Fender Stratocaster pickups.

Sounds like a winner, taken on good advice, thanks Jeremy.

Why are they called blackouts because the kill the white noise?
 
ArtieToo said:
I tend to set & forget knobs, but play with switches all day long. I could easily see wiring a Strat with a 4-way that did 1,2,4,5. Or even going with a 3-way wired, 2,4,5. (With #5 being the neck.)

Edit: Getting back to the OP's question, "down South" here, I tend to see more Tele's and LP's actually on stage. But a lot of Stratocasters come across my bench.
Click to expand...

Hey ArtieToo,, you reminded.... Could you by any chance steer me towards a 4-way schematic to yield me Bridge, Brg & Mid, Brg & Neck, then solo Neck..?
& I want to avoid any push/pull or Blender,,, Just 1 Vol, 1 Tone & the 4way.... thnx!!
 
zozoe said:
Hey ArtieToo,, you reminded.... Could you by any chance steer me towards a 4-way schematic to yield me Bridge, Brg & Mid, Brg & Neck, then solo Neck..?
& I want to avoid any push/pull or Blender,,, Just 1 Vol, 1 Tone & the 4way.... thnx!!
Click to expand...

I should be able to. Give me a little time. I'm a little "under the weather" right now, 'til I can get in to see the doc. I'll try to whip something up tomorrow.
 
zozoe said:
Hey ArtieToo,, you reminded.... Could you by any chance steer me towards a 4-way schematic to yield me Bridge, Brg & Mid, Brg & Neck, then solo Neck..?
& I want to avoid any push/pull or Blender,,, Just 1 Vol, 1 Tone & the 4way.... thnx!!
Click to expand...


check out the freeway 3/6 way tele switch. They have a schematic that has one banknwith the 3 tele sounds, and the other is the middle 3 from a strat.

its brilliant and works great. I use one in my strat.
 
Juanhanglo said:
check out the freeway 3/6 way tele switch. They have a schematic that has one banknwith the 3 tele sounds, and the other is the middle 3 from a strat.

its brilliant and works great. I use one in my strat.
Click to expand...

Yeah, a new & different concept, & i've seen the video for it, but I'd never use 2 or 3 of the six settings....
This here baby has a 5-way, 3 p/u's, 5 coils, 3 dips and umpteen (do the math) positions, with perhaps 4 loveable & usable sounds that rock!! ॐ 20200601_023329.jpg
 
Strats are popular in live bands because they take up less sonic space in the mix than many other guitars and their sound kind of “peeks through” the mix. This is good because then they’re not competing with other instruments, particularly the vocals and any kind of keyboard or second instrument playing rhythm and it makes for a cleaner sound overall. In contrast they can be less good at carrying a 3 piece band, but of course these are generalizations and it’s all dependent on the entire sound of the band.
 
“Stock Strat pickups” is kind of a misnomer… different Strats come with different pickups. I like an slightly overwound single coil myself, the low output ones are pretty tinny. But that can be fixed with some compression and EQ. I really dig a highly compressed Strat sound.

No issue with a bridge single coil in a Strat, either. Definitely wouldn’t call it a weak link. You just can’t expect to use it like a humbucker. If you DO want to use it like a humbucker though, crank it closer to the strings and keep the bridge tone knob around halfway. That adds beef and output.

it took me 21 years of playing a Strat to “get it”. Maybe I’m slow but it wasn’t until I put the Strat away for about a year and started playing other guitars regularly that I was able to accept the Strat for what it’s good at. And it’s great at what it does, but it definitely doesn’t do everything well. But nothing will do what a Strat does. My opinion.
 
jeremy said:
i do and i love em!
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Wasn’t it partially your idea/suggestion for me to try them and show how I like them?

I’m looking forward to the dual output feature. It’s already so comfortable to play, I love the neck and in-between pickup settings for leads, so it’s no wonder it’s my first choice for studio lead guitar. If it does all that but quiter and even better, I’ll be in heaven.

Won’t even use the H-S-S pickguard. Original all the way. Very keen to hear what that set can do!
 
