NPD New strat stuff + HELP:Wiring help please

Mkjackary

In the process of converting an extraordinarily nice fender am deluxe strat into a more vintage style strat, I have got new (true single coil-not hum cancelling) pickups, new non fancy wiring (no S1 switch), and some plastics to make everything match.

Three packages here, one from a lot earlier, I have a set of oil city staggered triple blues, very fast winding/delivery, great service too, can't wait to wire them in!

Also won some wooden plectrums to shape/make from crimson guitars that look a lot nicer than I thought they would, will update on how they play when I get a chance.

Then the others are a delivery from thomann;

Fender aged white plastics set,

Montreux wiring kit with custom cts pots, crl switch, switchcraft jack and loads of other goodies, not much about these online but they come with very nice vintage cloth wire, solder, and even a colour wiring diagram.

Mkjackary

Okay, some comments, first of all nowhere near enough solder in the montreux kit, I had some left over but barely enough to finish it, and as such some of it is rather messy. the capacitor is fucking massive. the wire is single core, I ended up using the offcuts from the oil city pickups for almost all of it, however when I went to use montreux kit wire I found it was single core.

Now I Have finished the wiring and due to running out of solder I couldnt fix many of the messy looking solder joints so dont judge me. I plan on getting some more tomorrow and tidying it up a bit.

Now the problem; the tone for the neck works, when using the lowest (closest to jack socket) tone knob, and the middle tone knob (for bridge and middle) doesnt work at all. Any ideas where I went wrong? Isn't the middle tone knob meant to control the neck and the lowest control the bridge and middle?

Mkjackary

Moved to making and modding, any ideas on where I went wrong?

ICBM

It's hard to see exactly what you've done even in the enlarged pic, but it looks like you may have wired the connections from the switch to the tone pots wrong.

The furthest back terminal on the switch needs to go to the middle (neck pickup) tone pot, and the next one up to the lower (middle pickup) tone pot, ie the wires 'cross over'.

You haven't wired a tone control for the bridge pickup at all - that's the unused terminal on the switch. (Standard in vintage Strat wiring.) The wrong tone control should still work on the middle pickup though. If you do want a tone control for the bridge pickup, join the unused terminal to the middle pickup one.

Mkjackary

ICBM said:

It's hard to see exactly what you've done even in the enlarged pic, but it looks like you may have wired the connections from the switch to the tone pots wrong.

The furthest back terminal on the switch needs to go to the middle (neck pickup) tone pot, and the next one up to the lower (middle pickup) tone pot, ie the wires 'cross over'.

You haven't wired a tone control for the bridge pickup at all - that's the unused terminal on the switch. (Standard in vintage Strat wiring.) The wrong tone control should still work on the middle pickup though. If you do want a tone control for the bridge pickup, join the unused terminal to the middle pickup one.

Ahh okay, yes I did not cross over those wires, should be a fairly easy fix, If I connected the terminal for the neck tone control (furthest back on crl switch) to the middle pickups terminal and then to the middle tone knob. and then ran a cable from the unused terminal to the lower tone knob, I would then get one tone knob for the neck and middle and one for the bridge shouldn't I?

ICBM

Mkjackary said:

Ahh okay, yes I did not cross over those wires, should be a fairly easy fix, If I connected the terminal for the neck tone control (furthest back on crl switch) to the middle pickups terminal and then to the middle tone knob. and then ran a cable from the unused terminal to the lower tone knob, I would then get one tone knob for the neck and middle and one for the bridge shouldn't I?

Yes. You're probably not alone in thinking this would be more useful, too . The only slight disadvantage is that both tone controls will then work in the bridge/middle position.

If you never use the middle pickup by itself - a lot of people don't - you can simply leave the middle pickup with no tone control by not linking that terminal to either of the others, which gives you one each for both the neck and bridge pickups, and the neck/middle and bridge/middle positions.

Lots of ways to wire a Strat...

Mkjackary

ICBM;564883" said:

Mkjackary said:Ahh okay, yes I did not cross over those wires, should be a fairly easy fix, If I connected the terminal for the neck tone control (furthest back on crl switch) to the middle pickups terminal and then to the middle tone knob. and then ran a cable from the unused terminal to the lower tone knob, I would then get one tone knob for the neck and middle and one for the bridge shouldn't I?Yes. You're probably not alone in thinking this would be more useful, too . The only slight disadvantage is that both tone controls will then work in the bridge/middle position.

If you never use the middle pickup by itself - a lot of people don't - you can simply leave the middle pickup with no tone control by not linking that terminal to either of the others, which gives you one each for both the neck and bridge pickups, and the neck/middle and bridge/middle positions.

Lots of ways to wire a Strat...

If I disconnected the wire going to the middle terminal from the pot, and the only wire on the terminal was linking it to the neck terminal (which then went to neck tone pot) wouldn't the bridge have its own tone, and the neck and middle have their own tone. or would the middle still have two tones.

I know, I can't believe strats came wired without a bridge tone, if anything that is the pickup that needs it most.

ICBM

Mkjackary said:

If I disconnected the wire going to the middle terminal from the pot, and the only wire on the terminal was linking it to the neck terminal (which then went to neck tone pot) wouldn't the bridge have its own tone, and the neck and middle have their own tone. or would the middle still have two tones.

Each pickup on its own will only have one tone control, but the bridge/middle position will still have two tones because both pickups are connected to both tone controls via the switch.

Mkjackary said:

I know, I can't believe strats came wired without a bridge tone, if anything that is the pickup that needs it most.

The original idea was to give three preset tones, with the bridge pickup being the always-trebly lead sound, the middle for normal rhythm playing and the neck for bassy sounds, so it makes sense if you use it like that. I played in a couple of 50s-style rock'n'roll bands and it really is what you want. The concept of the neck pickup for lead and the bridge for crunchy overdriven sounds hadn't occurred then.

Mkjackary

Okay really wired it and it works brilliantly now, I thought in position 4 I would have one tone to control the bridge and one to control the middle, but both controlled both. And if one is fully rolled off then it doesn't make a difference if you roll off the second, because there is only one cap.

I really like this wiring because you can have mildly rolled off neck and other tones but if you want to switch to the bridge you can have it on full, or the other way round, if I was using that as a warmer rhythm and the neck/middle as a lead

Also, the reason the second tone didn't work was because I wrapped one of the wires round the terminal, but mist have forgotten to solder it! And there I was thinking I might need to replace a burnt out potentiometer.

streethawk

Mkjackary said:

Okay really wired it and it works brilliantly now, I thought in position 4 I would have one tone to control the bridge and one to control the middle, but both controlled both. And if one is fully rolled off then it doesn't make a difference if you roll off the second, because there is only one cap.

Yeah you need active electronics to get individual tone controls in the inbetween positions (so to speak).

Congrats by the way! 

Mkjackary

streethawk;568525" said:

Mkjackary said:

Okay really wired it and it works brilliantly now, I thought in position 4 I would have one tone to control the bridge and one to control the middle, but both controlled both. And if one is fully rolled off then it doesn't make a difference if you roll off the second, because there is only one cap.












Yeah you need active electronics to get individual tone controls in the inbetween positions (so to speak).

Congrats by the way! 

Yeah, really impressed it looks half neat and works just as I want, considering it is my first ever wiring job. Second ever time using a soldering iron haha