# Small On/OFF press button for coil split



## BMLN (Sep 1, 2014)

Hi,

I have a Schecter C-7 Hellraiser with 707 EMGs. And I'm willing to mod the guitar beacause i don't feel confortable using 2 volumes knobs with coil split for each and a tone knob. 

Wile playing I'm constantly switching pickups from neck to bridge position and the volume knobs get in the way. I'm tired of this so i came with an idea for a mod:

Single volume knob (away from my 3 way switch)

The coil split features of the EMGs would be still accessible by a low profile on/off press switch. One switch for each pickup. Because they are low profile I would still have free access to the 3 way pickup selector.

Is this is possible with 707 EMGs?
What type of switch is needed?
Does anyone had modded a guitar to coil split humbuckers with a small on/off press switch? I´ve been googling for a wile but it´s seems to be rare. Most setups use potentiometers with push pull coil split witch i don't want anymore.

I did a concept in photoshop:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/1vvlk22flr0mza5/Guitar mod.jpg?dl=0


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## foreright (Sep 1, 2014)

A switch is a switch... it's irrelevant whether or not it's attached to a pot. As long as the "press switch" has the same number of poles (or more) as your push-pull pot it will be fine.

I assume those low profile switches are actually latching? They look like arcade style momentary push buttons.

I also wasn't aware that there was a coil tappable version of the EMG 707 - every day's a school day


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## Pikka Bird (Sep 1, 2014)

If you have the coil split version then yeah, it's possible. And as foreright says, get the right kind of switch, make sure it's not momentary and you're golden.


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## BMLN (Sep 1, 2014)

foreright said:


> A switch is a switch... it's irrelevant whether or not it's attached to a pot. As long as the "press switch" has the same number of poles (or more) as your push-pull pot it will be fine.
> 
> I assume those low profile switches are actually latching? They look like arcade style momentary push buttons.
> 
> I also wasn't aware that there was a coil tappable version of the EMG 707 - every day's a school day



Yes, I meant Latching not momentary switches. Sorry for my bad english...
My EMGs are coil tappable, they came with my guitar in 2008 if I'm not mistaken


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## BMLN (Sep 1, 2014)

I just opened my guitar to see how many "Pins" the switches must have...and...man...what a mess! So many wiring under the hood. It´s all old school soldered


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## Randy D (Sep 1, 2014)

Correct me if I'm wrong but what your trying to do is to install 2 kills switches. Both of which would be momentary on/off. Isn't that what a momentary switch would do with a push pull....ie Tom Morello



Cheers

-Randy D


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## Pikka Bird (Sep 1, 2014)

^Naw, he wants coil splits, not killswitches. Push-pull pots aren't momentary, but you can get push-push ones that are. Tom morello does it with a three-way switch I think.


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## BMLN (Sep 1, 2014)

Randy D said:


> Correct me if I'm wrong but what your trying to do is to install 2 kills switches. Both of which would be momentary on/off. Isn't that what a momentary switch would do with a push pull....ie Tom Morello
> 
> 
> 
> ...



No kill switches, no momentary. Basically i want to simplify every thing to just one volume pot, but want to keep the coil split option.

I want to install 2 latching switches to replace the 2 volume pots and keep the coil split feature of those pots. Also I want to replace the tone pot for a master volume pot to control booth pickups.

I know i have 707s but they are not solderless like the news 707tw so i'm not sure what version of 707 i have.


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## BMLN (Sep 2, 2014)

Well, pretty much have all figured out. 
This mod just needs a "DPDT switch (ON-ON) Maintained" to replace the volume pots.

Now the quest begins...as I've been searching is not easy to find one that fits a guitar pot hole. And with the look i'm after ( arcade style ) even harder.

I guess most buttons arcade style have larger diameter then common pots...i really don't want enlarge the guitar pot hole.

Any good Europe stores for this parts? 

PS: Ill post the mod progress.


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## Chemical-Pony (Sep 2, 2014)

If what you want is a coil cut then all you'll need is a single pole on/off push switch, where in the 'on' position you'd connect earth to the point where the two coils meet.

That should make your seach easier. There'll be thousands of them on ebay.


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## BMLN (Sep 2, 2014)

Chemical-Pony said:


> If what you want is a coil cut then all you'll need is a single pole on/off push switch, where in the 'on' position you'd connect earth to the point where the two coils meet.
> 
> That should make your seach easier. There'll be thousands of them on ebay.




That was my first idea as you can see the picture from my post. But i'm not sure how to do that with emgs. I have some EMG Hardwire schematics and there are some notes to use a DPDT on-on switch instead of the dpdt Volume pot.

