Best control / wiring setup for a strat

[tfarny]

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.

Except they are not talking about blender pots, they are talking about using a regular pot in a "blend circuit" which for me doesn't do as much as I expected it would - "all three" and "bridge neck" on a strat just aren't all that unique in the guitar I've tried that in.

BTW - the most useful "non-standard" wiring option that I like is two pickups in series but out-of-phase. I've had this in two guitars now - you get about the same volume as two-in-parallel in phase, but with an extra dose of stratty quack. My tele with a bucker neck and area T bridge sounds like a strat with an auto-wah in that position. Really unique and also useful. I'll admit it was kind of terrible in a baritone though...

 

[Cagey]

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

No, you're not stupid. Some things work better for some people than they do for others, that's all. If that were not true, then there'd only be one model of guitar, one setup and one style of hardware/pickups/control schemes/etc. that everybody used. Wouldn't be much fun then, right? Trying to create original music would be like trying to reinvent water, and everybody would sound like Coldplay or The Partridge Family or some other such pabulum <grin>

Yeah. We're badass.​

 

[TBurst Std]

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

No, you're not stupid. Some things work better for some people than they do for others, that's all. If that were not true, then there'd only be one model of guitar, one setup and one style of hardware/pickups/control schemes/etc. that everybody used. Wouldn't be much fun then, right? Trying to create original music would be like trying to reinvent water, and everybody would sound like Coldplay or The Partridge Family or some other such pabulum <grin>

Yeah. We're badass.​

Love the pic

 

[drewfx]

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

No, you're not stupid. Some things work better for some people than they do for others, that's all.

And it also depends on the PU's, rig, etc.

I find it strange when people dismiss Neck & Bridge in series on a strat, because that position absolutely rules on my W strat. Without question one of the absolute best sounds on any of my guitars. The PU's in question in that guitar are an Area '58 neck and Virtual Vintage '54 Pro bridge, and in series they just give a fantastic singing lead tone. Not like an HB, but maybe more like a fat SC - still quite bright, but fat instead of thin and twangy. It just works on that guitar with those PU's and doesn't sound like a "compromise HB tone", but rather something a bit different and really, really good.

But the same series combo on a tele I built with vintage style PU's is just "OK". Not bad, but not particularly inspiring either.

 

[bagman67]

My crappy/awesome Peavey strat copy has a Carvin pre-wired pickguard on it, with Carvin's standard wiring:  Your standard 5-way, master volume, master tone, full-time bridge switch.  Same was true of the Carvin strat I had some years back.  I found the bridge/neck setting to be very useful, but the all-three-on setting to be pretty "meh."

 

[line6man]

I find it strange when people dismiss Neck & Bridge in series on a strat, because that position absolutely rules on my W strat. Without question one of the absolute best sounds on any of my guitars.

It's avoided because the combination does not humcancel, since traditionally the neck and bridge pickup are wound the same with the middle pickup being RWRP.

 

[drewfx]

I find it strange when people dismiss Neck & Bridge in series on a strat, because that position absolutely rules on my W strat. Without question one of the absolute best sounds on any of my guitars.

It's avoided because the combination does not humcancel, since traditionally the neck and bridge pickup are wound the same with the middle pickup being RWRP.

From my POV, people who insist on using PU's that hum (when there are excellent alternatives that don't), shouldn't be worried about hum.  :icon_jokercolor:

 

[bagman67]

From my POV, people who insist on using PU's that hum (when there are excellent alternatives that don't), shouldn't be worried about hum.  :icon_jokercolor:

As a guy with a very strong preference for single-coils in most cases, I absolutely agree.

 

[bagman67]

or rather, I agree with a modified version of that statement:

Folks who don't insist on single coils shouldn't COMPLAIN about hum.  It's part of the game when you want that delicious down'n'dirty P90 snarl, or the creamy goodness of a Strat neck pickup, or the spank of a Tele bridge pup... focus on the GOOD, and do what you can to avoid the bad - and then, as the old wise man said, shut up 'n' play yer guitar.

