4 way switch on tribute asat special

[luminant]

hi there

i've been trying to get the 4way switch mod to work on my tribute asat special, but keep getting an odd result - position 1 & 4 have the neck pickup only, and 2 & 3 are both bridge and neck. i referenced a few other diagrams than the one on the site (sc-2/asat 4 way) but the only change was moving neck to 1 & 2 and both to 3 & 4.

one thing that is different from the drawing, is that there are 3 wires coming out of the mfd pickups yel/grn/black for neck and white/black/black for bridge. does anyone know if there is a different wiring trick that needs to be done with tribute asat special pickups? or i could have damaged the 4 way switch in the process of re-soldering...

any suggestions are appreciated. thanks! - tim

[Craig]

hi there

i've been trying to get the 4way switch mod to work on my tribute asat special, but keep getting an odd result - position 1 & 4 have the neck pickup only, and 2 & 3 are both bridge and neck. i referenced a few other diagrams than the one on the site (sc-2/asat 4 way) but the only change was moving neck to 1 & 2 and both to 3 & 4.

one thing that is different from the drawing, is that there are 3 wires coming out of the mfd pickups yel/grn/black for neck and white/black/black for bridge. does anyone know if there is a different wiring trick that needs to be done with tribute asat special pickups? or i could have damaged the 4 way switch in the process of re-soldering...

any suggestions are appreciated. thanks! - tim

Please post photos of this guitar and closeups of the top/bottom of the pickups. What are the first four digits of the guitar's serial number?

[luminant]

thanks for the reply. the first 4 of the serial number is 1401 - an indonesian made asat special tribute - mahogony/rosewood/maple.

here are some photos of the body and f/b pickups. just noticed the ground in the pu cavity...

[Craig]

It looks like someone has added shielding paint to the pickup cavities and the black wires are gound wires to the shielding.
This would not be stock. Did you buy this guitar used?
The bridge pickup wire is the green and yellow wires.

You might want to check your wiring against the schematic.

Others might see something I might have overlooked regarding your description of the issues.

Please keep us informed as to what you find to resolve this.

[luminant]

this guitar was bought new from the distributor in thailand, though we had to pull parts from two instruments as the first one i bought had a stripped trussrod nut and the replacement had a number of stripped bolts on the hardware. pickups were not swapped and everything had the original tags, film on the pg, etc.

i found this post on another forum earlier today, but it only leads back to here:
http://www.tdpri.com/threads/asat-tribu ... ch.612416/

would a cavity ground function differently than a cover ground?

i'll keep hacking away...

[Paul Gagon]

hi there

i've been trying to get the 4way switch mod to work on my tribute asat special, but keep getting an odd result - position 1 & 4 have the neck pickup only, and 2 & 3 are both bridge and neck. i referenced a few other diagrams than the one on the site (sc-2/asat 4 way) but the only change was moving neck to 1 & 2 and both to 3 & 4.

one thing that is different from the drawing, is that there are 3 wires coming out of the mfd pickups yel/grn/black for neck and white/black/black for bridge. does anyone know if there is a different wiring trick that needs to be done with tribute asat special pickups? or i could have damaged the 4 way switch in the process of re-soldering...

any suggestions are appreciated. thanks! - tim

Hi luminant,

The extra black wire that comes from each pickup cavity is just for shielding. Connect those to ground and you're totally cool. It sounds like there is a problem with the 4 position switch wiring. Could you get a few close up pictures of both sides of the switch so I can see the wiring connections? It's really easy to get things connected in the wrong locations. A few nice pictures should help get things sorted out.

Thanks,
Paul Gagon

[luminant]

thanks for all the replies.

i had swapped it back to a 3 way switch temporarily for some lessons. this evening i tried to re-wire the 4-way switch using the sc-2/asat diagram, triple checking each connection. unfortunately it's still neck/both/both/neck. not sure why the bridge pickup won't isolate in position 3...

here is a picture of the switch wiring, a bit messy from all the solder/resolder

[Paul Gagon]

thanks for all the replies.

i had swapped it back to a 3 way switch temporarily for some lessons. this evening i tried to re-wire the 4-way switch using the sc-2/asat diagram, triple checking each connection. unfortunately it's still neck/both/both/neck. not sure why the bridge pickup won't isolate in position 3...

