HSS Strat Rewiring Question

[misterwhizzy]

My Strat gets way less play time than my Les Paul mainly because I find the volume knob placement right under my pinky to be annoying. So I think I want to just do a master volume master tone setup. I bought it to be my hair metal axe, but it has gotten way less use than I intended at the time. It has a JB in the bridge and the stock Fender single coils in the bridge and middle. I think the question is twofold. First, what value (and taper pots) should I use? And second, how do I wire it for neck, neck-middle, middle, middle-single-coil-of-bridge, bridge switching with the stock 5-way?

 

[Mincer]

Generally, I'd use 250k pots all around, because the JB sounds best that way (to me). As far as the diagram, you have to combine the autosplit one, and this one with the master volume and tone.

 

[misterwhizzy]

Thanks, Dave.

 

[ThreeChordWonder]

Unless you want something fancy like an auto coil split in P2 (bridge plus middle) or hotshotting the bridge, stick with a standard Fender 5-way switch.

• The bridge hot gets soldered to the P1 lug on one side of the switch.
• The middle goes to the P3 lug on the same side of the switch.
• The neck hot goes to the P5 lug on the same side.
• The common output lug gets wired to the volume pot input lug.
• You don't need to use the other set of contacts at all.
• Find a standard Telecaster wiring diagram and copy the volume, tone and output jack wiring.
• Job done but if the signal is weak in P2 you'll need to flip the humbuck hot and ground wires - its out of phase with the other two pickups.

 

[misterwhizzy]

First of all, thanks for the detailed answer. I do want to go autosplit in P2. How does that change the wiring?

 

[ThreeChordWonder]

First of all, thanks for the detailed answer. I do want to go autosplit in P2. How does that change the wiring?

I think you cam do it like this:

• Connect the hots as I previously described
• On the other bank of contacts connect the humbucker "middle wires" (red and white on an SD pickup) to the P1 contact.
• Ground the P3 contact
• When P2 is selected the wiper will span the P1 and P3 contacts, grounding the humbucker middle wires and splitting the coil. In all other positions the grounded P2 contact doesn't connect to anything so in P1 you get the full humbucker, P2 it's coil split and combined with the middle, P3 and up work as normal.

 

[misterwhizzy]

I think you cam do it like this:

• Connect the hots as I previously described
• On the other bank of contacts connect the humbucker "middle wires" (red and white on an SD pickup) to the P1 contact.
• Ground the P3 contact
• When P2 is selected the wiper will span the P1 and P3 contacts, grounding the humbucker middle wires and splitting the coil. In all other positions the grounded P2 contact doesn't connect to anything so in P1 you get the full humbucker, P2 it's coil split and combined with the middle, P3 and up work as normal.

Thanks for your help. That makes it really clear.

 

[Chistopher]

This may not be the most common way to do it, but I actually a modification of this configuration. Use this schematic but instead of having two tone controls set both pickups to the same tone control.

Makes it more useful to not have the singles and humbucker on the same tone control. I use my tone control a lot for stratty songs, not so much on humbuckers.

 

[ThreeChordWonder]

^ If you want the tone control active on, say P2 to P5, connect the tone control pot ground to the common lug on the second Bank of switches I described above and jump the connection between P3 and P5. You can NOT jump it to the P1 lug as well or you'll coil split the humbucker in all positions. But then, if you wanted the tone pot active in all five positions you'd connect it like a Tele tone control to begin with.

 

[misterwhizzy]

I finally finished this project yesterday. The quick version is that I pulled out the volume pot and reused the first tone pot as a master volume. I didn't realize when I started that the stock switch in this guitar is actually a Fender superswitch, which is way too complex for what I want to accomplish. I replaced it with a standard Fender 5-way, and the wiring was way easier than I anticipated. I didn't have to do much to convert the secondary tone to a master tone either.

It sounds pretty good in all positions. I like the autosplit a lot, but I like the full bridge humbucker better. I get cleaner, Stratty tones from the neck and middle, and I get that hair-metal JB thing going on in the bridge. The biggest benefit, though, is that I can actually play the guitar now instead of trying to put my picking hand in an uncomfortable position to work around the volume knob. It's like having a brand new guitar. I may eventually get a new pickguard from Warmoth to close up the hole, but there's no rush on that.

Thanks to everyone who replied for your help.