3 way toggle wiring to get PRS style sounds in middle position?

[rosssurf]

Can a Les Paul with a standard toggle be wired to have the standard "Treble" and "Rhythm" positions, but have the middle position select the outer coils of both humbuckers to get the PRS strat like single coil sounds? I am aware that I would need for conductor pickups, and for it to be just like PRS I would need to flip one of the magnets. But I'm just wondering if it can be done with a three-way toggle, as I often like to put up here as five-way switch my Les Paul so I have these sounds. It would be nice to just do it all with the toggle.

 

[ArchEtech]

You’d have to have pickups that are able to be split. That being the case it would be easier to just put a push pull pot for your volumes so that in middle position you have traditional and the tapped blend as choices.

Another option, I think they make 5 and 6 position toggle that looks like the 3 position but sticks out s bit more so I’m sure there is a way to do what you’re talking about. A couple of these toggles can do all kinds of crazy options. Maybe talk to one of their guitar techs on which to get it advice on if they have a specialized 3 some….

Free-Way Pickup Switch - StewMac

Guitar gearshift! Unique 6-position toggle switch broadens tonal options.

www.stewmac.com

 

[CB91710]

Ya, the "Freeway Switch" can do it, but it's a 6-position switch so not quite as slick as the original rotary (5-way) PRS or the Fender blade switch.

 

[cmjohnson]

My preferred four pot switchable setup:

Add four push-pull pots. Two volume, two tone.
Use four conductor pickups.

Wire the volumes to switch the pickup wiring between standard humbucker (coils in series) to paralllel humbucking (coils in parallel). You will find that parallel humbucking actually has an enhanced hum cancelling effect. It's MORE noise resistant than regular humbuckers.

Wire the tones as coil taps/splits. You can choose which coil gets turned off when you wire it up.

This configuration preserves a stock appearance and gives you at least 12 separate tonal options before you turn a knob.

 

[rosssurf]

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. I usually install a PRS 5 -way switch into the Rhythm tone pot location on my LP's and use a single volume, single tone, and a dummy knob on the rhythm pickup volume to keep the factory look.
I have tried a freeway switch before but wasn't a fan.

 

[mistermikev]

I'm a big fan of what prs did in the 90s. as you may or may not know they used to have their two humbuckers basically wired up as two bridge pickups. The reason for this is that you can then get outter coils vs inner coils which imo is about as good as it gets for getting strat/tele sounds out of a two humbucker setup. The way seymour wires them... when you split them... they don't cancel hum and for me this is not very useful.

I have a number of dif wiring schemes I use to get the prs sort of thing... many of them using a rotary in place of the tone control to change what the 3-way toggle selects... but the one below, altho experimental, is quite a bit more simple... just using a push/pull or other dpdt to change how the toggle works to still give you hum cancelling combos of inside vs outside coils.

Take a std set of seymour (or other) humbuckers and flip the magnet in the neck pickup, and reverse the wiring as show below (green/red/white/black). It is unverified as of yet, fyi.but in theory it should work just fine.

Flip the switch one way... and you get std les paul. Flip the switch the other way and the toggle is now selecting between outside coils and inside coils or both in series.

 

[OLD GUITAR PLAYER]

Can a Les Paul with a standard toggle be wired to have the standard "Treble" and "Rhythm" positions, but have the middle position select the outer coils of both humbuckers to get the PRS strat like single coil sounds? I am aware that I would need for conductor pickups, and for it to be just like PRS I would need to flip one of the magnets. But I'm just wondering if it can be done with a three-way toggle, as I often like to put up here as five-way switch my Les Paul so I have these sounds. It would be nice to just do it all with the toggle.

A Gibson HP-4 Wiring Harness allows me to either tap, or split each pickup, and additionally reverse the coils, if I wish. I can just pull-up both pickup volume control knobs, and pull-up the bridge tone knob knob (depending on how I chose to set-up the internal dip switches). I can additionally throw them out of phase by pulling-up the neck tone knob. I know it might be a "tone-sucking" PCB with push-pulls & dip switches, but I don't mind.

Here's a description: HP-4 PCB