Each EMG pickup has 6 wires coming + 1 for power

I think 707 don't really split like traditional pickups...not sure how they are built.

ahhhhh so much frustration


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## Chemical-Pony (Sep 2, 2014)

Yes, I see what you mean. Not so simple. Problem is the EMG site doesn't tell you what wire does what.

Anyway found this that has a nice circuit diagram. That should make it fairly simple if you have the DPDT switch. Remember, there is no coil split as such. You're moving from the side-by-side coils to the stacked coils.

UG Community @ Ultimate-Guitar.Com - The Ultimate Active Pickup & 18 Volt Mod Thread


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## CrazyDean (Sep 2, 2014)

Another idea would be to put both pickups on a single push/pull volume pot and use plastic plugs to cover up the two extra holes.

Or, what if you used a 5-way switch and just used positions 2 and 4 for their respective coil tapped pickups.


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## BMLN (Sep 2, 2014)

CrazyDean said:


> Another idea would be to put both pickups on a single push/pull volume pot and use plastic plugs to cover up the two extra holes.
> 
> Or, what if you used a 5-way switch and just used positions 2 and 4 for their respective coil tapped pickups.



The 5 way switch solution seems very practical to use! Haven't thought about that...It compromises some configurations but i can live with that.

But your first suggestion i can make it happen right away. It serves the purpose i'm after, simplicity and easy of use...And no extra parts to buy 

I really want the coil split separated for each pickup, but for now your first suggestion seems very doable.

Just got to figure the wiring for that...


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## CrazyDean (Sep 2, 2014)

I recently did one coil split and one standard emg with 3-way blade and 1Vol only...let's see if I can remember what I did, lol.

EDIT: I think I have it. Use this http://www.sonic.net/~emgman/pdf/2 89 1v 1t 3wb.pdf

There are a few altercations that need to be done:
1. Using the diagram in the upper right (once rotated properly) solder all wires from both pickups to the one volume pot except "5"
2. Use the orange wires that would be on "5" for the pickup selector (8 and 4 respectively). 
3. Solder a wire from "1 pickup selector" to "5 volume pot".
4. Bypass tone pot and pretend it isn't in the diagram.

I feel like I'm close, but I'm not sure about the orange wire. Can anyone confirm?


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## BMLN (Sep 2, 2014)

CrazyDean said:


> I recently did one coil split and one standard emg with 3-way blade and 1Vol only...let's see if I can remember what I did, lol.



Please use your powers and go back in time 

EMG does not provide hard-wire diagrams on their website for the 707tw, i could not find any information about it there. E-mail them this morning asking for hard-wired diagrams...


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## CrazyDean (Sep 2, 2014)

Wiring Book


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## BMLN (Sep 3, 2014)

CrazyDean said:


> Wiring Book



Thanks for the link it helps. I assume very few people use this configuration. At least I can't find the diagram for that anywhere, and I've been searching...

EMG 707TW Diagram hardwire: 
1 Master Volume (Push/Pull)
3 Way Selector
no tone 

i guess I'm


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## BMLN (Sep 3, 2014)

So here is the present wiring in my guitar:

http://schecter-guitars.ru/articles/tech_doc/Hellraiser C-7.pdf

I want to remove one volume and the tone. And keep a master volume with the push/pull to split both pickups at the same time.

Can anyone draw on top of this a new diagram? 

This is harder than a puzzle game...


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## djohns74 (Sep 3, 2014)

You won't be able to switch both pickups with a single push-pull unfortunately. According to your diagram, yellow is hot and white is ground for one of the pickup modes and blue is hot with green the ground for the other. The push-pull switches are simply switching between the two pairs of wires. Unfortunately, this means that you need both poles of one of these switches for each pickup, thus why Schecter includes two. Likewise, the 5-way idea suggested earlier also won't work, at least not with a standard switch. 

In theory, I believe a 4 pole switch could accomplish what you want, though I'm not sure that I've seen a two position 4-pole switch before. 5-way, 4-pole "super switches" are pretty common and may work for you, though I've never wired one and they strike me as something of a pain to deal with.


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## BMLN (Sep 3, 2014)

djohns74 said:


> You won't be able to switch both pickups with a single push-pull unfortunately. According to your diagram, yellow is hot and white is ground for one of the pickup modes and blue is hot with green the ground for the other. The push-pull switches are simply switching between the two pairs of wires. Unfortunately, this means that you need both poles of one of these switches for each pickup, thus why Schecter includes two. Likewise, the 5-way idea suggested earlier also won't work, at least not with a standard switch.
> 
> In theory, I believe a 4 pole switch could accomplish what you want, though I'm not sure that I've seen a two position 4-pole switch before. 5-way, 4-pole "super switches" are pretty common and may work for you, though I've never wired one and they strike me as something of a pain to deal with.



