How to wire a Les Paul guitar with a 5 Way Rotary Switch to Act Like a Strat
I wanted a les paul with three humbucker pickups to have the same pickup positions as a strat — Neck, Neck + Middle, Middle, Middle + Bridge, and Bridge, but I also wanted three independent volume knobs and a master tone. All this without cutting into the guitar's body, or using complex controls/switches. I wanted it to be easy and familiar to use. Was this too much to ask? So I spent weeks trying to figure this out, and the key was a 5-way rotary switch.
You can check out my full video with sound samples on this topic here — https://youtu.be/yX2UBhNVzY0
Original problems I was facing
These are the problems I was facing.
- The original three-position pickup switch does not work.
- A Strat style 5 position switch doesn’t fit the switch cavity of a Les Paul
- The Freeway 3x3–03 allows for something like this but it’s too complex to use live. It's too different and unconventional.
- The 5-way rotary switch might work, but there weren’t any wiring diagrams that did what I wanted.
All problems pointed me to number 4, but I needed to find a way to make this 5-way switch work. Here’s how I did that.
The Solution
Learning about the 5-way, 4-pole, rotary switch
The 5-way switch had potential, but I needed to understand it more. So I analyzed the heck out of it to find a solution. The switch has 4 built-in switches (called poles), each with 5 lugs and one common.
Analyzing the positions of the switch
The switch switches which lugs are connected to the common as you rotate the knob. This is what all positions are doing. The top part is the top board, and the bottom is the bottom board.
Further analyzing the positions in a Breadboard view
If you put all the lugs in the switch in view of a breadboard, I realized that you can use it as such, and then make the connections you need. The switch is essentially changing wich lugs to the common as you move through the positions.
The “Key” is to connect the “Hot” signal to the “Commons”
The key was to connect the Hot signal of your pickups to the Common lug of one of the poles and use the final Common lug as your “logic” board. So this means that Neck to Ac, Middle to Bc, and Bridge to Cc. This will give you access to that signal in that pole, in that position. You can then use your last pole (D pole) as your logic. See diagram.
Final Wiring Diagram for Three Humbuckers — 3 Independent Volume Knobs — 1 Master Tone — with a 5-position, 4-pole Rotary Switch
And here’s the final wiring diagram. The high-level signal chain here is this:
Pick Signal > Volume Section > Switch Logic > Tone Section > Output
Starting at the left, all humbuckers are 5-wire humbucker pickups. The signal from each Hot lead goes into the respective volume pots. The volume pots are liner-taper for more control and are wired in an “independent volume” format, hence why their input is in Lug 2 instead of Lug 1. Lug 3 of the volume pot is grounded, and its casing is also grounded (not shown in the diagram). The signal from each volume pot is then sent to the respective pole in the 5-way rotary switch. This then follows the above breadboard logic to make all connections. The final signal comes out of the Dc lug and gets sent to the Master tone circuit. The signal exits the tone circuit from Lug 3 and it is sent to the Hot lead of the output jack. This concludes the signal chain.
Final Result
This gives us the same configuration as a Strat-style guitar using a 5-way rotary switch on your Les Paul (or any other three-pickup guitar). This is helpful when you want this kind of pickup configuration, but you can’t use a Strat-style 5-way switch.
- Postion 1: Neck
- Position 2: Neck + Middle
- Position 3: Middle
- Position 4: Middle + Bridge
- Position 5: Bridge
I hope you enjoy! Thank you for reading.
