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80K
OUTPUT
INPUT
80K
Y          Y               v                 v
B. Hosang 1449 Images
Inspection and Work Progress

Page 12  ---  Danelectro 1449 and 1457 Guitar Schematics and circuit logic:
COMPARE THESE NOTES WITH SCHEMATICS FURTHER BELOW:

REAR PICKUP ONLY ON:  The switch internal circuit for the Rear Pickup on alone, connects the circuit-null wire-gathering lug of the Front pickup's volume pot, to provide a path for the Rear pickup's signal to go from that null gathering lug through the switch to the output jack.  The rear pickup's tone pot taps the filter cap to ground via the circuit-null wire-gathering lug of the rear pickup's volume pot and then back to the tone pot's casing.  With the switch in the Rear pickup position the front pickup leads are looped / shorted / grounded back upon themselves through the switch to the circuit-null wire-gathering lug of the Front pickup's volume pot, and there is no ground for the Front pickup's tone filter cap tap with the switch in the Rear position.

FRONT PICKUP ONLY ON:  The switch internal circuit for the Front Pickup on alone, connects ground to the circuit-null wire-gathering lug of the Front volume pot, killing the rear pickup soldered there and providing a route to ground for the front pickup and it's tone pot filter cap.

BOTH PICKUPS ON:  The switch internal circuit for both pickups on becomes fully open and does nothing at all but stop grounding the Front or Rear circuit and thus enables the whole genius circuit that loops both pickups in series and affords all their pots to operate independently !  The Rear pickup's "+" sine lead is connected to the Front pickup's "-" sine lead at the circuit-null wire-gathering lug on the front pickup's volume pot, creating the series loop.  Any setting of any volume or tone pot acts like a balance control to bleed tone caps to ground and bleed the rear pickup to ground and bleed the front pickup's volume "+" sine lead back into it's own "-" sine lead !  A genius means to control the entire circuit without having dynamic impedence irregularities feeding back through ground loops.  ~~~~~~~  At the bottom of this page I have posted my method of making 2 or more Danelectro pickups real humbucking pairs.
For techs that might be interested in Nate Daniel's genius guitar wiring;  You might want to take a look at his wiring and switching logic for his 3 pickup Dane guitars I provide here.  That sucker took me and several other techs weeks to figure out ....and it has functions that are pure genius.


How I make 2 or more Danelectro pickups humbucking to each other:  I create real humbucking by slowly / carefully removing the lipstick tubes of one pickup (ORIGINAL VINTAGE Dano pickups are not wax potted but are black tape "potted") and flipping the internal taped guts 180 degrees so the magnetic pole faces up opposite the other pickup, ....then simply wire the pickup leads in reverse which puts it's signal polarity back in phase.  I keep them wired in series.  Humbucking DOES NOT require reverse winding but only reverse wiring to put the signal back in phase with the now-reversed magnet.  To make sure it's correct, hook each pickup up to a volt / ohm meter and set the meter on the smallest DC volt range;  Then pass a medium size screwdriver shaft just above the top of the pickup and see if the meter needle swings positive upscale or negative below zero.  If the pickup's voltage swings positive, then the pickup lead connected to the meter's positive lead are indeed both positive, so put a piece of masking tape on that pickup lead to identify it's coil polarity (or tie a loose knot in it like you see on old Danelectros).  If a pickup's voltage swings negative, then the pickup lead connected to the meter's negative lead is the pickup's positive lead, ....so mark it also.  If in doubt change the pickup leads around on the meter leads until you know for sure which pickup lead swings the meter in the positive / upscale direction identifying that pickup lead as the positive sine lead for wiring polarity reference.
If a replacement switch is 'double throw' it will have 2 separate isolated internal circuits that both do the same thing via the switch handle operating 2 separate switch blades contacting a separate set of contacts & lugs.  In a strong interference field such as flourescent lights and such, the switch handle can act like an antennae and radiate noise from the unused internal switch blade to the closely located and closely aligned blade in use;  So it's good practice to ground unused switch blades to a strong ground.  That's easily done by grounding the common lug of the unused blade to the ground lug on the side of the switch being used ....as shown below.
( Bottom view )
Pickup leads are shielded with woven shielding sleeves and grounded to the
lipstick tube or it's mounts and to the back of their respective volume pot casings. If there are 3 wires, one should be ground, so use a meter to find the ground wire's continuity with the lipstick casing, or find the two pickup lead wires by reading their coil resistance ( 4K to 5k ohms ).
HOW THE CONCENTRIC POTS ARE COUPLED:
The pot casings are conjoined so grounding to the tone pot will also ground to the volume pot, as will mounting the collar to a case ground such as a foil shield, or metal pick guard, etc.
Center shaft.
Sleeve shaft.
Knobs
Pots
WORTHY OF NOTE:

It is not uncommon for even guitar techs to be confused by what sometimes looks like 2 lugs of a pot or switch wired backwards ...ie wires or wire-colors wired backward from a schematic or what they're used to seeing;  But we must remember that in many cases either side of the tap of a pot can be wired backwards and still have the same function, because the resistance between the tap and either side of the tap's 'Y' internal circuit will be the same no matter if the wires are reversed:

Hypothetical Examples:
INPUT
OUTPUT
POWER
GROUND
20K
20K
100K POTS (80/20 knob setting)
GROUNDED
APPLIANCE
GROUNDED
APPLIANCE
POWERED
APPLIANCE
POWERED
APPLIANCE
APPLIANCE
POWER
ON-OFF-ON SWITCHES
The reason I mention the above is because as much as I've tried over the years to determine a "standard" point to point scheme of wiring and color codes used at the original Danelectro factory, I have not been able to.  I have seen different point to point connections (that function the same) on same-model guitars;  And different color codes on same-model guitars.  The differing wire colors and points the factory wired to are probably because they had different electronic ideas and production-process ideas from time to time.  And of course many guitars have been rewired to owners or techs desires.
Wipers and
resistor plates.
Click Here for some good views of a concentric pot taken apart for repair (from my repair jobs archives).
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When magnet polarity is reversed then the coil leads also react in opposite polarity;  So ensure that the N-up P'up coil leads get reversed from original so that the P'up gets back in phase with the S-up P'up leads.
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( This is Denny's humbucking modification ordered by Customer for this guitar ).
Single Throw / Triple Pole
This was Nate's genius way of grounding out the empty parallel channel so that the switch shaft's contact with it would not become a noise antennae, in a manner that would not ground out the operating channel in the switch !
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Mounting collar and nuts.
CLICK HERE to see this ST1449's and other Danelectros original schematics and electronics info.