Best control / wiring setup for a strat

[tfarny]

Very few people think the original strat control setup is perfect - a weak, harsh bridge pickup by itself, and with no tone control to boot. I'm going to rewire my strat soon and am probably going to use a mega switch. I'll have the standard three pots, one switch and get:

5-way: first 4 tones as normal, but pos 5 = bridge + middle in series in phase, just have a bucker sound right there with no extra fiddling around. I know these particular pups won't be over-muddy (Troubled Treble's vintage wind set). Master volume, neck tone, bridge tone. Why? You then have one control for pos 1&2, one control for pos 4 & 5, leaving the middle position as "something different"  & increasing the potential range of sounds you can get out of just the switch.

Can you think of a better setup? Must be gig-friendly ie no more complex than a strat already is, no accidental kill positions, etc.

 

[drewfx]

Neck -> Bridge in series might work better than Middle -> Bridge. And if you never use one switch position, replacing that one makes sense.

There are lots of other possibilities out there, but most of them add additional switches. Personally, an additional switch (or push-pull) doesn't bother me - as long as it doesn't make things too confusing. But I won't tolerate "dead positions", have no use for "out of phase" sounds, and it has to be easy to get from one sound to another without too much fiddling. So my W strat has an additional 3-way mini switch next to the 5-way, which adds parallel ("Neck + Bridge" and "All 3") and "Neck -> Bridge" (alone and with Mid) series modes to the "normal" strat mode.

And I'm not sure how you're numbering them, but for whatever reason the convention is position "1" means "bridge alone", and "5" means "neck alone".

 

[line6man]

Wiring two pickups in series is not really the same as a humbucker. Because of the distance between the pickups, there are greater phase differences between the output of each coil.

Personally, I prefer SSH Strats. Having a humbucker at the bridge position solves the problem with the bridge pickup being thin, and it gives more versatility. Also, it has the advantage of being humcancelling.

How exactly is the middle position "something different" with a tone on the neck and bridge?

 

[Cagey]

My current favorite is the standard 5 position Strat switch, with one volume and one tone control. With that, you get bridge, bridge + middle, middle, middle+neck and neck. No matter what you've selected, you have a volume/tone control that doesn't interfere with anything else, a volume/tone control for every pickup/combo choice, and the volume/tone controls are always in the same place so you don't even have to think about them - you can nail 'em in your sleep. The only choices missing are the bridge + neck and all off, which aren't as useful as I'd imagined they'd be. You can use a standard switch instead of the "super switch", which saves you about $15-$20 depending on where you shop. Only problem is you may have to throw $20-$25 at a new pickguard if you've already bought one with three potholes. But, there's always eBay. Price it right, and somebody will want your existing 'guard.

 

[pabloman]

I prefer an HSS strat as well. I wire it with 1 vol. 1 tone and I use a black beauty toggle. It gives me B/MN/N. That's really all I ever need from a strat with HSS. :headbang1:

 

[line6man]

I prefer an HSS strat as well. I wire it with 1 vol. 1 tone and I use a black beauty toggle. It gives me B/BN/N. That's really all I ever need from a strat with HSS. :headbang1:

So you're only using the neck and bridge pickups?
Why not go SXH?

I have my Strat wired with a standard 5 way switch scheme, one volume, one tone, a push/pull series/north coil switch for the humbucker, and a push/pull switch to combine the neck and bridge. I don't much care for neck and bridge or all three pickups.

The SSH Strat I'm building will have a 5 way switch for neck/neck and middle parallel/middle/middle and the north coil of the bridge parallel/bridge with series coils, into a single volume and tone.
I don't intend to use the middle and middle+bridge settings often, but the options are there.

 

[pabloman]

Wow. Sorry. I meant B/MN/N.

 

[tfarny]

How did I play guitars for this long and think the "pos 5" is the bridge alone? Wow. :tard:
Anyhow: bridge + middle in parallel is a key strat sound for me, and going SSH, you mess it up - a big bucker in the bridge doesn't phase cancel against the middle single in quite the same way, and the auto-split option, well - splitting vintage output humbuckers usually sounds terrible.

I know that two strat pickups in series doesn't sound exactly like a PAF, but it is close enough for rock and roll, as far as I'm concerned, and better than strat bridge alone. It's a midrangey higher output soloing sound and it's only really feasible with lower output pickups like I have.
Bridge + neck instead of bridge + middle - hm. I should try both and see. I already own the mega switch.

Leaving the middle out of the tone control equation - what I mean is, you can roll back the neck tone for instance, and then switch from that to middle only for a bright and more cutting tone by moving just one control - more feasible than dialing in the tone control mid-song, for me.

 

[line6man]

How did I play guitars for this long and think the "pos 5" is the bridge alone? Wow. :tard:

I never know whether "position 5" is supposed to be neck or bridge. I call positions 1 and 5 (Or 5 and 1 :dontknow "neck" and "bridge." Very rarely are those positions anything else. It's the other three that vary.

Leaving the middle out of the tone control equation - what I mean is, you can roll back the neck tone for instance, and then switch from that to middle only for a bright and more cutting tone by moving just one control - more feasible than dialing in the tone control mid-song, for me.

I used to do the opposite. I'd keep the middle pickup's tone control rolled down, so I could switch to neck+middle and be mellow.

