HSS w/SSL2s and a JB trembucker

[UCSDBoy]

Hi guys,

I have an HSS Strat I'm assembling out of Warmoth and other parts. I remember the JB was pretty good with 250k pots, but I'm hesitant to throw in all 250k pots and have it be too dark. I read a post from Seymour himself somewhere that he set up one of his HSS Strats with a 500k volume pot and 250k tone pots. That seems to be what Fender did with the Shawbucker Strat as well.

My thing is, a 500k pot for single coils? Even w/a 250k tone pot that sounds like they would be too bright, yes?

Any comments would be most appreciated. I'm a dog chasing his tail cooking up all manner of esoteric wiring diagrams trying to give every pup what it wants.

[Clint 55]

There are also 300 and 330k pots. I'd choose one of those for volume if you want some brightness. 500k is usable with single coils but can be excessive. 250k is a good value for tone, I recommend no load. You could also put a separate tone for neck/middle and bridge.

[Mincer]

You could always go for a 500k volume, with 250k tone for the singles, and 500k tone for the JB.

[frankfalbo]

Are you wiring it standard Strat style? If so, the bridge won’t even have a tone control on it, further justifying a 250k volume pot. At that point, use whatever value tone controls you want.

If you’re going to wire the bridge into the tone control path, then you could use a 250k tone pot on the neck pickup (middle location) and use a 500k for the bridge and middle (far location)

[krovatron]

Always dug Fralin's idea of using resistors to offset the single coils on 500k pots.

https://www.fralinpickups.com/wiring-diagrams/modified-hss-stratocaster-wiring-diagram/

[GuitarStv]

Always dug Fralin's idea of using resistors to offset the single coils on 500k pots.

https://www.fralinpickups.com/wiring...iring-diagram/

Yep. That's what I'd do. All the pickups can see the right values and you're not compromising.

[zozoe]

For 40 or so years, or for as long as the Invader & SSL2's have been around, an HSS with god knew whatever pot values were in there..... Fast forward those few decades, the guitar in fact had a 500k-V, & single 250 or so K tone...
w/the tone ONLY on the bridge... Nothing like an old beast, like an Invader that has had 40 or so yrs to age & mellow.... That very pickup 'was' in my ex's Hello Kitty guitar, but i yanked it when i took her guitar back east to straighten out & make rockable,, very rockworthy, & w/a push-pull!!!
HSS's KILL & cover everything fantāstico when done right~ ॐ

[Ascension]

A much better combo IMO would be a Perpetual Burn in the bridge the SSL2's with 500K pots. Have a JB with a pair of SSL1's in my 95 Washburn USA MG 120. That combo works pretty well with a 5 way and the JB set to auto split in pos 2 and a 500 K volume. However it's a pretty sharp contrast in output with the JB bridge and the JB really doesn't split that well with the SSL1 in the middle.
That same set up with a Perpetual Burn is much more overall balanced in tone and output. The Perpet also splits very very well so is a much better combo split with the SSL 1 or 2. Have run both combos in guitars BTW.