If you had a HH super strat with a hole drilled for a switch what would you do?

['59]

I have an HH stratocaster body with a 3 way toggle and a master volume and tone. I've got a pair of Blues Buckers that are going in the neck and bridge. What would you use the switch hole for? Series/parallel isn't really an option for these pickups because one coil is so much fatter than the other. I have listed the choices from top to bottom in order of how good an idea I currently think they are

 

[Seashore]

I voted for another pot. I like being able to set neck and bridge levels independently.

 

[Securb]

I have stutter/kill switches on a few guitars and find them to be fun and add some interesting textures.

 

[Bill Dennis]

The Charvel DK24 HH is the model. The superswitch selects the coils and the mini toggle decides if they are in parallel or series. Its so flexible, it can do anything. After getting it, I converted my Ibanez to the same wiring

 

['59]

Right now it is just an unfinished piece of wood with 3 big holes and one small one inline, that's where I got master volume, master tone, pickup switch, and mini switch from. I suppose I could also do volume,volume, pickup switch, and drill the 4th hole out to be a tone control

 

[Hiwatts and Gibsons]

I went with option two, I love single coil tones. P90's in particular. I'd load it with either SK Guitats Dual Tones II's, or Seymour Duncan P-Rails with coil splits for P90 tones.

 

[ErikH]

Well, if that is the only switch and you don't have a blade switch slot, I'd slap in a plain 3-way toggle to switch between neck, both, bridge. No fancy wiring, no splitting or parallel. Straight and simple. If you have a blade switch for that, a kill switch could be fun.

 

['59]

I went with option two, I love single coil tones. P90's in particular. I'd load it with either SK Guitats Dual Tones II's, or Seymour Duncan P-Rails with coil splits for P90 tones.

I was looking at the P-Rails as an option but I got a good deal on the Blues Buckers. I've never heard of the Dual Tone's, but I'll give a few clips a listen when I get the chance. The Blues Buckers don't 100% sound like a P90, but if you blindfolded me I couldn't tell them apart, at least in the SG I tried them out in. Each instrument is different, so maybe this new guitar will expand my understanding of what they are capable of.

 

['59]

Well, if that is the only switch and you don't have a blade switch slot, I'd slap in a plain 3-way toggle to switch between neck, both, bridge. No fancy wiring, no splitting or parallel. Straight and simple. If you have a blade switch for that, a kill switch could be fun.

So are you saying just plug the hole, or add a kill switch?

 

[Chistopher]

Instead of leaving an open hole in the face of your guitar, it's probably best to put a dummy switch or knob in there any way to keep moisture out. If you plan on repainting it anyway, it's probably best to plug it with a dowel. This all assumes you have a rear routed guitar, because if you have a pickguard you can just buy a new one without the extra hole.

I'd say the best thing to do would be put a 3PDT switch in there and experiment with it. See which of your above wiring options has the best utility in practice. Maybe you find out you don't need a switch anyway. It's best to form your own opinions than to rely on the opinions of others.

 

[Mincer]

The extra hole isn't for a pickup switch?

 

[Hiwatts and Gibsons]

I was looking at the P-Rails as an option but I got a good deal on the Blues Buckers. I've never heard of the Dual Tone's, but I'll give a few clips a listen when I get the chance. The Blues Buckers don't 100% sound like a P90, but if you blindfolded me I couldn't tell them apart, at least in the SG I tried them out in. Each instrument is different, so maybe this new guitar will expand my understanding of what they are capable of.

Cool. Steve from SK Guitars is a great guy, knows his stuff, is a pleasure to deal with, and makes fantastic pickups at a very reasonable cost.

I had a set of Dual Tone II's in my LP for years, and had Gibson, Seymour Duncan, Bare Knuckle, and BG P90 style pickups to compare them to. My Dual Tones II's had ceramic bar magnets for the P90 coil, and sounded muscular with a meaty percussive crunch to them. But if you prefer a more traditional P90 tone you can request alnico 5 bar magnets on order since he winds each pair to order. They might not ship next day, but are well worth the wait. As a plus they look just like a regular humbucker.

That said if you went with the P Rails I could not fault you. I've been incredibly pleased by every Seymour Duncan pickup I've ever put in a guitar. They're well made, and sound great.

 

[ErikH]

So are you saying just plug the hole, or add a kill switch?

Depends on if you have a pickup switch already or not. Do you?

 

['59]

This is pretty close to what I have, excuse the poor MS Paint editing to get the holes in the right spot. I found the body at a yard sale, I don't know what it came from or where it was made, but I think it was late 97 looking at the numbers in neck pocket.

I guess at this point I can broaden the question: What would you do with this guitar body? The top three holes are the same size, the bottom is slightly smaller. Come to think of it, maybe the original wiring had the mini toggle as a pickup selector and the other three knobs were a more traditional V/T/T configuration?

 

['59]

Depends on if you have a pickup switch already or not. Do you?

Right now I just have the body and the pickups, not even a neck yet

 

[Chistopher]

Well that changes things. A switch would look kinda out of place with the way the pot holes are drilled out. Have you considered a rotary switch for the pickup selection? Any thing that can be done with a 5 or 3 way super switch can be done with a rotary switch.

I would say drill out the bottom hole to be bigger and then put a rotary pickup selector there. How you want that to be configured can be decided as well, but for the other three knobs, I'd say volume/tone/tone or volume/volume/tone.

As for the original intentions of the body, that's anyone's guess. It's far from the norm, that's for sure

 

[ErikH]

Right now I just have the body and the pickups, not even a neck yet

For that 3rd smaller mini-toggle (now that I see the layout), I'd make it a split switch but you will want a DPDT so that each pickup uses one side of the switch, can't use both together on the same poles to split.

 

['59]

Let's combine these two ideas, would it make sense to have a master volume and tone, a 3 way rotary switch to choose the pickups, and a 2 way rotary switch to split them? Then I could use normal black strat knobs for volume and tone, and cream strat knobs for the switches, this matches the neck BB being black and the bridge BB being cream, as well as let's me visually differentiate the knobs from the potst

 

['59]

of course labeled - 'VOLUME' 'TONE' 'TONE' 'TONE'

 

[Hiwatts and Gibsons]

Well that changes things. A switch would look kinda out of place with the way the pot holes are drilled out. Have you considered a rotary switch for the pickup selection? Any thing that can be done with a 5 or 3 way super switch can be done with a rotary switch.

I would say drill out the bottom hole to be bigger and then put a rotary pickup selector there. How you want that to be configured can be decided as well, but for the other three knobs, I'd say volume/tone/tone or volume/volume/tone.

As for the original intentions of the body, that's anyone's guess. It's far from the norm, that's for sure

I mostly agree. I don't like the placement of the mini switch at all as it would be difficult to use on the fly with a Floyd Rose trem in there. I'd fill the hole, throw a sticker over it, and grab two 500k push pull pots for the coil splitting.