Need to Talk Through a Wiring Project

This will be my first.

Here's what we have to work with, on a Yamaha 420S-D6:
2 HBs
5-way blade switch
2-way toggle
Tone knob
Vol knob

I'll post pictures later today.

I opened the back, and there don't seem to be any loose or detached wires. However, the 5-way switch does nothing and the toggle was supposed to be a bypass and is now a cut-off switch.

What I think I would like:

Toggle switch: bypass vol/tone to Bridge HB in series (for metal/rock)
5-way:
1: Bridge HB in Series (For metal/rock)
2: Bridge HB in Parallel (For a little quack/more vintage sound)
3: Both pickups split to single coils in parallel (for quack)
4: Neck HB in Parallel (for a little quack)
5: Neck single coil

Alternate Choice #1:
Switch 5-way to 3-way:
1: Bridge only
2: Both
3: Neck only

Vol knob change to push/pull: switch neck HB from series to parallel
Tone knob change to push/pull: switch bridge HB from series to parallel

2-way toggle: split HBs to single coil.

This is the first wiring project I'm going to do 100% on my own, so help me keep it as simple as possible, while still getting as many of these tones as possible.

Open to other, more sane suggestions.

Open to avoiding anything exotic and making the toggle switch purely a coil-tap switch or parallel/series swap and changing the 5-way blade to a 3-way blade for easy B/B+N/N switching.

Er, Brain have you tried the Yamaha forum?

But what I want to do it has nothing to do with Yamaha.

Plus, I can't find any dedicated Yamaha forums.

Yamaha Forums UK
Yamaha Guitar Club

Are you guys trying to get rid of me?

Barry wrote:Yamaha Forums UK
Yamaha Guitar Club

I had found the Yamaha Guitar Club.

However, that is just a sub-forum of telecaster.com, so not a dedicated Yamaha guitar forum.
The Yamaha Forums UK is also not a dedicated guitar forum, but it is pretty close, I guess, being a sub-forum on a page about Yamaha instruments in general. But they don't have any posts from the month of April. So it is hardly a hot spot for information.

Gittarasaurus said he likes to think up and draw up wiring diagrams. So that's why I come here to ask for wiring ideas.

I'll stick to questions about repairing the wiring on my Westones, tho, if that is the consensus.

it is all just pickups, wires and switches
doesn't matter what kind of guitar they sit in

Brainfertilizer wrote:...I'll stick to questions about repairing the wiring on my Westones, tho, if that is the consensus.

We all deviate a bit from time to time since most of us also have guitars other than Westone/Mats

But this is a Westone forum after all eh? I think we appreciate seeing other members' interesting acquisitions, but there are lots of general guitar/"gear" type forums out there in the interwebs that can help with non-Mats instruments.

Barry wrote:We all deviate a bit from time to time since most of us also have guitars other than Westone/Mats

But this is a Westone forum after all eh? I think we appreciate seeing other members' interesting acquisitions, but there are lots of general guitar/"gear" type forums out there in the interwebs that can help with non-Mats instruments.

This post left an impression with me:
http://forum.westoneguitars.net/t4161-frustrated-and-angry#36857

corsair wrote:

When it arrived, it was missing the trem collar, 3 string clamps/screws, and 4 fine tuners.

Parts for the RM Pro are nearly impossible to find.

Once
again, plenty of folk inhere with ideas and parts boxes; give us a look
at what you have and what you need and let's see if we can't get
something going!! Remember, we're used to orphan bits and pieces on our
Westones!!

I tend to think of us as friends united by a love for Westone, but friends first.

Until you mention Ibanez'is'is'is!!!!

Well, yeah. Ibanez'is'is'is are for losers.

I thought that went without saying.

Good job the sun is shining here in Good Ol' Blighty or I could get quite upset!

Indeed, this is a Westone forum, but I think Brain has accrued enough brownie points to deviate a liitle from the straight and narrow!

I'm not gonna be of any use at all with this but loads of the other blokes will have some idea of whats going on, so have at it...

I'll just watch and gently moderate if things get out of hand or off topic.

All I can say is, you can have my X390CB when you pry it from my cold, dead hands.


Or offer me enough that I can't refuse.



I guess, thinking about it a little, I prefer the latter option, if it's all the same to you.

Brainfertilizer wrote:All I can say is, you can have my X390CB when you pry it from my cold, dead hands

Please let me know when that happens, because I'll be right over with a crowbar.

Now regarding your wiring, make sure that your contacts on the 5 way switch are clean. I had to clean two of mine recently. The guitarist in one of my bands thought his pickup was cutting out until he cleaned his switch, happens a to a lot of people. Just FYI.

just a thought...

perhaps this thread could be moved to the non-westone section and leave this section for westone-related technical questions then...