 

[line6man]

I find it strange when people dismiss Neck & Bridge in series on a strat, because that position absolutely rules on my W strat. Without question one of the absolute best sounds on any of my guitars.

It's avoided because the combination does not humcancel, since traditionally the neck and bridge pickup are wound the same with the middle pickup being RWRP.

From my POV, people who insist on using PU's that hum (when there are excellent alternatives that don't), shouldn't be worried about hum.  :icon_jokercolor:

And I agree.

 

[Strat Avenger]

Ya just don't need a f###in Tone control on electric guitar. Why would anyone want to roll off the high-end and have a muddy or muffled sound? If it's too bright, adjust the tone controls on your amp. If the bridge pickup sounds too harsh, get a different pickup.

What a concept.  :sign13:

 

[bagman67]

Ya just don't need a f###in Tone control on electric guitar. Why would anyone want to roll off the high-end and have a muddy or muffled sound? If it's too bright, adjust the tone controls on your amp. If the bridge pickup sounds too harsh, get a different pickup.

What a concept.   :sign13:

I know it's a rhetorical question, and your exasperation with the discussion is evident -- but I'm gonna pretend it's a serious question, because there is a serious answer:

Sometimes adjusting the amp is impractical, and not every circumstance you could encounter on stage is foreseeable.  Sometimes you actually DO want to roll off the high end; sometimes you DO want the bridge to sound harsh in the same song as one in which you want a mellower tone, as well.  Sometimes on the continuum of usable tones and useful controls, a tone knob happens to be in the range that appeals to the player.  Cool thing about this whole forum and the Warmoth concept is that you can do it your way, and find your spot(s) on that continuum.

 

[Strat Avenger]

Ya just don't need a f###in Tone control on electric guitar. Why would anyone want to roll off the high-end and have a muddy or muffled sound? If it's too bright, adjust the tone controls on your amp. If the bridge pickup sounds too harsh, get a different pickup.

What a concept.   :sign13:

I know it's a rhetorical question, and your exasperation with the discussion is evident -- but I'm gonna pretend it's a serious question, because there is a serious answer:

Sometimes adjusting the amp is impractical, and not every circumstance you could encounter on stage is foreseeable.  Sometimes you actually DO want to roll off the high end; sometimes you DO want the bridge to sound harsh in the same song as one in which you want a mellower tone, as well.  Sometimes on the continuum of usable tones and useful controls, a tone knob happens to be in the range that appeals to the player.  Cool thing about this whole forum and the Warmoth concept is that you can do it your way, and find your spot(s) on that continuum.

What you're saying is obviously true. I just personally can't identify with it. In 26 years of playing guitar, there has never been a time when I wanted to roll off the high-end. Switch to the neck pickup for a fatter tone, switch to the bridge for a thinner or more cutting tone. In fact, I find it a bit annoying watching players who fiddle with their knobs throughout an entire song.
Just turn it up and play the damn thing.

 

[Cagey]

I could see that. I'm rarely tempted to touch the tone control myself. Somebody here even got rid of the volume control on one of their guitars. Just ran the pickups straight out into a volume pedal. That might be going too far, but I could almost see that, too, if you had an on/off switch on the guitar.

 

[Patrick from Davis]

I have to say that the Callaham H/SRV pickups, one vol, one tone, and the blender pot that they provide is a very versatile set up.  The blender does not seem to have any of the problems previously discussed, I believe that it is a no load set up.  Dunno how, or care for that matter, how it works, but it does work nicely.  It also only blends the bridge and neck pickups together.  The middle pickup is left out of that portion of the circuit.  While I am not much for the tone knob, it does add quite a bit of different things to the mix.  A 250K tone pot with a film cap (yes, I will pay the extra 32 cents for that luxury) is the tone circuit I work the best with.  Easiest to adjust and doesn't apply itself like a brick wall of smother.  I like the single coil in the bridge as well, there is just something that it does that the humbuckers don't do.
Patrick