Wiring

Pick the voicing you're building and you'll get its bench-side wiring reference: the selector map, connection points, and the published harness.

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Relay Velvet uses a five-way blade for its GFS Professional Series Alnico II bridge and neck humbuckers and its GFS Retrotron Nashville middle pickup. Position 3, the Nashville alone, is the main Velvet voice. An A500k master volume controls the output without a treble bleed. The A500k push-pull tone pot works as a standard tone control with a 22 nF capacitor; its switch is not used in this revision.

Relay Velvet wiring reference · Rev 1.0 · October 1, 2026

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Relay Velvet wiring diagram showing Alnico II bridge and neck humbuckers, a Retrotron Nashville middle pickup, standard five-way contacts, the unused tone push-pull, rear-view A500k volume and tone controls, five operating states, and common ground.

The five-way blade is shown as a functional contact map, not the physical lug layout of a particular switch. Identify the contacts on the parts in hand with a continuity meter. The diagram's colored paths show circuit roles, not guaranteed GFS lead colors.

What each switch position does

Five-way bladeSelected pickups
1 — BridgeAlnico II bridge humbucker
2 — Bridge + middleAlnico II bridge + Nashville in parallel
3 — MiddleRetrotron Nashville alone
4 — Neck + middleAlnico II neck + Nashville in parallel
5 — NeckAlnico II neck humbucker

Position 3 is the main Velvet destination. The tone push-pull has no effect on the sound in this revision; its switch lugs are reserved for a future Velvet focus contour.

Parts and lead identification

  • Bridge: GFS Professional Series Alnico II humbucker, wired full series.
  • Middle: GFS Retrotron Nashville, with hot, return, and shield or case ground as supplied.
  • Neck: GFS Professional Series Alnico II humbucker, wired full series.
  • Controls: Standard five-way blade, A500k master volume without a treble bleed, A500k push-pull master tone, 22 nF (0.022 µF, 223) tone capacitor, and mono output jack.

Use the supplied guide for each pickup's actual lead version and confirm with a meter; wire colors are not interchangeable across pickup models. On each humbucker, insulate an unused single split lead, or join and insulate the two separate series ends when the pickup supplies those instead. Keep a separate case or shield lead grounded.

Connection map

Match the boxed labels in the diagram. Every GND symbol belongs to one common ground network.

NodeConnect these points
B-H, M-H, N-HBridge, middle, and neck pickup hot leads to their five-way selector throws. The selector connects them to its common in the five positions above.
BUSFive-way common ↔ A500k volume input ↔ A500k tone input. The tone feed comes from the volume input, not the wiper.
OUTVolume wiper to mono output-jack tip. No treble-bleed component bridges BUS and OUT.
Tone branchBUS to tone pot CCW end; tone wiper (T-W) through the 22 nF capacitor to GND. Leave the tone pot CW end unused.
Push-pull switchLeave A1, A2, A3, B1, B2, and B3 unconnected and insulated.
GNDPickup returns and separate shields/cases, volume CCW lug, tone-cap return, pot cases, conductive selector chassis, cavity shield, bridge/string ground, and jack sleeve.

Pot orientation: In the rear view with shafts pointing away and solder lugs down, the physical left/center/right terminals are CW/wiper/CCW. The volume's left/center/right lugs are BUS/OUT/GND. The tone's left/center/right lugs are unused/capacitor/BUS. Both knobs should brighten or increase level when turned clockwise.

Build outline

  1. Shield the cavity first. Velvet is meant to stay exposed and clean, so start with shielding before you mount anything.
  2. Identify the pickup leads and the actual five-way contacts by continuity.
  3. Build the full five-way harness on the bench: pickups to the selector, selector common to BUS, the A500k volume, the A500k tone branch fed from BUS, the 22 nF capacitor, and the output jack. Leave the push-pull switch lugs open and insulate all unused pickup series-junction leads.
  4. Run one clean ground scheme: tie shielding, pickup returns and shields, pot cases, the volume CCW lug, the capacitor return, and the jack sleeve into one ground network.
  5. Install the harness only after it passes the meter check and tap test. The cavity is the wrong place to discover a bad selector joint.

Bench checks

  • Meter the five-way selector: BUS must connect only to bridge, bridge + middle, middle, neck + middle, or neck in the listed positions. Position 3 should connect only to the middle pickup.
  • With volume full up, measure between jack tip and sleeve. Expect roughly 8.6 kΩ in position 1, 8.0 kΩ in position 3, and 7.6 kΩ in position 5, with positions 2 and 4 reading lower because the pickups are in parallel. Measure the isolated pickups rather than treating these readings as pass/fail limits. At volume zero, the tip should reach ground.
  • Tap-test each pickup at low amplifier volume. The Retrotron Nashville must be isolated in position 3 and blended only in positions 2 and 4.
  • Turn both knobs from stop to stop. Clockwise should increase volume and brighten the tone.