 

[Justinginn]

As I've used it, Bridge and Middle in series sounds almost the same as Bridge alone with less punch. You lose dynamics and high end snap which makes the whole thing sound muddier and weaker. It seems counter intuitive but that's how it sounds on my guitar. I'd keep the normal setup if I were you. I was super excited about the new positions but I found that series just doesn't sound all that great if it's not really close.

YMMV, I guess. All I can give you is my experiences.

 

[Strat Avenger]

I used a MegaSwitch for years in my Strat, but eventually went back to the standard 5-way.

Then, used the standard 5-way with the Steve Vai Jem wiring configuration (I had a 'bucker at the bridge and a dual rail at the neck, along with a RWRP stock single coil in the middle).

After a few years of that, I've gone back to the standard switch wiring, with one volume control (500k), and both tone controls disconnected. I still have the 'bucker at the bridge, but am now running a set of Area 67s in the middle and neck. I am finally satisfied with it.

 

[tfarny]

As I've used it, Bridge and Middle in series sounds almost the same as Bridge alone with less punch. You lose dynamics and high end snap which makes the whole thing sound muddier and weaker. It seems counter intuitive but that's how it sounds on my guitar. I'd keep the normal setup if I were you. I was super excited about the new positions but I found that series just doesn't sound all that great if it's not really close.

YMMV, I guess. All I can give you is my experiences.

I've had it on a few guitars and that hasn't been my experience at all - when the single coils are high output, it gets muddy, but if they are low output I think the sound you get is most similar to a solid bucker - you do lose dynamics and high end snap but output increases and you get a nice thick midrange.

 

[Cagey]

I still have a megaswitch in my first Warmoth, but I'm not going to need it once I rewire it. I'll probably continue to use that switch just because it's there, but I could easily replace it with a standard Strat-style 5-way.

I have a Hot Rails and two Vintage Noiseless in the bridge/middle/neck holes respectively, and my thinking at the time was that rather than combine the bridge/middle in position 4, and the middle/neck in position 2, I'd just use one coil from each wired in such a way as they'd still be noise-cancelling. So, all 5 positions would be noiseless, but I'd never have two whole pickups in parallel.

Turned out to not be as good in practice as it was in my head. I mean, it works, but it really doesn't sound that good. The individual coils on single coil sized side-by-side or stacked humbuckers just aren't designed to be used individually, even though they bring all the wires out for you to play with.

I remember being pretty excited about the idea at the time, and even bought a handful of megaswitches because the local supply house had a stack of them that weren't moving, so they sold 'em to me at cost ($8 for what's normally about a $25 switch). Thought I was going to wire everything that way.

 

[Cagey]

Very few people think the original strat control setup is perfect - a weak, harsh bridge pickup by itself, and with no tone control to boot. I'm going to rewire my strat soon and am probably going to use a mega switch. I'll have the standard three pots, one switch and get:

5-way: first 4 tones as normal, but pos 5 = bridge + middle in series in phase, just have a bucker sound right there with no extra fiddling around. I know these particular pups won't be over-muddy (Troubled Treble's vintage wind set). Master volume, neck tone, bridge tone. Why? You then have one control for pos 1&2, one control for pos 4 & 5, leaving the middle position as "something different"  & increasing the potential range of sounds you can get out of just the switch.

Can you think of a better setup? Must be gig-friendly ie no more complex than a strat already is, no accidental kill positions, etc.

My current favorite setup is dead simple, and doesn't require a megaswitch. Just do the standard wiring regardless of which pickups you use, put one tone pot on the output, and get rid of the other one. That way you have a volume and tone control no matter what switch position you're in. Y'know - like a Tele, but with three pickups and a 5-way instead of 2 pickups and a 3-way. Why they weren't ever done that way in the first place is a mystery for the ages. Leo loved simplicity, but the Strat wiring has always been a bit goofy.

 

[TBurst Std]

My strat is SSS and what I like best so far is a master vol, master tone, and a blender

 

[Jusatele]

the way I had my controls set up on my AM STD Strat when I put in my Duncans was 1 volume, 1 tone, and 1 dummy
I get confused on stage with the factory setup

 

[TBurst Std]

My strat is SSS and what I like best so far is a master vol, master tone, and a blender

I really like having a tone control for each pup.
Not sure if everyone knows how the blender works:
It blends in either the neck or bridge pup, for which ever one is not part of the circuit at that time.
No lest say you got neck and middle, yes, you can blend in the bridge pup as desired. ETC

 

[line6man]

My strat is SSS and what I like best so far is a master vol, master tone, and a blender

I really like having a tone control for each pup.
Not sure if everyone knows how the blender works:
It blends in either the neck or bridge pup, for which ever one is not part of the circuit at that time.
No lest say you got neck and middle, yes, you can blend in the bridge pup as desired. ETC

Blend pots, IMO, are a terrible idea in a passive setup. Blend pots usually don't blend evenly, especially with dissimilar impedances. You get insertion loss at the center detent, too.
They also give you a variable impedance loading effect, as a resistance is placed parallel to the pickups that varies with the position of the pot. A simple pickup selector switch and master volume gives you a constant impedance load from the volume pot, and no extra resistance from having extra pots parallel.

 

[Cagey]

I agree. I had a "blender" pot on a Fender Strat some years back, and not only did it play games with the sound, I just couldn't find a good use for it. The idea sounds good, but the reality leaves something to be desired.

 

[TBurst Std]

Guess I am stupid, I love mine. Works great for the setting I play in live.