Strat wiring variations

aord43

So there are a number of different strat wiring options, I was wondering what people thought of them - from simple "apply tone to the bridge pickup" to various push/pull and blend options, and the special Fender double pot TBX tone control.
What are your experiences, do you find them worthwhile?

Lebarque

One tone control for the bridge and the other for the middle and neck. BUT... it always bugged me that the 'in between' positions sound a little less present and quieter than the others, so I use a superswitch to remove the tone pots from just these positions. Works a treat. I got the idea from Scott Henderson if I recall correctly.

streethawk

You could also leave the middle pickup wide open, tone on neck and bridge. Jimmie Vaughan style. Some find it even enhances the quack positions. 

I find the blender circuit quite useful with a no load pot. 

aord43

Lebarque said:

One tone control for the bridge and the other for the middle and neck. BUT... it always bugged me that the 'in between' positions sound a little less present and quieter than the others, so I use a superswitch to remove the tone pots from just these positions. Works a treat. I got the idea from Scott Henderson if I recall correctly.

Thanks - lots of reading about the superswitch now!

normula1

On all mine I wire the lower tone control to tame the bridge and the upper tone control for the other four positions. on a couple I've also got an S1 switch that changes position 4 from neck / middle to neck / bridge and position 3 from middle to all three.

And on Strat that's in the process of being revitalised I'll be having positions  1,2,4,& 5 as normal and position 3 being neck & bridge.

aord43

normula1 said:

On all mine I wire the lower tone control to tame the bridge and the upper tone control for the other four positions. on a couple I've also got an S1 switch that changes position 4 from neck / middle to neck / bridge and position 3 from middle to all three.

And on Strat that's in the process of being revitalised I'll be having positions  1,2,4,& 5 as normal and position 3 being neck & bridge.

I was thinking of doing what you have now, using a push/pull to bring in the Bridge, and changing the tone to work on the Bridge.

thegummy

I really love the sound of the neck and bridge and think that's well worth doing if you like it too.

aord43

thegummy said:

I really love the sound of the neck and bridge and think that's well worth doing if you like it too.

I don't know if I will like it until I have done it

thegummy

aord43 said:

thegummy said:

I really love the sound of the neck and bridge and think that's well worth doing if you like it too.

I don't know if I will like it until I have done it

I decided to install it cause on another guitar I have with HH config and a coil split, I loved the centre position with the coil split and on the strat it's even nicer

bbill335

thegummy said:

I really love the sound of the neck and bridge and think that's well worth doing if you like it too.

I know most people use a blender pot for this; is that simply because there's a pot there already and it maintains the classic look? I think I'd rather have a no load master tone and a toggle switch to bring in the bridge on the 4/5 positions (or the neck on 1/2). 

What toggle switch could do the job? Spst?

thegummy

bbill335 said:

thegummy said:

I really love the sound of the neck and bridge and think that's well worth doing if you like it too.

I know most people use a blender pot for this; is that simply because there's a pot there already and it maintains the classic look? I think I'd rather have a no load master tone and a toggle switch to bring in the bridge on the 4/5 positions (or the neck on 1/2). 

What toggle switch could do the job? Spst?

I used the blender pot and exactly for the reason you mentioned - that it's already there.

It was actually a bit cumbersome having to turn a pot to 10 and a toggle switch would be a lot better. I looked into the S1 switch but thought it was a ripoff.

As far as I can tell, an SPST would work as you'd just connect the neck (or bridge) directly to the output via the toggle then use it to break or make the connection. I hesitate to give advice though as I'm very much a novice when it comes to this.

ICBM

I eventually came to the conclusion that a simple master volume and tone (250K Log pots, 0.047uF cap) setup with the five standard sounds and an overwound bridge pickup sounds the best to me - I'm not really a fan of the bridge/middle position usually, but a fatter bridge pickup helps stop it sounding so thin. Ideally with a custom pickguard with the volume control further away from the strings, but not as far down as where the first tone control is.

I can't stand any of the Fender 'special tone circuit' nonsense, not one of them sounds as good as a simple pot and cap, and all of them have irritating side-effects, mostly clicks as the knob reaches the detent, or when switching pickups.

I did once like the idea of a Strat/Tele hybrid with the neck+bridge in the 'bridge+middle' position, one tone control for the two 'Tele' sounds and one for the three 'Strat sounds, but it's just unnecessarily complicated and doesn't sound like a Tele anyway.

Funkfingers

ICBM said:

I can't stand any of the Fender 'special tone circuit' nonsense, not one of them sounds as good as a simple pot and cap, and all of them have irritating side-effects, mostly clicks as the knob reaches the detent, or when switching pickups.

I sympathise with this view.

I have a 2012 Fender Tele-bration model guitar that, in my opinion, was ruined by the inclusion of a No-Load tone control. Too much harsh top end. No, not the Roy Buchanan squawk thang. Just a surfeit of ear fatiguing high frequencies. 

After converting to a high quality regular A250k pot, normality was restored. I am now tempted to upgrade the selector switch for a Jerry Donahue or Dan Armstrong "half-out-of-phase" circuit.