Thinking about a project, and I'm thinking about trying to shoehorn 3 Phat Cats into a strat pickguard. Ignoring physical limitations for the moment, am I safe in assuming that I'd want 2 bridge pups at the bridge and neck positions, with a neck (RWRP) pup in the center position? Thinking about leaving the basic 5-way switch, haven't thought about pots yet ...
3 Phat Cats in a Strat?
- Thread starter magillver
- Start date
Should be a nice tonal combination, but not clear if you'd want a bridge pup in the neck... It would give you an extremely powerful neck compared to the other pickups.
I would suggest a bridge in the bridge and a neck in the neck... Then figure out where you want the humbucking combination... In position two or four.
If it were me, I'd probably choose the two position for humbucking... In that case...
-Bridge pickup would be reverse
-Middle would be regular polarity and I would suggest using the bridge version to encourage quack
-And the neck would be the neck version with regular polarity
By the way if you were really looking for asymmetrical power, that can be a very good thing if you're switching manages it... It can be nice to have a really powerful neck pup as long as you can tame it back to match, but I don't think that's what you were asking for?
I would suggest a bridge in the bridge and a neck in the neck... Then figure out where you want the humbucking combination... In position two or four.
If it were me, I'd probably choose the two position for humbucking... In that case...
-Bridge pickup would be reverse
-Middle would be regular polarity and I would suggest using the bridge version to encourage quack
-And the neck would be the neck version with regular polarity
By the way if you were really looking for asymmetrical power, that can be a very good thing if you're switching manages it... It can be nice to have a really powerful neck pup as long as you can tame it back to match, but I don't think that's what you were asking for?
Clint 55
OH THE DOUBLE THICK GLAZE!
You can wire it however you want, you just have to go in and rewire the leads and orient the mags. Make dedicated start, finish, and ground leads. Ez pz. Don't put a bridge in the neck, use a neck in the neck. I also have a 12k Phat Cat bridge I could sell you if you want more balance.
three cats could be a cool setup! i would absolutely not put a bridge model in the neck. i would use neck in neck, neck in middle, bridge in bridge. the neck/middle wouldnt be humcancelling, but im used to using single coils so not worried about that too much
Clint 55
OH THE DOUBLE THICK GLAZE!
Quit being a weeny and rewire the neck model in the neck as 2 conductor with a separate ground and switch the mags from north to south. You could also go in and switch it to A3 to drop the output.
you only get humcancelling in the notch positions, im not opposed to it in this case (since you can do it). flip the mags, separate the ground from the cover, and flip hot and ground connections. i wouldnt bother, but you could get humcancelling by doing that if you wanted
Thanks for all of the input! The main reason I was looking at the bridge/neck/bridge concept is that with the set, the neck pup is always RWRP, so I'd get hum cancelling in positions 2 & 4. Do we think I might be able to balance the levels with pickup height, or are they too out of balance, power-wise, for that? And, yes, I am a weeny in terms of magnet swaps (for now) having never tried it. I think I'll mess with a couple of crappy used pups, before I start experimenting with nice ones...
Hey Aceman, thanks for that pic! My only logistical concern is that I'm looking at a body on line, pre-loaded with 3 single coils, and dude won't take a pic with the pickguard removed, to see what kind of real estate is underneath. Just a question of whether I'll have to do any routing (not much of a woodworker). I appreciate the offer, Clint, but I'm still at the 'interesting concept' phase of the project ...
Thank you Artie, that's exactly what I'm thinking of! Nice to know it's been done successfully, so I'm not reinventing the proverbial wheel. I'm assuming that's a master volume and master tone, very similar to what I'm thinking about, except I'm thinking 2 tones, one high cut and one low cut, just for giggles...
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