Over the years I've experimented with quite a few Strat wirings and they have all missed the mark slightly, funny thing is I think the factory model wasn't too far off to begin with.
I have a standard 5-way switch with a tone control for the neck and middle pickup, and a master vintage taper (30%) volume. The tone control is 0.01 uF (NOT 0.1 uF) in series with a 4.7k resistor on an audio taper pot. With the tone at 8 it sounds like I have a 30 ft cable, with the tone at 5 it sounds like I have Texas-hot pickups (I have Ant Surfers), with the tone at 3.5ish it's just barely dark enough to where chords don't work too well, and at 0 it's the perfect sound for really dark clean/light OD sounds. With just two pots the volume doesn't get in the way of my hand, all positions except the bridge see 125k of resistance, and I only have to mess with a single tone control. The vintage taper pot is right between linear and audio, but closer to audio. I still haven't tried it in a band setting yet, but I definitely like it better than my usual audio pots in bedroom setting. It's not part of the wiring, but I would like to comment knob pointers are a very useful addition to a Strat.
Obviously this post is not breaking new ground in anyway, but I think it's worth pointing out that many times even though they are less flexible, a simpler wiring scheme is more effective and enjoyable than a more complicated one. I even debated going down to a 3 way switch, but the Surfers had much too good a notched sound to get rid of them.
I have a standard 5-way switch with a tone control for the neck and middle pickup, and a master vintage taper (30%) volume. The tone control is 0.01 uF (NOT 0.1 uF) in series with a 4.7k resistor on an audio taper pot. With the tone at 8 it sounds like I have a 30 ft cable, with the tone at 5 it sounds like I have Texas-hot pickups (I have Ant Surfers), with the tone at 3.5ish it's just barely dark enough to where chords don't work too well, and at 0 it's the perfect sound for really dark clean/light OD sounds. With just two pots the volume doesn't get in the way of my hand, all positions except the bridge see 125k of resistance, and I only have to mess with a single tone control. The vintage taper pot is right between linear and audio, but closer to audio. I still haven't tried it in a band setting yet, but I definitely like it better than my usual audio pots in bedroom setting. It's not part of the wiring, but I would like to comment knob pointers are a very useful addition to a Strat.
Obviously this post is not breaking new ground in anyway, but I think it's worth pointing out that many times even though they are less flexible, a simpler wiring scheme is more effective and enjoyable than a more complicated one. I even debated going down to a 3 way switch, but the Surfers had much too good a notched sound to get rid of them.
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