EXPLORING FENDER’S 5-WAY SUPER SWITCH BY DIRK WACKER
Last month, we started iscussing 5-way switches
that offer more wiring possibilities than the standard-issue
Strat unit we all know so well
[“Introducing Fender’s 5-Way
Super Switch,” September
2011]. Ready to explore the
technical aspects of this beautiful beast? This is where the fun
really starts!
I’ll keep it as simple as possible because the switching
matrix of this device is much
more complex than it seems.
I’ll guide you step-by-step
through all five switching positions and show you which lugs
are active and connected to
each other in each position.
Let’s recap the essential
points: The 5-way super switch
is not simply two standard
5-way switches in one package. Nope, there’s more—lots
more: Instead of two stages of
the normal 5-way switch, this
switch offers four completely
independent stages with six terminals each, so we have a total
of 24 terminals. Here’s another
way to look at this: We have
six lugs on each stage, rather
than the five that are on the
standard 5-way switch.
Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
You can spend hours
developing your own
custom wiring using
this device to implement all kinds of
gimmicks like out-of-phase, series/parallel, and countless
other options.
To simplify things, we can
say that each stage has five
input lugs and one output lug
(aka “common”). Keep in mind
that all four stages are com-
pletely independent from each
other, but they all switch at
the same time! So if you want
to combine two or more stages
for a special wiring, you need
to connect them with a short
jumper wire.
Fig. 5
diagrams. These schemes can
make a great starting point for
your own custom variations.
Thanks to our friend
Bartek from the Guitar Wiring
Blog (guitarwiring.blogspot.
com) for granting us permission to use his great diagrams
in this column.
Stay tuned for more Strat
mods coming next month,
when we’ll return to more
practical mods after all the
switching theory we’ve covered
in the last few columns. Next
up: Wiring a “tone switch” for
your guitar. Until then, keep
on modding!
DIRK WACKER lives in
Germany and is fascinated
by anything related to old
Fender guitars and amps.
He plays country, rocka-
billy, and surf music in two
bands, works regularly as a
session musician for a local studio, and writes
for several guitar mags. He’s also a hardcore
guitar and amp DIY-er who runs an extensive
website— singlecoil.com—on the subject.