here is a picture of the switch wiring, a bit messy from all the solder/resolder

Thanks for the picture. I'm going to assume that yellow wire from the switch is going to the volume control. As near as I can tell, you have correctly wired the switch the way the diagram shows. After checking over the wiring diagram for this mod I think I know the reason you are not getting an isolated bridge pickup in position 3. The "hot" of the neck pickup is always connected to the volume control. Position 3 removes the ground connection of the neck pickup but not the "hot". You will have less output from the neck but it will not be completely off. Have other people experienced this same thing? Position 1 should be the neck, position 2 should be both the neck and bridge pickups in parallel, position 3 will be the bridge pickup with the output of the neck pickup in a floating ground configuration, and position 4 should be the neck and bridge pickups in series.

Have you done a tap test on the pickups to see who is active and who is not? If not, try this. Take the tip of a screw driver and lightly tap on the top of each pickup as you go through the different pickup selections. Remember to have your amp volume down during this test as you will get a pretty good pop sound. See which pickups are producing a signal and which ones do not. Let us all know what you find.

When I look at the switch diagram I can see an idea you may want to try to get the position 3 doing the bridge only selection. Try this. On the side of the switch that has the green wire on it you have an empty solder lug. This is position 3 lug. Solder a jumper wire from that lug to the yellow wire on the other side of the switch. You will now short the neck pickup out when you are in position 3 and you should only hear the bridge pickup. Let us all know how that works for you.

Also, any chance you could show a picture of the switch and the controls to further examine the wiring?

Thanks Paul

[luminant]

thanks for the info paul - when i do the tap test with a driver i can confirm that p1 is neck only, 2-3 are both, and p4 is neck again.

i just soldered a jumper to lug 3 as you mentioned and it shorts out the neck pickup, but the bridge barely comes through in switch positon 3- i can only detect it if i'm using headphones with the gain cranked up - it's essentially off. p4 is still neck only oddly enough.

below are two more photos - one of the updated switch wiring, and the other showing the rest of the controls. it's a bit hard to see, but all the black ground wires are grouped together and soldered to the body of the volume pot. the gray wire connects to the output jack, green jumps to the tone pot...

does the switch orientation matter in this circumstance or does that not matter? or perhaps a terminal has been tweaked due to being heated repeatedly from all the soldering? it seems to check out fine on my multimeter.

thanks again for the help! - tim

[Paul Gagon]

thanks for the info paul - when i do the tap test with a driver i can confirm that p1 is neck only, 2-3 are both, and p4 is neck again.

i just soldered a jumper to lug 3 as you mentioned and it shorts out the neck pickup, but the bridge barely comes through in switch positon 3- i can only detect it if i'm using headphones with the gain cranked up - it's essentially off. p4 is still neck only oddly enough.

below are two more photos - one of the updated switch wiring, and the other showing the rest of the controls. it's a bit hard to see, but all the black ground wires are grouped together and soldered to the body of the volume pot. the gray wire connects to the output jack, green jumps to the tone pot...

does the switch orientation matter in this circumstance or does that not matter? or perhaps a terminal has been tweaked due to being heated repeatedly from all the soldering? it seems to check out fine on my multimeter.

thanks again for the help! - tim

Hi Tim,

OK, take the jumper off I told you to try. That's not working. The switch orientation doesn't matter. So position 4 is neck only? You should definitely be getting the bridge as well. I understand why you hear both in position 3 (floating ground on neck pickup) but I'm not sure why you only get the neck pickup. As you mentioned, there might be an issue with the switch. Check continuity on each side of the switch at all positions. Could you do a picture of the other side of the switch?

Thanks,
Paul

[luminant]

hi paul - thanks again for sticking with this. here is the other side of the switch.

i removed the jumper and on the meter i think everything is how it should be - continuity between the common lug and each position as the switch moves.

but i may have damaged the 4-way switch in some other way; everything works fine when i drop in the 3 way - vol/tone/etc. worst case is i can order a new switch, pots, and do a fresh installation. things are getting a bit mucked up.

thanks again for your time and consideration.

