Anyone else wired their Strat like this?

Philly_Q

Octafish said:

Philly_Q said:

Octafish said:

Yeah I've got 3 Strats with the bridge/neck pickup combination, its a great sound and somewhat Tele. I've wired mine all using a superswitch which means I can have the bridge/neck combination in place of the bridge/mid position and everything else stays in the same place.

I think that was the wiring scheme on the (now discontinued?) '50s Classic Player Strat.  And it's fairly easily modified to decide which of the standard positions 2 or 4 you lose in favour of bridge/neck.

Strange that this should come up and also mention the TwangBanger, I have one of those and a pair of Alnico IIs I intend to use in this wiring scheme... eventually.  Not sure which guitar they'll go in though.

Do it! Twangbanger is Alnico 2 isn't it, should go well with the other pickups.

Yes, it is Alnico II, I think they should match well!

I've also got a bridge I ordered from Callaham which is three brass Tele saddles on a hardtail Strat baseplate, which gets a bit closer to the Strat/Tele hybrid, although it's still quite different from having the pickup actually attached to the bridge like on a Tele.

Octafish

Dominic said:

Funnily enough ;I think middle on its own is very overlooked on Strat use ......sometimes it gives a sweeter lead sound and not too ice-pick sounding when playing a cleanish lead 

Totally agree. Anyone who's a Hendrix fan will know he used the middle pickup quite a bit. Funny thing is when I first got a Strat, it was a Squier with ceramic pickups and the middle position didn't sound that interesting. When I got my first proper Strat with Alnicos I was taken back with how good the middle position sounded.

richardhomer

Dave_Vader said:

I've got a little switch that turns the neck pickup on (like Knopfler/Gilmour did) so I can get all 3 (very phasey) and the N+b.
I appreciate many don't want to drill holes in their scratchplates though.

Knopfler's Schecter 'Strats' had three mini toggles in place of the blade switch (which had the potential to silence the guitar if they were all 'off' - so not great in a live situation).

The easiest mod to add the neck and bridge together or 'all on' options, is to replace one of the tones with a push/pull pot which brings the neck pick-up in, regardless of where the five way is set. No more fiddly to use than a mini toggle and it keeps the guitar looking stock.

normula1

I use an S1 switch. in the up position everything works as normal apart from the lower tone which is only active when the bridge is solely selected, In the down position the neck / middle swaps to neck & bridge with only the lower tone control active, and the centre selection is all three on the upper tone control.
I've also fitted a base plate to the bridge pickup and whilst it does change the sound, I think it takes something away from the regular Strat tone. 

olafgarten

I think a 4 Way switch and a push pull is a good option, you can have the switch wired for a Mute -> Bridge -> Bridge and Neck -> Neck and then have the middle on a push pull. 

Dave_Vader

richardhomer said:

Dave_Vader said:

I've got a little switch that turns the neck pickup on (like Knopfler/Gilmour did) so I can get all 3 (very phasey) and the N+b.
I appreciate many don't want to drill holes in their scratchplates though.

Knopfler's Schecter 'Strats' had three mini toggles in place of the blade switch (which had the potential to silence the guitar if they were all 'off' - so not great in a live situation).

The easiest mod to add the neck and bridge together or 'all on' options, is to replace one of the tones with a push/pull pot which brings the neck pick-up in, regardless of where the five way is set. No more fiddly to use than a mini toggle and it keeps the guitar looking stock.

True, but I already had a little toggle switch lying about back when I did this, so it cost me nowt.

I'm not keen on push/pull pots because I can't see if they're on or off easily. I realise if I had any kind of memory left this wouldn't be a problem.

hotpot

I got one of those pre-assembled Gilmour scratchplate from ironstones a few years ago, the ‘Gilmour mod’ (neck and bridge pickups in parallel) sounds really damn good & the 3 way toggle switch also operates a ‘Bridge in Series’ pickup configuration.

thebreeze

normula1 said:

I use an S1 switch. in the up position everything works as normal apart from the lower tone which is only active when the bridge is solely selected, In the down position the neck / middle swaps to neck & bridge with only the lower tone control active, and the centre selection is all three on the upper tone control.
I've also fitted a base plate to the bridge pickup and whilst it does change the sound, I think it takes something away from the regular Strat tone. 

Is that what they did with the Fender "the Strat" which they brought out 1980-83?  I have one which has 9 different tone choices in all (the bridge is the same on each circuit, so 5 normal and 4 others (bridge being the same)).  I've never understood quite what was happening where (particularly in the un-normal position) but the neck alone, in normal, sounds amazing as does position 2 in un-normal.  

Maybe someone who knows more can fully explain?

Please don't take this as an underhand attempt at FS (you'll see I haven't bumped for months) because I really don't care if I sell it or not but if you'd like to see the guitar I'm talking about it's here:

http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/76484/

Rowby1

mudslide73 said:

I swapped to neck/bridge but put it back as I like the 2 and 4 positions so much. The only mod I have is a tone on the bridge but not middle. 

Same here, bridge def needs a tone control and I never (well, rarely anyway) use the middle on its own.