how to turn your guitar from mono to stereo

Ok this instructable is all about tuning a mono guitar to a stereo guitar and im not talking about a mono to stereo cable splitter or an A\B switcher no im talking about the neck and bridge pick up each having there own amp either at the same time or separated this opens a whole new world of ideas and possibility's

Step 1 Who are your helpers

tools!


Screwdrivers flat head and philps
a soldering iron and solder
wire strippers
diagram
wire!
electrical tape
a towel and something like it to put the guitar on
an extra hand if you can get one
wire cutters
needle nose pliers (not needed but helps as an extra hand)
a wrench to get the knob nuts off
paper and pen (to write it all down so you dont forget what you did and how to write an instructables)
and an hour and a half of time

Comments

[just_lorenzo]

Hi Megatronix, I invented "natural stereo" pickup to get the best stereo. 12 mini-coil pickup to read the string movement. When you pulse a string the moviment is up, down, left and right. Actual pickups just read the up and down moviment. Visit my site and listen the demos. Look also the osciloscope to see the stereo amount. www.pauls3dsystems.com enjoy "natural stereo"

[1spartan95]

Awesome!

[RF567]

 I don't get the diagram. where is the tone control and why are the wires from the PU selector going to the output on the volume controls?

[RF567]

 assuming that the diagram for this is at [URL]http://www.guitarelectronics.com/product?WD2HH3L11_00/Guitar_Wiring_Diagram_2_Humbuckers3Way_Lever_Switch1_Volume0Tone000.html
[/URL]

Could you draw on this and show us what it would look like in a diagram?

[RF567]

 Or maybe you could put a video of this on YouTube? No-one has put anything on YouTube about changing a guitar from mono to stereo

[megatronix]

i have no clue i looked up the switch and i couldnt find anything im gonna try and find a friend with that switch and tear it apart and see what happens ill get back to you

[RF567]

 I found a diagram at www.guitarelectronics.com/category/wiring resources/ and found an appropriate diagram. Do you mean to solder another wire onto the pin that is linked to the volume?

[RF567]

 or do you mean that the two middle pins were joined and you want to separate them?

[megatronix]

i havent seen a ibanez switch so i really wouldnt know where to being on what to tell you what you should do

but if you have a multimeter just test the switch and write down what position is for what pick up and then write which is on and off for what positionand work from there


write back to me and ill help as much as i can

[RF567]

 Its an 8 pin switch just like the one in your diagram. Is it possible to take a picture or even a video of this particular step?
I emailed the guys at irongear.co.uk because they create circuit diagram lists, and asked for them to produce a diagram with the specs i sent them so i had an idea what all those wires in a big mess go to where in the circuit.
Do you know what each pin on the pickup selector does? That would be really handy

[RF567]

I don't entirely understand step 4. Could you please elaborate a bit more, but otherwise this is a great instructable.

Also, I have a H - S - H pickup layout and there's heaps of wires everywhere (because the nincompoops at Ibanez who made the RG series made a mess of the wiring), I was wondering if the same principles apply or if not, how would you go about doing this step?

[Glockenator]

I cut the wires going to the jack, and soldered another jack to it, and then drilled a hole on the side

[Glockenator]

is the cat optional? cause i dont got one

[iamtoats]

That's similar to what i am trying to figure out. A friend and I are trying to get the pickups on different channels of a stereo jack, so we can switch between them really fast (with a foot switch) and not have to worry about taking our hands off the strings. (mostly fast metal stuff... I like to use the neck pickup for anything above the 10th fret....)

[gabrielG2]

Words from a Luthier... That stereo wiring is, as said above, technically wrong. The correct way is to make the "whole" sound of the guitar be panned Right, mid or Left. Correcting what Metal-Matt said, active circuits use lower ohm potentiometers (generally 25k). Guitars pickups expect a high impedance, and even your cable can mess with your sound. Generally the active circuits are only a buffer with high input impedance and low output impedance. That makes your sound "invincible" And.. your soldering skills needs improvement. The GND solder you made in the pot is real bad. Try using a higher watt soldering gun and less solder. Greetings from Brazil! And sorry about the not-that-good-English.

[megatronix]

yeah my iron was on low the whole time that would be the problem. i didnt think of that when i was soldering i ted to forget about turning it up and i was more worryed about burning the insides of the pot and yeah i need to do a bit more work on the guitar cause it works perfect but it needs more of what i dont know yet

[gabrielG2]

its very hard to damage a potentiometer when soldering its carcass, UNLESS its a Push-Pull DPDT Pot. if you need some help, don't be shy to ask me. I can even make a instructable of some sort...

[pdub77]

Really interesting idea! Awesome.

[shyguy52]

lol "the cat that only guarded the wire"

[charlieb000]

sometimes(or always - not sure) picups are wired to cancel out mains frequency and other unwanted freq.... so maybe best to keep them together... just make a balance knob like on stereos with the centre wiper the soucre (maybe a resistor to gnd on each output to keep the other chnl silent) - but this might make your output weaker.

[tubbychick3n]

". . .a whole new world of ideas and possibility's" It's spelled 'possibilities'

[megatronix]

thanks tubbychick3n ill make sure of it next time !

[tubbychick3n]

I'm pretty sure you can go to your instructable and edit it to fix this if you want.

[metal-matt]

uhh, good idea.. but... you switch bettween the pups for differant tones, they make differant sounds... so by doing this, it will just make it sound like you allways have the switch in the middle... not so good when you want to make some types of sound. i play metal, and i basicly dont use the neck pup, so this would just make one side of the stereo (for me) sound muddy... its a good idea, but i think it would better if you coil splitted your pickups and used either side of the humbucker for the L and R, but mind you, your pups will sound like a single coil pups then, not that humbucker sound. ohh, and the whole 250k, 500k pot thing, well thats just preferance. i think all my guitars have 500k, but ther rock/metal guitars so they should, older rock/blues guitars should have 250k, it gives a smoother sound. active guitars however, go higher, with stuff from 1meg, to i-have-no-idea. thats cos i dont like actives, heheh. but well writen, awesome photos. good instructible.

[megatronix]

ahhhh i see so i should next try and split my pickups huh hmmm sounds interesting didnt think of that one ill try that \ and as for it sounding different it is very different from what i really play which is metal also but when expanding my mind to various types of styles i need something experimental which is where this guitar comes in, it was weird at first but after messing with fx pedals and such i can make it do some crazy things now my next thing to do is add some integrated preamp's that ill build my self and also try that whole splinting the pickups that sounds really cool now