Strat Bridge Baseplate and Tone Mod

Niallmo

Squier Deluxe Strat with Duncan Designed SC-101 vintage style pickups.

Ordered the 'plate from @theguitarweasel, dead easy to install and wire. Wanted Bridge tone at same time so moved the bottom tone wire one lug across on the 5-way. Took more time to slacken and re-tighten the strings to and from pitch than doing the two mods!

This is by far the best thing I have done to a Strat. Bridge was beefier and truly fat without taking away the character, yes, more like a Tele bridge sound but seeming to take away the very high scratchy treble that effected this pickup and made it more rounded as a whole. It's made it very usuable for drive sounds too and in the bridge middle it's worked wonders to retain the classic sound with a softer edge that's very nice indeed.

Now then, what would adding the 'plate to ALL the pickups sound like?

I was going to put Lipstick pickups in the Squier SE I just bought before stupidly remembering I was going to get a HarleyBenton instead. So; maybe the SE gets three 'plates and I order a Strat from Thomann for the other Pickups...



I've got a couple of reviews to do as well...

exocet

Tried the baseplate option twice before and found it to make a marginal difference on 60's style strat pickups. I found a much more effective mod is to solder a 820 pF capacitor directly across the output wires of the pickup. It shifts the resonant peak down a couple of KHz and makes it tonally similar to a P90. You can experiment with different values to taste but in my experience it's much more effective than a baseplate. Here is the theory http://www.buildyourguitar.com/resources/lemme/

WezV

I have played guitars with baseplates on all three just as Leo intended.

To me the Bridge position was always the weak one and the baaeplate solves it. But I have always liked mid as nd neck the way they were so don't find it adds anything. If you want those positions fatter then add a baseplate