X-Bridge with rotary switch

[banchan]

I'm putting together a dream electric at the moment, and part of my plan is installing one of my X-Bridges. The body is a Squier Jagmaster (2 HB, 1 vol, 1 tone, 1 switch). There's not much room for additional switches, pots or jacks, unfortunately. Despite having read the X-Bridge's installation documentation dozens of times now, I'm hoping beyond hope that there's some way that I can wire the X-Bridge through the mags' switch, volume and tone. I realize that doesn't usually work, but is there any chance it'd be possible if I use a rotary switch?

I'm looking for a mono output, with one of the rotary selections being the X-Bridge. I do have the Ctrl-X, and I don't mind cannibalizing it if need be. I don't plan to blend the mag and piezo signals.

Any chance it can be done? (insert pray icon here)

[Caleb_Elling]

Hey banchan,
There's quite a bit involved with this that would make th setup difficult.

It is possible to run the X-Bridge on the existing pickup selector switch in the guitar. However, you would never be able to have the mags and the Piezo going to a mono output at the same time. If both sources were combined, the mags would load down the Piezo and severely alter the output level and the tone of both sources.

Since you would only have 1 Volume, 1 Tone, you would want to run those after the switch (I assume). The X-Bridge usually uses a 5Meg Volume pot and no tone, in order to preserve the tone of the bridge as much as possible. Most magnetic pickups sound best with 250k or 500k pots, which would not work as well with the X-Bridge. So that could be a problem.

If you want to implement the CTRL-X, you might be able to do something, but modding the CTRL-X in not my area of expertise. I might be able to get Bryan to help out, if you want to attempt to go that route. If you don't have a lot of space in the control cavity though, then the CTRL-X might not even fit.

When you use a Piezo bridge, it can add a lot of complexity pretty quickly, as I'm sure you've experienced. If you want a minimal setup, with a Piezo bridge, in mono, without an onboard preamp, it gets really hard to balance those features.

I'll have Bryan check in, and see if he has any additional ideas.