when up adds the single coil to the vol pot so in position 2 all 3 pickups are in parallel. The second thing the push pull does is take the pair of wires between the norh and south pole of the neck pickup and run them to ground through that 1.1k resistor. This essentially places the south coil of the neck pickup in parallel with the 1.1k, shunting most of the output of that half of the humbucker. Removing that coil completely would leave the volume too low. The resister makes it louder.

 

[greyhatninja]

I wouldn’t mind modifying it so i can have just the middle and just the neck as a single coil option. I might consider having my local shop rewire and perhaps new push pull options to try to get as many of the possible options to make it really versatile. They make that 6 way rotary toggle.

 

[John F]

I traced out the schematic in detail, then redrew it using a Freeway switch for 6 position custom wiring. Positions 1 is Neck humbucker, 2 is Neck and Bridge humbucker, 3 is bridge humbucker. Position 4 is North Neck single coil, 5 is North Neck and North Bridge single coils, 6 is North Bridge single coil. I ordered Bourns pots to replace the stock Alpha. The tone pot has a push-push switch which is wired to add the Middle single coil to any of 6 positions. I picked up new 1.1k ohm resistors for the coil splits and new caps so that the original parts are saved as-is. The pots arrive on the 4th so I hope to solder it up soon and see if any changes are necessary based upon sound. I also picked up a 274k ohm resistor to put across the tone pot to see if it changes the tone pot to a more acceptable range. As is, the tone pot does almost nothing until the last 10% of rotation counter-clockwise. No other guitar I own has ever had that performance and I don’t know why this one does.

 

[greyhatninja]

Yes, same here. Rock on. I want to change push pull function also - however, bridgeSC, SC, neckSC - splitting no humbuckers.

I upgraded to 2 - 58/15 LTs and a Fralin Blues Special in the middle.

Came across this thread when searching for wiring schematic.

How do you like these pickups for the SAS vs. the 85/15’s? Have any demo by chance? I have a charcoal on order and going to have my local guitar shop mod it so i can have a few more pickup options and was also considering replacing the pickups with the TCI 85/15 american but the 58/15s sound interesting too. I was also considering replacing the bridge with a mannmade and perhaps some locking tuners. Did you not like the single coil that came with it?

 

[SinSir]

How do you like these pickups for the SAS vs. the 85/15’s? Have any demo by chance? I have a charcoal on order and going to have my local guitar shop mod it so i can have a few more pickup options and was also considering replacing the pickups with the TCI 85/15 american but the 58/15s sound interesting too. I was also considering replacing the bridge with a mannmade and perhaps some locking tuners. Did you not like the single coil that came with it?

The 5815LT sounds amazing in the neck of my core SAS. Went with the 5708 in the bridge and that kills. Preferred the 5708 in the bridge over the 5815LT, but preferred the 5815LT in the neck over the 5708, but not by much, it came down to splits.

Added a freeway 6way, that was a game changer mod.

 

[fountainbird]

I traced out the schematic in detail, then redrew it using a Freeway switch for 6 position custom wiring. Positions 1 is Neck humbucker, 2 is Neck and Bridge humbucker, 3 is bridge humbucker. Position 4 is North Neck single coil, 5 is North Neck and North Bridge single coils, 6 is North Bridge single coil. I ordered Bourns pots to replace the stock Alpha. The tone pot has a push-push switch which is wired to add the Middle single coil to any of 6 positions. I picked up new 1.1k ohm resistors for the coil splits and new caps so that the original parts are saved as-is. The pots arrive on the 4th so I hope to solder it up soon and see if any changes are necessary based upon sound. I also picked up a 274k ohm resistor to put across the tone pot to see if it changes the tone pot to a more acceptable range. As is, the tone pot does almost nothing until the last 10% of rotation counter-clockwise. No other guitar I own has ever had that performance and I don’t know why this one does.

This sounds ideal. Mind sharing your drawing? Just trying to wrap my head around all of it.

 

[John F]

This sounds ideal. Mind sharing your drawing? Just trying to wrap my head around all of it.

I installed the Freeway, replaced the pots, installed new 1.1k resisters for the humbucker splits and wired the push-push tone pot up to add the single coil to all 6 switch positions. I re-used the original 0.033 microfarad tone pot cap because the one I bought was the wrong value in the package, mislabeled from the manufacturer. I did install a new 180 picofarad treble bleed cap. The pots are both 500k audio taper Bourns.

Finished late Friday night and haven’t had a spare minute to thoroughly test it. I was pleased that everything worked first try, the original wires are very short making the update difficult. I needed to get out a 100 watt soldering gun to solder the ground wires to the pot backshells. Without a hi-watt soldering iron the pot replacement is next to impossible. The original tone pot was nearly useless until almost fully counter-clockwise. It did work, but did not respond like any guitar tone pot I ever used. The factory pot was a Korean made Alpha 500k audio taper, I suspect it was bad. The new tone pot works correctly.

I will thoroughly test the new wiring out to see if I’m sticking with it before I post my schematic. Some of the coil split tones had low volume, and since the original wiring never split the bridge pickup I might decide to go back to it in some positions. The split bridge uses the north coil which is closest to the bridge. I might swap to the south bridge as single coil since it should be louder because the strings swing through a larger arc farther from the bridge. I may want to re-draw it to show wire colors too. I drew it for my use so it is a little rough.

 

[fountainbird]

I installed the Freeway, replaced the pots, installed new 1.1k resisters for the humbucker splits and wired the push-push tone pot up to add the single coil to all 6 switch positions. I re-used the original 0.033 microfarad tone pot cap because the one I bought was the wrong value in the package, mislabeled from the manufacturer. I did install a new 180 picofarad treble bleed cap. The pots are both 500k audio taper Bourns.

Finished late Friday night and haven’t had a spare minute to thoroughly test it. I was pleased that everything worked first try, the original wires are very short making the update difficult. I needed to get out a 100 watt soldering gun to solder the ground wires to the pot backshells. Without a hi-watt soldering iron the pot replacement is next to impossible. The original tone pot was nearly useless until almost fully counter-clockwise. It did work, but did not respond like any guitar tone pot I ever used. The factory pot was a Korean made Alpha 500k audio taper, I suspect it was bad. The new tone pot works correctly.

I will thoroughly test the new wiring out to see if I’m sticking with it before I post my schematic. Some of the coil split tones had low volume, and since the original wiring never split the bridge pickup I might decide to go back to it in some positions. The split bridge uses the north coil which is closest to the bridge. I might swap to the south bridge as single coil since it should be louder because the strings swing through a larger arc farther from the bridge. I may want to re-draw it to show wire colors too. I drew it for my use so it is a little rough.

My tone pot is as you described. Not great. Almost loose and very cheap feeling action. Seems to either turn tone fully on or off but nothing in between. The Volume knob is at least smooth and has a good feel. Have been thinking about a treble bleed too. How's yours sounding now?

 

[SinSir]

Have been thinking about a treble bleed too.

There's a treble bleed stock.