3 position tele-style switch, what kind?

[m_charles]

I feel a little silly that I couldn't figure this out on my own or with google searches, but, schematic-wise, what is a telecaster-type 3 way blade switch?
An 8P3T? This is messing with my brain.   
Thx in advance.
-c

[stallik]

Blade switches have one or more wafers. Each wafer is double sided. A standard 3 way Tele switch has one wafer, each side having one 'pole' and 3 terminals so, 2P3T.

I have switches with multiple wafers and some with 2 poles and their own terminals on each wafer. I think they're called super switches. They remain the hardest for me to get my head around especially when I'm linking the different pole/terminal sets together to give some clever switching option. At that point I refer to them as 2H4M switches. (Too hard for me)

[anotherjim]

This is a good question, I'm not sure if there will be a good schematic representation to be found. I think it boils down to a 3 way 2 pole 0n-on-0n which could be shown with a 2 pole 3 way rotary symbol with position 2 linked to 1 or 3 for both on in the middle. I wouldn't know where to begin for a Strat 5 way. No wonder most guitar schematics are more like wiring diagrams only showing the switch tags and never the contacts.

[PRR]

Find us a very good picture.


{yes, it opens VERY big}
https://www.stewmac.com/electronics/components-and-parts/switches/crl-3-way-lever-switch
stewmac CRL 3-way Lever Switch
This is 2P3T shorting (there's 2 sides). But I have seen fancier switching.

OTOH Fender 3-Position Vintage Stratocaster®-Telecaster Pickup Selector Switch may be non-shorting.

[stallik]

Slightly off topic, these switches have been used on guitars for a long time but were in existence a long time before. Anyone know what they were invented for? Just curious

[PRR]

> what they were invented for?

At that price? Radio wave-change switches. Also intercom switching.

At top price? Radio station switching, derived from telco switching.

[CheapPedalCollector]

Yep and phone plugs are literally that, they were used in switchboards.

CTS stands for Chicago Telephone Supply as some trivia.

[anotherjim]

I thought the question is what symbol to use on a schematic to represent such a switch?

[PRR]

...phone plugs are literally that...

Everything in audio derives from telephony.

Telco switches were called "keys". (American is a funny language.) From the panel up, guitar switches look like these vintage CTS keys. The backend has been whacked to save space and cost.
https://www.telephonecollectors.info/index.php/browse/document-repository/catalogs-manuals/other-manufacturers/10575-chicago-telephone-supply-catalog-no-43-ocr-r/file

[bartimaeus]

those looks basically identical to the straight gibson-style switch. never knew it was from a switchboard!

https://www.stewmac.com/electronics/components-and-parts/switches/gibson-accessories-straight-type-toggle-switch/

[m_charles]

Blade switches have one or more wafers. Each wafer is double sided. A standard 3 way Tele switch has one wafer, each side having one 'pole' and 3 terminals so, 2P3T.

I have switches with multiple wafers and some with 2 poles and their own terminals on each wafer. I think they're called super switches. They remain the hardest for me to get my head around especially when I'm linking the different pole/terminal sets together to give some clever switching option. At that point I refer to them as 2H4M switches. (Too hard for me)

Thanks!

[m_charles]

I thought the question is what symbol to use on a schematic to represent such a switch?

I also asked what you'd of switch it would would be called. DPDT, 3PDT, etc.

[ashcat_lt]

...with position 2 linked to 1 or 3 for both on in the middle...

There's no link intrinsic to the switch itself.  In standard tele wiring, we usually tie position 1 to 2 on one pole and 2 to 3 on the other, then connect the two poles together to get the "both in parallel" in the center position.  It is not "on-on-on" in the sense we would normally talk about a dpdt, but an actual discrete 2p3t.

I wouldn't know where to begin for a Strat 5 way.

They're the same basic switch.  PRR said "shorting", but I think "make-before-break" is more fitting.  As you're flipping the tele switch, there's a spot in between two positions where both contacts are connected to the pole.  Early Strat players found they could wedge the things just right to get those in between (n+m, b+m) sounds, and Fender started modifying the switches to have actual detents so you could do it on purpose.  It's still a 2P3T at heart, but with some in-between positions.

Some import versions of these switches - especially 5-way "Strat" switches - will have the two commons internally tied and present just the one because standard Strat switching uses the second pole for T pot switching, so both commons want to go to the same place anyway.

[anotherjim]

Well, it seems everybody knows better than me about the switch...
...so show us a schematic that an EE who knows nothing about guitars can understand.
And please read what I bother to write in the context of the original question and my whole reply and not in the context of the following replies that came after.
This keeps happening!

[ashcat_lt]

This one shows a tele switch.  It's a bit different from standard, but shows the switch itself. 


From here
I've seen the Strat 5-way drawn the same with sort of "ghost circles" not connected to anything but denoting the in-between positions.