[Paul Gagon]

hi paul - thanks again for sticking with this. here is the other side of the switch.

i removed the jumper and on the meter i think everything is how it should be - continuity between the common lug and each position as the switch moves.

but i may have damaged the 4-way switch in some other way; everything works fine when i drop in the 3 way - vol/tone/etc. worst case is i can order a new switch, pots, and do a fresh installation. things are getting a bit mucked up.

thanks again for your time and consideration.

Hi Tim,

A new switch sounds like a good idea. I'm always happy to help. Try a new switch and let us all know how it went.

Good luck,
Paul

[luminant]

hello again!

having ordered a new switch, i went to install it today but unfortunately got the exact same results. neck only on P1 and P4, and neck+bridge on P2 and P3.

i attached another wiring picture, which seems to be correct everytime i check it. the bridge pickup and vol/tone wiring work fine with my 3 way switch, it's just when the 4 way comes into play it all goes awry.

not sure what i should be chasing at this point. are the grounds a possible issue that could cause the bridge to never isolate? any suggestions to trouble shoot this are much appreciated

thanks again for all the guidance! - tim

[Paul Gagon]

hello again!

having ordered a new switch, i went to install it today but unfortunately got the exact same results. neck only on P1 and P4, and neck+bridge on P2 and P3.

i attached another wiring picture, which seems to be correct everytime i check it. the bridge pickup and vol/tone wiring work fine with my 3 way switch, it's just when the 4 way comes into play it all goes awry.

not sure what i should be chasing at this point. are the grounds a possible issue that could cause the bridge to never isolate? any suggestions to trouble shoot this are much appreciated

thanks again for all the guidance! - tim

Your wiring on the switch looks good. I don't know why you don't have neck and bridge pickups on and in series with P4. The bridge pickup should have its black wire soldered to ground and its white wire soldered to the wiper of one side of the selector switch. The neck pickup should have its yellow wire soldered to the hot of the volume control and its green wire soldered to the wiper of the other side of the selector switch. It looks like that's what you have done......as near as I can tell. I wish you were located near me so I could check it out in person. I must admit, I'm a bit baffled here. Paul

[themikeaustin]

Hi,

I just had my mid-90s ASAT Special (S/N = G047276 - registered here) modded with the 4-way switch and the tap test reveals the following:

1. Bridge
2. Both
3. Neck
4. Neck

The Pat. # on the pickups is 4220069

The wiring on my guitar doesn't look like what's in the photos above. There's a lot more wires connected to the switch. The neck pickup has red, green and yellow wires and the bridge pickup has a white wire and 2 black wires.

I intend to direct my tech to this discussion. Is there a difference between the wiring of the older jumbo MFD pickups and the Tribute pickups?

TIA,
Mike

[Craig]

Hi,

I just had my mid-90s ASAT Special (S/N = G047276 - registered here) modded with the 4-way switch and the tap test reveals the following:

1. Bridge
2. Both
3. Neck
4. Neck

The Pat. # on the pickups is 4220069

The wiring on my guitar doesn't look like what's in the photos above. There's a lot more wires connected to the switch. The neck pickup has red, green and yellow wires and the bridge pickup has a white wire and 2 black wires.

I intend to direct my tech to this discussion. Is there a difference between the wiring of the older jumbo MFD pickups and the Tribute pickups?

TIA,
Mike

Did you or your tech use the 4-way wiring diagram located in our Gallery (SC-2/ASAT 4-Way Switching with revised Tone Control)?

[themikeaustin]

Hi Craig,

I don't think so, as I don't see the brass plate. I sent my tech a link to that diagram. I will be bringing the guitar in either Friday or Saturday.

Mainly, I'm interested in knowing if there's anything different about the wiring for the mid-90s Specials as compared to the Tributes or a normal Telecaster wiring.

Thanks,
Mike

[Craig]

Hi Craig,

I don't think so, as I don't see the brass plate. I sent my tech a link to that diagram. I will be bringing the guitar in either Friday or Saturday.

Mainly, I'm interested in knowing if there's anything different about the wiring for the mid-90s Specials as compared to the Tributes or a normal Telecaster wiring.

Thanks,
Mike

See the Gallery: Album: Instrument Manuals and Wiring Schematics.
Also see these posts: pre-BBE ASAT vs. '07 ASAT Special: Differences? and Passive Tone Controls on G&Ls by Paul Gagon ....

Hope this helps.

[themikeaustin]

Thanks, Craig!