Vulfpeck live in France. It's insane that these guys keep dropping high quality full length shows for free.

Cross posted from [email protected]

I have been working on a dual humbucker (HH) Strat clone and have been researching 5-way switching options. Remarkably, this information is ridiculously difficult to find. Most dual humbucker (HH) guitars appear to be wired with standard Les Paul style wiring (3 positions only) or use other fancy switching options like push-pull posts. There is very sparse information on using 5 way switches you would find on a Strat. I thought I would archive some of my findings here.

(edit: you can use a 5-way superswitch to get tons of 5-way switching options. in my case, the superswitch does not fit into my control cavity, also, there is a ton of documentation on superswitches on the internet. what has very sparse info is the 2502n "Ibanez" switch, which is what I focus on here.)

First: know the difference between a standard 5 way switch and an Ibanez switch (also known as an Alpha 2502n switch).

A standard 5-way switch may be produced by a variety of different companies, such as Alpha, CTS, Oaks-Grisby, etc. they are used in Strats and Strat-styled guitars. They are an evolution of 3 way switches first used in vintage Teles and Strats. Strat players discovered that you could jam a 3-way switch into an "in-between" position so that the neck and middle (or middle and bridge) pickups could be in together in parallel, giving us the famous Strat quack. The standard 5-way switch simply added "stops" for the in-between positions so that they would be easier for the player to click into. 5-way switches are extremely common and you can buy them everywhere online, and they are pretty cheap. Standard 5-way switches are symmetrical, meaning that it doesn't matter which way the switch is installed into the guitar - either way the lugs will work the same. With a 5 way switch, your options for wiring HH guitars are somewhat limited. The easiest wiring option is to simply treat it as a 3 way switch. Position 5 = neck, position 3 = both, position 1 = bridge. I'm actually not entirely sure what positions 2 and 4 would do - if I understand things correctly, position 4 will just be the same as position 5, and position 2 would be the same as position 1.

I had to really dig deep into the internet to find something - ANYTHING - that would give some more variation with HH wiring using a standard 5-way switch. One such diagram I found is from Caliguitar.com. In this wiring diagram, assuming you have 4-lead humbuckers, you can get single coil split as well as a Tele-like single coils from each pickup in parallel. If you're familiar with standard Strat wiring you will be staring at this diagram for a LONG TIME wondering just how the fuck it works lol but trust me I wired it up and it works. You will need to be careful with the color coding of the wires in the diagram - I believe they are non-standard. Their color coding is black = N start, white = N end, green = S start, red = S end.

Which leads me to Ibanez switching. Actually the way I discovered this was because I bought a pair of DiMarzio humbuckers and went to their website to look for wiring diagrams. When you go to their support page, under "RG" style, they list "standard HH wiring for Ibanez". This wiring diagram on paper looks great! It gives a bunch of interesting options, including having the neck humbucker coils in parallel instead of in series. On the diagram, they show "Ibanez OEM switch" with no further explanation. It winds up that the Ibanez OEM switch is the same thing as an Alpha 2502n switch and is NOT the same as a standard 5-way switch.

Although there are some websites (such as DiMarzio or Ibanez) that tell you how to wire things up, it was very hard to find information about how the switch actually works. The Harley Benton website sells this switch in Europe (US folks, don't buy this switch here, shipping is $80 for a $3 switch lol) and has a schematic, which I have duplicated here (see attached image). I have verified how this switch works with a multimeter. the first four lugs are a "group" and lugs 5-8 are a second "group". For 1-4, 4 is the common, so you would use this lug as the hot going to the volume pot. there are no connections in the switch between 1-4 and 5-8 (you need to have a jumper somewhere so that 5-8 can somehow go to hot). for 5-8, 8 is the common, but in position 5, lugs 5-8 are not connected to anything. This also means (and this is important!) that the 2502n switch is not symmetrical, unlike a standard 5-way switch. This means that for it to work the switch can only be installed in one direction.

It also winds up that it is difficult to buy a 2502n switch in the USA. Lots of folks sell it for very exhorbitant prices (up to $25 USD, shipping extra). Compare this to a typical standard alpha switch or Fender OEM switch (~$10 USD on amazon, shipped). You can get a 5-way "superswitch" (for a different post, lol) for under $20. The best place to get a cheap 2502n switch is aliexpress. I got mine delivered for $5 USD. the only drawback is that the aliexpress website is difficult to navigate. I wound up ordering the wrong part before I figured out how their shopping system works.

Recently I built a Tele-partscaster with some spare parts I had lying around. I had some cheap Chinese-made Gotoh styled tuners from many years ago (probably bought from Guitar Fetish but I don't remember for sure). I put in those cheap tuners onto my new build just to have something there, but also hoping that they would be good enough to do the job. Unfortunately, the posts were really wobbly and several of the tuners "chattered" when I turned them (probably gunk in the gear mechanism). Since I had always been curious about the Wilkinson EZ Lok tuners, and since they are only around $30 shipped from Amazon, I decided to give them a try.

First of all, these are just licensed tuners from Trevor Wilkinson and are made in Korea. They fit the typical 10 mm holes of import necks, and are drop in replacements for standard Gotoh/Schaller styled tuning machines, so if you are replacing that kind of tuner no need to plug and redrill mounting screw holes, which is a big plus. They have a 19:1 gear ratio, which is fantastic for the price. I figured that if I didn't like the "gimmick" of the EZ Lok tuners, I would just use them as regular tuners.

The "gimmick" of these tuners is that the string post has 2 holes perpendicular to each other, one slightly higher than the other. You are supposed to pull the new string though one hole first, pull it taut, wrap it manually around the post once, then thread the string through the second hole. The theory is that this creates two "kinks" in the string and locks it in place without needing multiple winds around the post. Presumably this means increased tuning stability. The official party line appears to be that for the wound strings you are supposed to use the bottom hole first, and the unwound strings you are supposed to use the top hole first. I just used the bottom hole for all strings, since you're not supposed to have a bunch of wraps around the post anyway so I didn't think it made a huge difference. The two holes are also fairly closely spaced, which is another reason I think it probably doesn't really matter.

In case this description does not make sense, here is an old video showing how it is supposed to work:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3C7hrjXqgk

It's important to note that even though the product has "Lok" in its name, it is NOT a locking tuner in the traditional sense. These will generally not have the benefit of quick string changes that typical locking tuners provide. OTOH, they are not as heavy as locking tuners since there is no locking screw mechanism. And without a locking screw mechanism, it's one less thing to potentially break.

I will say that the quality of the tuners themselves are quite good. If you are looking to replace cheap tuners, then even without the EZ Lok gimmick these are a great value at $30. After stringing up a guitar using the EZ Lok method, I did find that it seemed to take significantly less time to get the strings settled in after stretching the strings. However, the wraps on the post are kind of ugly - they look like a rookie trying to put strings on a guitar for the first time where the wraps are uneven.

Pros: inexpensive yet good quality tuners, high gear ratio of 19:1, drop-in replacement for modern Gotoh-styled tuners with 10 mm holes. after installing new strings, strings can be tuned to pitch and "broken in" by stretching quickly. no additional mechanical parts - it's just a standard tuner with two holes instead of one. Can be strung normally if EZ Lok method not desired.

Cons: can be somewhat more complex to do string changes using EZ Lok method, so slower than typical locking tuners. string wraps around post look ugly even when done right. Not true "locking" mechanism.

overall rating: 8/10. I will be looking at using these to replace another set of cheap Chinese tuners that have poor tuning action.