As I talked about before instrument electronics are a basic principal. The sounds that are generated by the strings are picked up using magnets and amplified through the coils using copper wire. The signal is then taken to an output. Between the pickups and the output there are certain variables that can be used such as switches, resistors or capacitors that control what pickups are on and the volume and tone controls that modify the signal before it reaches the output. Potentiometer The volume of a pickup is controlled by the potentiometer. A potentiometer (pot) is basically a variable resistor that allows you to vary the amount of signal flowing through it. The way a pot works is that, there is a in, out and ground, as you turn the volume pot down some of the signal is sent to ground until it is completely turned off and the signal is completely sent to ground.

Capacitors can also be used to modify the volume pot. Many people use a small cap across the volume pots in and out. What this does is as the signal is sent to ground the highs remain in the circuit. The benefit of this is that you can roll the volume back to five or six and the guitar does not loose its high end. I use a 331PF cap on all my guitars so I don't need any volume boost during solos. When I play the rhythm I turn the volume down to four or five and my sound basically stays the same. If I am going to play a solo I can turn the volume on my guitar up to ten. Here is how you can modify your guitar , its cheap and simple to do but the benefits are amazing.

Many basses use balance pots that are stacked with two pots put together. By reversing one of the pots it will blend the two pickups together. Balance pots use different tapers for each pot this assures a smooth transition between pickups. The standard tapers are A and C for the balance pots.

Switches. There are so many types of switches available that to show each would take many pages. The most common used for guitars are as follows.

On most three pickup guitars is the five way or a three way slide switch. Three way slide switches are not that popular any more. The original Stratocaster® back in the 1950's used a three way, however many people found that is they removed the spring from the switch they could position the switch between the one and two or two and three positions and this would turn on two pickups at one time. This was actually the beginning of the five way switch. A five way switch works as follows. In the one, three and five position only one pickup is one. In the two and four positions it combines either the bridge and middle or the middle and neck. When the middle pickups magnets and wires are reversed the two pickups will work as a humbucker in Parallel Wiring.

Three Way Toggle's The three way toggle switch that is generally used on two pickup guitars, controls each pickup in the one and three position and in the two or middle position both pickups are on.

Mini Toggle Switches If you see a small toggle switch on a guitar it is generally used as either an On/Off for a pickup, an On/Off for a coil tap or a Three way for changing the pickups such as off / on /coil tap or even series/parallel/coil tap.

Push Pull Pots Push pull pots can be used the same as mini toggle's for many purposes, most often they are used for coil taps.

Four Pole 5 Way Switches These are the coolest switches around. The first one that I remember was from Grover Jackson back in the late 1980's. Since then they are more popular. Dimarzio® sells the same one that Jackson used years ago. Ibanez® makes their own version that is shorter and can be used in thin guitars like the Ibanez® S model. How a 4 pole 5 way works is that there are four independent sides to the switch, on each side there are five positions. On each of the four sides there is one hot output, There is a total of 24 connections that can be made on each switch. Basically there are no internal jumps on the switch so if you want a pickup to be on in the first second and third position you will need to wire the pickup lead to the one, two and three lug.

With a 4 Pole 5way you can wire almost anything you want. For example if you have two humbucking pickups you can wire it many ways here is a basic example of what can be done. 1) Neck 2) Bridge / Outside neck coil 3) Both Pickups on 4) Outside neck coil / Outside bridge coil 5) Bridge Pickup

Stratocaster® Wiring. Strats use a five way with one volume and one tone for the neck and one tone for the bridge. In the second and fourth positions on the switch two pickups are on.

Gibson® Lespaul® wiring A Lespaul uses two volumes and two tones, one for each pickup. When the three way is in the middle both pickups share a common ground. When in the middle position, if you turn off the volume on one pickup, the other one will also turn off.

Ibanez® Split Five Wiring On the Ibanez split five setup it uses two humbuckers and one single that is reversed in the middle position. By putting the coil tap to the two and four positions on the other side of the switch it turns the humbuckers into single coils and humbucks with the center position. The only position that will have the 60 cycle hum is the center pickup.

There are many places to find wiring diagrams on the web, Check the manufactures sites. I put all the Ibanez diagrams up for the past few years so you may find some good ones at http://www.ibanez.com/service.html I have also put up many of the older Ibanez diagrams on my Vintage site at http://www.comcat.com/~alnico5 There are also a few good books out their.