How useful is bridge/middle in series on a Strat

['59]

Right now I have a Strat that is standard except I wired it up with a super switch and S1 switch combo simply because it's what I had laying around.

Thing is I'm used to single humbucker guitars. If I add a switch that replaces the bridge position with bridge and middle in series, can it fill the same role as a bridge humbucker?

I don't mean will it convince Eric Johnson in a quiet room that I have a Gibson Les Paul, but on stage will it do heavier hair metal type sounds in the case I can't rapidly switch guitars?

 

[Mincer]

I have a 1982 'The Strat' which has special switching, and one of those is 2 single coils (bridge + middle) in series. To my ears, it sounds like a muddy single coil, not at all like a humbucker. The attack of a single coil is there, but it sounds like the speaker is stuck in a foot of mud. It is useful for sections of a song where there is only guitar, but once the band gets playing, that sound gets lost.

 

[Clint 55]

It doesn't sound like a humbucker. It still sounds like bridge/middle position with single coils but way fatter, darker, and a bit less jangly from series instead of parallel.

 

[freefrog]

It can be useful if used with a treble booster, a la Brian May. Not that it changes a Strat in a "Red Special" clone but the hi-pass filter / bass cut effect of a treble booster cooperates nicely with the series wiring - that I've as a switchable option in my Strat number one and that I don't use much...

If you want something closer to a bridge humbucker, it might be interesting to add a capacitor in series with the two single coils themselves in series. But it would involve a complex wiring, with downsides.

 

[GuitarDoc]

If you want a more humbucker sound in the bridge position just get a single-sized humbucker that can be split or wired parallel when you want a more single coil sound.

 

[freefrog]

Yes, of course, SC sized HB's are the simplest solution.

The unexpressed presupposition of my previous advice was: "If you don't want to change the pickups" (as suggested by the initial question about series wiring).

That said, SC sized HB's don't sound 100% like standard HB's because of the narrowness of their magnetic window - while mid + bridge are conversely too far from each other for a "normal" series tone... Oh well! (rolling eyes).

It puts in perspective what Robbie Robertson did with his Strat. ;-)

https://www.guitaris.fr/uploads/2/9/...jpg?1492289506

 

[Blille]

It doesn't sound like a humbucker. It still sounds like bridge/middle position with single coils but way fatter, darker, and a bit less jangly from series instead of parallel.

This is very accurate.

I have M+B in series in my tele and it works great for lead lines when the bridge itself doesn’t have enough punch. But it can’t do crunchy rhythm for example like you would in a HB.

 

[esandes]

Agreed. The strat single coil pairs sound nothing like a humbucker. Nothing sounds like a humbucker other than another humbucker-especially when wired in series.

My last strat was modified and had a 500k volume for the HB and a 250k pot for the two single coils.

Strat bridge single coil sounds and 2 or 4 selector switch single coils paired up sounds...I avoid.

 

[MikeS]

I have a strat with a superswitch and a push/pull and when the push/pull is up I have options for neck + middle in series or bridge + middle in series. The guitar is loaded with Fender CS Texas Specials.

Bridge + middle in series... think classic notch tone, with less quack, but fatter and darker. My strat's tone circuit is wired G&L PTB style, so using the bass cut helps to control the bottom end. I find it usable when I want a little extra oomph in a lead tone. It's not something I throw a lot of gain at.

 

[Mincer]

Yeah, I think the series single coil sound doesn't benefit from gain. The cleaner it is, the better it sounds (but in every case, I'd pick parallel over series).

 

[freefrog]

A tone network wired in the G&L PTB style = what I was reffering to in my post 4.

Works well if the regular tone pot is wired before the "bass cut" cap - as it is in the G&L schematic: it's not a random choice, it just avoids the "high cut" (regular tone pot) to behave like a second volume pot when the bass cut is enabled. In any case, series capacitors affect some effects: they kill the gain of a Fuzz Face, for instance. These are the "downsides" that I evoked, FWIW.

The related schematic can be found in the page below if needed and the "killing gain" effect can be heard @ 0:56 in the video. HTH. ;-)

https://tonefiend.com/guitar/two-band-ptb-tone-control-useful-easy-cheap-awesome/

 

[Chistopher]

If you do put a bass cut in, put it on a no-load pot, because even at 10 it messes with the impedence of the sound enough to causes "problems" on less robust fuzz circuits.