A strat wiring question

GreenKnee · Post by **GreenKnee** » Tue Feb 07, 2012 11:58 am

Just a quick question about altering the wiring on my 2011 Am Standard Strat.

I would like the tone control closest to the volume control to control the neck and middle pickup, and the tone control closest to the jack to just control the bridge pickup.

This is because I find the 'strat' tone comes through best with both tone controls on full, but if I use the bridge pickup alone with the tone control on full it sounds far too ice picky. So I generally leave this control on the indented position; about 6. Then if I go for the neck and middle pickup position, I have to quickly knock the tone back up to ten, as the strat 'quack' disappears. It isn't really a problem for practicing at home, but at gigs it is dificult for me to change pickup, tone control, and also pressing various pedals at once to go from heavy drive sound, to chimey clean.

Any help is greatly appreciated, thanks

DaveB · Post by **DaveB** » Wed Feb 08, 2012 4:21 am

I'm not sure of the 2011 wiring on a Strat. Traditionally, Strats didn't come with tone control on the bridge. All you had to do was jumper where the middle pickup tone control wire was to the bridge connection on the switch (What you have now). If they are using a jumper wire for the bridge pickup, you have to disconnect the the jumper at the bridge end and move it over to the neck connection. Then the neck and middle are now connected to the same pot. The wire that goes to the middle connection on the switch has to be disconnected and soldered to the bridge connection by itself. Shit, I don't know why I haven't done this yet.

robroe · Post by **robroe** » Wed Feb 08, 2012 4:41 am

SOLUTION: FUCK YOUR STRAT AND TURN IT INTO A DUO-CASTER

2 PICKUPS, 2 VOLUMES, 1 TOGGLEY, FUCK AN TONE KNOB.

FENDER WAS ALL LIKE WOAH ROBROE PUT AMP KNOBS ON HIS STRATS WE ARE GONNA COPY THAT AND PUT THEM MAKE A WHOLE NEW LINE OF BLACKTOP FENDERS AND THEN EPIC FAIL BY NOT MAKING BLACKTOP DUO CASTERS. DUMBASSES

robroe · Post by **robroe** » Wed Feb 08, 2012 4:44 am

do you want quack or not?

duckbucker?

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/accessor ... ker-pickup

i got one in the bridge of my bronco and it fucking rules.

after you rip off all the bullshit giant plastic covering it fits into a solid plastic cover. (with a rubber mallet, a towel, and some love)

the cover now hangs in my workshop tied up to my lightbulb in the basement as a badge of honor of a crazy mod that wasn't supposed to work but turned out amazing.

chemistforhire · Post by **chemistforhire** » Wed Feb 08, 2012 2:55 pm

I have mine wired with a master volume, master tone and a blender that allows me to blend in either the neck or the bridge pickup whenever either are not on in the standard wiring scheme .

So with the blender off you get the standard strat wiring scheme with the added feature of a master tone knob.

With the blender on you get these new options.

1. Neck pickup + Blended in bridge pickup (you decide how much of it you want on by turning the blender knob)

2. Neck + middle + blended in bridge

3. Middle (no blending possible in this position)

4. Middle + bridge + blended in neck (same blender knob controls the neck when bridge is on and vice versa)

5. Bridge + blended in neck

My Strat (96 MIM, blue neck, silver middle and red bridge lace sensor pickups)

Wiring diagrams
What the blender does visually

Blender wiring diagram

GreenKnee · Post by **GreenKnee** » Thu Feb 09, 2012 7:24 am

Definitely need the strat quack, and the pickups are great as they are, so I'm not planning on swapping them out. The bridge pickup sounds perfect with the tone at about 6 where the pot has an indent. But this then muddys up the middle pickup a little as they are on the same tone control. I thought because I don't really use the other tone control for neck, I could use that one for neck and middle pickups, and let the bridge have its own tone control.

Jack