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alex1fly said:
“Stock Strat pickups” is kind of a misnomer… different Strats come with different pickups. I like an slightly overwound single coil myself, the low output ones are pretty tinny. But that can be fixed with some compression and EQ. I really dig a highly compressed Strat sound.

No issue with a bridge single coil in a Strat, either. Definitely wouldn’t call it a weak link. You just can’t expect to use it like a humbucker. If you DO want to use it like a humbucker though, crank it closer to the strings and keep the bridge tone knob around halfway. That adds beef and output.

it took me 21 years of playing a Strat to “get it”. Maybe I’m slow but it wasn’t until I put the Strat away for about a year and started playing other guitars regularly that I was able to accept the Strat for what it’s good at. And it’s great at what it does, but it definitely doesn’t do everything well. But nothing will do what a Strat does. My opinion.
Click to expand...

I thought of that but didn't correct the title. They're '21 or,22.
 
zozoe said:
Hey ArtieToo,, you reminded.... Could you by any chance steer me towards a 4-way schematic to yield me Bridge, Brg & Mid, Brg & Neck, then solo Neck..?
& I want to avoid any push/pull or Blender,,, Just 1 Vol, 1 Tone & the 4way.... thnx!!
Click to expand...

Anything ArtieToo?
 
eclecticsynergy said:
So for pickups I'd say the most popular mods probably are:
Bridge pickup assigned to tone control
Bridge pickup replaced with a fuller sounding/higher output model
Whole set replaced to tailor the voicing
Click to expand...

I'm late in the party and I come to beat a dead horse one more time but... let's not forget stray capacitance, which is how Hendrix or SRV tamed the ice pick effect with their stock Strat pickups.

Here is a good ol' story about that, for the record (with some technical mistakes but the interviewer was not meant to be an engineer):

“Cesar Diaz - Anyway, I sent messages to both Lenny Kravitz and Eric Johnson that part of the secret to getting great tone was using weaker pickups and coil cables. The coil cables add a lot of capacitance and inductance to your signal chain, therefore, when you’re playing through a Marshall, you’re cutting back on the high frequencies. When we were doing the In Step album with Stevie, I had an endorsement with Monster Cables. They would send me all of this free stuff and I was very excited because I could manage these things for a guy like Stevie, who really didn’t even know how to wash dishes. All he knew how to do was play the guitar, but God bless him for that, because he really did something with what he knew. Anyway, I took these cables we got to Stevie and he said, “I hate these things.” I asked him, “Why, man, they’re the best cables in the world?” He said, “They pass to much electricity.” Those were his exact words, and I’ll never forget it as long as I live. “They pass too much electricity.”
Tone Quest- They were too efficient…
CD- Yeah, so he sent me out to the local Radio Shack and told me to buy every gray coil cord they had – not the black ones, only the gray ones. And I thought, “Hhmm, this freakin’ hick from Dallas is telling me this?” I got them and ran them through my capacitance meter and found out that they added like almost .05 mfd to the signal chain. That made it sound solid – it was like having a tone control, and the brightness and harshness that the Marshalls had was eliminated. There isn’t a single picture of Hendrix…back then they already had high-end cables, but there isn’t a single picture of Hendrix where you see him playing with a straight cable. Why? This is something I brought up to Eric Johnson – whether he heard me or not I don’t know, but it could be the second coming of coil cables.”
The Tone Quest Report, Cesar Diaz Interview. August 2000
Click to expand...

And here is what I'm reffering too if the quote above is too long to read (jump at 6:43 if ever it starts @ zero):


Good news from the beaten dead horse: as the effect commented is due to stray capacitance, long cables can be replaced with cheap small capacitors.

If we put a tiny cheapo 1 nF cap (0.001mF) between hot and ground of a stock Strat bridge pickup, it won't be more powerful but it will have the EQing of a hot Strat PU without being overly middy. If it's too weak, it can be set closer to the strings. There's no stratitis to fear in bridge position.

And for the record, it's not the same than lowering a tone pot on the guitar or on the amp. The reason why is explained here: http://zerocapcable.com/?page_id=209

FWIW - A new rambling of the Sunday morning on one of my hobby horses... ;-P

I wish you all a nice day. :-)
 
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