Ups, i explained myself wrong! 
I want to coil split the pickups with the volume push/pull and the pickup switch with the 3 way switch.

Do you think it's possible?


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## Chemical-Pony (Sep 3, 2014)

BMLN said:


> Ups, i explained myself wrong!
> I want to coil split the pickups with the volume push/pull and the pickup switch with the 3 way switch.
> 
> Do you think it's possible?



Not for both pickups at the same time.


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## CrazyDean (Sep 4, 2014)

Sorry, you can't coil split both pickups on one push/pull pot. You can use the switch, though.

http://www.sonic.net/~emgman/pdf/2 89 Yamaha 4 pole 5 way.pdf

4 Pole 5 Way Super Switch | Allparts.com


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## TubeOrgasmer (Sep 6, 2014)

Okay, let me just throw my two cents in here: 
The EMG 707 is an active pickup, right? So since you already have a battery in there, why not use relays? You can use one SPST latching switch to control any amount of DPDT relays for example, so you could have the function of two DPDT Push-Pulls s in just one button. You could also use a momentary SPST and a flip-flop circuit and add a LED for state indication somewhere in there, but that'd probably drain the battery faster.


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## CrazyDean (Sep 7, 2014)

TubeOrgasmer said:


> Okay, let me just throw my two cents in here:
> The EMG 707 is an active pickup, right? So since you already have a battery in there, why not use relays? You can use one SPST latching switch to control any amount of DPDT relays for example, so you could have the function of two DPDT Push-Pulls s in just one button. You could also use a momentary SPST and a flip-flop circuit and add a LED for state indication somewhere in there, but that'd probably drain the battery faster.



While this is possible, the OP would have to buy an SPST and two DPDT switches to accomplish this. He could also buy a 4PDT. I think that since he already has two extra holes in his guitar, he may as well fill them up. Unless, of course, they're in the way.


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## TubeOrgasmer (Sep 7, 2014)

CrazyDean said:


> While this is possible, the OP would have to buy an SPST and two DPDT switches to accomplish this. He could also buy a 4PDT. I think that since he already has two extra holes in his guitar, he may as well fill them up. Unless, of course, they're in the way.



Well yes, but he'd be able to control two DPDT relays with one switch, and the relays would be inside the cavity and won't take up space on the guitar, how I understood it, he wants to leave just one knob on the guitar itself, but I might be mistaken 
The relays are about $3-4 a piece so it wouldn't be that much of a financial setback.


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## djohns74 (Sep 8, 2014)

FYI, today I happened to come across what appears to be a 2 position 4PDT mini-toggle.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...pf_rd_t=3201&pf_rd_p=1827489602&pf_rd_i=typ01

I can't think of any reason this couldn't be used to switch modes on two EMGs with a single switch, assuming the physical toggle fits the guitar as desired.


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## BMLN (Sep 20, 2014)

djohns74 said:


> FYI, today I happened to come across what appears to be a 2 position 4PDT mini-toggle.
> 
> 2 Pcs AC 250V 2A 120V 5A 12 Pin 4PDT ON/ON Toggle Switch - Wall Light Switches - Amazon.com
> 
> I can't think of any reason this couldn't be used to switch modes on two EMGs with a single switch, assuming the physical toggle fits the guitar as desired.



Well thanks for all the support guys! 

I guess i'm going with the original idea witch is:

to replace the two existing volume pots with two of these dpdt low profile car buttons:

http://www.bakersfieldads.net/Oilda...t-on-on-blue-lighted-switches-12V-B22ZE-1.jpg

The downside is that i need to enlarge the pot holes, because I can't find low profile dpdt that fit.

So just to clarify it will be:

3 way switch 
master Volume (simple pot)
2 coil split buttons (like the ones in the link)
(no tone knob)

If anyone knows a DPDT button ( on-on, low profile) that fits in a guitar pot hole let me know!


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## BMLN (Sep 20, 2014)

TubeOrgasmer said:


> Well yes, but he'd be able to control two DPDT relays with one switch, and the relays would be inside the cavity and won't take up space on the guitar, how I understood it, he wants to leave just one knob on the guitar itself, but I might be mistaken
> The relays are about $3-4 a piece so it wouldn't be that much of a financial setback.




Yes you are right, I just need one knob for volume. (like most metal players) 

That leaves me with two open holes witch i will fill in with two low profile DPDT buttons in order to coil split each pickup. 

All of these to access the 3 way switch freely and keep the coil split features witch i like so much.


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