Instructions/diagrams for a 24 tab switch

[robyogi]

Hi,

I've been searching the site and the net and haven't been able to find what I am looking for on this question. I apologize if this is answered elsewhere on the site, please just point me in the right direction.

I have a guitar I just bought that has a big white plastic 5-way switch with 24 tabs on it arranged in two rows. It has numbers going from 0 on the inside tabs to 5 on the outside ones. From reading on this site, it seems that it may be a Yamaha switch, but I'm not sure about that. Stew Mac had a picture of a Yamaha switch that looked like this one, but they don't sell it anymore and they don't have any schematics for it.

Does anyone know where I can find some instructions and schematics for this? I am interested in rewiring this guitar, but know nothing about this switch. I'm more interested in learning "how" it works than in getting just various wiring diagrams (so I can figure out how to do what I want), but either will be better than the nada I have right now. FYI, I'm pretty new to this side of guitar maintenance, so please use layman's terms...

Thanks for any help!
Robert

[Scott of Actual Time]

Originally Posted by robyogi

I have a guitar I just bought that has a big white plastic 5-way switch with 24 tabs on it arranged in two rows. It has numbers going from 0 on the inside tabs to 5 on the outside ones. From reading on this site, it seems that it may be a Yamaha switch, but I'm not sure about that. Stew Mac had a picture of a Yamaha switch that looked like this one, but they don't sell it anymore and they don't have any schematics for it. Does anyone know where I can find some instructions and schematics for this? I am interested in rewiring this guitar, but know nothing about this switch.
Robert

yep, that's the yamaha switch. and if your guitar is a blue RG7620 with a 1998 serial number, and the middle position is a Tele-style sound with the two outer coils of the humbuckers, then i probably put that switch in there.

the 24-pole switches may seem complicated, but the cool thing is that all of the different brands of 24-pole switch work exactly the same way. so any wiring diagram you find for any 24-pole switch will work with your switch, once you know what poles are what numbers.

the best place to start for 24-pole info is with the instruction sheet on the Stew Mac website for the other model of 24-pole switch that they do currently sell. after you read through that, you can e-mail me at actualtime@his.com and i can e-mail you a zip file of the scanned pages of the old Yamaha switch manual. it's pretty similar to the manual for the switch they do sell, but there are a few extra nuggets in there.

[robyogi]

Thanks! I'll look at Stew Mac's site and then get back to you.

PS: not the same guitar, but that would have been an amazing coincidence!

[Dr. Funkenstein]

Another easy way to figure out how it works (or to verify diagrams off the net, as sometimes it's easy to get things the wrong way round off a diagram for example) is to get a multimeter and just go through each of the 5 selector positions and see what lugs on the switch are hot using the continuity test setting. You can pick up multimeters for peanuts, and they're extremely useful for all sorts of guitar problems, especially when you do what I did and rewire your whole guitar with new switching capability, only to discover that none of it works.... ;o)

Cheers,

Dave

[robyogi]

Thanks for the second piece of advice too...If I pick up a multimeter to help me in my electronic tinkering, is there anything special that I need or need to look out for? If I remember these things correctly from watching my grandfather use one, there is a dial on the front that has to be set correctly: will any meter work for guitar wiring, or are there special needs for this application? Is there a certain range of function it has to be able to detect or anything like that? Thanks again!

[Dr. Funkenstein]

For general testing of connections, you can pick up a cheap multimeter for as little as $10.

You should get one with a continuity test option (it beeps whenever a connection is made between the 2 probes). They usually have different modes (e.g. for measuring resistance, current etc) and are accurate to varying degrees depending on price. A $10 multimeter is fine for most things, unless you need super-accurate figures on resistances etc.

You can then verify the lugs you expect to be hot are hot by using the probes on continuity test mode, which can save a lot of swearing if you accidentally wire something back to front! (been there, done that!)

Cheers,

Dave