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The Jackson Special JE-0005 Swich
5 independant user chosen combinations
The Jackson Special 5-Way switch was available on many guitars until the early 1990s when they were discontinued. Many of these were used on Charvel import guitars.
STANDARD SWITCHES:
First, a little background info on blade switches. The standard Fender-style 5-way blade switch that comes on the modern H-S-S configured guitars is really only a 3-way switch with bridges that connect positions 1 and 2, and 2 and 3.
So you endup with these connections:
1
1+2
2
2+3
3
This is how you get those "bridge+middle" and "neck+middle" tones in addition to your "Bridge only", "Middle only", and "Neck only" tones.
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The Jackson Special JE-0005 Switch wiring is split into 4 groups of 5. You still have 5 switching options yet with you can enjoy some alternative choices. This is superior to the normal 5 way switch.
Obviously there's some things this switch can't do, because you're still limited to 5 switching options. Yet, with the JE-0005 Switch you have almost unlimited options for wiring the switch. If you consider that you have modern 4 wire pickups this means you can use this switch for phase switching.
If you use your imagination there are very many options for you to come up to suit your playing style while still keeping your guitars controls original and essentially stock.
For example, If youd like your guitar to have more than one volume knob, or if you wish to bypass your tone knob, you can wire that function into one of the swiches positions as well.
However, for every new function/configuration you wire in, you have to give up a pickup-selection function. Remember, you have only 5 choices yet your 5 choices are no longer limited to the standard 5 way options.
Say you want:
1 Bridge w/Volume no Tone
2 Bridge split+Middle w/Volume AND Tone
3 Middle w/Volume AND Tone
4 Middle+Neck w/Volume AND Tone
5 Neck w/Volume AND Tone
You can wire the switch that way. So If you want Neck+Middle with the Jackson JE-0005 you have to manually wire the it that way and that would be one of your 5 choices.
1 (Bridge)
2 (Bridge+Middle)
3 (Middle)
4 (Middle+Neck)
5 (Neck)
You have the option to create any 5 wiring and pickup combinations.
Here's a few things for you to try if you have one of these switches:
(a) In an H-S-S guitar, wire it up so the Tone control is bypassed for only the humbucker, but active for the singles.
(b) In an H-S-S guitar with 3 knobs, wire a 500K Volume for the humbucker and a 250K Volume for the singles, with a Master Tone (for a 2-knob guitar, you might be able to find a 500/250 concentric pot to do this with - the older Soloists had the 3rd knob for the JE1000/1200).
(c) In an H-S-S guitar with 3 knobs (see above), wire a 500K Volume for the humbucker and a 250K Volume for the singles AND for the split humbucker, with a Master Tone.
(d) In a 2-hum guitar, wire each pickup for phase switching on positions 2, 3, and 4, with 1 and 5 being Bridge and Neck full respectively.
(e) Remove the capacitor from the Tone pot and wire different-valued capacitors to different single-coil switching positions instead. Of course you also have to find a way to get the capacitor past the Volume pot, which may be impossible
The Jackson Special 5-way switch with 5 totally separate wiring options.
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If you want:
Bridge full
Middle full
Bridge+Middle
Bridge+Neck
Neck split
You can do it with this switch.
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The first thing you'll notice about this switch is the size. It's huge. It's the same width between the screw holes as a standard Fender-style switch, for easy replacement, but it's got 2 disks instead of one, and both disks have 12 prongs each for a total of 24: 20 pickup/knob connections and 4 Outputs to the jack.
There are 10 prongs and 2 outputs on each disk. The 10 prongs are split up into 2 groups of 5, and the selection disk inside the switch connects one prong from each disk to the associated output for that group at all times.
However, to get all 4 groups of 5 working, all 4 Outputs have to be connected.
Normally, these come wired from the factory for standard 5-way operation:
1 (Bridge)
2 (Bridge+Middle)
3 (Middle)
4 (Middle+Neck)
5 (Neck)
To prepare the switch for 5 independent selections, you have to desolder the 2 jumper wires that connect the disks, and the wire that joins prongs 1-5 on disk 2. You can leave the wire that connects the Output prongs, as well as the short jumper on one side that also connects the outputs.
Remember, to get all 4 groups working (all 20 prongs), you have to connect all 4 output prongs to each other.
This is how the first 5 prongs on disk 1 (outer) are set up:
And here we can see both disks and which prongs are joined by the selection disk:
With all 4 outputs connected, and all 4 groups active, the prongs are joined by the selection disc on each disk like this:
1+6
2+7
3+8
4+9
5+10
So, if you had 2 4-conductor humbuckers and wanted:
1=Bridge full
2=Bridge split
3=Both full
4=Neck split
5=Neck full
You'd wire the prongs on disk 1 like this:
1 Bridge full
2 Bridge splitter
3 empty
4 Neck splitter
5 Neck full
6 to Prong 8
7 empty
8 from Prong 6
9 empty
10 empty
That's a fairly simple wiring setup for this switch, and can be done on 1 disk. Just remember to have both outputs on that disk connected to each other so that prongs 6-10 are active.
You're leaving prong 3 (both pickups full) empty because prong 3 is duplicated as prong 8, and since prong 6 is the duplicate of prong 1, connecting 6 to 8 is the same as connecting both 1 and 5 to 3.
Obviously there's some things this switch can't do, because you're still limited to 5 switching options.
This should get you started on figuring out different wiring combinations. I know this switch can be intimidating and at times frustrating to work with if you are going into it for the first time.
You must remember that the switch was split into 4 groups of 5...
