strange five pickup wiring

[Quiiiinten]

Hey everyone,

I have some great and strange ideas for the guitar kit I'm building. All I need now is some advice and approval of what I've planned. The plan is this:

The guitar will be an HSH strat, but very different. Instead of two humbuckers, I would like to use a single coil next to a single coil sized humbucker. This would give me five pickups, three singles and two humbuckers. (The single coils will be Slick 56' non staggered strats from Guitarfetish and the humbuckers will be the lil killers from Guitarfetish, 6k in the neck and 10 at the bridge)

For wiring, I don't think a 'simple' five-way switch will work. My idea is to give every pickup its ons SPDT switch. The humbuckers will both get an individual push-push volume pot to tab it. After the volumes, I'd like them to share one tone. All of this will be 500k and the volumes will have treble bleeds. I'd like to give the single coils one volume with treble bleed togheter. Since I like strange things, I would like to give the single coils a tbx tone control as well (tbx tone control can be found in the Clapton signature strat. It has its default on 5 instead of 10. When used from 5 to 0, it funcions like a normal tone, but if used from 5 to 10 it boosts treble. It might be cool for soloing ¯\_(ツ)_/¯).

I recently read about a 'strat jazz mod' and I think it would be cool to add this as well:
( https://www.premierguitar.com/articl...azz_Switch_Mod )

At last it might be cool to add a kill switch.

Some additional information: the strat body is standard and I'm going to rout it. It is made out of basswood and the neck has a rosewood fingerboard.

If anyone has questions, don't be afraid to ask Also, I do realise some things will not sound like they "sound in my head" or how original strats sound, but that should not be a problem

Thanks in advance

Quinten

[Jacew]

Re: strange five pickup wiring

I have strat with four singles as "splittable pseudo humbuckers" in HH pickuguard. Though about trying out rails with single in that but thought it to be too complex considering the profit. I can do any tones I need with just singles well enough.

If you try this definitely post how singles work with sc-sized humbucker. Very much interested about the results.

[Quiiiinten]

Re: strange five pickup wiring

I'd hoped more people would respond on this idea.... there loss because I did it and the guitar turned out amazing. I'm still finding all the possible tonal options because there are so many. I could talk about this guitar for days, instead I will list some of the options and features and my opinion on them.

Having 5 pickups is super cool. I can have all the real strat sounds and options because of the three singles and I can have true humbucker sounds from the rails. I prefer this over and HSS strat which lacks that nice bridge-middle position.

In retrospect I don't think the parallel-series push-pull pots for my humbuckers add a lot. The sound very similar to middle-bridge of middle-neck.

For me, the rather warm and slightly muddy neck humbucker goes great with my single bridge pup. Also, the almost harshly bright bridge humbucker warms out great with my single neck. I am also a big fan of the individual switches. Sure, it's different and can take time to get used to, but it opens a lot of doors. For example, all three singles is super cool, single middle-neck and hum bridge go great together etc.

Something less useful, at least for me is the kill switch. It just isn't for me. The only advantage, for me, is being able to turn the entire guitar on and off without having to use more than one knob or switch.

The tone system is kinda cool. Having to tone knobs of different values can give a lot of room for different sounds. I do think it would have been cooler with hotter pickups.

The jazz switch is not very useful, to me. On the other hand, who cares.

The tbx tone control is pretty cool. I used another cap instead of the recommended resistor, can't seem to remember the value. Something like .047 I think. Once I turn from no load to this position there is a very sudden change in harshness. It's simply to much on any normal setting. It can become quite useful though when I use single middle-neck with my volume down a bit. This muddies them out, but the tbx makes the individual strings clear. Very cool for funky stuff or chords.

Also, if anyone is interested, my trem is decked and my string are tightened. I prefer this over blocked etc.

For anyone who is considering to do something at least a bit similar:
Maybe change the push-pull to something different. Also, three different volume knobs is not to much, but I don't use my volume that much so maybe change it to two. The jazz switch and kill switch aren't necessary, but if that's your thing, go with it. The tbx is cool, but difficult

[Quiiiinten]

Re: strange five pickup wiring

[Quiiiinten]

Re: strange five pickup wiring

[Quiiiinten]

Re: strange five pickup wiring

Also, if you visit my Instagram "quiiiinten" there are a few more pictures of the painting progress

[justFred]

Re: strange five pickup wiring

Okay...what does this strange thing sound like????

[Mincer]

Re: strange five pickup wiring

Wow, that is certainly interesting. It sort of goes against my 'pick 5 sounds and hardwire them to the ones you use all the time', but I can appreciate the experimentation and the time this must have taken.

[Jacew]

Re: strange five pickup wiring

That's interesting experiment indeed.

Now here's an idea for SD from this: Why not make Strat singlecoil version of P-Rails. I think, like Quiinten apparently found out, they would compliment each other actually better than P90 and rail