Thanks for the comments and questions!
The four knobs are master volume (passive), closest to the strings; master tone (passive), next in line; clean boost (active), third one in line; and the last one, kind of offset from the others, is a mid-boost (active). I was originally going to use the Fender “Clapton” mid-boost control, which is a combo clean boost and mid-boost, but with the Clapton boost, the clean boost is on full as soon as you start to turn the knob, and I wanted independent control over both boosts.
The pickups are Zexcoils, the “Texas Blues” set, because I wanted this guitar’s pickups to be somewhat hotter than the typical Strat-style guitar. The pickups and the active boosts work together nicely. I decided to use pickup rings instead of a pickguard to mount the pickups. I’m very happy with the pickups; Scott Lawing at Zexcoil does great work.
The electronics (except pickups) is all EMG. Looking around at different active boost controls, I found the EMG “afterburner” adjustable clean boost and their “Strat Presence Control” midboost, decided they fit the build, and just went with a full EMG solderless setup including 5-way switch and the passive volume and tone pots. The only soldering I had to do was (a) the battery box wires to the EMG power connector, (b) the hot and ground lines from each pickup to an EMG pickup connector, and (c) the bridge ground and shielding ground to a spare ground connection on the volume pot. Terrific system, had absolutely zero issues.
There’s more info, including build pics, in the build thread:
Thread 'New Build - Carved Top Soloist Super-Blues-Strat'
https://unofficialwarmoth.com/threads/new-build-carved-top-soloist-super-blues-strat.39907/
