Installed a multi switch on my EJ Strat

[LRS]

Hey all, here’s an update regarding my Fender EJ Strat; I fitted a 10-way Strat switch. A little history: last summer I sold my Deluxe Strat in order to finance my ‘64 Bandmaster. Although the Deluxe was a very nice guitar, my EJ Strat got played and the deluxe was there looking pretty. Better feel, better sound for the EJ Strat. Also the noiseless pickups in the Deluxe Strat were ok, but not great. But the S1 switch provided humbucker sounds which were killer, and I missed that switching option when playing my EJ Strat. I contacted the guy I sold the Strat if he’d be willing to sell me back the guitar, but he wouldn’t, he just was too pleased with the Deluxe Strat to let it go. Bummer. I discussed the switching options I was after with him, and he pointed me into the direction of the Free-Way switch. So during the X-mas holidays I ordered one, and this weekend I heated up my soldering iron and replaced the original 5-way switch with the new 10-way switch. I’m not a soldering hero, but if I can do it, consider it very doable. It’s just a bit smaller and a little more narrow than a regular 5-way switch. There was a minor discrepancy compared to the original EJ Strat wiring scheme (EJ = neck and bridge pickups to dedicated tonepots, middle pickup no tone control / Free-Way wiring scheme = neck and middle pickups to dedicated tonepots, bridge pickup no tone control). Initially I followed the F-W wiring scheme, but I couldn’t get used to the non controlled bridge pickup. Since I was unsure if messing with the wiring on my own initiative would impact other switching options, I sent an email message to Free-Way, asking them for advice. Within 15 minutes they replied with an appropriate answer to my question, and attached the corresponding wiring scheme I was after. Perfect!!!

So, what’s gained now? Are all 10 switching options just as useful? No. The neck and middle in series are too dark for my liking, but I don’t play jazz, so what do I know? ;-)
Personally I was after the middle and bridge in series option. But I must say that there are more interesting switching options as a bonus. Neck and bridge in parallel (like the telecaster middle position for your Eagles covers), neck and bridge in series (little darker humbucker sound than middle and bridge in series), and all three in parallel (sort of quack in between the regular Strat positions 2 and 4, interesting enough for me).

Are 10 positions too much not to get lost? Not really. They found a smart way to keep track on what you’re switching. When you push the switch blade to the bottom of the body, you access your regular 5 Strat sounds. Pull the blade with a short click a little upwards, and you get sort of second bank with the additional 5 switching options. I’d say: if you can handle a gear stick, you’ll be fine with this one as well ;-)

I have no clue about the durability of the switch, it’s in my guitar now for a couple of days and does fine so far, I’d expect it to be in service for the coming years.

I was about to post some pictures, but don’t seem to be able to upload those unfortunately. Anyway, you guys don’t miss a lot, my soldering skills are barely fit for purpose (not that nice and tidy). There’s a nice YouTube demo by this guy Darrel Braun. Google is your friend, if you might be interested.

Next week I’ll have time to shoot some iPhone demos and if they’re worth it, I’ll upload them at YouTube and post a link here.

Cheers,
Chris

[Mincer]

I'd use the 10 positions to narrow it down to 5, and see if a Super Switch could do those 5.

[LRS]

Thing is, I do use the normal 5 settings and I was after the “bridge humbucker” as an additional setting. The other mentioned settings were a pretty nice bonus for me. Time will tell how useful they will appear in the long run.

[LRS]

Update! The original 5-way switch is back in the EJ Strat. It really is too bad. The concept of the 10-way freeway switch is great. In theory. But after a couple of weeks the switch started acting funny. Although the people at freeway are helpful and respond very quickly to my emails, I don’t want to take off my Strat’s pick guard every other week to clean the switch with contact spray. If it works, it is wonderful. But I’m afraid that the design is not as robust as an old school 5-way switch. The EJ Strat is one of my stage guitars and i don’t want it to fail on me (dead switch positions) when playing live. That’s a no-go.

[Mincer]

You know, I've heard other people have some issues with Freeway switches, too, so it isn't just you.

[JB_From_Hell]

Sounds like you’d benefit from a series/parallel switch. It’d be easy as a push/pull on whichever knob you chose. I can’t imagine it’d be any more difficult to wire than the 10 way.

[Ashurbanipal]

It's cool to have loads of sounds, but you end up using a select number in normal playing, and if you gig, it's probably too fiddly. Good for recording as well, however.

If I had a Strat, I'd probably just add two push pots, one series/parallel so bridge + middle has the (pseudo)humbucker option; and an on/off, so it's possible to get neck + bridge, and all three on.

[eclecticsynergy]

It's cool to have loads of sounds, but you end up using a select number in normal playing, and if you gig, it's probably too fiddly. Good for recording as well, however.

If I had a Strat, I'd probably just add two push pots, one series/parallel so bridge + middle has the (pseudo)humbucker option; and an on/off, so it's possible to get neck + bridge, and all three on.

That's a cool idea. Those are exactly the extra options I'd want.

When five-way Strats first came around (showing my age here) some players used to swap neck & middle leads at the switch.
That way position 2 gives you Tele-style neck & bridge parallel, and you still get neck & middle parallel in position 4.
It meant giving up position 2 quack, but for me that's the least-used of the regular options.

A little odd at first having neck in pos 3 and middle in pos 5, but you get used to it.
Quick and simple mod.

[Ashurbanipal]

^^ Interesting. I don't use the quacky positions much at all (on my HSS with all manner of switcheroo), so it sounds like something I might try with a traditional Stat setup.

The new budget three single coil Ibanez AZ has some of these options built into the switching system, which is pretty cool that you get something like that for the price. So you can get the neck + middle or bridge + middle in series. The latter option is probably the more useable one, kinda Brian Mayish, as you might expect.

[jeremy]

one of my main strats with a trio of antiqutiy II pups has a middle/bridge series switch. i use it for slide more than anything else but its a useful sound. ive put switches to turn on the neck pup to get n+m+b or n+b but never really use em much so dont bother any more. if someone finds it useful, then they should run with it

[Demanic]

Running all three makes for a very unique sound.

Sent from my SM-A115A using Tapatalk

[jeremy]

i have a guitar with a strat pup neck, a paf type bucker in the middle. and hot rails neck in the bridge with a series/parallel switch. i can have them all on at once and its a cool sound i guess, but i never use it live.

[Fender_Punk]

I like the idea of a Strat switch that feels like a gear shifter.

In my younger years I had a Squier Strat with 5 mini switches in place of the 5 way switch. It was called the "ultimate Strat Mod" on the webpage that provided the diagram (couldn't find it just now). It comprised of 3 on/off switches for the pickups, a switch for series/parallel and a switch to change the phase of the bridge pickup. Bridge and neck in series and out-of-phase was one of my favorites, it was close to a P-90 sound. All 3 in series sounded huge!